Reconsidering the Carnap-Kuhn Connection

Recently, some philosophers of science (e.g., Gürol Irzik, Michael Friedman) have challenged the ‘received view’ on the relationship between Rudolf Carnap and Thomas Kuhn, suggesting that there is a close affinity (rather than opposition) between their philosophical views. In support of this argument, these authors cite Carnap and Kuhn’s similar views on incommensurability, theory-choice, and scientific revolutions. Against this revisionist view, I argue that the philosophical relationship between Carnap and Kuhn should be regarded as opposed rather than complementary. In particular, I argue that a consideration of the fundamentally disparate nature of the broader philosophical projects of Carnap (logic of science) and Kuhn (providing a theory of scientific revolutions)renders the alleged similarities between their views superficial in comparison to their fundamental differences. In defense of the received view, I suggest that Carnap and Kuhn are model representatives of two contrasting styles of doing philosophy of science, viz., logical analysis and historical analysis respectively. This analysis clarifies the role played by Kuhn’s Structure of Scientific Revolutions in the demise of logical empiricism in the second half of the twentieth-century

The Forgotten Tradition. How the Logical Empiricists missed the Philosophical Significance of the work of Riemann, Christoffel and Ricci

Abstract. The paper attempts to show how the Logical Empiricists’ interpretation of the relation between geometry and reality emerges from a “collision” of mathematical traditions. Considering Riemann’s work as the initiator of a 19th century geometrical tradition, whose main protagonists were Helmholtz and Poincaré, the Logical Empiricists neglected the fact that Riemann’s revolutionary insight flourished rather in a non-geometrical tradition dominated by the works of Christoffel and Ricci-Curbastro roughly in the same years. I will argue that in the attempt to draw the line Riemann-Helmholtz-Poincaré-Einstein Logical Empiricists were led to argue that General Relativity raised mainly a problem of mathematical under-determination, i.e. the discovery that there are physical differences that cannot be expressed in the relevant mathematical structure of the theory. However, a historical reconstruction of the alternative line of development Riemann-Chritoffel-Ricci-Einstein shows on the contrary that the main philosophical issue raised by Einstein’s theory was rather that of mathematical over-determination, i.e. the recognition of the presence of redundant mathematical differences that do not have any correspondence in physical reality

Selective DNA Purine Base Photooxidation by Bis-terdentate Iridium(III) Polypyridyl and Cyclometalated Complexes

Two bis-terdentate iridium(III) complexes with polypyridyl and cyclometalated ligands have been prepared and characterized. Their spectroscopic and electrochemical properties have been studied, and a photophysical scheme addressing their properties is proposed. Different types of excited states have been considered to account for the deactivation processes in each complex. Interestingly, in the presence of mono- or polynucleotides, a photoinduced electron-transfer process from a DNA purine base (i.e., guanine or adenine) to the excited complex is shown through luminescence quenching experiments. For the first time, this work reports evidence for selective DNA purine bases oxidation by excited iridium(III) bis-terdentate complexes. © 2014 American Chemical Society