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6Positivism and the Pragmatic Theory of ObservationPSA Proceedings of the Biennial Meeting of the Philosophy of Science Association 1990 (1): 25-37. 1990.The most influential critique of the Logical Positivists’ analysis of scientific observation was posed by Paul Feyerabend in his classic essay, “Explanation, Reduction, and Empiricism”. Feyerabend countered the later Positivist conception with his so-called ‘Pragmatic Theory of Observation’ which was founded on two ideas. The first is that observation reports are ‘theory-laden’, in the sense that they are always interpreted in the light of the best current theory and are subject to reinterpretat…Read more
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34European and American PhilosophersIn Robert L. Arrington (ed.), A Companion to the Philosophers, Wiley-blackwell. 1991.Peter Abelard (1079–1142 ce) was the most wide‐ranging philosopher of the twelfth century. He quickly established himself as a leading teacher of logic in and near Paris shortly after 1100. After his affair with Heloise, and his subsequent castration, Abelard became a monk, but he returned to teaching in the Paris schools until 1140, when his work was condemned by a Church Council at Sens. His logical writings were based around discussion of the “Old Logic”: Porphyry's Isagoge, aristotle'S Categ…Read more
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1Book reviews (review)History and Philosophy of Logic 14 (2): 221-263. 1993.Stewart Shapiro, Foundations without foundationalism: A case for second-order logic. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1991. xvii + 277 pp. £35.00 A. Diaz, J, Echeverria and A. Ibarra, Structures in...
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5Book reviews (review)History and Philosophy of Logic 14 (2): 221-263. 1993.Stewart Shapiro, Foundations without foundationalism: A case for second-order logic. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1991. xvii + 277 pp. £35.00 A. Diaz, J, Echeverria and A. Ibarra, Structures in...
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11Google and GödelBulletin of Science, Technology and Society 29 (6): 464-469. 2009.The article “Is Google Making Us Stupid?” in last Summer’s Atlantic Monthly, raised a number of provocative, and indeed worrisome, questions about computer usage and cognitive development. For instance, persons with considerable experience of reading for the sake of pleasure report that, after a couple of years using computers a great deal, they have experienced a loss of interest in pleasure-reading, even feeling impatient when written sources do not supply the information they seek quickly and…Read more
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Contributed PapersPsa: Proceedings of the Biennial Meeting of the Philosophy of Science Association. 1990.
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Positivism and the Pragmatic Theory of ObservationIn Oberdan Thomas (ed.), Contributed Papers, Psa: Proceedings of the Biennial Meeting of the Philosophy of Science Association. pp. 25--37. 1990.
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73Russell's Principles of Mathematics and the Revolution in Marburg Neo-KantianismPerspectives on Science 22 (4): 523-544. 2014.Marburg Neo-Kantianism has attracted substantial interest among contemporary philosophers drawn by its founding idea that the success of advanced theoretical science is a given fact and it is the task of philosophical inquiry to ground the objectivity of scientific achievement in its a priori sources (Cohen and Natorp 1906, p. i). The Marburg thinkers realized that recent advances and developments in the mathematical sciences had changed the character of Kant’s transcendental project, demanding …Read more
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47From Helmholtz to Schlick: The evolution of the sign-theory of perceptionStudies in History and Philosophy of Science Part A 52 35-43. 2015.
