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• Longino (1979)  + (The subject of this essay is the dependenc … The subject of this essay is the dependence of evidential relations on background beliefs and assumptions. In Part I, two ways in which the relation between evidence and hypothesis is dependent on such assumptions are discussed and it is shown how in the context of appropriately differing background beliefs what is identifiable as the same state of affairs can be taken as evidence for conflicting hypotheses. The dependence of evidential relations on background beliefs is illustrated by discussions of the Michelson-Morley experiment and the discovery of oxygen. In Part II, Hempel's analysis of confirmation and the contrasting model of theory acceptance provided by philosophers such as Kuhn and Feyerabend are discussed. It is argued that both are inadequate (on different grounds) and the problems addressed by each are shown to be more satisfactorily approached by means of the analysis developed in Part I. In Part III, it is argued that if there are objective criteria for deciding between competing theories, these cannot be simply that one theory has greater evidential support than another. Finally, some further methodological questions arising from the analysis are mentioned.s arising from the analysis are mentioned.)
• Locke (2015c)  + (The third book of John Locke's An Essay Concerning Human Understanding originally published in 1689 as edited by Johnathan Bennett in 2015)
• Cat (2014)  + (The topic of unity in the sciences include … The topic of unity in the sciences includes the following questions: Is there</br>one privileged, most basic kind of material, and if not, how are the</br>different kinds of material in the universe related? Can the various natural</br>sciences (physics, astronomy, chemistry, biology) be unified into a single</br>overarching theory, and can theories within a single science (e.g., general</br>relativity and quantum theory in physics) be unified? Does the unification</br>of these parts of science involve only matters of fact or are matters of</br>value involved as well? What about matters of method, material,</br>institutional, ethical and other aspects of intellectual cooperation?</br>Moreover, what kinds of unity in the sciences are there, and is unification</br>merely a relation between concepts or terms (i.e., a matter of semantics),</br>or is it also a relation between the theories, people, objects, or objectives</br>that they are part of? And is the relation one of reduction, translation,</br>explanation, logical inference, collaboration or something else?nference, collaboration or something else?)
• Warren (2005)  + (The view that perception is direct holds t … The view that perception is direct holds that a perceiver is aware of or in contact</br>with ordinary mind-independent objects, rather than mind-dependent surrogates</br>thereof. In this paper I try to articulate an account of direct perception from a</br>Gibsonian point of view, located within the wider terrain of cognitive science and</br>psychology. James Gibson's ecological theory proposes that perception is a relation</br>in which an active agent is in contact with behaviorally relevant features and properties of its environment; this relation is causally supported by perceptual systems</br>that are attuned to information which specifies those features and properties. I will</br>argue that the theory offers the means to resist the main lines of attack on direct</br>perception, including the Arguments from Illusion,-Hallucination, Appearances,</br>and Underspecification. In so doing, it also suggests a positive account of illusions</br>and hallucinations, as well as the intentional (object-directed) and perspectival</br>(from here) aspects of perception.ectival (from here) aspects of perception.)
• Spath (2007)  + (The volume contains articles that focus on … The volume contains articles that focus on the interface between linguistic and conceptual knowledge. The issues addressed in the volume include the preconditions of every level of the language system that are required for the transformation of linguistic information into conceptual representations. In accordance with Chomsky’s Minimalist language model, the language system is embedded into the performative systems where language is a part of the cognitive competence of human beings, i.e. system of articulation and perception (A/P) and the conceptual-intentional system (C/I). During the formation of linguistic structures, every performative system obtains well-formed representations as its input information. The articles of the volume show how interface conditions determine the linguistic representations on each level of the linguistic system. Interface conditions result in requirements for the ordering of linguistic elements. The syntactic transformation achieves a point, where the linguistic structure formation branches to two distinct representational levels. Both levels deliver instructions for the systems of performance A/P and C/I. Linearization takes place on the syntactic surface of a sentence. The linearization of linguistic elements is manifest at the derivational point of Spell-out and also on the level of the phonological form (PF). This means that on the one hand, linearization is relevant to the phonetic aspect of linguistic expressions, and on the other hand, the interpretation of linguistic utterances is based on hierarchical structures. On the level of Logical Form (LF) all operations apply which don’t have any influence on the linear order in overt syntax. In addition they affect the generation of hierarchical structures. The structure obtained on LF is the representational format of the semantic form of a sentence.format of the semantic form of a sentence.)
