David J. Stump is a philosopher of science at the University of San Francisco. Educated at the University of California and Northwestern University, he is the author of Conceptual Change and the Philosophy of Science, co-editor and co-translator of a new edition of Poincaré's Science and Hypothesis, and the co-editor, with Peter Galison, of The Disunity of Science, as well as author of numerous journal articles on Poincaré, Duhem, the history and philosophy of mathematics, and naturalized philosophy of science. He is an active member of HOPOS, the International Society for the History of the Philosophy of Science. Supervisors: Arthur Fine Address: Philosophy, USF 2130 Fulton Street San Francisco, CA 94117 USA
with an Introduction by David J. Stump
See link for a sample chapter (click on title, then file... more with an Introduction by David J. Stump
See link for a sample chapter (click on title, then files, then second link)
or to purchase (click on title, then files, then first link)
NOW IN PAPERBACK, this book is about is how philosophers have understood conceptual change (i. ... more NOW IN PAPERBACK, this book is about is how philosophers have understood conceptual change (i. e. revolutions) in science. What do we make of what Einstein did? Every science makes some basic presuppositions, he changed those. These presuppositions used to be thought of as a priori knowledge, hence we have a changing a priori.
Routledge Handbook of Philosophy of Relativism, 2020
Ontological relativity is a widely held view when it is taken to follow from an analysis of langu... more Ontological relativity is a widely held view when it is taken to follow from an analysis of language, especially reference. The general idea of ontological relativity is that we cannot tell, ultimately, what we are talking about. We might say that the metaphysics of the world is unknown and that we describe the world in language using categories that are human constructions. The thesis of ontological relativity is that there are alternative constructions, descriptions, or models that work equally well for describing the world. However, few philosophers seem to embrace a metaphysical thesis of ontological relativity, instead holding at most that alternative descriptions of reality are possible, rather than that there are multiple worlds. The views of Carnap, Quine, Goodman and Putnam on ontological relativity will be considered here, as well as the related idea of structuralism in philosophy of mathematics and philosophy of science.
Journal for General Philosophy of Science, Sep 30, 2021
In response to a recent argument by David Bloor, I argue that denying absolutes does not necessar... more In response to a recent argument by David Bloor, I argue that denying absolutes does not necessarily lead to relativism, that one can be a fallibilist without being a relativist. At issue are the empirical natural sciences and what might be called "framework relativism," that is, the idea that there is always a conceptual scheme or set of practices in use, and all observations are theory-laden relative to the framework. My strategy is to look at the elements that define a relativist stance and show where the pragmatic fallibilist disagrees. Defending the pragmatic notion of experience will be central, given that relativists reject the idea that experience can play a role in objectively justifying belief. We can reject all absolutes and start from the premise that everything is historical, contingent, and situated. One of the lessons of pragmatism is that universal and fixed principles are not necessary for objective knowledge.
Arthur Pap worked in analytic philosophy while maintaining a strong
Kantian or neo-Kantian elemen... more Arthur Pap worked in analytic philosophy while maintaining a strong Kantian or neo-Kantian element throughout his career, stemming from his studying with Ernst Cassirer. I present these elements in the different periods of Pap’s works, showing him to be a consistent critic of logical empiricism, which Pap shows to be incapable of superseding the Kantian framework. Nevertheless, Pap’s work is definitely analytic philosophy, both in terms of the content and the style. According to Pap, the central topics of analytic philosophy concern meaning, modality, and analysis. Pap was also influenced by pragmatism, especially in his dissertation, although he does not fully embrace it in either its classical or its Quinean form.
The main innovation in Questioning Technology is Feenberg? s use of the results of various social... more The main innovation in Questioning Technology is Feenberg? s use of the results of various social constructivist accounts of science and technology to rethink the philosophy of technology. I agree with Feenberg that the social constructivist studies developed by historians and sociologists refute the essentialist account of technology that has been the mainstream position of philosophers of technology. The autonomy of technology seems to be nothing but a myth from the point of view of social construction, since social and ...
The longstanding controversy concerning the epistemological status of Newton's laws of motio... more The longstanding controversy concerning the epistemological status of Newton's laws of motion can be stated by the question: Are all three laws empirical, a priori, or conventional, or are they collectively some mix of empirical, a priori and convention? 1 Even in the twentieth century, after Newton's laws were replaced with those found in the Special and General Theories of Relativity, a lively debate over the status of Newton's laws of motion took place in the philosophical literature, where their introduction was seen as an ...
with an Introduction by David J. Stump
See link for a sample chapter (click on title, then file... more with an Introduction by David J. Stump
See link for a sample chapter (click on title, then files, then second link)
or to purchase (click on title, then files, then first link)
NOW IN PAPERBACK, this book is about is how philosophers have understood conceptual change (i. ... more NOW IN PAPERBACK, this book is about is how philosophers have understood conceptual change (i. e. revolutions) in science. What do we make of what Einstein did? Every science makes some basic presuppositions, he changed those. These presuppositions used to be thought of as a priori knowledge, hence we have a changing a priori.
