philosophy-of-science

The Question: What is so unreasonable about the effectiveness of mathematics? Thoughts: It seems inevitable, or even false. Suppose a system S=Γ∪{A} of axioms applies to a phenomenon, where A is an ...

Hi everyone, I'm an undergrad about to pursue a PhD, and I'm interested in quantum computing, QFT, quantum gravity, many-body physics, and philosophy.

Getting the future right is now big business. But at a festival in Berkeley, forecasters worry that sports markets could take the whole industry down.

physics, mathematical physics, philosophy of physics theory (physics), model (physics) experiment, measurement, computable physics Axiomatizations Tools Structural phenomena Types of quantum field thories examples The theory of gravity in dimensions famously has black hole solutions, being the limiting configuration of a point mass gravitational source. In higher dimensional gravity, and in parti…

Setup. Assume, as a fixed premise, an eternalist / block-universe ontology: a single, linear, non-branching history in which every event — past and future — is tenselessly real. Holding that fixed, ...

A review of Michael Nikoletseas's work in Philosophy, Natural Science and Mathematics.

In Philosophy of Artificial Intelligence: The State of the Art. Berlin: SpringerNature. pp. 123-138. 2026The Digital Revolution has given rise to a new era of perceptual experiences, marked by the convergence of analogue and digital dimensions into what is collectively known as Mixed Reality (MR). This paper explores the complexities of perception within digital environments, addressing fundament…

This paper takes inspiration from the Silk Road crossroads of Dunhuang and proposes an “opportunistic trade”of concepts between distant intellectual traditions, in particular Mahāyāna Buddhism and contemporary dark matter cosmology. Dark matter presents philosophy of science with a tension: it is fundamental to the standard model of cosmology, yet directly unobservable, known only through its gra…

This book presents a groundbreaking reinterpretation of Parmenides’ poem Peri Physeos, challenging the traditional ontological reading that has dominated Western philosophy from Plato to the modern era (pp. 7, 9). Adopting the naive, empirical perspective of a natural scientist rather than a traditional metaphysician, the author provides an original translation and textual commentary on fragments…

This paper argues that the debate between biological naturalism and computational functionalism about artificial consciousness conceals a more fundamental philosophical dispute: a disagreement about the nature of matter and materiality. To bring this into view, I distinguish between biological naturalism qua research program—concerned primarily with consciousness and its conditions—and biological…

In God and the Weight of Evidence: Essays on the Philosophy of Paul Draper. Routledge. forthcomingBayesian arguments have come to play an important role in the debate over theism. They offer clarity, precision, and the ability to reckon the impact of disparate pieces of evidence. But there is a devil in the details: given the infinity of possible creations, natural axiological constraints on crea…

Historians infer past facts from present evidence. Would this practice — and the truth-conditions of historical claims — differ under presentism, eternalism, or the growing-block theory? In ...

Nancy Cartwright, professor of philosophy at Durham University and the University of California, San Diego, has been selected as the recipient of the 2026 Foundation Frontiers of Knowledge Award in the Humanities. The award, sponsored by the Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria (BBVA) Foundation, was given to Professor Cartwright in recognition of “her use of philosophy to strengthen scientific ration…

Note: crossposted from Mathoverflow version of this question . Problem statement. Principia Mathematica's Introduction & Chapter 1 covers the definition of elementary proposition and elementary ...

I argue that the epistemic aim of scientific theorizing (EAST) is producing theories with the highest possible number and degree of theoretical virtues (call this “TV-EAST”). I trace TV-EAST’s logical empiricist origins and discuss its close connections to Kuhn’s and Laudan’s problem-solving accounts of the aim of science. Despite TV-EAST’s antirealist roots, I argue that if one adopts the realis…

Human computers and micro-observers were scientific workers who performed calculations or reduced and analysed data before the advent of electronic computers. They were a staple of big science during the nineteenth and early to mid twentieth century. Despite their prevalence within big science, their epistemic roles remain unexamined by philosophy of science. This paper investigates the epistemic…

I use Swampman to illuminate the role of thought experiments in philosophy of science. Against Millikan and others, I argue that even outlandish thought experiments can shed light on science and scientific kinds, so long as we understand them as illustrations of scientific reasoning , not as examples of scientific kinds . The logic of thought experiments, understood as illustrations, is analogous…

I present a heretofore untheorized form of lay science, called extitutional science , whereby lay scientists, by virtue of their collective experience, are able to detect errors committed by institutional scientists and attempt to have them corrected. I argue that the epistemic success of institutional science is enhanced to the extent that it takes up this extitutional criticism. Because this up…

Comparativists (about mass) eliminate absolute masses from the fundamental ontological picture by virtue of a principle of economy, the “Comparative Razor,” which requires that only mass-relations, which are invariant under (metrical) symmetries, be considered fundamental. I show how this weapon backfires. If mass-relations are endowed with a standard (multiplicative) concatenation structure, pow…

Philosophers have spilled much ink over the discovery of ideas in the classical “context of discovery.” However, there has been little engagement with the question of what constitutes a discovery of “things in the world.” A much-overlooked answer to this question is provided by T. S. Kuhn. In this article, I show that discoveries awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics over the past 53 years accord wi…