• Motterlini (Ed.) (1999)  + (The work that helped to determine Paul Fey … The work that helped to determine Paul Feyerabend's fame and notoriety, Against Method, stemmed from Imre Lakatos's challenge: "In 1970 Imre cornered me at a party. 'Paul,' he said, 'you have such strange ideas. Why don't you write them down? I shall write a reply, we publish the whole thing and I promise you—we shall have a lot of fun.' " Although Lakatos died before he could write his reply, ''For and Against Method'' reconstructs his original counter-arguments from lectures and correspondence previously unpublished in English, allowing us to enjoy the "fun" two of this century's most eminent philosophers had, matching their wits and ideas on the subject of the scientific method. ''For and Against Method'' opens with an imaginary dialogue between Lakatos and Feyerabend, which Matteo Motterlini has constructed, based on their published works, to synthesize their positions and arguments. Part one presents the transcripts of the last lectures on method that Lakatos delivered. Part two, Feyerabend's response, consists of a previously published essay on anarchism, which began the attack on Lakatos's position that Feyerabend later continued in Against Method. The third and longest section consists of the correspondence Lakatos and Feyerabend exchanged on method and many other issues and ideas, as well as the events of their daily lives, between 1968 and Lakatos's death in 1974. The delight Lakatos and Feyerabend took in philosophical debate, and the relish with which they sparred, come to life again in ''For and Against Method'', making it essential and lively reading for anyone interested in these two fascinating and controversial thinkers and their immense contributions to philosophy of science. "The writings in this volume are of considerable intellectual importance, and will be of great interest to anyone concerned with the development of the philosophical views of Lakatos and Feyerabend, or indeed with the development of philosophy of science in general during this crucial period." - Donald Gillies, British Journal for the Philosophy of Science (on the Italian edition)osophy of Science (on the Italian edition))
• Garfield (1985)  + (The year 1984 marked the centennial of the … The year 1984 marked the centennial of the birth of George Alfred Leon Sarton, the</br>father of the history of science. Sarton was the author of numerous major works in the</br>field, including the three-volume, 4,236-page opus Introduction to the History of</br>Science, which many still consider one of the field’s most definitive and ambitious</br>works. Sarton also founded the field’s primary journal, Isis, which he edited for forty years. But in spite of the importance Sarton placed on the history of science, he considered the discipline a means, not an end. Sarton’s ultimate goal was an integrated philosophy of science that bridged the gap between the sciences and the</br>humanities-an ideal he called “the new humanism.” The forces and ideas that</br>molded this idealistic scholar were a unique confluence of his Old World bourgeois upbringing and the experiences under German occupation during World War I that</br>forced him to seek refuge in the United Statesed him to seek refuge in the United States)
• Fatigati (2017)  + (There are good reasons to think that there … There are good reasons to think that there was a body of truths generally accepted by the scientific community under Abbasid rule during the middle ages. However, the indicators initially established by the scientonomy community to guide us in reconstructing past mosaics are not applicable in the case of the medieval Arabic scientific mosaic. Instead, by attending to the particular way that knowledge was disseminated in this community, we can see the primacy of the concepts passed down in authoritative texts. It is proposed here that a good way of determining which texts, and therefore theories, were widely accepted would be by tracking the unique record of licenses to teach [''ʾijāzāt''] particular texts that exist from this period.ticular texts that exist from this period.)
• Oppy (1996)  + (There seems to be a widespread conviction … There seems to be a widespread conviction - evidenced, for example, in the work of</br>Mackie, Dawkins and Sober - that it is Darwinian rather than Humean considerations which deal the fatal logical blow to arguments for intelligent design. I argue that this conviction cannot be well-founded. If there are current logically decisive objections to design arguments, they must be Humean - for Darwinian considerations count not at all against design arguments based upon apparent cosmological fine-tuning. I argue, further, that there are good Humean reasons for atheists and agnostics to resist the suggestion that apparent design - apparent biological design and/or apparent cosmological fine-tuning - establishes (or even strongly supports) the hypothesis of intelligent design.rts) the hypothesis of intelligent design.)
• Andersen and Hepburn (2015)  + (This Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy a … This Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy article provides an historical overview of philosophical conceptions of the methods of science. The first section covers scientific methods, focusing on avowed methodologies prior to the twentieth century, from Plato and Aristotle to William Whewell and John Stuart Mill Mostly avowed methodologies are discussed. The logical positivists and their critics are then covered, including Popper's falsificationism.ered, including Popper's falsificationism.)
• Scharff and Dusek (Eds.) (2003)  + (This anthology brings together, for the first time, a collection of both seminal historical and contemporary essays on the nature of technology and its relation to humanity.)
• Babich (2003)  + (This article argues that the limited influ … This article argues that the limited influence of Ludwik Fleck's ideas on philosophy of science is due not only to their indirect dissemination by way of Thomas Kuhn, but also to an incommensurability between the standard conceptual framework of history and philosophy of science and Fleck's own more integratedly historico-social and praxis-oriented approach to understanding the evolution of scientific discovery. What Kuhn named "paradigm" offers a periphrastic rendering or oblique translation of Fleck's Denkstil/Denkkollektiv , a derivation that may also account for the lability of the term "paradigm". This was due not to Kuhn's unwillingness to credit Fleck but rather to the cold war political circumstances surrounding the writing of The Structure of Scientific Revolutions . Following a discussion of Fleck's anatomical allusions, I include a brief discussion of Aristotle (on menstruation and darkened mirrors) and conclude with a reference to the productivity of error in Mach and Nietzsche.oductivity of error in Mach and Nietzsche.)
