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19Phenomenology, Perspectivalism and (Quantum) PhysicsFoundations of Physics 54 (3): 1-18. 2024.It has been claimed that Massimi’s recent perspectival approach to science sits in tension with a realist stance. I shall argue that this tension can be defused in the quantum context by recasting Massimi’s perspectivalism within a phenomenological framework. I shall begin by indicating how the different but complementary forms of the former are manifested in the distinction between certain so-called ‘-epistemic’ and ‘-ontic’ understandings of quantum mechanics, namely QBism and Relational Quant…Read more
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9Representation and Realism: On Being a Structuralist All the Way (Up and) DownIn Claus Beisbart & Michael Frauchiger (eds.), Scientific Theories and Philosophical Stances: Themes from van Fraassen, De Gruyter. pp. 87-108. 2024.
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6Laudatio: Professor Bas van FraassenIn Claus Beisbart & Michael Frauchiger (eds.), Scientific Theories and Philosophical Stances: Themes from van Fraassen, De Gruyter. pp. 13-20. 2024.
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Putting some flesh on the participant in participatory realismIn Philipp Berghofer & Harald A. Wiltsche (eds.), Phenomenology and Qbism: New Approaches to Quantum Mechanics, Routledge. 2023.
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15Does the Claim that there are no Theories Imply that there is no History of Theories to be Written?(!)Journal for General Philosophy of Science / Zeitschrift für Allgemeine Wissenschaftstheorie 1-20. forthcoming.InThere Are No Such Things As Theories(French 2020), the reification of theories is critically analysed and rejected. My aim here is to tease out some of the implications of this approach first of all, for how we, philosophers of science, should view the history of science; secondly, for how we should understand the devices that we use in our own philosophical practices; and thirdly, for how we might think about the relationship between the history of science and the philosophy of science.
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41The Aesthetics of Science: Beauty, Imagination and Understanding (edited book)Routledge. 2020.This volume builds on two recent developments in philosophy on the relationship between art and science: the notion of representation and the role of values in theory choice and the development of scientific theories. Its aim is to address questions regarding scientific creativity and imagination, the status of scientific performances--such as thought experiments and visual aids--and the role of aesthetic considerations in the context of discovery and justification of scientific theories. Severa…Read more
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22There Are No Such Things as TheoriesOxford University Press. 2020.What is a scientific theory? This book considers this fundamental question by presenting a range of options and the issues they raise. It draws comparisons between theories and artworks and proposes that we should stop thinking of theories as things altogether.
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1288Scientific Realism and the Quantum (edited book)Oxford University Press. 2020.Quantum theory explains a hugely diverse array of phenomena in the history of science. But how can the world be the way quantum theory says it is? Fifteen expert scholars consider what the world is like according to quantum physics in this volume and offer illuminating new perspectives on fundamental debates that span physics and philosophy.
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41FundamentalityIn Eleanor Knox & Alastair Wilson (eds.), The Routledge Companion to Philosophy of Physics, Routledge. pp. 679-688. 2022.The idea that there is some fundamental “level” or “ground” where our description of the world bottoms out has acquired the status of ‘the received view’ in metaphysics ; for a more recent critical defense, see Cameron, 2008). Typically this view is cashed out in terms of some set of ‘basic building blocks’ populating this level, which sits at the bottom of a hierarchy ordered according to some set of compositional principles. These fundamental building blocks are thus taken to have some form of…Read more
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29Quasi-structural RealismIn Jonas R. B. Arenhart & Raoni W. Arroyo (eds.), Non-Reflexive Logics, Non-Individuals, and the Philosophy of Quantum Mechanics: Essays in Honour of the Philosophy of Décio Krause, Springer Verlag. pp. 29-43. 2023.Devising an appropriate formal framework for structural realism has long been an issue in the development of this position. Décio Krause has suggested that quasi-set theory might offer such a framework and here I explore that possibility in the context of so-called ‘moderate’ and ‘radical’ forms of Ontic Structural Realism (OSR). However, although the central claims of the former can indeed be captured by quasi-set theory, I argue that these claims cannot bear the metaphysical weight placed upon…Read more
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25Review of Emiliano Trizio’s Philosophy’s Nature: Husserl’s Phenomenology, Natural Science, and Metaphysics (review)Husserl Studies 39 (3): 345-350. 2023.
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19Vi*-Structure as a Weapon of the Realist1Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society 106 (2): 167-185. 2006.Although much of its history has been neglected or misunderstood, a structuralist ‘tendency’ has re-emerged within the philosophy of science. Broadly speaking, it consists of two fundamental strands: on the one hand, there is the identification of structural commonalities between theories; on the other, there is the metaphysical decomposition of objects in structural terms. Both have been pressed into service for the realist cause: the former has been identified primarily with Worrall's ‘epistem…Read more
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40Theories, models and structures: Thirty years onPhilosophy of Science 67 (Supple). 2000.Thirty years after the conference that gave rise to The Structure of Scientific Theories, there is renewed interest in the nature of theories and models. However, certain crucial issues from thirty years ago are reprised in current discussions; specifically: whether the diversity of models in the science can be captured by some unitary account; and whether the temporal dimension of scientific practice can be represented by such an account. After reviewing recent developments we suggest that thes…Read more
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3The Discourse InterviewDiscourse: Learning and Teaching in Philosophical and Religious Studies 6 (1): 107-122. 2006.
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21Resistance is futile!: K. Brad Wray: Resisting scientific realism, Cambridge University Press, 2018, 224 pp, $105 HB (review)Metascience 29 (1): 5-10. 2020.
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53Partial Structures and the Logic of AzandePrincipia: An International Journal of Epistemology 15 (1): 77-105. 2011.Em Science and Partial Truth (da Costa and French 2003) argumentamos que inconsistências no raciocínio científico podem ser acomodadas pela combinação de estruturas parciais e quase-verdade, junto com uma noção de ‘crença representacional’. Neste artigo, examino se isso pode ser estendido aos raciocínios e crenças de outras culturas, focando em particular nas crenças de feitiçaria dos Azande. Argumento que tais crenças são similares às crenças teóricas da ciência ocidental, mas que o modo mais a…Read more
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