Preface

pre-printThis volume contains the collection of symposium papers presented at the Philosophy of Science Association Meeting in Montreal, November 4-6, 2010, selected for publication. The volume also contains Nancy Cartwright's presidential address at the 2010 PSA. The huge amount of work required to referee all these submissions was carried out by the PSA 2010 Program Committee: Craig Callender, David Danks, Heather Douglas, Marc Ereshefsky, Branden Fitelson, Roman Frigg, Nicholas Huggett, James Joyce, Ron Mallon, Wayne Myrvold, Samir Okasha, Julian Reiss, Margaret Schabas, Robert Skipper, David Stump, Martin Thomson-Jones, and J. D. Trout

Herbert Simon's computational models of scientific discovery

Journal ArticleHerbert Simon's work on scientific discovery deserves serious attention by philosophers of science for several reasons. First, Simon was an early advocate of rational scientific discovery, contra Popper and logical empiricist philosophers of science (Simon 1966). This proposal spurred on investigation of scientific discovery in Philosophy; of science, as philosophers used and developed Simon's notions of "problem solving" and "heuristics" in attempts to provide rational accounts of scientific discovery (See Nickles 1980a, Wimsatt 1980)

Can scientific development and children's cognitive development be the same process?

Journal ArticleAssesses the value of the developmental psychology of science proposed by Alison Gopnik and Andrew Meltzoff to the understanding of scientific development. Role of distinctions between ontogeny and phylogeny when appealing to biology for theoretical support; Conception of cognition as a set of veridical processes; Evolutionary approach to understanding scientific development

Socializing naturalized Philosophy; of science

Journal ArticlePresents an approach to naturalized Philosophy; of science that considers the nature of scientific practice. Cognitive individualism; Three-level model of the social nature of scientific practice

Heredity and heritability

Journal ArticlePhilosophical discussions of heredity have focused on the sustainability of heritability analyses and more recently on the units of heredity. Here I introduce the concept of heritability and the problems associated with it. Next the units of heredity discussion is introduced. Here I consider alternatives to the view that DNA is the most important hereditary material. The information view of heredity is introduced and discussed and finally, several alternative or supplementary views of heredity are introduced

Science, progress and democracy: Critical Appraisal of J.D. Trout, Wondrous Truths, Oxford University Press, 2016.

This is a critical appraisal of J.D. Trout's Wondrous Truths. This short piece was original prepared as a critical response piece for an APA author meets critics session on Trout's book. The APA session did not take place and the planned publication deal for critic's papers and the author's response fell through