• Douglas (2016)  + (This article is a brief summary of the his … This article is a brief summary of the history of the Philosophy of Science Association from its founding until 1970. The Philosophy of Science Association began in 1933 and published a quarterly called 'Philosophy of Science'. In the late 1950's the association underwent a major reorganization due to declining membership. Its early meetings were held in association with the American Society for the Advancement of Science, but it began to hold independent meetings in 1968.egan to hold independent meetings in 1968.)
• History of Science Society (2016)  + (This article provides a brief summary of t … This article provides a brief summary of the history of the History of Science Society. The society was founded by George Sarton in 1924 to secure the future of the journal 'Isis' that was founded in Belgium in 1918 it also currently publishes the journal 'Osiris'. Although its membership is international, it primarily represents North American historians of science. The article also summarizes the work of HSS's executive office.arizes the work of HSS's executive office.)
• Miller (2012)  + (This articles main thesis is that there ar … This articles main thesis is that there are two different 'brands' of science study. One is intellectual history of science. Intellectual historians of science tend to interact with philosophers and largely ignore non-science historians. On the other hand, social historians of science treat science as a social undertaking, and tend to interact with other historians and with sociologists and to ignore philosophers and intellectual historians of science. This division, the author contends has been imposed for practical reasons, as the first group sought support from philosophy departments and the latter from mainstream history departments. The divisions, the author contends derive from larger ideological divisions within historical studies.gical divisions within historical studies.)
• Jardine (2000)  + (This book advocates a radical shift of con … This book advocates a radical shift of concern in philosophical, historical, and sociological studies of the sciences — from answers and doctrines to questions and problems — and explores the consequences of such a shift. This book is at once naturalistic and historicist: naturalistic in considering the philosophy of the sciences, in particular as it relates to questions concerning the methods of the sciences and their justifications, to be continuous with the sciences themselves; naturalistic in connecting reality and truth in the sciences with the procedures and outcomes of scientific inquiry; historicist in taking as the basis of sound historical interpretation awareness of past material and social conditions, together with sensitivity to past agents' own modes of interpretation; historicist in holding all questions, categories, and meanings to be historicist constructs; and historicist in taking history to be the primary domain of reflection and criticism for all disciplines.lection and criticism for all disciplines.)
• Laudan (1981a)  + (This book consists of a collection of essa … This book consists of a collection of essays written between 1965 and 1981. Some have been published elsewhere; others appear here for the first time. Although dealing with different figures and different periods, they have a common theme: all are concerned with examining how the method of hy pothesis came to be the ruling orthodoxy in the philosophy of science and the quasi-official methodology of the scientific community. It might have been otherwise. Barely three centuries ago, hypothetico deduction was in both disfavor and disarray. Numerous rival methods for scientific inquiry - including eliminative and enumerative induction, analogy and derivation from first principles - were widely touted. The method of hypothesis, known since antiquity, found few proponents between 1700 and 1850. During the last century, of course, that ordering has been inverted and - despite an almost universal acknowledgement of its weaknesses - the method of hypothesis (usually under such descriptions as 'hypothetico deduction' or 'conjectures and refutations') has become the orthodoxy of the 20th century. Behind the waxing and waning of the method of hypothesis, embedded within the vicissitudes of its fortunes, there is a fascinating story to be told. It is a story that forms an integral part of modern science and its philosophy.part of modern science and its philosophy.)
• Basu et al. (Eds.) (2021)  + (This book constitutes the refereed proceed … This book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the 12th International Conference on the Theory and Application of Diagrams, Diagrams 2021, held virtually in September 2021.</br></br>The 16 full papers and 25 short papers presented together with 16 posters were carefully reviewed and selected from 94 submissions. The papers are organized in the following topical sections: design of concrete diagrams; theory of diagrams; diagrams and mathematics; diagrams and logic; new representation systems; analysis of diagrams; diagrams and computation; cognitive analysis; diagrams as structural tools; formal diagrams; and understanding thought processes.rams; and understanding thought processes.)
• Kuhn (2022)  + (This book contains the text of Thomas S. K … This book contains the text of Thomas S. Kuhn’s unfinished book, ''The Plurality of Worlds: An Evolutionary Theory of Scientific Development'', which Kuhn himself described as a return to the central claims of ''The Structure of Scientific Revolutions'' and the problems that it raised but did not resolve. ''The Plurality of Worlds'' is preceded by two related texts that Kuhn publicly delivered but never published in English: his paper “Scientific Knowledge as Historical Product” and his Shearman Memorial Lectures, “The Presence of Past Science.” An introduction by the editor describes the origins and structure of ''The Plurality of Worlds'' and sheds light on its central philosophical problems. </br></br>Kuhn’s aims in his last writings are bold. He sets out to develop an empirically grounded theory of meaning that would allow him to make sense of both the possibility of historical understanding and the inevitability of incommensurability between past and present science. In his view, incommensurability is fully compatible with a robust notion of the real world that science investigates, the rationality of scientific change, and the idea that scientific development is progressive.hat scientific development is progressive.)
