This article presents a challenge that those philosophers who deny the causal interpretation of explanations provided by population genetics might have to address. Indeed, some philosophers, known as statisticalists, claim that the concept of natural selection is statistical in character and cannot be construed in causal terms. On the contrary, other philosophers, known as causalists, argue against

RusnockPaul** and ŠebestíkJan. Bernard Bolzano: His Life and His Work.Oxford University Press,2019. Pp. xxxiii + 667. ISBN: 978-0-19-882368-1 (hbk); 978-0-19-255683-7 (pdf); 978-0-19-255684-4 (e-book). doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780198823681.001.0001.

PosyCarl J.**. Mathematical Intuitionism. Cambridge Elements in the Philosophy of Mathematics. Cambridge University Press, 2020. Pp. 106. ISBN: 978-1-108-72302-2 (pbk); 978-1-108-67448-5 (e-book). doi.org/10.1017/ 9781108674485.

Some mathematical proofs explain why the theorems they prove hold. This paper identifies several challenges for any counterfactual account of explanation in mathematics (that is, any account according to which an explanatory proof reveals how the explanandum would have been different, had facts in the explanans been different). The paper presumes that countermathematicals can be nontrivial. It argues

J.E. Fenstad. Structures and Algorithms: Mathematics and the Nature of Knowledge. Logic, Argumentation & Reasoning; 15. Springer, 2018. Pp. x + 134. ISBN 978-3-319-72973-2 (hbk); 978-3-030-10294-4 (pbk); 978-3-319-72974-9 (e-book). doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-72974-9.

A piece of historical research about the construction of the ancient Arch of Taq-iKisra, part of the imperial palace of the Sasanian Empire in the city of Ctesiphon, has been carried out. The information obtained, an analysis using graphic statics, the use of a physical model with hanging chains, and an ad hoc optimization program written in MATLAB have shown that the designer of this sixth century

This paper provides a definitive answer, based on considerations derived from first-order logic, to the question regarding the status of elementary geometry, whether elementary geometry can be reduced to algebra. The answer we arrive at is negative, and is based on a series of structural questions that can be asked only inside the geometric formal theory, as well as the consideration of reverse geometry

This article enables an understanding of scientific practice and funding in a peripheral country ruled by a dictatorship in the interwar period, and thus provides the basis for comparison with studies of other non-democratic regimes. We examine the work of Portugal's Junta de Educação Nacional (National Education Board), which administered and provided funding for science from 1929 to 1936. Our findings

Havi Carel suggested that to ‘fully understand illness it also has to be studied as a lived experience … [in its] existential, ethical and social dimensions’. This paper focuses on empirical work with those with Möbius syndrome on face perception and its implications, on their resilience and on their first person experiences. Möbius is characterized by the congenital absence of movements of the facial

The downfall of the Parramatta Observatory during the 1840s led the British Government to reconsider the funding it provided to observatories. George Biddell Airy—the Astronomer Royal at the Royal Observatory, Greenwich—recommended the establishment of a central Colonial Board of Visitors (based in London) to oversee the management of observatories within the British Empire. The recommendation ultimately

Mycology, the study of fungi, is a relatively young and underexplored discipline with a strong culture of field collection and study. The Yorkshire Mycological Committee (YMC) of the Yorkshire Naturalist's Union, formed in 1892, became the first permanent mycological organization within Great Britain. Well renowned and highly competent, the members of the YMC espoused a distinctive philosophy and practice

The popularizer of astronomy Mary Proctor was well known in her days but has been little remembered since. A prominent lecturer and author, Proctor was trained in the craft of science writing by her father, Richard Proctor. She ‘held the very first place in the profession as a woman’ and promoted the role of women in science throughout her career. Her life illuminates many themes. Mary Proctor spanned

The Hungarian Academy of Sciences (HAS, established in 1825), similar to the academies of the old Soviet bloc, ran a research network from 1950 until 2019 when it was detached from the Academy. The first research institute of the HAS was the Institute of Biochemistry, which started its operation in 1950. Its first director was Imre Szörényi (1905–1959) who lived in emigration in Kiev until he was called

This article presents a hitherto unpublished account of a magical séance conducted by the virtuoso Thomas Henshaw (1618–1700), later Fellow of the Royal Society, while travelling in Venice ca 1648. The episode had previously been known through an account of it given by Robert Boyle, but in Boyle's version its protagonist was unclear. It is now for the first time revealed as Henshaw on the basis of

