Vos, Bobby (2021) Integrated HPS? Formal vs Historical Approaches to Philosophy of Science. Synthese, 199. pp. 14509-14533. ISSN 1573-0964

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Abstract

The project of Integrated HPS (`integrated history and philosophy of science') has occupied philosophers of science in one form or another since at least the 1960s. Yet, despite this substantial interest in bringing together philosophical and historical reflections on the nature of science, history of science and formal philosophy of science remain as divided as ever. In this paper, I will argue that the continuing separation between historical and formal philosophy of science is ill-founded. I will argue for this in both abstract and concrete terms. At the abstract level, I reconstruct two possible arguments for the incompatibility of historical and formal philosophy of science and argue that they are both wanting. At the concrete level, I discuss how historical and formal philosophy of science have been brought together in practice, namely: in the form of a largely forgotten research tradition that I will refer to here as the study of formalized macro-units. After a brief exposition, I argue that this research tradition has been unduly overlooked by historically minded philosophers of science. Bringing together these observations, I argue that the divide between historical and formal philosophy of science is not grounded in any substantive arguments, but can be primarily attributed to disciplinary happenstance.

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Item Type:	Published Article or Volume
Creators:	Creators Email ORCID Vos, Bobby bfmv2@cam.ac.uk 0000-0002-4548-3507
Keywords:	Formal methods; History; Integrated HPS; Structuralism
Subjects:	General Issues > History of Philosophy of Science General Issues > Structure of Theories General Issues > Theory Change
Depositing User:	Bobby Vos
Date Deposited:	01 Dec 2022 15:18
Last Modified:	01 Dec 2022 15:18
Item ID:	21492
Journal or Publication Title:	Synthese
Publisher:	Springer (Springer Science+Business Media B.V.)
Official URL:	https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11229-0...
DOI or Unique Handle:	https://doi.org/10.1007/s11229-021-03431-x
Subjects:	General Issues > History of Philosophy of Science General Issues > Structure of Theories General Issues > Theory Change
Date:	7 December 2021
Page Range:	pp. 14509-14533
Volume:	199
ISSN:	1573-0964
URI:	https://philsci-archive.pitt.edu/id/eprint/21492

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