Our reading group has been meeting every other week since June 2009 and offers a chance for regular informal discussions of papers of interest in History and Philosophy of Science. All participants are welcome.

Place and Time

We meet irregularly (see dates and times below), usually in the meeting room of the Institute of Philosophy (unless otherwise noted). If you have any questions, please contact:  Diese E-Mail-Adresse ist gegen Spambots geschützt, Du musst JavaScript aktivieren, damit Du sie sehen kannst. .

Reading for the next meeting:

• Skoda, J. 1905 (1850). Ueber die von Dr. Semmelweis entdeckte, wahre Ursache der in der Wiener Gebäranstalt ungewöhnlich häufig vorkommenden Erkrankungen der Wöchnerinen und das Mittel zur Verminderung dieser Erkrankungen bis auf die gewöhnliche Zahl. In: T. von Györi, Semmelweis' gesammelte Werke. Jena: Gustav Fischer. S. 36–45.
• Semmelweis, I. 1905 (1861). Die Aetiologie, der Begriff und die Prophylaxis des Kindbettfiebers. In: T. von Györi, Semmelweis' gesammelte Werke. Jena: Gustav Fischer. S. 95–158.

• Lipton, P. 2004. Loveliness and truth. In: Inference to the best explanation. Routledge. p. 142–163.
• Lipton, P. 2004. Explanation as a Guide to Inference. In: Inference to the best explanation. Routledge. p. 121–141.
• Lipton, P. 2004. Contrastive inference. In: Inference to the best explanation. Routledge. p. 71–90.
• Lipton, P. 2004. Inference to the best explanation. Routledge. S. 55–70.
• Morrison, M. 2000. Unifying Scientific Theories: Physical Concepts and Mathematical Structures. Ch. "The Many Faces of Unity", p. 7–34. Cambridge University Press.
• Morrison, M. 2000. Unifying Scientific Theories: Physical Concepts and Mathematical Structures. Ch. "Maxwell's Unification of Electromagnetics and Optics", p. 62–108. Cambridge University Press.
• Morrison, M. 2000. Unifying Scientific Theories: Physical Concepts and Mathematical Structures. Ch. "Darwin and Natural Selection: Unification vs. Explanation", p. 192–209. Cambridge University Press.
• Bogen, J. und Woodward, J. 1988. Saving the Phenomena. The Philosophical Review 97(3): 303–352.
• Scerri, E. R. 2007. Quantum mechanics and the periodic table. Chapter 9 in: The periodic table: its story and its significance, Oxford University Press, pp. 227-248. 
• Scerri, E.R. and Worrall, J. 2001. Prediction and the periodic table. Studies in History and Philosophy of Science, 32(3): 407-52.
• Sapp, J. 1987. Challenging the Nuclear Monopoly of the Cell in Germany. Aus: Beyond the Gene: Cytoplasmic Inheritance and the Struggle for Authority in Genetics. Oxford University Press.
• Giere, R.N. 1996. Visual Models and Scientific Judgment. In: Picturing knowledge: historical and philosophical problems concerning the use of art in science, pp. 269-302.
• Kitcher, P. 2006. Biology and Ethics, In: D. Copp (ed.), The Oxford Handbook of Ethical Theory, Oxford University Press, pp. 163-85.

Papers discussed during summer 2009 ("Models and Mechanisms in Biology"):

• Thagard, P. 2005. What is a Medical Theory? In: R. Paton and L. McNamara (eds.),Multidisciplinary Approaches to Theory in Medicine, Vol. 3. Elsevier, pp. 47-62.
• Barros, D.B. 2008. Natural Selection as a Mechanism. Philosophy of Science, 75(3): 306-22.
• Darden, L. 2002. Strategies for Discovering Mechanisms: Schema Instantiation, Modular Subassembly, Forward/Backward Chaining. Philosophy of Science (Supplement), 69: 354-65.
• Darden, L. and Craver, C. 2002. Strategies in the interfield discovery of the mechanism of protein synthesis. Studies in History and Philosophy of Biol & Biomed Sci, 33(1): 1-28.
• Glennan, S. 2005. Modeling mechanisms. Stud. Hist. Phil. Biol. & Biomed. Sci., 36: 443-64.
• Craver, C. F. 2006. When mechanistic models explain. Synthese, 153(3): 355-76.
• Bechtel, W. and Abrahamsen, A. 2005. Explanation: a mechanist alternative. Stud. Hist. Phil. Biol. & Biomed. Sci., 36: 421-41.
• Machamer, P., Darden, L., and Craver, C. F. 2000. Thinking about Mechanisms. Philosophy of Science, 67(1): 1-25.