In 1758, Carl von Linné (Linnaeus) published the tenth edition of Systema Naturae, in which he formally described the most unique group of primates: lemurs. The story of the early human-mediated dispersal of lemurs from Madagascar, prior to their formalized descriptions, is a complex one. It touches on the birth of the standardization of modern zoology, empire building, and the growth of international

For almost 40 years, the British jurist and Fellow of the Royal Society Taylor White (1701–1772) actively engaged in commissioning artists to paint plants and animals for his ‘paper museum’. White amassed a collection of almost 1000 drawings of birds, mammals, fish, amphibians and reptiles, acquired by McGill University in 1927. His first recorded purchase was a watercolour by George Edwards (1694–1773)

This paper discusses heightened interest in the potential audibility of the aurora borealis during the First and Second International Polar Years (IPYs) of 1882–3 and 1932–3. Galvanized by a growing volume of local accounts expressing belief in the elusive noises, written by the inhabitants of the Shetland Islands, northern Canada, and Norway, auroral researchers of each era were determined to establish

Taylor White (1701–1772) was by profession a barrister and judge, active in public life in London. His life as a jurist and as the long-serving treasurer of the Foundling Hospital is documented in the records of his public appointments and in his own official correspondence. This article reveals the other Taylor White, a Fellow of the Royal Society (1725), and an active participant in the practice

As part of a themed print issue of Notes and Records dedicated to a research project surrounding the eighteenth-century Taylor White collection of animal paintings, this article provides context by describing the initial acquisition of the collection, and by situating it within the larger Blacker Wood Natural History Collection held at McGill University Library. Highlights of the Blacker Wood Collection

The paper proposes a way to naturalise Charles S. Peirce’s conception of the scientific method, which he specified in terms of abduction, deduction and induction. The focus is on the central issue of the economy of research in abduction and self-correction by error reduction in induction. We show how Peirce’s logic of science receives support from modern breakthroughs in computational neuroscience

In this paper I present a case study of mathematical explanation in science that is new to the philosophical literature, and that arises in the context of estimating the energetic costs of running in bipedal animals. I refer to this as the Bipedal Gait Costs explanation (BGC). I argue that it is important for examples of applied mathematics to be driven not just by philosophical and mathematical concerns

In the last decade, many problematic cases of scientific conduct have been diagnosed; some of which involve outright fraud (e.g., Stapel, 2012) others are more subtle (e.g., supposed evidence of extrasensory perception; Bem, 2011). These and similar problems can be interpreted as caused by lack of scientific objectivity. The current philosophical theories of objectivity do not provide scientists with

Many parts of the contemporary philosophical debate have been built on the radicalization of conclusions derived from the acceptance of a certain set of classical dichotomies. It also discusses how pragmatism and abduction are currently presented to solve the problems arising from these dichotomies. For this reason, the efforts of this article have been directed to analyze the impact of this fact on

The argument from inductive risk, as developed by Rudner and others, famously concludes that the scientist qua scientist makes value judgments. The paper aims to show that trust in the soundness of the argument is overrated – that philosophers who endorse its conclusion (especially Douglas and Wilholt) fail to refute two of the most important objections that have been raised to its soundness: Jeffrey’s

This paper claims that, to the extent that temporal direction figures in physics at all, it is found there as part of the extra-scientific language science employs. The asymmetry between “before” and “after” is not captured by the mathematics of any theory, nor can it be derived from the laws of any theory. This, I argue, is true even of theories whose laws are not time reversal invariant. Recognizing

Since the final decades of the nineteenth century geographers have maintained a commitment to employing language that is accessible and understood by as many as possible. This disciplinary goal has motivated the making and use of maps, globes and other images such as photographs. Whilst confirming this argument, this article shows that geographers have also enjoyed wordplay and that they have persistently

“What data will show the truth?” is a fundamental question emerging early in any empirical investigation. From a statistical perspective, experimental design is the appropriate tool to address this question by ensuring control of the error rates of planned data analyses and of the ensuing decisions. From an epistemological standpoint, planned data analyses describe in mathematical and algorithmic terms

What are the pillars on which the success of modern science rest? Although philosophers have much discussed what is behind science’s success, this paper argues that much of the discussion is misdirected. The extant literature rightly regards the semantic and inferential tools of formal logic and probability theory as pillars of scientific rationality, in the sense that they reveal the justificatory

HossackKeith.**Knowledge and the Philosophy of Number: What Numbers Are and How They Are Known.London: Bloomsbury Academic, 2020. Pp. ix + 206. ISBN: 978-1-3501-0290-3 (hbk); 978-1-3502-7796-0 (pbk); 978-1-3501-0292-7 (epub); 978-1-3501-0291-0 (ebk).

