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6Book review: The Constructive Mind: Bartlett’s Psychology in Reproduction (review)Memory Studies 14 (1): 112-115. 2021.Readers who’ve wished to know more about the genesis of Remembering: a study in experimental and social psychology (Bartlett, 1932), will find in Brady Wagoner’s The Constructive Mind a treasure trove. Remembering was originally published in 1932, and is probably Frederic Bartlett’s most well known work today. Wagoner does not focus on Bartlett’s contributions to memory studies, though, but on the promise that Bartlett’s work holds for the field of psychology today, especially the study of think…Read more
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8How Mathematics Figures Differently in Exact Solutions, Simulations, and Physical ModelsIn Lydia Patton & Erik Curiel (eds.), Working Toward Solutions in Fluid Dynamics and Astrophysics: What the Equations Don’t Say, Springer Verlag. pp. 5-30. 2023.The role of mathematics in scientific practice is too readily relegated to that of formulating equations that model or describe what is being investigated, and then finding solutions to those equations. I survey the role of mathematics in: 1. Exact solutions of differential equations, especially conformal mapping; and 2. Simulations of solutions to differential equations via numerical methods and via agent-based models; and 3. The use of experimental models to solve equations (a) via physical an…Read more
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9Pictures, models, and measuresBelgrade Philosophical Annual 30 (30): 99-137. 2017.In this paper, I enrich the context of Wittgenstein's Tractatus given over a decade ago in my book Witttgenstein Flies A Kite (and related earlier works dating from 2000). I've since located a sketch reprinted from a 1914 Paris magazine showing a lawyer using a model bus and dolls to depict a traffic accident; I present it here along with a discussion of the modelmaker movement of that time. The modelmaker movement was a movement at the intersection of popular culture and technical expertise tha…Read more
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50The Genius of the 'Original Imitation Game' TestMinds and Machines 30 (4): 469-486. 2020.Twenty years ago in "Turing's Two Tests for Intelligence" I distinguished two distinct tests to be found in Alan Turing's 1950 paper "Computing Machinery and Intelligence": one by then very well-known, the other neglected. I also explained the significance of the neglected test. This paper revisits some of the points in that paper and explains why they are even more relevant today. It also discusses the value of tests for machine intelligence based on games humans play, giving an analysis of som…Read more
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5The Physics of Miniature WorldsIn A. C. Grayling, Shyam Wuppuluri, Christopher Norris, Nikolay Milkov, Oskari Kuusela, Danièle Moyal-Sharrock, Beth Savickey, Jonathan Beale, Duncan Pritchard, Annalisa Coliva, Jakub Mácha, David R. Cerbone, Paul Horwich, Michael Nedo, Gregory Landini, Pascal Zambito, Yoshihiro Maruyama, Chon Tejedor, Susan G. Sterrett, Carlo Penco, Susan Edwards-Mckie, Lars Hertzberg, Edward Witherspoon, Michel ter Hark, Paul F. Snowdon, Rupert Read, Nana Last, Ilse Somavilla & Freeman Dyson (eds.), Wittgensteinian : Looking at the World From the Viewpoint of Wittgenstein’s Philosophy, Springer Verlag. pp. 289-339. 2019.This chapter describes discussions by scientists in Wittgenstein’s milieu relevant to problems Wittgenstein was pondering after he had decided to devote himself to solving the problems of logic. The chapter opens just after his father has died, and Wittgenstein’s investigations into logic were bringing him to examine notions of mirroring and corresponding. It discusses Ludwig Boltzmann’s views on differential equations, mental models, experimental models, and debates with Ostwald on the use of m…Read more
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7The Physics of Miniature WorldsIn Shyam Wuppuluri & Newton da Costa (eds.), Wittgensteinian : Looking at the World From the Viewpoint of Wittgenstein's Philosophy, Springer Verlag. pp. 289-339. 2019.This chapter describes discussions by scientists in Wittgenstein’s milieu relevant to problems Wittgenstein was pondering after he had decided to devote himself to solving the problems of logic. The chapter opens just after his father has died, and Wittgenstein’s investigations into logic were bringing him to examine notions of mirroring and corresponding. It discusses Ludwig Boltzmann’s views on differential equations, mental models, experimental models, and debates with Ostwald on the use of m…Read more
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135Turing on the Integration of Human and Machine IntelligenceIn Alisa Bokulich & Juliet Floyd (eds.), Philosophical Explorations of the Legacy of Alan Turing, Springer Verlag. pp. 323-338. 2017.Philosophical discussion of Alan Turing’s writings on intelligence has mostly revolved around a single point made in a paper published in the journal Mind in 1950. This is unfortunate, for Turing’s reflections on machine (artificial) intelligence, human intelligence, and the relation between them were more extensive and sophisticated. They are seen to be extremely well-considered and sound in retrospect. Recently, IBM developed a question-answering computer (Watson) that could compete against hu…Read more
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26Putting Wittgenstein's writing into an historical context that includes scientific and technological developments as well as cultural and intellectual works can be helpful in understanding some of Wittgenstein's works. I focus on the Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus in particular in this paper, and on topics related to pictures and models: the development of audio recording technologies, the development of miniature scale models that were both aesthetically pleasing and scientifically useful, part…Read more