• Harper (2011)  + (This book examines Newton’s argument for u … This book examines Newton’s argument for universal gravity and his</br>application of it to resolve the problem of deciding between geocentric and heliocentric world systems by measuring masses of the sun and planets. Newton’s inferences from phenomena realize an ideal of empirical success that is richer than prediction. To achieve this rich sort of empirical success a theory needs, not only to accurately predict the phenomena it purports to explain, but also, to have those phenomena accurately measure the parameters which explain them. Newton’s method aims to turn theoretical questions into ones which can be empirically answered by measurement from phenomena. Newton</br>employs theory-mediated measurements to turn data into far more</br>informative evidence than can be achieved by confirmation from</br>prediction alone. Propositions inferred from phenomena are provisionally accepted as guides to further research. This methodology, guided by its rich ideal of empirical success, supports a conception of scientific progress that does not require construing it as progress toward Laplace’s ideal limit of a final theory of everything and is not threatened by the classic argument against convergent realism. Newton’s method endorses the radical theoretical transformation from his theory to Einstein’s. It is strikingly realized in the development and application of testing frameworks for relativistic theories of gravity. In addition, it is very much at work in cosmology today.t is very much at work in cosmology today.)
• Wiśniewski (1995)  + (This book is a study in the logic of quest … This book is a study in the logic of questions (sometimes called erotetic logic). The central topics in erotetic logic have been the structure of questions and the question-answer relationship. This book doesn't neglect these problems, but much of it is focused on other issues. The main subject is the logical analysis of certain relations between questions and the contexts of their appearance. And our aim is to elaborate the conceptual apparatus of the inferential approach to the logic of questions. Questions are asked for many reasons and for different purposes. Yet, before a question is asked or posed, a questioner must arrive at it. In many cases arriving at a question resembles coming to a conclusion: there are some premises involved and some inferential thought processes take place. If we agree that a conclusion need not be "conclusive", we may say that sometimes questions can play the role of conclusions. But questions can also perform the role of premises: we often pass from some "initial" question to another question. In other words, there are inferential thought processes - we shall call them erotetic inferences - in which questions play the roles of conclusions or conclusions and premises. The inferential approach to the logic of questions focusses its attention on the analysis of erotetic inferences. This book consists of eight chapters.ces. This book consists of eight chapters.)
• Preston (1997)  + (This book is the first comprehensive criti … This book is the first comprehensive critical study of the work of Paul Feyerabend, one of the foremost twentieth-century philosophers of science.</br></br>The book traces the evolution of Feyerabend's thought, beginning with his early attempt to graft insights from Wittgenstein's conception of meaning onto Popper's falsificationist philosophy. The key elements of Feyerabend's model of the acquisition of knowledge are identified and critically evaluated. Feyerabend's early work emerges as a continuation of Popper's philosophy of science, rather than as a contribution to the historical approach to science with which he is usually associated.</br>In his more notorious later work, Feyerabend claimed that there was, and should be, no such thing as the scientific method. The roots of Feyerabend's 'epistemological anarchism' are exposed and the weaknesses of his cultural relativism are brought out.</br></br>Throughout the book, Preston discusses the influence of Feyerabend's thought on contemporary philosophers and traces his stimulating but divided legacy. The book will be of interest to students of philosophy, methodology, and the social sciences.phy, methodology, and the social sciences.)
• Van Fraassen (1980)  + (This book presents an empiricist alternati … This book presents an empiricist alternative (‘constructive empiricism’) to both logical positivism and scientific realism. Against the former, it insists on a literal understanding of the language of science and on an irreducibly pragmatic dimension of theory acceptance. Against scientific realism, it insists that the central aim of science is empirical adequacy (‘saving the phenomena’) and that even unqualified acceptance of a theory involves no more belief than that this goal is met. Beginning with a critique of the metaphysical arguments that typically accompany scientific realism, a new characterization of empirical adequacy is presented, together with an interpretation of probability in both modern and contemporary physics and a pragmatic theory of explanation.ics and a pragmatic theory of explanation.)
• Lund (2010)  + (This book provides both an extended biogra … This book provides both an extended biographical treatment of Norwood Russell Hanson, and a nuanced and historical approach to his central philosophical concerns. These included the relation of theory to observation, normative and descriptive analysis of science, objectivity, and the logic of discovery. Hanson is noted for his attempts to turn the history and philosophy of science into an integrated field.sophy of science into an integrated field.)
