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11Nachgedanken zum Bedürfnis der Physiologie nach einer philosophischen NaturbetrachtungIn Bettina Wahrig-Schmidt & Michael Hagner (eds.), Johannes Müller und die Philosophie, Walter De Gruyter Gmbh & Co Kg. pp. 301-312. 2018.
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1Funktion und BewusstseinIn Detlev Ganten, Volker Gerhardt & Julian Nida-Rümelin (eds.), Funktionen des Bewusstseins, Walter De Gruyter. pp. 21-38. 2008.
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65Contraries And CounterweightsThe Monist 84 (4): 562-581. 2001.Early modern science was deeply anti-Aristotelian and deeply Aristotelian at the same time. Although the rejection of the traditional distinction between natural and forced motion marks a clear difference between modern physics and the natural philosophy of Christian Aristotelianism, nonetheless most of the conceptual instruments available to early modern science for dealing with physical questions belonged to precisely that tradition that was being rejected. Much of the novelty of early modern …Read more
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13Actualism and the Archaeology of NatureIn Stefano Bacin, Alfredo Ferrarin, Claudio La Rocca & Margit Ruffing (eds.), Kant und die Philosophie in weltbürgerlicher Absicht. Akten des XI. Internationalen Kant-Kongresses, De Gruyter. pp. 159-170. 2013.
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73On the adaptations of organisms and the fitness of typesPhilosophy of Science 57 (3): 499-513. 1990.We claim that much of the confusion associated with the "tautology problem" about survival of the fittest is due to the mistake of attributing fitness to individuals instead of to types. We argue further that the problem itself cannot be solved merely by taking fitness as the aggregate cause of reproductive success. We suggest that a satisfying explanation must center not on logical analysis of the concept of general adaptedness but on the empirical analysis of single adapted traits and their ca…Read more
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23Immanuel Kant, Kritik der reinen Vernunft, edited by Jens Timmermann, Felix Meiner Verlag Immanuel Kant, Critique of Pure Reason, translated by Werner S. Pluhar with an Introduction by Patricia W. Kitcher, Immanuel Kant, Critique of Pure Reason, translated and edited by Paul Guyer and Allen W. Wood (review)Erkenntnis 51 (2): 357-363. 1999.
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4Kant on the Freedom of Instrumental ActionsIn Camilla Serck-Hanssen & Beatrix Himmelmann (eds.), The Court of Reason: Proceedings of the 13th International Kant Congress, De Gruyter. pp. 1475-1482. 2021.
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19„Ordnung und Organisation“. Interview zur Historiographie der Biologie mit Hans-Jörg Rheinberger und Peter McLaughlin*Berichte Zur Wissenschaftsgeschichte 44 (3): 267-280. 2021.Berichte zur Wissenschaftsgeschichte, EarlyView.
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13The question of when and how the basic concepts that characterize modern science arose in Western Europe has long been central to the history of science. This book examines the transition from Renaissance engineering and philosophy of nature to classical mechanics oriented on the central concept of velocity. For this new edition, the authors include a new discussion of the doctrine of proportions, an analysis of the role of traditional statics in the construction of Descartes' impact rules, and …Read more
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14Freiheit und technisch-praktische Vernunft bei KantIn Paula Órdenes & Anna Pickhan (eds.), Teleologische Reflexion in Kants Philosophie, Springer Fachmedien Wiesbaden. pp. 141-154. 2019.Kants Lösung des Problems von Freiheit und Determinismus scheint nur für gute und schlechte Handlungen zu gelten, also für Handlugen, die eine moralische Dimension haben. Nach Ausführungen Kants im Kanon-Kapitel der KdrV scheint die Freiheit zweckrationaler Handlungen Gegenstand der empirischen Erfahrung zu sein, womit sie eine bloß ‚komparative‘ oder ‚psychologische‘ Freiheit und deshalb Teil der kausalen Struktur der Welt wäre. Allerdings schreibt Kant auch instrumentellen Handlungen eine mora…Read more
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45Kant’s Antinomies of Pure Reason and the ‘Hexagon of Predicate Negation’Logica Universalis 14 (1): 51-67. 2020.Based on an analysis of the category of “infinite judgments” in Kant, we will introduce the logical hexagon of predicate negation. This hexagon allows us to visualize in a single diagram the general structure of both Kant’s solution of the antinomies of pure reason and his argument in favor of Transcendental Idealism.
