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Philosophy of Science



Thomas Kuhn: Assassin of Logical Positivism or...

Jun 02 2010 07:00 PM | The Heretic in Philosophy of Science

By Awet Moges (2010) In the beginning, there was nothing but fuzzy logic, imaginary mathematics, and monolithic science. Then the philosophy gods said, “Let Kuhn be!” And all was light. Introduction There are only a handful of 20th century boo...

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The mechanical philosophy and God

Jun 11 2007 09:00 PM | Hugo Holbling in Philosophy of Science

By Paul Newall (2007) In his famous work The Mechanization of the World Picture, E.J. Dijksterhuis described in great detail the development of the so-called mechanical philosophy from its origins in antiquity with the Greeks to Newton in more modern...

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Anything Goes: Feyerabend and Method

Sep 22 2005 09:00 PM | Hugo Holbling in Philosophy of Science

By Paul Newall (2005) Perhaps one of the least understood arguments in the philosophy of science, Paul Feyerabend's reductio ad absurdum of specific rationalist conceptions of scientific method is at once a subtle critique of rigidity in thinking...

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Lakatos and the Demarcation Problem

Aug 17 2005 09:00 PM | Hugo Holbling in Philosophy of Science

By Paul Newall (2005) According to lore, Imre Lakatos was an excellent speaker and a highly amusing one. (He would often listen in on Paul Feyerabend's talks from his office and shout rejoinders if the latter got too carried away.) He wrote a seri...

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Ockham's Razor

Jun 24 2005 09:00 PM | Hugo Holbling in Philosophy of Science

By Paul Newall (2005) Ockham’s Razor, otherwise called the principle of the economy of thought, is invoked often in debate, usually to discount one or more theories on the basis that another exists which is simpler or more parsimonious. In this essay...

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Proliferation

Jun 24 2005 09:00 PM | Hugo Holbling in Philosophy of Science

By Paul Newall (2005) Arguments for proliferation as a methodological principle are often associated with the philosopher of science Paul Feyerabend (1999) but they date back at least to J.S. Mill (1869 [1991]) and take the same form. In the latter’s...

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Underdetermination

Jun 03 2005 09:00 PM | Hugo Holbling in Philosophy of Science

By Paul Newall (2005) A familiar sight in the philosophy of science is reference to the underdetermination of theories by the available evidence. In this short paper we will explore some examples of this phenomenon and the reasons why it is posited as...

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Confirmation

Jun 02 2005 09:00 PM | Hugo Holbling in Philosophy of Science

By Paul Newall (2005) Suppose we have an idea about world and put it to the test. Our discussion of falsificationism looked at what we can conclude from a failure, but what if an experiment shows us what we expected to find? We usually say that the te...

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Falsificationism

Jun 01 2005 09:00 PM | Hugo Holbling in Philosophy of Science

By Paul Newall (2005) This short essay discusses the various forms of falsificationism, particularly insofar as it functions as a proposed answer to the demarcation problem; that is, the search for a means to distinguish between science and non-scienc...

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Theory-ladenness

Jun 01 2005 09:00 PM | Hugo Holbling in Philosophy of Science

By Paul Newall (2005) According to one understanding of the so-called Galileo Affair, the old system of geocentrism was challenged by the new observations made possible by Galileo’s invention of the telescope. In general, it was believed that theories...

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