• Barseghyan (2015)  + (This book systematically creates a general … This book systematically creates a general descriptive theory of scientific change that explains the mechanics of changes in both scientific theories and the methods of their assessment. It was once believed that, while scientific theories change through time, their change itself is governed by a fixed method of science. Nowadays we know that there is no such thing as an unchangeable method of science; the criteria employed by scientists in theory evaluation also change through time. But if that is so, how and why do theories and methods change? Are there any general laws that govern this process, or is the choice of theories and methods completely arbitrary and random?</br></br>Contrary to the widespread opinion, the book argues that scientific change is indeed a law-governed process and that there can be a general descriptive theory of scientific change. It does so by first presenting meta-theoretical issues, divided into chapters on the scope, possibility and assessment of theory of scientific change. It then builds a theory about the general laws that govern the process of scientific change, and goes into detail about the axioms and theorems of the theory.out the axioms and theorems of the theory.)

• Milton (1994)  + (This chapter summarizes the life of John Locke.)

• Bschir and Shaw (Eds.) (2021)  + (This collection of new essays interprets a … This collection of new essays interprets and critically evaluates the philosophy of Paul Feyerabend. It offers innovative historical scholarship on Feyerabend's take on topics such as realism, empiricism, mimesis, voluntarism, pluralism, materialism, and the mind-body problem, as well as certain debates in the philosophy of physics. It also considers the ways in which Feyerabend's thought can contribute to contemporary debates in science and public policy, including questions about the nature of scientific methodology, the role of science in society, citizen science, scientism, and the role of expertise in public policy. The volume will provide readers with a comprehensive overview of the topics which Feyerabend engaged with throughout his career, showing both the breadth and the depth of his thought. the breadth and the depth of his thought.)
• Feigl and Maxwell (Eds.) (1961)  + (This collection of six symposia, with 24 p … This collection of six symposia, with 24 prominent philosophers and scientists participating, concentrates on many of the most significant issues and controversies at the frontiers of philosophical and scientific enlightenment. The discussions clarify basic issues and problems and go on to suggest new avenues for their resolution. Each contribution is original; none has been published before. These fascinating give-and-take sessions among eminent thinkers simulate the reader to do his own thinking about fundamental problems in the logic and methodology of science. Among the problems discussed are the epistemological foundations of science, the logic of quantum theory, philosophy of space and time, and methodology of psychology. - from dust jacket.odology of psychology. - from dust jacket.)
• Feyerabend (2015)  + (This collection of the writings of Paul Fe … This collection of the writings of Paul Feyerabend is focused on his philosophy of quantum physics, the hotbed of the key issues of his most debated ideas. Written between 1948 and 1970, these writings come from his first and most productive period. These early works are important for two main reasons. First, they document Feyerabend's deep concern with the philosophical implications of quantum physics and its interpretations. These ideas were paid less attention in the following two decades. Second, the writings provide the crucial background for Feyerabend's critiques of Karl Popper and Thomas Kuhn. Although rarely considered by scholars, Feyerabend's early work culminated in the first version of Against Method. These writings guided him on all the key issues of his most well-known and debated theses, such as the incommensurability thesis, the principles of proliferation and tenacity, and his particular version of relativism, and more specifically on quantum mechanics.nd more specifically on quantum mechanics.)
• Mauskopf and Schmaltz (2012)  + (This contribution introduces an edited wor … This contribution introduces an edited work which includes a series of essays on the integration of philosophy of science with history of science. The authors note that the joint field of history and philosophy of science began, for US citizens at least, when the US National Science Foundation began funding studies in the history and philosophy of science and Princeton University and Indiana University founded history and philosophy of science programs in 1960. The authors stress the early role of Norwood Hanson in founding the field, and the role of Thomas Kuhn's ''Structure of Scientific Revolutions'' in calling philosophers' attention to the field of history. Scholars have since struggled to forge a unified discipline that is both historical and philosophical at the same time.orical and philosophical at the same time.)
• Mauskopf and Schmaltz (Eds.) (2012)  + (This edited volume presents a series of contributions on the topic of how historians and philosophers of science can forge a unified discipline dedicated to the naturalistic understanding of the production and assessment of scientific knowledge.)
• Longino (1992a)  + (This essay sets human reproductive technol … This essay sets human reproductive technologies in the context of biological research exploiting the discovery of the structure of the DNA molecule in the early 1950s. By setting these technological developments in this research context and then setting the research in the framework of a philosophical analysis of the role of social values in scientific inquiry, it is possible to develop a perspective on these technologies and the aspirations they represent that is relevant to the concerns of their social critics.t to the concerns of their social critics.)
• Longino (2010)  + (This essay surveys twenty-five years of fe … This essay surveys twenty-five years of feminist epistemology in the pages of Hypatia. Feminist contributions have addressed the affective dimensions of knowledge; the natures of justification, rationality, and the cognitive agent; and the nature of truth. They reflect thinking from both analytic and continental philosophical traditions and offer a rich tapestry of ideas from which to continue challenging tradition and forging analytical tools for the problems aheadng analytical tools for the problems ahead)
• Latour and Woolgar (1979)  + (This highly original work presents laborat … This highly original work presents laboratory science in a deliberately skeptical way: as an anthropological approach to the culture of the scientist. Drawing on recent work in literary criticism, the authors study how the social world of the laboratory produces papers and other "texts", and how the scientific vision of reality becomes that set of statements considered, for the time being, too expensive to change. The book is based on field work done by Bruno Latour in Roger Guillemin's laboratory at the Salk Institute and provides an important link between the sociology of modern sciences and laboratory studies in the history of science.oratory studies in the history of science.)
