BJPS

05/12/2024

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03/12/2024

New from the BJPS Review of Books: Daniel C Burnston reviews The Brain Abstracted, by Mazviita Chirimuuta

“Mazviita Chirimuuta’s The Brain Abstracted is a landmark work in the philosophy of neuroscience. The book offers an ecumenical view of neuroscientific practice, explaining both historical theories and cutting-edge approaches under a general philosophical framework. It gives a fresh take on long-running debates about neural representation, computation, and functionalism, while also advancing the state of play within general philosophy of science.”

Daniel C Burnston reviews The Brain Abstracted, by Mazviita Chirimuuta

26/11/2024

New from them BJPS Review of Books: Joe Roussos reviews Idealization in Epistemology, by Daniel Greco

"Greco argues that epistemology is inherently idealized and ought to be seen as a discipline engaged in building models. The book is part meta-philosophical discussion of the methods of epistemology and part intervention in several linked debates in first-order epistemology. The case studies serve both to advance the overall argument and as self-contained developments of their respective debates."

Joe Roussos reviews Idealization in Epistemology, by Daniel Greco

21/11/2024

New on BJPS Short Reads: Can you exploit someone by giving them relevant information? David Thorstad on exploitative informing.

David Thorstad on how to exploit someone by giving them relevant information

19/11/2024

New from the BJPS Review of Books: Tim Lewens reviews Why Human Nature Matters, by Matteo Mameli,
and The Quest for Human Nature, by Marco Nathan

"The pictures of human nature offered by Mameli and Nathan have much in common. Both see problems with many of the specific positive proposals made by philosophers for how to understand what human nature is, but neither is an eliminativist about the notion... For Nathan, human nature is one of several concepts that gesture to a significant subject matter for investigation, without being susceptible to any more reductive analysis. For Mameli, human nature acts as a kind of intermediary—he calls it a ‘channel of communication’—that serves as a go-between linking descriptive knowledge of human traits with various ambitions for human living or, as he prefers to call it, praxis."

Tim Lewens reviews Why Human Nature Matters, by Matteo Mameli, and The Quest for Human Nature, by Marco J Nathan

14/11/2024

New BJPS Short Read: How does our philosophy of science affect our response to the information paradox?

Siddharth Muthukrishnan on how our philosophy of science affects our response to the information paradox

12/11/2024

New from the BJPS Review of Books: Uljana Feest reviews Split and Splice: A Phenomenology of Experimentation, by Hans-Jörg Rheinberger

"The book offers, simultaneously, an account of scientific knowledge generation and a proposal for doing philosophy of science in a way that genuinely integrates it with the historiography of science. These two desiderata are closely connected for Rheinberger since, on his account, the historicity of scientific knowledge generation is integral to science. The thrust of the book is, of course, aligned with a broad range of approaches in the history, philosophy, and social study of science that have emphasized scientific practices, material cultures, and the historicity and perspectival nature of scientific knowledge.”

- BSPS

07/11/2024

New from BJPS Short Reads: How did humans become stand-out mind-readers? Read or listen here

https://www.thebsps.org/short-reads/mind-reading-schulz/ ‎

Armin W Schulz asks how humans became stand-out mind-readers

05/11/2024

New from the BJPS Review of Books: Charles Pence reviews Evolution and the Machinery of Chance, by Marshall Abrams

“Marshall Abrams has argued that a causal understanding of evolutionary explanations can be grounded in facts about populations and individual organisms, despite the statistical character of such explanations (which has pushed some to argue for a contrary, eliminativist position about the causal efficacy of evolutionary factors like natural selection and genetic drift). In this he is not alone. But what makes his stance both unique and compelling is that he has long claimed that it is the interpretation of probability that allows us to construct such an approach.”

Charles H Pence reviews Evolution and the Machinery of Chance, by Marshall Abrams

04/11/2024

BJPS Towers welcomes three new additions...

New recruits for the BJPS editorial team

31/10/2024

New from BJPS Short Reads: Do imprecise beliefs lead to worse decisions under severe uncertainty?

Mantas Radzvilas, William Peden & Francesco De Pretis on ambiguous decisions in Bayesianism and imprecise probability

Read or listen here:

Mantas Radzvilas, William Peden and Francesco De Pretis on whether imprecise beliefs lead to worse decisions under severe uncertainty

29/10/2024

New from the BJPS Review of Books: Chris Smeenk reviews Accelerating Expansion, by Gordon Belot

"Accelerating Expansion makes a compelling case that philosophers should get to work on these open problems—not only because they concern central questions regarding the applicability of physics and our epistemic situation, but because the provocations often stem from bizarre assumptions—and provides an orientation and training programme for those eager to join the effort."

Chris Smeenk reviews Accelerating Expansion, by Gordon Belot

24/10/2024

New from BJPS Short Reads: Axel Constant on alternatives to reductionism in precision psychiatry

Axel Constant on whether there are alternatives to reductionism in precision psychiatry

22/10/2024

New from the BJPS Review of Books: Richard Pettigrew reviews Right Belief and True Belief, by Daniel J Singer

"According to the traditional understanding, ethical normativity is about what you should do and epistemic normativity is about what you should believe. Singer’s topic is the latter. However, though he later rejects this traditional understanding of the distinction, he thinks we can learn a great deal from looking at the parallels between these two species of normativity, and his book provides a masterclass in how to do that: this is epistemology as practised by someone very much at home in ethics and well versed in its contemporary literature, its arguments, distinctions, and central positions.”

https://www.thebsps.org/reviewofbooks/pettigrew-on-singer

Richard Pettigrew reviews Right Belief and True Belief, by Daniel J Singer

17/10/2024

New from BJPS Short Reads: Jamie Shaw on lotteries, biases, and affirmative action

Jamie Shaw on lotteries, biases, and affirmative action

16/10/2024

The British Society for the Philosophy of Science has appointed a replacement for outgoing Co-Editor-in-Chief, Wendy Parker

The British Society for the Philosophy of Science has appointed a replacement for outgoing Co-Editor-in-Chief, Wendy Parker

15/10/2024

New from the BJPS Review of Books: Felipe De Brigard reviews The Entangled Brain, by Luiz Pessoa

"The theoretical physicist Michio Kaku once stated that the brain is ‘the most complicated object in the known universe’. For decades, neuroscientists have been trying to disentangle the brain’s complexity in order to understand how it can support our behaviours and mental life. In his latest book, Luiz Pessoa wants us instead to embrace the entanglement of this intricate organ, not as a way to give up on our quest to understand its workings, but as a change in strategy to better comprehend its complexity."

Felipe De Brigard reviews The Entangled Brain, by Luiz Pessoa

10/10/2024

New from BJPS Short Reads: Caspar Jacobs explains why the Bureau International des Poids et Mesures is wrong

Read or listen here: 👇

Caspar Jacobs explains why the Bureau International des Poids et Mesures is wrong