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Realism, physical meaningfulness, and molecular spectroscopyIn Timothy D. Lyons & Peter Vickers (eds.), Contemporary Scientific Realism: The Challenge From the History of Science, Oxford University Press. 2021.
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8‘To Witness Facts with the Eyes of Reason’: Herschel on Physical Astronomy and the Method of Residual PhenomenaIn Marius Stan & Christopher Smeenk (eds.), Theory, Evidence, Data: Themes from George E. Smith, Springer. pp. 21-42. 2023.One of the distinctive features of George Smith’s work on celestial mechanics is his emphasis on the role of what he calls “second-order phenomena” in the production of high-quality evidence. On Smith’s view, these gaps between theoretical predictions and observations can, under certain circumstances, be a source of evidence far stronger than that achievable through the hypothetico-deductive method. The practice of examining gaps between predictions and observations for the purposes of discovery…Read more
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Progress in seismology : turning data into evidence about the Earth's interiorIn Yafeng Shan (ed.), New Philosophical Perspectives on Scientific Progress, Routledge. 2022.
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Scientific Realism and the Earth SciencesIn Juha Saatsi (ed.), The Routledge Handbook of Scientific Realism, Routledge. pp. 333-344. 2017.
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Realism, Physical Meaningfulness, and Molecular SpectroscopyIn Timothy D. Lyons & Peter Vickers (eds.), Contemporary Scientific Realism: The Challenge From the History of Science, Oxford University Press. pp. 159-182. 2021.
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19Essay Review: Isaac Newton’s Scientific MethodWilliam Harper, Isaac Newton’s Scientific Method: Turning Data into Evidence about Gravity and Cosmology. Oxford: Oxford University Press , 360 pp., $75.00 (review)Philosophy of Science 80 (2): 310-316. 2013.
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27Magnitude, moment, and measurement: The seismic mechanism controversy and its resolutionStudies in History and Philosophy of Science Part A 65 112-120. 2017.This paper examines the history of two related problems concerning earthquakes, and the way in which a theoretical advance was involved in their resolution. The first problem is the development of a physical, as opposed to empirical, scale for measuring the size of earthquakes. The second problem is that of understanding what happens at the source of an earthquake. There was a controversy about what the proper model for the seismic source mechanism is, which was finally resolved through advances i…Read more
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83Underdetermination, Black Boxes, and MeasurementPhilosophy of Science 80 (5): 697-708. 2013.This article introduces the notion of a kind of inference called black box measurement and argues that it is both historically and philosophically significant. Thinking about certain classic cases of underdetermination using this notion can give us a better understanding of how these cases are resolved. I take the main philosophical problem of black box measurement to be the justification of assumptions that are needed in order to make these measurements. I sketch some ways in which such enablin…Read more
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52This paper examines the epistemological implications of a particular underdetermination problem from geophysics, with an emphasis on understanding how the scientists themselves tried to deal with the problem. The problem is from the highly influential work of the geophysicists Backus and Gilbert in the late 60’s, who were trying to determine the internal structure of the Earth using seismic waves. I find that actual underdetermination problems can be vastly complex, with different sources of und…Read more
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90Reference Models: Using Models to Turn Data into EvidencePhilosophy of Science 82 (5): 822-832. 2015.Reference models of the earth’s interior play an important role in the acquisition of knowledge about the earth’s interior and the earth as a whole. Such models are used as a sort of standard reference against which data are compared. I argue that the use of reference models merits more attention than it has gotten so far in the literature on models, for it is an example of a method of doing science that has a long and significant history, and a study of reference models could increase our under…Read more
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49Underdetermination and decomposition in Kepler's Astronomia NovaStudies in History and Philosophy of Science Part A 50 20-27. 2015.This paper examines the underdetermination between the Ptolemaic, Copernican, and the Tychonic theories of planetary motions and its attempted resolution by Kepler. I argue that past philosophical analyses of the problem of the planetary motions have not adequately grasped a method through which the underdetermination might have been resolved. This method involves a procedure of what I characterize as decomposition and identification. I show that this procedure is used by Kepler in the first hal…Read more
Areas of Specialization
Philosophy of Physical Science |
General Philosophy of Science |
History of Western Philosophy |