• Cottingham (Ed.) (1992)  + (This is a further volume in a series of co … This is a further volume in a series of companions to major philosophers. Each volume contains specially commissioned essays by an international team of scholars together with a substantial bibliography and will serve as a reference work for students and nonspecialists. One aim of the series is to dispel the intimidation such readers often feel when faced with the work of a difficult and challenging thinker.</br></br>Descartes occupies a position of pivotal importance as one of the founding fathers of modern philosophy; he is, perhaps, the most widely studied of all philosophers. In this authoritative collection an international team of leading scholars in Cartesian studies present the full range of Descartes' extraordinary philosophical achievement. His life and the development of his thought, as well as the intellectual background to and reception of his work, are treated at length. At the core of the volume are a group of chapters on his metaphysics: the celebrated "Cogito" argument, the proofs of God's existence, the "Cartesian circle" and the dualistic theory of the mind and its relation to his theological and scientific views. Other chapters cover the philosophical implications of his work in algebra, his place in the seventeenth-century scientific revolution, the structure of his physics, and his work on physiology, psychology, and ethics.</br></br>New readers and nonspecialists will find this the most comprehensive and accessible guide to Descartes currently available. Advanced students and specialists will find a conspectus of recent developments in the interpretation of Descartes.pments in the interpretation of Descartes.)
• Wright and Potter (Eds.) (2000)  + (This is a multi-disciplinary exploration o … This is a multi-disciplinary exploration of the history of understanding of the human mind or soul and its relationship to the body, through the course of more than two thousand years. Thirteen specially commissioned chapters, each written by a recognized expert, discuss such figures as the doctors Hippocrates and Galen, the theologians St Paul, Augustine, and Aquinas, and philosophers from Plato to Leibniz.s, and philosophers from Plato to Leibniz.)
• Tresch (2013)  + (This is a review, or preview, in the form … This is a review, or preview, in the form of an interview, of Bruno Latour’s forthcoming book, ''An Inquiry into Modes of Existence''. We discuss his intellectual trajectory leading up to actor–network theory and the pluralistic philosophy underlying his new, ‘positive’ anthropology of modernity.new, ‘positive’ anthropology of modernity.)
• Newton (1687)  + (This is a work in three books by Issac Newton, published on July 5, 1687. The Principia states Newton's three laws of motion and his law of universal gravitation. It is considered one of the most important works in the history of science.)
• Harris (2015)  + (This is the first book to provide a compre … This is the first book to provide a comprehensive overview of the entire career of one of Britain's greatest men of letters. It sets in biographical and historical context all of Hume's works, from A Treatise of Human Nature to The History of England, bringing to light the major influences on the course of Hume's intellectual development, and paying careful attention to the differences between the wide variety of literary genres with which Hume experimented. The major events in Hume's life are fully described, but the main focus is on Hume's intentions as a philosophical analyst of human nature, politics, commerce, English history, and religion. Careful attention is paid to Hume's intellectual relations with his contemporaries. The goal is to reveal Hume as a man intensely concerned with the realization of an ideal of open-minded, objective, rigorous, dispassionate dialogue about all the principal questions faced by his age. the principal questions faced by his age.)
• Bacon (2000b)  + (This is the first critical edition since t … This is the first critical edition since the nineteenth century of Bacon’s principal philosophical work in English, The Twoo Bookes of Francis Bacon. Of the proficience and advancement of Learning, divine and humane – traditionally known as The Advancement of Learning. This authoritative critical edition is based upon the collation and analysis of the original editions. Its comprehensive introduction examines Bacon’s appraisal of the current state of learning and his efforts to involve his contemporaries in his programme to reform and advance learning. Extensive commentary explores Bacon’s sources and early modern contexts for Bacon’s most important philosophical work in English.t important philosophical work in English.)
• Lindberg (1992)  + (This landmark book represents the first at … This landmark book represents the first attempt in two decades to survey the science of the ancient world, the first attempt in four decades to write a comprehensive history of medieval science, and the first attempt ever to present a full, unified account of both ancient and medieval science in a single volume. In ''The Beginnings of Western Science'', David C. Lindberg provides a rich chronicle of the development of scientific ideas, practices, and institutions from the pre-Socratic Greek philosophers to the late-medieval scholastics.</br></br>Lindberg surveys all the most important themes in the history of ancient and medieval science, including developments in cosmology, astronomy, mechanics, optics, alchemy, natural history, and medicine. He synthesizes a wealth of information in superbly organized, clearly written chapters designed to serve students, scholars, and nonspecialists alike. In addition, Lindberg offers an illuminating account of the transmission of Greek science to medieval Islam and subsequently to medieval Europe. And throughout the book he pays close attention to the cultural and institutional contexts within which scientific knowledge was created and disseminated and to the ways in which the content and practice of science were influenced by interaction with philosophy and religion. Carefully selected maps, drawings, and photographs complement the text.</br></br>Lindberg's story rests on a large body of important scholarship produced by historians of science, philosophy, and religion over the past few decades. However, Lindberg does not hesitate to offer new interpretations and to hazard fresh judgments aimed at resolving long-standing historical disputes. Addressed to the general educated reader as well as to students, his book will also appeal to any scholar whose interests touch on the history of the scientific enterprise. the history of the scientific enterprise.)
