Recent Developments in the Philosophy of Science: EPSA13 Helsinki (eBook) von Uskali Mäki

Preface.- Part I. Truth and Semantics.- Chapter 1. Coherence and (Likeness to) Truth; Michael Schippers.- Chapter 2.    A Verisimilitudinarian Rebuttal of a Recent Attack Against Realism; Luca Tambolo.- Chapter 3. Realistic Claims in Logical Empiricism; Matthias Neuber.- Chapter 4. Patchworks of Laws and Partial Structures; Holger Andreas.- Part II.  Social Epistemology, Rational Choice Theory and Public Policy.- Chapter 5. Social Epistemology, Debate Dynamics, and Truth Approximation; Gustavo Cevolani.- Chapter 6. Wise Crowds, Clever Meta-Inductivists; Paul Thorn.- Chapter 7. Is the Equal-Weight View Really Supported by Positive Crowd Effects?; Christian Feldbacher.- Chapter 8. Why the Realist-Instrumentalist Debate About Rational Choice Rests On A Mistake; Christine Tiefensee.- Chapter 9. Funding Science By Lottery; Shahar Avin.- Part III. Values in Science.- Chapter 10.  Researchers Building Nations: Under What Conditions Can Overtly Political Research Be& Objective?; Inkeri Koskinen.- Chapter 11.  Against the Agnosticism-Argument for Value-Freedom; Anke Bueter.- Part IV. Causality.- Chapter 12. Learning About Constitutive Relations; Lena Kaestner.- Chapter 13. Reconstituting Phenomena; Maria Kronfelder.- Chapter 14. Manipulating Spins: Causality and Decoherence; Fernanda Samaniego.- Part V. Philosophy of Physics and Chemistry.- Chapter 15. How Fundamental Physics Represents Causality; Andreas Bartels and Daniel Wohlfarth.- Chapter 16. Local Causality and Complete Specification: A Reply to Seevinck and Uffink; Gábor Hofer-Szabó.- Chapter 17. Pragmatists and Purists on CPT Invariance in Relativistic Quantum Field Theories; Jonathan Bain.-

Chapter 18. Explanation in Quantum Chemistry; Carsten Seck.- Chapter 19. Are Chemical Kinds Natural Kinds?; Robin Hendry.- Part VI. Induction, Probability and Chaos.- Chapter 20. Why Bertrand's Paradox Is Not Paradoxical But Is Felt So; Zalan Gyenis and Miklos  Redei.- Chapter 21.  Revisiting Smale's Fourteenth Problem toDiscover Two Definitions of Chaos; Lena Zuchowski.- Chapter 22.  Rudolf Carnap: Philosophy of Science as Engineering Explications; Christopher French.- Chapter 23. Robustness, Diversity of Evidence, and Probabilistic Independence; Jonah Schupbach.-Part VII. Fiction, Representation and Explanation.- Chapter 24. Why does Water Boil? Fictions in Scientific Explanation; Sorin Bangu.- Chapter 25. Scientific Representation, Denotation, and Fictional Entities; Mauricio Suárez.- Part VIII. Philosophy of the Life Sciences and of Psychology.- Chapter 26. Non Inferiority Drug Trials and the Trade-Offs in RCTs; Cecilia Nardini.- Chapter 27. Against Sex and Gender Dualism in Gender-Specific Medicine; Maria Christina Amoretti and Nicla Vassalo.- Chapter 28. Biological Essentialism Concerning the Species Category; Edit Talpsepp.- Chapter 29. Two Concepts of Emotional Expression; Trip Glazer.

This volume showcases the best of recent research in the philosophy of science. A compilation of papers presented at the EPSA 13, it explores a broad distribution of topics such as causation, truthlikeness, scientific representation, gender-specific medicine,  laws of nature, science funding and the wisdom of crowds.

Papers are organised into headings which form the structure of the book. Readers will find that it covers several major fields within the philosophy of science, from general philosophy of science to the more specific philosophy of physics, philosophy of chemistry, philosophy of the life sciences, philosophy of psychology, and philosophy of the social sciences and humanities, amongst others.

This volume provides an excellent overview of the state of the art in the philosophy of science, as practiced in different European countries and beyond. It will appeal to researchers with an interest in the philosophical underpinnings of their own discipline, and to philosophers who wish to explore the latest work on the themes explored.