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31DimensionsIn Eleanor Knox & Alastair Wilson (eds.), The Routledge Companion to Philosophy of Physics, Routledge. 2022.This chapter concerns dimensions as the term is used in the physical sciences today. Some key points made are: Quantities of the same kind have the same dimension; but that two quantities have the same dimension does not necessarily mean they are of the same kind. The dimension of a quantity is not determined for a single quantity in isolation, but relative to a system of quantities and the relations that hold between them. Dimensions, units, and quantities are distinct notions. In this article,…Read more
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28Relations Between Units and Relations Between QuantitiesIn Nadine de Courtenay & Olivier Darrigol (eds.), The Reform of the International System of Units (Si): Philosophical, Historical and Sociological Issues, Routledge. pp. 99-124. 2019.The proposed revision to the International System of Units contains two features that are bound to be of special interest to those concerned with foundational questions in philosophy of science. These are that the proposed system of international units can be defined without drawing a distinction between base units and derived units, and without restricting the means by which the value of the quantities associated with the units are to be established. In this paper, I address the question of the…Read more
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26The morals of model-makingStudies in History and Philosophy of Science Part A 46 31-45. 2014.I address questions about values in model-making in engineering, specifically: Might the role of values be attributable solely to interests involved in specifying and using the model? Selected examples illustrate the surprisingly wide variety of things one must take into account in the model-making itself. The notions of system, and physically similar systems are important and powerful in determining what is relevant to an engineering model. Another example illustrates how an idea to completely …Read more
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565Physically Similar Systems: a history of the conceptIn Magnani Lorenzo & Bertolotti Tommaso Wayne (eds.), Springer Handbook of Model-Based Science, Springer. pp. 377-412. 2017.The concept of similar systems arose in physics, and appears to have originated with Newton in the seventeenth century. This chapter provides a critical history of the concept of physically similar systems, the twentieth century concept into which it developed. The concept was used in the nineteenth century in various fields of engineering, theoretical physics and theoretical and experimental hydrodynamics. In 1914, it was articulated in terms of ideas developed in the eighteenth century and use…Read more
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30Sounds Like Light: Einstein's Special Theory of Relativity and Mach's Work in Acoustics and AerodynamicsStudies in History and Philosophy of Science Part B: Studies in History and Philosophy of Modern Physics 29 (1): 1-35. 1998.View/download or read preprint via a streaming viewer with the turning page feature in SOAR, or click on the DOI link to access the publisher's copy of this article
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52Daniela Bailer-Jones. Scientific Models in Philosophy of Science. Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press, 2009. Pp. 248. $45.95 (review)Hopos: The Journal of the International Society for the History of Philosophy of Science 3 (2): 334-337. 2013.
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334Similarity and dimensional analysis (preprint - entry in handbook of philosophy of science, elsevier)In Anthonie W. M. Meijers (ed.), Handbook of the Philosophy of Science, . 2009.The topic of this Handbook entry is the relationship between similarity and dimensional analysis, and some of the philosophical issues involved in understanding and making use of that relationship. Discusses basics of the relationship between units, dimensions, and quantities. It explains the significance of dimensionless parameters, and explains that similarity of a physical systems is established by showing equality of a certain set of dimensionless parameters that characterizes the system beh…Read more
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88I survey a broad variety of models with an eye to asking what kind of model each is in the following sense: in virtue of what is each of them regarded as a model? It will be seen that when we classify models according to the answer to this question, it comes to light that the notion of model predominant in philosophy of science covers only some of the kinds of models used in scientific contexts. The notion of a model predominant in philosophy of science requires that a model be related to someth…Read more
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54. Some disagreements have arisen in the last few years regarding the role played by material properties when modeling, simulating and experimenting on physical systems (Morrison 2008, Parker (forthcoming), Winsberg (forthcoming), Guala 2002, 2005; Morgan 2005). The question has proven more involved than it first appears. A number of significant and correct points have already been made, but some confusions remain. In this paper I attempt to sort them out. After pointing out the importance of som…Read more
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95Pictures of sounds: Wittgenstein on gramophone records and the logic of depictionStudies in History and Philosophy of Science Part A 36 (2): 351-362. 2005.The year that Ludwig Wittgenstein was born in Vienna, 1889, nearby developments already underway portended two major changes of the coming century: the advent of controlled heavier-than-air flight and the mass production of musical sound recordings. Before they brought about major social changes, though, these innovations appeared in Europe in the form of children’s toys. Both a rubber-band-powered model helicopter-like toy employing an ingenious solution to the problem of control, and a working…Read more
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59This essay responds to a review of my book Wittgenstein Flies A Kite: A Story of Models of Wings and Models of the World by Peter Simons that appears in the March 2009 issue of the journal Metascience.