• Friesen and Patton (2023)  + (This paper applies Patton and Al-Zayadi’s … This paper applies Patton and Al-Zayadi’s scientonomic framework for understanding disciplines to a case study of the development of the chemical discipline ("chymistry") from the 17th century through the early 18th century in Western Europe. Using evidence from the tradition of textbook publication that emerged in the seventeenth-century chymistry, we reconstruct the top-level of the question hierarchy of chymistry. Analyzing how these questions and their associated theories were received, we first show how, starting in the 1660s, alchemy transitioned from a synonym of chymistry to chymistry’s subdiscipline with a more limited scope. We identify that the rejection of alchemy's core questions occurred in the 1720s based on the reception of these questions in scientific publications and by academic institutions. Hence, we conclude that the subdiscipline of alchemy became rejected in the 1720s. In order to conduct our case-study, we closely follow Newman and Principe's research on early modern alchemy and chymistry in our reconstruction of the episode. However, using the scientonomic framework in analyzing this case study reveals the specific dynamics of this instance of sub-discipline rejection. Our deepened understanding of this hallmark historical episode of disciplinary rejection indicates the value of Patton and Al-Zayadi’s theoretical framework for observational scientonomic research.k for observational scientonomic research.)
• Alliksaar (2019)  + (This paper argues that the traditional sci … This paper argues that the traditional scientonomic portrayal of theories of classical physics (e.g. Newtonian mechanics, thermodynamics) as merely ''used'' but no longer ''accepted'' is too simplistic. To that end, I consider the current status of the meteorological theory, which is accepted as the best available description of atmospheric phenomenon despite the fact that it is founded on the principles of classical physics, including those of Newtonian mechanics. This apparent paradox is resolved if the distinction between a theory’s ''ontology'' and its ''phenomenological'' laws is properly appreciated. The phenomenological laws of meteorology are accepted by the scientific community as the best available description of atmospheric phenomena. Yet, this acceptance does not imply that the classical ''ontology'' implicit in the current meteorological theory is also accepted. Thus, the modern meteorological theory (as well as many tenets of classical physics) can be said to be accepted as the best available description of the observable atmospheric phenomena even though its classical ontology is no longer accepted. classical ontology is no longer accepted.)
• Oh (2021)  + (This paper attempts to establish the exist … This paper attempts to establish the existence of ''element decay'' by making an historical case for the existence of ''theory decay'', a phenomenon where theories leave an agent’s mosaic without any re-evaluation or decision on the agent’s part. The phenomenon of theory decay is to be theoretically distinguished from ''rejection without replacement''; while the latter is a result of an agent’s deliberation, the former is a result of an agent’s inaction. To locate historical instances of theory decay, there should be evidence that the agent under study existed continuously throughout the period under study, that the theory was accepted at some point and unaccepted at some later point, and that the theory left the mosaic without any decision on the part of the agent. With these indicators at hand, I discuss five potentially promising historical cases: Poisson distribution, the Aharonov-Bohm effect, Damascus steel, Greek fire, and Cremonese violins. I argue that there is solid historical evidence to interpret the latter as an instance of element decay, which is sufficient to establish the existence of the phenomenon. I show that element decay is best seen as a ''non-scientonomic'' phenomenon; its existence highlights that individual and communal agents have limited capacities of knowledge retention and transmission and, when these limits are reached, element decay often takes place. This suggests that sufficient epistemic capacity to retain and transmit knowledge is a necessary precondition for the existence of scientonomic patterns, which emerge and hold only when the agent has measures in place to counteract potential element decay.ace to counteract potential element decay.)
• Longino (1983b)  + (This paper develops an account of scientif … This paper develops an account of scientific objectivity for a relativist theory of evidence. It briefly reviews the character and shortcomings of empiricist and wholist treatments of theory acceptance and objectivity and argues that the relativist account of evidence developed by the author in an earlier essay offers a more satisfactory framework within which to approach questions of justification and intertheoretic comparison. The difficulty with relativism is that it seems to eliminate objectivity from scientific method. Reconceiving objectivity as a function of the social character of science, rather than of individually practiced methods, allows us to claim that science is objective even if relativism is true, and provides a more realistic account of scientific objectivity than is possible on either the empiricist or the wholist accounts.er the empiricist or the wholist accounts.)