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242The vienna circle's 'anti-foundationalism'British Journal for the Philosophy of Science 49 (2): 297-308. 1998.Uebel has recently claimed that, contrary to popular opinion, none of the philosophers of the Vienna Circle of Logical Positivists were proponents of epistemological foundationalism. According to the considerations of the current discussion, however, Uebel's conclusion is erroneous, especially with respect to the work of Moritz Schlick. The chief reason Uebel offers to support his conclusion is that current attempts to portray Schlick's epistemology as foundationalist fail to overcome its ‘ultim…Read more
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42Positivism and the Pragmatic Theory of ObservationPSA: Proceedings of the Biennial Meeting of the Philosophy of Science Association 1990. 1990.The purpose of this paper is to undermine Paul Feyerabend's claim, which is crucial to the success of his analysis of Positivism, that the Pragmatic Theory of Observation was first developed by Rudolf Carnap in his early discussions of protocol sentences. Rather, it will be argued that Carnap's conception of protocols was founded on considerations drawn from his conception of language so that Carnap's reasons for endorsing certain aspects of the Pragmatic Theory are nothing like Feyerabend's. Mo…Read more
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154Carnap's conventionalism: The problem with p-rulesGrazer Philosophische Studien 68 (1): 119-137. 2005.Rudolf Carnap's 'Principle of Tolerance' was undoubtedly one of the most infl uential precepts in 20th Century philosophy. Introduced in The Logical Syntax of Language, Carnap's Principle suffered from ambiguities which aroused important philosophical questions from Moritz Schlick and Alberto Coffa. Specifi cally, their questions arise from the application of the Principle to the matter of including extra-logical transformation rules in the defi nition of a language, which Carnap regarded as an …Read more
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20Kurt Godel: Unpublished Philosophical Essays by Kurt Godel; Francisco A. Rodriguez-Consuegra (review)Isis 91 186-187. 2000.
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Postscript to Protocols: Reflections on EmpiricismIn Ronald N. Giere & Alan W. Richardson (eds.), Origins of Logical Empiricism. Minnesota Studies in Philosophy of Science, Vol. XVI, Univ of Minnesota Press. pp. 260-291. 1996.
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74Discussion. Deconstructing protocols: Reply to UebelBritish Journal for the Philosophy of Science 50 (2): 301-304. 1999.
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32The Synthesis of Logicism and Formalism in Carnap’s Logical Syntax of LanguageVienna Circle Institute Yearbook 1 157-168. 1993.One important achievement Rudolf Carnap claimed for his book, The Logical Syntax of Language, was that it effected a synthesis of two seemingly antithetical philosophies of mathematics, logicism and formalism. Reconciling these widely divergent conceptions had been a goal of Carnap’s for several years. But in the years in which Carnap’s synthesis evolved, important intellectual developments influenced the direction of his efforts and, ultimately, the final outcome. These developments were, first…Read more
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21Kurt Godel: Unpublished Philosophical Essays. Kurt Godel, Francisco A. Rodriguez-ConsuegraIsis 91 (1): 186-187. 2000.
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23Protocols, Truth and Convention (edited book)BRILL. 1993.The continuing philosophical interest in the famous 'Protocol Sentence Debate' in the Vienna Circle of Logical Positivists is, to a large measure, due to the focus on the epistemological issues in the dispute, and the neglect of differences among the leading players in their philosophical views of logic and language. In _Protocols, Truth and Convention_, the current understanding of the debate is advanced by developing the contemporaneous views of logic and language held by the principal disputa…Read more
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23Deconstructing Protocols: Reply to UebelBritish Journal for the Philosophy of Science 50 (2). 1999.
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26The Semantic Tradition from Kant to Carnap: To the Vienna Station (review)Vienna Circle Institute Yearbook 1 249-250. 1993.Coffa’s book attempts to unify the most important intellectual developments in the Nineteenth and early Twentieth centuries by grouping them together as “The Semantic Tradition”, identifying their focus on issues in the philosophy of language and logic, and extolling their implications for epistemological issues. Coffa’s interpretations of the intellectual episodes he recounts are strikingly original and, though many will dissent, none will deny the care with which he argues or the scholarly eru…Read more
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12Bernard d’Espagnat.On Physics and Philosophy. ix + 503 pp., apps., bibl., indexes. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 2006. $35 (review)Isis 98 (3): 663-664. 2007.
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Clemson UniversityRegular Faculty
Clemson, South Carolina, United States of America
Areas of Specialization
20th Century Philosophy |
Philosophy of Physical Science |
Areas of Interest
20th Century Philosophy |
Philosophy of Physical Science |