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12Solutions Based on Ratifiability and Sure Thing ReasoningIn Cristina Bicchieri, Richard C. Jeffrey & Brian Skyrms (eds.), The logic of strategy, Oxford University Press. pp. 67. 1999.
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11Isaac Newton's Scientific Method: Turning Data Into Evidence About Gravity and CosmologyOxford University Press UK. 2011.Isaac Newton's Scientific Method examines Newton's argument for universal gravity and his application of it to resolve the problem of deciding between geocentric and heliocentric world systems by measuring masses of the sun and planets. William L. Harper suggests that Newton's inferences from phenomena realize an ideal of empirical success that is richer than prediction. Any theory that can achieve this rich sort of empirical success must not only be able to predict the phenomena it purports to …Read more
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41Do the EPR correlations pose a problem for causal decision theory?Synthese 196 (9): 3711-3722. 2019.We argue that causal decision theory is no worse off than evidential decision theory in handling entanglement, regardless of one’s preferred interpretation of quantum mechanics. In recent works, Ahmed and Ahmed and Caulton : 4315–4352, 2014) have claimed the opposite; we argue that they are mistaken. Bell-type experiments are not instances of Newcomb problems, so CDT and EDT do not diverge in their recommendations. We highlight the fact that a Causal Decision Theorist should take all lawlike cor…Read more
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15The Main Business of Natural Philosophy: Isaac Newton's Natural-Philosophical Methodology (review)Isis 104 (3): 614-615. 2013.
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39Reply to IshamFaith and Philosophy 15 (2): 223-228. 1998.In “On Calling God ‘Mother’” (this journal), I argued that the practice of referring to God exclusively in male terms is morally acceptable. Isham claims that I have argued that “God should be referred to exclusively in male terms.” He claims that the Bible refers to God in female terms. He hints that I may have engaged in “gender devaluation.” He claims that there is a “need for a deity with which women can both relate and identify.” The first of Isham’s claims is simply false. I address the re…Read more
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13Peter Achinstein, Evidence and Method: Scientific Strategies of Isaac Newton and James Clerk Maxwell. New York: Oxford University Press , xv+177 pp. $24.95 (review)Philosophy of Science 81 (4): 684-687. 2014.
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34A Sketch of Some Recent Developments in the Theory of ConditionalsJournal of Symbolic Logic 49 (4): 1411-1413. 1984.
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88Letters to the EditorProceedings and Addresses of the American Philosophical Association 65 (7). 1992.
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25Howard Stein on sophisticated practice of philosophers/scientistsStudies in History and Philosophy of Science Part B: Studies in History and Philosophy of Modern Physics 71 196-208. 2020.
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60The Enterprise of Knowledge: An Essay on Knowledge, Credal Probability and Chance by Isaac Levi (review)Journal of Philosophy 80 (6): 367-376. 1983.
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29Michael Woods. Conditionals. Edited by David Wiggins. Clarendon Press, Oxford University Press, Oxford, New York, etc., 1997, ix + 152 pp. - Dorothy Edgington. Commentary. Therein, pp. 95–137 (review)Bulletin of Symbolic Logic 6 (3): 358-360. 2000.
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45Response to Kent Staley’s Comments on William Harper’s “Isaac Newton’s Scientific Method”Modern Schoolman 87 (3-4): 315-319. 2010.
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26Causal and Evidential Expectations in Strategic SettingsPhilosophical Topics 21 (1): 79-97. 1993.
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23Probability and Inference: Essays in Honour of Henry E. Kyburg, Jr (edited book)College Publications. 2007.Recent advances in philosophy, artificial intelligence, mathematical psychology, and the decision sciences have brought a renewed focus to the role and interpretation of probability in theories of uncertain reasoning. Henry E. Kyburg, Jr. has long resisted the now dominate Bayesian approach to the role of probability in scientific inference and practical decision. The sharp contrasts between the Bayesian approach and Kyburg's program offer a uniquely powerful framework within which to study seve…Read more
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112Papier mâché problems in epistemology: A defense of strong internalismSynthese 116 (1): 27-49. 1998.I attempt to persuade the reader that externalism admits of no plausible interpretation. I argue that reliability is a concept with very different contours from epistemic justification, and that attempts to explicate justification in terms of reliability must fail. I address several other forms of externalism, and also mixed forms of justification. I then argue that externalist theories of justification cannot close the gap between mere true belief and knowledge. I suggest that a fourth conditio…Read more
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95Full Belief and Probability: Comments on Van FraassenDialogue 36 (1). 1997.As van Fraassen pointed out in his opening remarks, Henry Kyburg's lottery paradox has long been known to raise difficulties in attempts to represent full belief as a probability greater than or equal to p, where p is some number less than 1. Recently, Patrick Maher has pointed out that to identify full belief with probability equal to 1 presents similar difficulties. In his paper, van Fraassen investigates ways of representing full belief by personal probability which avoid the difficulties rai…Read more
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307Inferences from phenomena in gravitational physicsPhilosophy of Science 63 (3): 54. 1996.Newton's methodology emphasized propositions "inferred from phenomena." These rest on systematic dependencies that make phenomena measure theoretical parameters. We consider the inferences supporting Newton's inductive argument that gravitation is proportional to inertial mass. We argue that the support provided by these systematic dependencies is much stronger than that provided by bootstrap confirmation; this kind of support thus avoids some of the major objections against bootstrapping. Final…Read more
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552Consilience and Natural Kind Reasoning (in Newton's Argument for Universal Gravitation) in An Intimate Relation. Studies in the History and Philosophy of ScienceBoston Studies in the Philosophy of Science 116 115-152. 1989.
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1Causal Decision Theory and Game TheoryIn W. L. Harper & B. Skyrms (eds.), Causation in Decision, Belief Change, and Statistics, vol. II, Kluwer Academic Publishers. pp. 25-48. 1988.
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104Newton’s Methodology and Mercury’s Perihelion Before and After EinsteinPhilosophy of Science 74 (5): 932-942. 2007.Newton's methodology is significantly richer than the hypothetico-deductive model. It is informed by a richer ideal of empirical success that requires not just accurate prediction but also accurate measurement of parameters by the predicted phenomena. It accepts theory-mediated measurements and theoretical propositions as guides to research. All of these enrichments are exemplified in the classical response to Mercury's perihelion problem. Contrary to Kuhn, Newton's method endorses the radical t…Read more