Routledge Handbook of Philosophy of Relativism, 2020
Ontological relativity is a widely held view when it is taken to follow from an analysis of langu... more Ontological relativity is a widely held view when it is taken to follow from an analysis of language, especially reference. The general idea of ontological relativity is that we cannot tell, ultimately, what we are talking about. We might say that the metaphysics of the world is unknown and that we describe the world in language using categories that are human constructions. The thesis of ontological relativity is that there are alternative constructions, descriptions, or models that work equally well for describing the world. However, few philosophers seem to embrace a metaphysical thesis of ontological relativity, instead holding at most that alternative descriptions of reality are possible, rather than that there are multiple worlds. The views of Carnap, Quine, Goodman and Putnam on ontological relativity will be considered here, as well as the related idea of structuralism in philosophy of mathematics and philosophy of science.
Journal for General Philosophy of Science, Sep 30, 2021
In response to a recent argument by David Bloor, I argue that denying absolutes does not necessar... more In response to a recent argument by David Bloor, I argue that denying absolutes does not necessarily lead to relativism, that one can be a fallibilist without being a relativist. At issue are the empirical natural sciences and what might be called "framework relativism," that is, the idea that there is always a conceptual scheme or set of practices in use, and all observations are theory-laden relative to the framework. My strategy is to look at the elements that define a relativist stance and show where the pragmatic fallibilist disagrees. Defending the pragmatic notion of experience will be central, given that relativists reject the idea that experience can play a role in objectively justifying belief. We can reject all absolutes and start from the premise that everything is historical, contingent, and situated. One of the lessons of pragmatism is that universal and fixed principles are not necessary for objective knowledge.
Arthur Pap worked in analytic philosophy while maintaining a strong
Kantian or neo-Kantian elemen... more Arthur Pap worked in analytic philosophy while maintaining a strong Kantian or neo-Kantian element throughout his career, stemming from his studying with Ernst Cassirer. I present these elements in the different periods of Pap’s works, showing him to be a consistent critic of logical empiricism, which Pap shows to be incapable of superseding the Kantian framework. Nevertheless, Pap’s work is definitely analytic philosophy, both in terms of the content and the style. According to Pap, the central topics of analytic philosophy concern meaning, modality, and analysis. Pap was also influenced by pragmatism, especially in his dissertation, although he does not fully embrace it in either its classical or its Quinean form.
The main innovation in Questioning Technology is Feenberg? s use of the results of various social... more The main innovation in Questioning Technology is Feenberg? s use of the results of various social constructivist accounts of science and technology to rethink the philosophy of technology. I agree with Feenberg that the social constructivist studies developed by historians and sociologists refute the essentialist account of technology that has been the mainstream position of philosophers of technology. The autonomy of technology seems to be nothing but a myth from the point of view of social construction, since social and ...
The longstanding controversy concerning the epistemological status of Newton's laws of motio... more The longstanding controversy concerning the epistemological status of Newton's laws of motion can be stated by the question: Are all three laws empirical, a priori, or conventional, or are they collectively some mix of empirical, a priori and convention? 1 Even in the twentieth century, after Newton's laws were replaced with those found in the Special and General Theories of Relativity, a lively debate over the status of Newton's laws of motion took place in the philosophical literature, where their introduction was seen as an ...
Essay Review of Hasok Chang, Realism for Realistic People: A New Pragmatist Philosophy of Science... more Essay Review of Hasok Chang, Realism for Realistic People: A New Pragmatist Philosophy of Science
Stump, David J. 2017. "Essay Review: Scientific pluralism and metaphysics." Studies in History an... more Stump, David J. 2017. "Essay Review: Scientific pluralism and metaphysics." Studies in History and Philosophy of Science. 62: 62-64 Essay review of Stéphanie Ruphy, Scientific Pluralism Reconsidered: A New Approach to the (Dis)Unity of Science. University of Pittsburgh Press, Pittsburgh, PA, 2016, pp. xxi + 186, Price US$40.00 hardback, ISBN-978-0-8229-4458-4
A Life in Science, Philosophy, and the Public Domain: Essay Review of J. Gray, Henri Poincaré: ... more A Life in Science, Philosophy, and the Public Domain: Essay Review of J. Gray, Henri Poincaré: A Scientific Biography , F. Verhulst, Henri Poincaré: Impatient Genius, and J-M. Ginoux and C. Gerini, Henri Poincaré: Une Biographie au(x) quotidian(s)” HOPOS (2016) 6(2) 309-318.
