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6Observation and Growth in Scientific KnowledgePSA Proceedings of the Biennial Meeting of the Philosophy of Science Association 1986 (1): 245-257. 1986.The first published paper on pulsars was entitled, by its five co-authors, “Observation of a Rapidly Pulsating Radio Source”. (Hewish, et al. 1968). The publication of this paper preceded by some months the coining of the word ‘pulsar’ to refer to such pulsating radio sources. Does it seem odd to talk of observing pulsars? It might seem so since much effort has subsequently gone into identifying pulsars with optically visible stars using conventional light, not radio, telescopes. We can say that…Read more
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4The Enlightenment: Truths Behind a Misleading AbstractionIn Michael R. Matthews (ed.), History, Philosophy and Science Teaching: New Perspectives, Springer Verlag. pp. 43-66. 2017.What does the nominalization ‘The Enlightenment’ refer to? Sometimes it is used merely to name a period of time in European history. Sometimes it is use to refer to a movement or a process. Again, it is used to refer to some body of doctrine. On other occasions, it is used to refer to people who advanced such bodies of doctrine. Contexts of use may not be sufficient to determine the referent of ‘The Enlightenment’. Such a nominalization is to be contrasted with the use of the adjective ‘enlighte…Read more
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76Incredulity towards Lyotard: a critique of a postmodernist account of science and knowledgStudies in History and Philosophy of Science Part A 34 (2): 391-421. 2003.Philosophers of science have paid little attention, positive or negative, to Lyotard’s book The postmodern condition, even though it has been popular in other fields. We set out some of the reasons for this neglect. Lyotard thought that sciences could be justified by non-scientific narratives. We show why this is unacceptable, and why many of Lyotard’s characterisations of science are either implausible or are narrowly positivist. One of Lyotard’s themes is that the nature of knowledge has chang…Read more
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136A Family Resemblance Approach to the Nature of Science for Science EducationScience & Education 20 (7-8): 591-607. 2011.Although there is universal consensus both in the science education literature and in the science standards documents to the effect that students should learn not only the content of science but also its nature, there is little agreement about what that nature is. This led many science educators to adopt what is sometimes called “the consensus view” about the nature of science (NOS), whose goal is to teach students only those characteristics of science on which there is wide consensus. This is a…Read more
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The Logical Structure of the World and Pseudoproblems in Philosophy (review)Philosophical Studies (Dublin) 17 261-264. 1968.
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10Rescuing Reason: A Critique of Anti-Rationalist Views of Science and KnowledgeSpringer Verlag. 2012.Do knowledge and science arise from the application of canons of rationality and scientific method? Or is all our scientific knowledge caused by socio-political factors, or by our interests in the socio-political - the view of sociologists of "knowledge"? Or does it result from interplay of relations of power - the view of Michel Foucault? Or does our knowledge arise from "the will to power" - the view of Nietzsche? This volume sets out to critically examine the theses of those who would debunk …Read more
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776After Popper, Kuhn and Feyerabend: Recent Issues in Theories of Scientific Method (edited book)Kluwer Academic Publishers. 2000.Some think that issues to do with scientific method are last century's stale debate; Popper was an advocate of methodology, but Kuhn, Feyerabend, and others are alleged to have brought the debate about its status to an end. The papers in this volume show that issues in methodology are still very much alive. Some of the papers reinvestigate issues in the debate over methodology, while others set out new ways in which the debate has developed in the last decade. The book will be of interest to phi…Read more
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19Demystifying Religious BeliefIn Hans van Eyghen, Rik Peels & Gijsbert van den Brink (eds.), New Developments in the Cognitive Science of Religion - The Rationality of Religious Belief, Springer. pp. 71-92. 2018.Robert Nola contrasts naturalistic with supernaturalistic explanations of religious belief. He argues that there are two broad rival explanations for religious belief. The first, the common “folk” or religious explanation, is supernaturalistic in that it invokes a deity as a central casual factor in the etiology of people’s belief in the existence of God. The second is naturalistic in that it eschews any appeal to a deity in the explanation of a person’s belief in God and instead invokes only na…Read more
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151The Worst Enemy of Science? Essays in Memory of Paul Feyerabend (review)Mind 110 (439): 813-817. 2001.
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61Theories of Scientific Method: An IntroductionAcumen Publishing. 2007.What is it to be scientific? Is there such a thing as scientific method? And if so, how might such methods be justified? Robert Nola and Howard Sankey seek to provide answers to these fundamental questions in their exploration of the major recent theories of scientific method. Although for many scientists their understanding of method is something they just pick up in the course of being trained, Nola and Sankey argue that it is possible to be explicit about what this tacit understanding of meth…Read more
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483A Selective Survey of Theories of Scientific MethodIn Robert Nola & Howard Sankey (eds.), After Popper, Kuhn and Feyerabend: Recent Issues in Theories of Scientific Method, Kluwer Academic Publishers. pp. 1-65. 2000.This is a survey of theories of scientific method which opens the book "After Popper, Kuhn and Feyerabend: Recent Issues in Theories of Scientific Method".
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44Epistemic Relativism: A Constructive Critique, by Markus Seidel: Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2014, pp. x + 284, £60 (review)Australasian Journal of Philosophy 93 (3): 628-629. 2015.
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16Marc Lange: Laws and Lawmakers; Science, Metaphysics and the Laws of NatureScience & Education 21 (2): 271-277. 2012.
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15Darwin’s Arguments in Favour of Natural Selection and Against Special CreationismScience & Education 22 (2): 149-171. 2013.
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6Michael Strevens: Depth: an Account of Scientific ExplanationScience & Education 20 (2): 201-206. 2011.
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9Special Issue on FoucaultPsychology Press. 1998.The crisis of liberalism is in its claim to endorse neutral procedures that allow individuals and groups to pursue their own good, when the very possibility of such neutrality is affected by the growth of plural societies, and resulting divisions of loyalty. This collection explores this crisis.
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Karl Popper a proposito dell ’idea di scienza e della sua demarcazione‘Nuova Civiltà Delle Macchine 20 (1). 2002.
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Kenneth Tobin (Ed.), The Practice of Constructivism in Science Education, AAAS Press, Washington, 1993Science & Education 6 203-214. 1997.
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Time for Science Education: how teaching the history and philosophy of pendulum motion can contribute to science literacy (Michael R. Matthews)Educational Philosophy and Theory 33 (3/4): 427-430. 2001.
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47Constructivism: Defense or a Continual Critical Appraisal A Response to Gil-Pérez et alScience & Education 12 (8): 787-797. 2003.
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11Social Studies of ScienceIn Martin Curd & Stathis Psillos (eds.), The Routledge Companion to Philosophy of Science, Routledge. pp. 259--68. 2008.
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Abandoning science and truth, or reclaiming science and truth from nietzschean ascetic ideals?Rivista di Estetica 45 (28): 199-223. 2005.
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Darwinian inferencesIn Martin H. Brinkworth & Friedel Weinert (eds.), Evolution 2.0: Implications of Darwinism in Philosophy and the Social and Natural Sciences, Springer. 2012.