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The Representational Theory of Measurement (RTM) offers a formal theory of measurement, with measurement understood as a homomorphic mapping between two types of structure: an empirical relational structure on the one hand, and a numerical structure on the other. These two types of structure are cha...

In her second edition of the Foundations of Physics, Du Châtelet advocates a three-fold distinction of explanation: the metaphysical, the mechanical, and the physical. While her use of metaphysical explanation (i.e., explaining via the Principle of Sufficient Reason) has received some attention in ...

To understand how problems of self-interaction are to be addressed in quantum electrodynamics, we can start by analyzing a classical theory of the Dirac and electromagnetic fields. In such a classical field theory, the electron has a spread-out distribution of charge that avoids some problems of sel...

Longstanding common lore in fundamental physics insists that research on the problem of developing a high-energy theory of quantum gravity (QG) is almost certainly a topic for the theoretician alone. Discriminating signatures of QG in data are just too difficult to come by, whether by means of exper...

My aim in this paper will be to explore which deeper and more general epistemic stances underlie methodological naturalism. In particular, I aim to consider whether the same epistemic stance that underlies scientific realism must also underlie methodological naturalism. Since it is often assumed tha...

Teitel (2021) argues that formal approaches to equivalence cannot be illuminating, since they run afoul of trivial semantic conventionality: the idea that “any representational vehicle can in principle be used to represent the world as being just about any way whatsoever.” In this paper, I consi...

It has been standard in the philosophy of models to distinguish between their having epistemic value and ‘mere’ heuristic value. This dichotomy has divided philosophers of economics: sceptics deny the epistemic value of theoretical economic models; optimists argue how-possibly explanations offer...

Mixed methods research - the combination of qualitative and quantitative data within the same research design to strengthen causal inference - is gaining prominence in the social sciences, but its benefits are contested. Social scientists and philosophers have sought to cash out the epistemic ration...

Astronomy shares many similarities with historical sciences: the reconstruction of token events, the lack of manipulation, and the reliance on traces. I highlight two benefits of viewing astronomy as a historical science. First, the methodology of historical sciences constitutes a more sufficient de...

How should one discount utility across time? The conventional wisdom in social science is that one should use an exponential discount function. Such a function is a representation of the axioms that provide a well-defined utility function plus a condition known as stationarity. Yet stationarity does...

In recent years, Du Châtelet’s magnum opus, Foundations of Physics (1740 & 1742) has attracted increased attention among philosophers. In this treatise, Du Châtelet made significant contributions to the central foundational issues in philosophy of physics at the time, ranging from Newtonian grav...

An important insight of scholarship on epistemic iteration is that scientists have to start from somewhere, but without sufficient justification to determine which ‘somewhere’. The engine of epistemic iteration is supposed to help us see how the epistemology of science gets along anyway. By adop...

This proposed symposium brings together four philosophers of physics to discuss the interrelated web of topics surrounding theoretical equivalence in physics, the structure of physical theories, and the interpretation of those theories. In particular, it offers a variety of perspectives on the recen...

Evolutionary transitions in individuality (ETIs) are often conceptualized in a static rather than dynamical way. Abstractly, once an ETI is complete, the particles or lower-level entities (e.g., genes or cells) are regarded as the “bricks” constituting the “building” of the higher-level enti...

Philosophers of science have a critical role to play in analyzing technical scientific concepts underlying pressing ethical debates, including informed consent, scientific racism, and human genome editing. Growing awareness of a connection between philosophy of science and bioethics raises an import...

One of the most important proposed examples of a trophic cascade concerns the reintroduction of grey wolves into Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem (Ripple et. al. 2001, 2014, 2015). As the story goes, the reintroduced grey wolves have reduced elk populations, and this has encouraged a variety of plant a...

In this paper, we argue that Du Châtelet’s account of motion is an important contribution to the history of the absolute versus relative motion debate. The arguments we lay out have two main strands. First, we clarify Du Châtelet’s threefold taxonomy of motion, using Musschenbroek as a useful ...

In this speculative talk, I'm going to "think" adjacently with Stuart Kauffman's recent work on what he calls "the adjacent possible" in biological systems (Kauffman 2019). My aim is to articulate a way of thinking about the role of "environments" and behavior as the leading edge of evolutionary tra...

This study investigates how belief dynamics and social network structures generate different patterns of social change and diversity. The two belief dynamics studied here are indirect minority influence and random drift; the former is parameterized by a leniency threshold ($\lambda$) and the later b...

Iterative testing is essential to exploring complex phenomena, especially in computationally intensive fields, where no analytical solutions or reliable observations can guide the models’ development. Hence, its success cannot be justified by reference to a correct solution, but only by its capaci...

Several authors have recently argued that the overly strong focus on equilibrium models in mainstream economic analysis prevents economists from providing accurate representations of the complex and dynamic nature of real economic systems. In response, this paper shows that, since many economic syst...

I put forward a general principle for evidence: an error-prone claim C is warranted to the extent it has been subjected to, and passes, an analysis that very probably would have found evidence of flaws in C just if they are present. This probability is the severity with which C has passed the test. ...

The origins of individuality in evolution has been a major topic both in evolutionary biology and philosophy of biology over the past 30 years. New levels of individuality are the outcomes of successive processes known as evolutionary transitions in individuality (ETIs). Arguably, the most influenti...

Consensus is often regarded as an important criterion for laypeople or decision-makers to arbitrate between the opinions of experts. Other criteria include tracking record and unbiasedness of experts, as well as validity of evidence and soundness of arguments. Overall, these criteria aim to ensure t...