State���of���the���art surveys such as John H. Zammito has produced are usually read prior to eng... more State���of���the���art surveys such as John H. Zammito has produced are usually read prior to engaging seriously upon some course of study. Yet his book will be even more helpful, perhaps, to those who can look retrospectively upon the field of science studies in order to consider how the field has changed and whether postmodernism remains the threat that Zammito thinks it. By explicitly including the history of the development of the philosophy of language in a history of science studies, he makes an original, provocative claim that goes ...
Herbert Marcuse , Technology, War and Fascism: Collected Papers of Herbert Marcuse, Volume One Re... more Herbert Marcuse , Technology, War and Fascism: Collected Papers of Herbert Marcuse, Volume One Reviewed by.
See the link here, articles are free for download:
https://www.degruyter.com/journal/key/JTPH/2/... more See the link here, articles are free for download:
https://www.degruyter.com/journal/key/JTPH/2/1/html Special feature: Newly translated text from Cassirer's Nachlass!
Articles by Massimo Ferrari, Rudolf A. Makkreel, Brigitte Falkenburg, Thomas Mormann, David Stump, Saverio Ricci, Enno Rudolph and Steve Lofts, with a fragment from Cassirer, translated by DJ Hobbs.
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Books by David J Stump
See link for a sample chapter (click on title, then files, then second link)
or to purchase (click on title, then files, then first link)
Papers by David J Stump
Kantian or neo-Kantian element throughout his career, stemming from his studying with Ernst Cassirer. I present these elements in the different periods of Pap’s works, showing him to be a consistent critic of logical empiricism, which Pap shows to be incapable of superseding the Kantian framework. Nevertheless, Pap’s work is definitely analytic philosophy, both in terms of the content and the style. According to Pap, the central topics of analytic philosophy concern meaning, modality, and analysis. Pap was also influenced by pragmatism, especially in his dissertation, although he does not fully embrace it in either its classical or its Quinean form.
Jeremy J. Gray.Henri Poincaré: A Scientific Biography. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2013. Pp. xii+592. $35.00/£24.95 (cloth).
Ferdinand Verhulst.Henri Poincaré: Impatient Genius. New York: Springer, 20...
Jean-Marc Ginoux and Christian Gerini. 2012.Henri Poincaré: Une biographie au(x) quotidien(s). Paris: Ellipses, 2012. Pp. iv+298. €24.00 (paper).
See link for a sample chapter (click on title, then files, then second link)
or to purchase (click on title, then files, then first link)
Kantian or neo-Kantian element throughout his career, stemming from his studying with Ernst Cassirer. I present these elements in the different periods of Pap’s works, showing him to be a consistent critic of logical empiricism, which Pap shows to be incapable of superseding the Kantian framework. Nevertheless, Pap’s work is definitely analytic philosophy, both in terms of the content and the style. According to Pap, the central topics of analytic philosophy concern meaning, modality, and analysis. Pap was also influenced by pragmatism, especially in his dissertation, although he does not fully embrace it in either its classical or its Quinean form.
Jeremy J. Gray.Henri Poincaré: A Scientific Biography. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2013. Pp. xii+592. $35.00/£24.95 (cloth).
Ferdinand Verhulst.Henri Poincaré: Impatient Genius. New York: Springer, 20...
Jean-Marc Ginoux and Christian Gerini. 2012.Henri Poincaré: Une biographie au(x) quotidien(s). Paris: Ellipses, 2012. Pp. iv+298. €24.00 (paper).
Essay review of Stéphanie Ruphy, Scientific Pluralism Reconsidered: A New Approach to the (Dis)Unity of Science. University of Pittsburgh Press, Pittsburgh, PA, 2016, pp. xxi + 186, Price US$40.00 hardback, ISBN-978-0-8229-4458-4
F. Verhulst, Henri Poincaré: Impatient Genius, and
J-M. Ginoux and C. Gerini, Henri Poincaré: Une Biographie au(x) quotidian(s)” HOPOS (2016) 6(2) 309-318.
https://www.degruyter.com/journal/key/JTPH/2/1/html
Special feature: Newly translated text from Cassirer's Nachlass!
Articles by Massimo Ferrari, Rudolf A. Makkreel, Brigitte Falkenburg, Thomas Mormann, David Stump, Saverio Ricci, Enno Rudolph and Steve Lofts, with a fragment from Cassirer, translated by DJ Hobbs.