Abstract The article reevaluates the distinction between experiment and observation. It is first argued that to get clear on what role observation plays in the generation of scientific knowledge, we need to distinguish “experiential observation” as a concept closely connected to experience from “observation” in a technical sense and from “field observation” as a concept that reasonably contrasts with “experiment.” It is then argued that observation construed as field observation can enjoy systematic epistemic advantages over experiment, contrary to appearances.

Florian J. Boge

Philosophy of Science

Re-Assessing the Experiment / Observation-Divide

重新评估实验与观察的区分

Abstract Knuuttila and Morgan (2019) challenge the widespread understanding that deidealization is no more than a simple process of relaxing assumptions to build increasingly more realistic models. They submit that, in practice, processes of model deidealization are diverse and complex and thus warrant more explicit scrutiny. Drawing on a case from economics, my analysis extends their proposal by showing how narratives, as additional representational forms, can assume a crucial role in deidealizing mathematical models. I thereby propose to consider that processes of model deidealization are not necessarily exhausted by processes in which one theoretical mathematical model is replaced with another one.

Alexandra Quack

How Narratives Can Deidealize Models

叙事如何去理想化模型

Abstract Governments and social scientists are increasingly developing machine learning methods to automate the process of identifying terrorists in real-time and predict future attacks. However, current operationalizations of ‘terrorist’ in artificial intelligence are difficult to justify given three issues that remain neglected: insufficient construct legitimacy, insufficient criterion validity, and insufficient construct validity. I conclude that machine learning methods should be at most used for the identification of singular individuals deemed terrorists and not for identifying possible terrorists from some more general class, nor to predict terrorist attacks more broadly, given intolerably high risks that result from such approaches.

Adrian K. Yee

Construct Validity in Automated Counter-Terrorism Analysis

自动化反恐分析中的结构效度

Abstract We examine whether the ‘privileged coordinates’ of a geometric space encode its ‘amount of structure.’ In doing so, we compare this coordinate approach to comparing amounts of structure to the more familiar auto-morphism approach. We first show that on a natural understanding of the former, it faces one of the same well known problems as the latter. We then capture a precise sense in which the two approaches are closely related to one another, and we conclude by discussing whether they might still prove useful in cases of philosophical interest, despite their shortcomings.

Thomas William Barrett

JB Manchak

What Do Privileged Coordinates Tell Us About Structure?

特权坐标如何揭示结构信息？

Abstract The making of mistakes by organisms and other living systems is a theoretically and empirically unifying feature of biological investigation. Mistake theory is a rigorous and experimentally productive way of understanding this widespread phenomenon. It does, however, run up against the long-standing ‘functions’ debate in philosophy of biology. Against the objection that mistakes are just a kind of malfunction, and that without a position on functions there can be no theory of mistakes, we reply that this is to misunderstand the theory. In this paper we set out the basic concepts of mistake theory and then argue that mistakes are a distinctive phenomenon in their own right, not just a kind of malfunction.

David S. Oderberg

Jonathan Hill

Christopher Austin

Ingo Bojak

François Cinotti

Jonathan M. Gibbins

Biological Mistake Theory and the Question of Function

生物错误理论与功能问题

Brandon Boesch

Review of Ann Johnson and Johannes Lenhard’s <i>Cultures of Prediction: How Engineering and Science Evolve with Mathematical Tools</i> - Ann Johnson and Johannes Lenhard , Cultures of Prediction: How Engineering and Science Evolve with Mathematical Tools. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press (2024), 274 pp. $45.00 (paperback).

Ann Johnson 和 Johannes Lenhard 的《预测文化：工程与科学如何随数学工具演进》评述 - Ann Johnson 和 Johannes Lenhard，《预测文化：工程与科学如何随数学工具演进》。剑桥，马萨诸塞州：麻省理工学院出版社（2024年），274页，45美元（平装本）。

Abstract The perception/action model posits distinct streams of visual processing for perception and online motor guidance. This model is apparently supported by experiments showing that visual illusions affect action tasks less than perception. In recent years, however, critics have argued against both the validity of these experiments and their support (irrespective of their validity) for the perception/action model. In this article, I reexamine this psychophysical evidence. I argue that it strongly supports the existence of distinct representations for “perception” and “action” but only moderately supports the existence of distinct systems generating those representations.

Benjamin Henke

Reexamining the Psychophysical Evidence for the Two Visual Streams

重新审视双视觉流的心理物理学证据

Holly K. Andersen

Preface

前言

Abstract This article presents a novel sense in which theoretical structure has been preserved across the transition from classical to quantum physics. I import mathematical tools from category theory that have been used for structural comparisons in the context of theoretical equivalence and apply these tools to new situations involving theory change. The structural preservation takes the form of a categorical equivalence between categories of models of classical and quantum physics. I situate the significance of this structural preservation in terms of prospects for theory construction in quantum physics.

Benjamin Feintzeig

Quantization and the Preservation of Structure across Theory Change

量化与理论变迁中的结构保持

Abstract We characterize four fruitful and underappreciated epistemic roles played by the concept of an individualized niche in contemporary biology, utilizing results of a qualitative empirical study conducted within an interdisciplinary biological research center. We argue that the individualized niche concept (1) shapes the research agenda of the center, (2) facilitates explaining core phenomena related to interindividual differences, (3) helps with managing individual-level causal complexity, and (4) promotes integrating local knowledge from ecology, evolutionary biology, behavioral biology, and other biological fields. We thereby also challenge arguments that the niche concept is superfluous in ecology.

Marie I. Kaiser

Katie H. Morrow

On the Epistemic Roles of the Individualized Niche Concept in Ecology, Behavioral Biology, and Evolutionary Biology

论个性化生态位概念在生态学、行为生物学和进化生物学中的认识论作用

自 1934 年成立以来，科学哲学及其赞助社会科学哲学协会一直致力于从科学哲学的不同角度推进研究和自由讨论。该杂志包含散文、讨论文章和书评。

Since its establishment in 1934, the journal "Philosophy of Science" and its sponsoring society for the philosophy of social science have been dedicated to advancing research and free discussion from various perspectives of the philosophy of science. The journal includes essays, discussion articles, and book reviews.

自 1934 年成立以来，《Philosophy of Science》及其赞助的社会科学哲学协会一直致力于从科学哲学的不同角度推动研究和自由讨论。该杂志包含散文、讨论文章和书评。

Journals	Philosophy of Science
ISSN	0031-8248, 1539-767X
h-index	84
Journal Impact	1.37
Quartiles(Global)	HISTORY & PHILOSOPHY OF SCIENCE(Q1)
Quartiles(China)	哲学(2区)哲学科学史与科学哲学(2区)