• Longino (1987)  + (This paper explores a number of recent pro … This paper explores a number of recent proposals regarding “feminist science” and rejects a content-based approach in favour of a process-based approach to characterizing feminist science. Philosophy of science can yield models of scientific reasoning that illuminate the interaction between cultural values and ideology and scientific inquiry. While we can use these models to expose masculine and other forms of bias, we can also use them to defend the introduction of assumptions grounded in feminist political values.ons grounded in feminist political values.)
• Castino (2023)  + (This paper explores the process of the ass … This paper explores the process of the assessment and eventual acceptance of the existence of dark matter by the Western astronomy community in the period between 1930s and 1980s. By applying the framework of theoretical scientonomy, I trace the acceptance of two anomalous phenomena: the high mass-to-light ratio observed in galactic clusters, first documented by Swiss astronomer Fritz Zwicky in 1933, and the flat rotation curves of galaxies first observed by American astronomers Vera Rubin and Kent Ford in 1970. I also highlight how the community accepted two second-order propositions stating the inconsistency of these phenomena with the rest of the astronomical mosaic. I show that the acceptance of the existence of dark matter resulted from the acceptance of the existence of these anomalous phenomena and took place between 1982-1985, rather than in the mid-1970s as was previously assumed.n the mid-1970s as was previously assumed.)
• Garcia (2022)  + (This paper explores the relationship betwe … This paper explores the relationship between pluralism and scientonomy, i.e., the ways in which scientonomy is or is not pluralist. Scientonomy claims by its zeroth law (the compatibility law) that the elements of the mosaic must be mutually compatible at any time. However, when Harder (2013) proposed to change the law of compatibility, he did it by answering the question of whether two or more elements can coexist in the same mosaic. He said that they can. However, this answer requires a detailed analysis of compatibility’s meaning and its relation to the nature of the mosaic. That detailed analysis leads us to assess scientonomy by contrasting its pluralist and monist aspects. We will argue that Scientonomy embraces some aspects of monism, as well as some aspects of pluralism. As a result, we argue that an adequate form of pluralism is the so-called compatible pluralism of theories, seen from a perspective internal to a scientific mosaic. A second form of pluralism becomes evident from a perspective outside any particular mosaic. It is what we will call the pluralism of incompatible mosaics. To explore these topics, after a brief description of the problem, we will review the main features of the zeroth law. In section three, we will briefly review some forms of pluralism to argue why one of them fits scientonomy better. In the end, in section four, will discuss the variety of monist and pluralist features of scientonomy, focusing on pluralism.res of scientonomy, focusing on pluralism.)
• Golinski (2012)  + (This paper explores the thesis that Thomas … This paper explores the thesis that Thomas Kuhn's work had the paradoxical effect of driving apart the fields history of science and philosophy of science. Although it served as a common reference point, scholars in different fields pursued its implications in very different directions. Although his work was popular with sociologists and post-modern cultural theorists, it did not win acceptance among the philosophers that he wished to appeal to, and historians were moving away from large scale overarching frameworks towards more specialized projects.meworks towards more specialized projects.)
• Palider et al. (2021)  + (This paper presents a diagrammatic notatio … This paper presents a diagrammatic notation for visualizing epistemic entities and relations. The notation was created during the ''Visualizing Worldviews'' project funded by the University of Toronto’s ''Jackman Humanities Institute'' and has been further developed by the scholars participating in the university’s ''Research Opportunity Program''. Since any systematic diagrammatic notation should be based on a solid ontology of the respective domain, we first outline the current state of the scientonomic ontology. We then proceed to providing diagrammatic tools for visualizing the epistemic entities and relations of this ontology. These basic diagramming techniques allow us to construct diagrams of various types for both ''synchronic'' and ''diachronic'' visualizations. The paper concludes by highlighting some future research directions. As the notation presented here is ''de facto'' accepted and used in scientonomy, the paper suggests no modifications.nomy, the paper suggests no modifications.)
• Beck and Sharvit (2002)  + (This paper proposes a novel semantic analy … This paper proposes a novel semantic analysis of the quantificational variability data discovered by Berman (1991). We suggest that the adverb of quantification in those data quantifies over semantic questions. Its domain is a division of the original question into subquestions, where a legitimate division into subquestions is one in which each member contributes towards the answer to the original question, and together the answers to all subquestions provide the complete answer to the original question. Thus the question itself is associated with a part/whole structure, based on information. We show that there are quantificational variability effects in which the matrix verb is exclusively question‐embedding. These data pose a problem for other theories of quantificational variability in questions (specifically Berman 1991 and Lahiri 2002) and motivate our analysis. There are other desirable consequences of our theory, including flexibility in what counts as a subquestion and flexibility in what counts as a complete answer. Beyond quantificational variability, associating questions with a part/whole structure receives independent motivation from questions that occur in collective and cumulative embedded contexts.llective and cumulative embedded contexts.)