Philosophy of Science

One cannot justifiably presuppose the physical salience of structures derived via decoherence theory based upon an entirely uninterpreted use of the quantum formalism. Non-probabilistic accounts of the emergence of probability via decoherence are unconvincing. An alternative account of the emergence of probability involves the combination of a partially interpreted decoherence model and an averag…

Some authors maintain that we can use causal Bayes nets to infer whether or by consulting a probability distribution defined over some exogenous source of variation for or . We raise a problem for this approach. Specifically, we point out that there are cases where an exogenous cause of ( ) has no probabilistic influence on no matter the direction of causation—namely, cases where and are probabil…

As technology fosters connections among like-minded individuals, concerns about the effects of homogeneous clusters—often criticized as ideological bubbles and echo chambers—have intensified. While these clusters are commonly seen as obstacles to independent thought and progress, this paper argues that they can, under certain conditions, drive significant advancements. By revising computational m…

We propose an approach to the evolution of joint agency and cooperative behavior that contrasts with views that take joint agency to be a uniquely human trait. We argue that there is huge variation in cooperative behavior and that while much human cooperative behavior may be explained by invoking cognitively rich capacities, there is cooperative behavior that does not require such explanation. On…

Jha et al. (2024) offer several objections to Lange’s account of “distinctively mathematical” scientific explanations (DMEs). This article argues that these objections fail. Jha et al.’s arguments fail to show that Lange is inconsistent in characterizing DMEs—that, by Lange’s lights, every causal explanation involving mathematical facts is a DME. Jha et al.’s arguments fail to suggest that on Lan…

Advances in animal sentience research, neural organoids, and artificial intelligence reinforce the relevance of justifying attributions of consciousness to nonstandard systems. Clarifying the argumentative structure behind these attributions is important for evaluating their validity. This article addresses this issue, concluding that analogical abduction—a form of reasoning combining analogical …

In this article, I present the immunological account of physiological individuality courtesy of Thomas Pradeu and the evolutionary account of biological individuality from Ellen Clarke. I argue that in combination, the logic of these two accounts implies that all physiological individuals are capable of undergoing evolution by natural selection. The main objection to this view is the case of holo…

Mixture of experts is a prediction aggregation method in machine learning that aggregates the predictions of specialized experts. This method often outperforms Bayesian methods despite the Bayesian having stronger inductive guarantees. We argue that this is due to the greater functional capacity of mixture of experts. We prove that in a limiting case, mixture of experts will have greater capacity…

It is plausible that a witness’s credibility is lowered if he testifies to an outcome that has low probability, but this is not always true. If the outcome has a low prior due only to its specificity (as in a fair lottery), witness credibility is not lowered by attesting to it. Even when witness credibility does drop as a result of the testimony, it can substantially confirm its contents, and agr…

I give an account of ecology’s subject matter and generalizations in terms of functional roles. Functional roles are functionally defined kinds which include multiple species or general abiotic factors as members and occur in generalizations which hold across different ecological systems. Functional roles include central objects of study in ecology, like predator, parasite, and producer. I use fu…

This article examines whether characteristic modeling practices in economics lead to progress, that is, improved explanations and predictions. We question the widespread assumption that progress in modeling occurs solely through successive vertical refinements toward a single “best” model. Instead, we propose that progress can occur through multiple pathways. Specifically, we identify five distin…

Trevor Griffith and Adrian Kind argue that we should reject a standard interpretation of pain asymbolia, according to which asymbolics experience pain even though their pain lacks the affective-motivational element that typical pains possess. We make the case that Griffith and Kind’s reasons for rejecting the standard interpretation are relatively weak. We end by arguing that debates between the …

Theories of ecological function often appeal to the liberality criterion to evaluate a theory’s adequacy. The liberality criterion requires that a functional description successfully differentiates between functions and nonfunctions. A functional description is considered inadequate if it is excessively liberal or excessively restrictive. I criticize the deference that is shown to the liberality …

One challenge to relationism in general relativity is that the metric field is underdetermined by the stress–energy tensor. This is manifested in the existence of distinct vacuum solutions to Einstein’s equations. In this paper I reformulate the problem of underdetermination as a problem from vacuum solutions. I call this the vacuum challenge and identify the gravitational degrees of freedom (ass…

Eric Mandelbaum has reported some troubles with Bayesianism in cognitive science. He has brought some behavioral data to show that belief updating in humans is fundamentally Bayesian perverse. I argue that the behaviors that he seeks to explain do not undermine Bayesian accounts of belief updating and can instead be explained as idiosyncratic consequences of an appropriately bounded implementatio…

According to Jerome Wakefield’s harmful dysfunction account, a mental disorder must involve an objective dysfunction couched in evolutionary terms. However, selected effects functions are indeterminate because (i) the same trait can be both selectively advantageous and disadvantageous, and (ii) the functional activity of a trait can be assessed according to conflicting norms, given the trait’s pl…