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585Abstract Philosophical discussion of Alan Turing’s writings on intelligence has mostly revolved around a single point made in a paper published in the journal Mind in 1950. This is unfortunate, for Turing’s reflections on machine (artificial) intelligence, human intelligence, and the relation between them were more extensive and sophisticated. They are seen to be extremely well-considered and sound in retrospect. Recently, IBM developed a question-answering computer (Watson) that could compet…Read more
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403Turing's two tests for intelligenceMinds and Machines 10 (4): 541-559. 1999.On a literal reading of `Computing Machinery and Intelligence'', Alan Turing presented not one, but two, practical tests to replace the question `Can machines think?'' He presented them as equivalent. I show here that the first test described in that much-discussed paper is in fact not equivalent to the second one, which has since become known as `the Turing Test''. The two tests can yield different results; it is the first, neglected test that provides the more appropriate indication of intelli…Read more
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100Models of machines and models of phenomenaInternational Studies in the Philosophy of Science 20 (1). 2004.Experimental engineering models have been used both to model general phenomena, such as the onset of turbulence in fluid flow, and to predict the performance of machines of particular size and configuration in particular contexts. Various sorts of knowledge are involved in the method - logical consistency, general scientific principles, laws of specific sciences, and experience. I critically examine three different accounts of the foundations of the method of experimental engineering models (sca…Read more
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18Darwin’s analogy between artificial and natural selection: how does it go?Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part C: Studies in History and Philosophy of Biological and Biomedical Sciences 33 (1): 151-168. 2002.View/download or read postprint via a streaming viewer with the turning page feature in SOAR, or click on the DOI link to access the publisher's copy of this article
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99Bringing up Turing's 'Child-Machine'In S. Barry Cooper (ed.), How the World Computes, . pp. 703--713. 2012.Turing wrote that the “guiding principle” of his investigation into the possibility of intelligent machinery was “The analogy [of machinery that might be made to show intelligent behavior] with the human brain.” [10] In his discussion of the investigations that Turing said were guided by this analogy, however, he employs a more far-reaching analogy: he eventually expands the analogy from the human brain out to “the human community as a whole.” Along the way, he takes note of an obvious fact in t…Read more
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93Physical Pictures: Engineering Models Circa 1914 and in Wittgenstein’s TractatusVienna Circle Institute Yearbook 9 121-135. 2000.Today I want to talk about an element in the milieu in which Ludwig Wittgenstein conceived the Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus that has not been recognized to date: the generalization of the methodology of experimental scale models that occurred just about the time he was writing it. I find it very helpful to keep in mind how this kind of model portrays when reading the Tractatus — in particular, when reading the statements about pictures and models, such as:That a picture is a fact ,That a pictu…Read more
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710I argue here that Frege’s eventual view on the relation between sentences and the thoughts they express is that, ideally, a sentence expresses exactly one thought, and a thought is expressed by exactly one (canonical) sentence. This may clash with some mainstream views of Frege, for it has the consequence of de-emphasizing the philosophical significance of the question of how it is possible for someone to regard one sentence as true yet regard another sentence that expresses the same thought as …Read more
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50Three views of logic: Mathematics, Philosophy, Computer SciencePrinceton University Press. 2014.Demonstrating the different roles that logic plays in the disciplines of computer science, mathematics, and philosophy, this concise undergraduate textbook covers select topics from three different areas of logic: proof theory, computability theory, and nonclassical logic. The book balances accessibility, breadth, and rigor, and is designed so that its materials will fit into a single semester. Its distinctive presentation of traditional logic material will enhance readers' capabilities and math…Read more
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49Wittgenstein flies a kite: a story of models of wings and models of the worldPenguin/Pi Press. 2005.Toys to overcome time, distance, and gravity -- To fly like a bird, not float like a cloud -- Finding a place in the world -- A new continent -- A new age-old problem to solve -- The physics of miniature worlds -- Models of wings and models of the world -- A world made of facts.