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7Concepts, Theories, and Rationality in the Biological Sciences: The Second Pittsburgh-Konstanz Colloquium in the Philosophy of Science, University of Pittsburgh, October 1-4, 1993 (edited book, review)University of Piuttsburgh Press/Universitätsverlag Konstanz. 1995.Leading biologists and philosophers of biology discuss the basic theories and concepts of biology and their connections with ethics, economics, and psychology, providing a remarkably unified report on the “state of the art” in the philosophy of biology.
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55Reverend Paley's naturalist revivalStudies in History and Philosophy of Science Part C: Studies in History and Philosophy of Biological and Biomedical Sciences 39 (1): 25-37. 2008.This paper analyzes the remarkable popularity of William Paley’s argument from design among contemporary naturalists in biology and the philosophy of science. In philosophy of science Elliott Sober has argued that creationism should be excluded from the schools not because it is not science but because it is ‘less likely’ than evolution according to fairly standard confirmation theory. Creationism is said to have been a plausible scientific option as presented by Paley but no longer to be accept…Read more
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28Kant’s Construction of Nature: A Reading of the Metaphysical Foundations of Natural ScienceIn Sally Sedgwick & Dina Emundts (eds.), Bewusstsein/Consciousness, De Gruyter. pp. 286-290. 2016.
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100What Functions Explain: Functional Explanation and Self-Reproducing SystemsCambridge University Press. 2000.This 2001 book offers an examination of functional explanation as it is used in biology and the social sciences, and focuses on the kinds of philosophical presuppositions that such explanations carry with them. It tackles such questions as: why are some things explained functionally while others are not? What do the functional explanations tell us about how these objects are conceptualized? What do we commit ourselves to when we give and take functional explanations in the life sciences and the …Read more
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54On Having a Function and Having a GoodAnalyse & Kritik 24 (1): 130-143. 2002.One result of recent discussions on the notion of function is that the appeal to the function of something in order to explain why it is there and what it is, presupposes (willingly or not) that some system particularly relevant to the function bearer has a good. Some recent analyses of what it means to have a good trace having a good back to having a function. Two such attempts are examined and compared to a more traditional analysis. An anachronistic version of Aristotle, involving the self-pr…Read more
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91Descartes on mind-body interaction and the conservation of motionPhilosophical Review 102 (2): 155-182. 1993.The traditional (Leibnizian) reading of Descartes on mind-body interaction is given a more rigorous reformulation, explaining how Descartes could assert that the mind while not affecting the quantity of motion in the world could change its direction. It is shown, contrary to the trend in recent literature, that this reading has a reliable textual base, and it is argued that it attributes to Descartes a philosophical position of more substance and interest. The kind of interpretation favored depe…Read more
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18Reverend Paley’s naturalist revivalStudies in History and Philosophy of Science Part C: Studies in History and Philosophy of Biological and Biomedical Sciences 39 (1): 25-37. 2008.
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Kants Kritik der teleologischen UrteilskraftJournal of the History of Biology 23 (2): 338-339. 1990.
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100The social and economic roots of the scientific revolution: texts by Boris Hessen and Henryk Grossmann (edited book)Springer. 2009.The volume collects classics of Marxist historiography of science, including a new translation of Boris Hessen's “The Social and Economic Roots of Newton's ...
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30The Arrival of the FittestIn Dennis Dieks, Wenceslao Gonzalo, Thomas Uebel, Stephan Hartmann & Marcel Weber (eds.), Explanation, Prediction, and Confirmation, Springer. pp. 203--222. 2011.
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38Mechanical Explanation in the “Critique of the Teleological Power of Judgment”In Eric Watkins & Ina Goy (eds.), Kant's Theory of Biology, De Gruyter. pp. 149-166. 2014.
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The Social and Economic Roots of the Scientific RevolutionStudia Leibnitiana 40 (2): 239-240. 2008.
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58Kant's critique of teleology in biological explanation: antinomy and teleologyE. Mellen Press. 1990.Kant's Critique of Teleological Judgment is read as a reflection on philosophical methodological problems that arose through the constitution of an independent science of life - biology. This work presents an example of the interconnections between philosophy and the history of science.
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86Transcendental Presuppositions and Ideas of ReasonKant Studien 105 (4): 554-572. 2014.Name der Zeitschrift: Kant-Studien Jahrgang: 105 Heft: 4 Seiten: 554-572
Heidelberg, Baden-Württemberg, Germany
Areas of Interest
Philosophy of Biology |
General Philosophy of Science |
17th/18th Century Philosophy |