While the use of archives is common as a research methodology in the history and philosophy of science (HPS), training in archival methods is more often encountered as part of graduate-level training than in the undergraduate curriculum. Because many HPS instructors are likely to have encountered archival methods during their own research training, they are uniquely positioned to make effective pedagogical

Drawing on the SAGE minutes and other documents, I consider the wider lessons for norms of scientific advising that can be learned from the UK’s initial response to coronavirus in the period January–March 2020, when an initial strategy that planned to avoid total suppression of transmission was abruptly replaced by an aggressive suppression strategy. I introduce a distinction between “normatively light

Cognitive scientists claim to have discovered a large number of cognitive biases, which have a tendency to mislead reasoners. Might cognitive scientists themselves be subject to the very biases they purport to discover? And how should this alter the way they evaluate their research as evidence for the existence of these biases? In this paper, we posit a new paradox (the ‘Self-Reflexive Bias Paradox’)

Not all symmetries are on a par. For instance, within Newtonian mechanics, we seem to have a good grasp on the empirical significance of boosts, by applying it to subsystems. This is exemplified by the thought experiment known as Galileo’s ship: the inertial state of motion of a ship is immaterial to how events unfold in the cabin, but is registered in the values of relational quantities such as the

MojtahediMojtaba, RahmanShahid, and ZarepourMohammad Saleh, eds. Mathematics, Logic, and their Philosophies: Essays in Honour of Mohammad Ardeshir. Logic, Epistemology, and the Unity of Science; 49. Springer, 2021. Pp. xviii + 483. ISBN 978-3-030-53653-4 (hbk); 978-3-030-53654-1 (e-book). doi: 10.1007/978-3-030-53654-1.

This article examines the medieval reception history of De coloribus. This pseudo-Aristotelian treatise on colors was translated from Greek into Latin in the thirteenth century, but the question of its success and use by contemporary scholars has not yet received any attention. After an examination of its medieval commentary tradition, the marginal glosses, and the first attestations, I conclude that

This article endeavors to contribute to a better understanding of the literary contexts of early biographies of scientists written during the Scientific Revolution. To what extent are these biographies influenced by stereotypes that are an inadequate fit for modern history of science? Its claim is that there was, indeed, a literary model for biographies of scientists, and that this model had deep roots

Ptolemy’s Tetrabiblos is not usually considered as a meteorological text. I examine the sections of the Tetrabiblos that deal with weather prediction and argue that Ptolemy considers it part of astrology. I show that the way Ptolemy categorises weather prediction differs significantly from other Greco-Roman writers, including Cicero (On Divination) and Sextus Empiricus (Against the Astrologers). I

(2021). Keep the 14-Day Rule in Stem Cell Research. Theology and Science: Vol. 19, No. 3, pp. 177-183.

(2021). In Memoriam: John C. Polkinghorne, 1930–2021. Theology and Science: Vol. 19, No. 3, pp. 184-185.

(2021). Religion, Climate Change, and Material Demand Reduction. Theology and Science: Vol. 19, No. 3, pp. 186-187.

ABSTRACT In their article “Nature of Evidence in Religion and Natural Science” (Theology & Science 2020), Petteri Nieminen and colleagues compare the use of evidence in religion and science. Their claim is that religious use of evidence is characterized by “experiential” thinking and confirmation bias, which makes integration with science difficult. I argue, however, that their methodology is unreliable

ABSTRACT Ted Peters constructs a Cosmic History that depicts the inextricable connection between the human and the natural plus its ethical consequences. Even though I might assent to some of Peters’ conclusions, I see three problems. First, Peters makes a shift from present philosophical subjectivity (chapter 1) to scientific objectivity (chapter 17) and back to present confessional subjectivity (conclusion

ABSTRACT In God in Cosmic History, Ted Peters seeks to establish cosmic history by incorporating religion and the God question into big history. Peters begins with an evidence-based narrative just as big historians do, but his theological assertions regarding God as the author of cosmic history take us beyond where scientific knowledge will allow us to go. We still need to find new ways to express

ABSTRACT Because ideology is basically inevitable, we ought to make clear the materialist ideology at work in the story of the cosmos told by Big History. Ted Peters’ book, God in Cosmic History, exposes the Big History ideology when introducing a theological rendering of the same story of our universe. Ideology need only be made transparent, not eliminated. Perhaps this observation could aid current

ABSTRACT With notable insight and erudition, Johanne S.T. Kristensen, Lowell Gustafson, and Derek Nelson have each offered an exposition and critique of the book, God in Cosmic History. This article is a response to these critics. The encyclopedic and absorbing discipline known as big history courageously attempts to integrate human history with natural history and ecological ethics. The focal and

ABSTRACT In the field of science and religion, divine action, or how God acts on the world, raises complex questions. The goal of this research is to investigate whether a belief in the efficacy of petitionary prayer, evidenced through a particular model of divine action, is warranted. In particular, I will assess whether John Polkinghorne’s model of divine action is sufficient to sustain a belief

ABSTRACT Non-interventionist objective divine action (NIODA) theories proposed by eminent scholars are often misconstrued as the causal joint theory. This misunderstanding is derived from the absence of a detailed, systematic examination of divine action theories. This article explores one of the NIODA proposals, namely, Arthur Peacocke's divine action model. Up until now, research on Peacocke's divine

ABSTRACT While the work of Simon Conway Morris has garnered significant attention, very little has been paid to the overlap between his thought and the work of Pierre Teilhard de Chardin. Thus, I first detail the development of Conway Morris’s thought and note his “theological turn.” I then compare this with Teilhard’s evolutionary theology, establishing a broad conceptual overlap. Lastly, I demonstrate

ABSTRACT Continuous creation refers to a theological concept at the frontier between philosophy and theology. It takes into account the dynamism of the creative act in time, seeking to give meaning to natural novelty that the modern sciences can help to describe. The concept of continuous creation renews the theology of creation in order better to dialogue with culture and meet the challenges of our

ABSTRACT The paper discusses the definitions of “co-evolution” in biology and in scientific theories of religious evolution as an example for their use of biological terms. Sometimes this use is motivated by the vision of a general theory of macro-level evolution. There is a valid analogy between the co-evolution of biological species and “gene-culture co-evolution” in religious evolution. But the

ABSTRACT The question whether Homo sapiens is truly sapiens (wise) has been the subject of lively debate in recent years in light of humanity’s inadequate response to a number of global catastrophic risks, among them climate change. While countless types of explanation could be proposed for humanity’s inadequate response to climate change, this article limits itself to two which locate the problem

(2021). Theology as freedom. Theology and Science: Vol. 19, No. 3, pp. 324-325.

(2021). Can science make sense of life? Theology and Science: Vol. 19, No. 3, pp. 325-326.

(2021). The Lost World of Adam and Eve: Genesis 2–3 and the Human Origins Debate. Theology and Science: Vol. 19, No. 3, pp. 326-328.

WilsonMark. Innovation and Certainty. Cambridge Elements in the Philosophy of Mathematics. Cambridge University Press, 2020. Pp. 74. ISBN: 978-1-108-74229-0 (pbk); 978-1-108-59290-1 (online). doi.org/10.1017/9781108592901.

The rich body of physical theories defines the foundation of our understanding of the world. Its mathematical formulation is based on classical Aristotelian (binary) logic. In the philosophy of science the ambiguities, paradoxes, and the possibility of subjective interpretations of facts have challenged binary logic, leading, among other developments, to Gotthard Günther’s theory of polycontexturality

This paper presents arguments and evidence from psychology and neuroscience supporting Lipton’s 2004 claim that scientists create knowledge through an abductive process that he calls “Inference to the Best Explanation”. The paper develops two conclusions. Conclusion 1 is that without conscious effort on our part, our brains use a process very similar to abduction as a powerful way of interpreting sensory

I want to combine two hitherto largely independent research projects, scientific understanding and mechanistic explanations. Understanding is not only achieved by answering why-questions, that is, by providing scientific explanations, but also by answering what-questions, that is, by providing what I call scientific descriptions. Based on this distinction, I develop three forms of understanding: understanding-what

In 1966 Richard Levins argued that applications of mathematics to population biology faced various constraints which forced mathematical modelers to trade-off at least one of realism, precision, or generality in their approach. Much traditional mathematical modeling in biology has prioritized generality and precision in the place of realism through strategies of idealization and simplification. This

Domain extension in mathematics occurs whenever a given mathematical domain is augmented so as to include new elements. Manders argues that the advantages of important cases of domain extension are captured by the model-theoretic notions of existential closure and model completion. In the specific case of domain extension via ideal elements, I argue, Manders’s proposed explanation does not suffice