Bas C. van Fraassen

Philosophy of Science

Selected Papers

• "Modeling and measurement: the criterion of empirical grounding", Philosophy of Science, 2012.
• "Logic and the Philosophy of Science", Journal of the Indian Council of Philosophical Research, 27 (2011), #2.
• "Rovelli's World", Foundations of Physics, 2010.
• "The Perils of Perrin, at the hands of philosophers", Philosophical Studies, 143 (2009): 5-24.
• "The Representation of Nature in Physics: A Reflection on Adolf Grünbaum's Early Writings", published in Jokic, A. (ed.) Philosophy of Physics and Psychology: Essays in Honor of Adolf Grünbaum, Amherst, NY: Prometheus Books, 2009.
• "Identity over time: objective, subjective", (with I. Peschard), published in Philosophical Quarterly, 2008.
• "How to talk about unobservables", with F.A. Muller, Analysis, 68 (2008), 197 - 205.
• "Representation: the Problem for Structuralism", Philosophy of Science, 73 (2006), pp. 536-547.
• "Structure: its Shadow and Substance", The British Journal for the Philosophy of Science, 2006.
• "Science as Representation: Flouting the Criteria", Philosophy of Science, 71 (2004), 794-804.
• "Constructive Empiricism and Modal Nominalism" (2003), with Bradley Monton -- Reply to Ladyman, British Journal for the Philosophy of Science, 54 (2003): 405-422.
• "Constructive Empiricism Now" (2001), APA symposium Albuquerque 2000, Philosophical Studies, 106 (2001), pp. 151-170.
• Feyerabend -- Review of Paul Feyerabend, Conquest of Abundance, Times Literary Supplement, 5073: June 23, 2000, 10-11.
• "The Theory of Tragedy and of Science: Does Nature Have Narrative Structure?", 2000.
• "Review: J. Bub, Interpreting the Quantum World, Foundations of Physics, 28 (1998), 683-689.
• "From Vicious Circle to Infinite Regress and Back Again", 1993.
• "Interpretation in Science and in the Arts", (with Jill Sigman), pp. 73-99 in G. Levine (ed.), Realism and Representation, Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1993.
• "The Manifest Image and the Scientific Image" (1999).
• "Modal Interpretation of Quantum Mechanics" (1991) -- Acrobat version (abridged, modified from Ch. 9 of Quantum Mechanics: an Empiricist View).
• "Modal Interpretation of Repeated Measurement: Rejoinder to Leeds and Healey" (1997) -- abstract only.
• "Structure and Perspective: Philosophical Perplexity and Paradox" (1997).

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Constructive Empiricism vs. Scientific Realism

• "Theoretical Entities: The Five Ways", Philosophia 4 (1974), pp. 95-109.
• "Wilfrid Sellars on Scientific Realism", Dialogue 14 (1975), pp. 606-616.
• "To Save the Phenomena", Journal of Philosophy 73 (1976), pp. 623-632.
• "On the Radical Incompleteness of the Manifest Image (Comments on Sellars)", pp.335- 343 in F. Suppe and P. Asquith, eds., PSA 1976, Volume II(Philosophy of Science Association, East Lansing, 1977), pp. 335-343.
• "Critical Study: Paul Churchland, Scientific Realism and the Plasticity of Mind, Canadian Journal of Philosophy, 11 (1981), 555-567.
• "Empiricism in the Philosophy of Science" pp. 245-308 in P.M. Churchland and C.A. Hooker (eds.) Images of Science: Essays on Realism and Empiricism, with a Reply by Bas C. van Fraassen. University of Chicago Press, 1985.
• "From vicious circle to infinite regress, and back again"; pp. 6-29 in D. Hull, M. Forbes, and K. Ohkruhlik (eds.) PSA 1992, Vol. 2 (proceedings of the Philosophy of Science Association Conference, Nov. 1992) Northwestern University Press, 1993.
• "Gideon Rosen on constructive empiricism", Philos. Studies 74 (1994), 179-192.
• "The World of Empiricism", pp. 114-134 in Jan Hilgevoort (ed.) Physics and Our View of the World. Cambridge University Press, 1994.
• "The theory of tragedy and of science: does nature have narrative structure?" pp. 31-59 in D. Sfendoni-Mentzou (ed.) Aristotle and Contemporary Science, vol 1. New York: Peter Lang, 2000

Explanation

• "The Pragmatics of Explanation", American Philosophical Quarterly 14 (1977), pp. 143-150.
• "A Re-examination of Aristotle's Philosophy of Science", Dialogue 19 (1980), pp. 20-45.
• "Salmon on Explanation", Journal of Philosophy 82 (1985), pp. 639-651.
• "Die Pragmatik des Erklaerens", pp. 31-89 in Gerhard Schurz (ed.) Erklaeren und Verstehen (Muenchen: Oldenbourg, 1988) - Part I, pp. 31-56 is new; Part II is a reprint of part of Ch. 5 of The Scientific Image.
• "On Explanation in Physics" pp. 109-113 in J. Cushing and E. McMullen, (eds.), The Philosophical Consequences of Quantum Mechanics, University of Notre Dame Press, 1989. Printed as Appendix to a reprint of "The Charybdis of Realism" (#74 above).

Interpretation

• "Time in physical and narrative structure", pp. 19-37 in J.Bender and D. E. Wellbery (eds.) Chronotypes: The Construction of Time. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1991.
• "Interpretation in Science and in the Arts" (with Jill Sigman), pp. 73-99 in G. Levine (ed.) Realism and Representation. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1993.
• "Interpretation of science: science as interpretation", pp. 169-187 in Jan Hilgevoort (ed.) Physics and Our View of the World. Cambridge University Press, 1994.
• "Interpretation of QM: Parallels and Choices", pp. 7-14 in L. Accardi (ed.) The Interpretation of Quantum Theory: Where Do We Stand?. Rome: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana (distributed Fordham University Press), 1994.

Probability

See also: philosophical logic - probabilities

• "Probabilities and the Problem of Individuation" in S. Luckenbach (ed.), Probabilities, Problem and Paradoxes (Encino, California: Dickenson 1972), pp. 121-138.
• "Representation of Conditional Probabilities", Journal of Philosophical Logic 5 (1976), pp. 417-430.
• "Relative Frequencies", Synthese 34 (1977), pp. 133-166.
• Review: Wolfgang Stegmuller, Personnelle und Statistische Wahrscheinlichkeit", Philosophy of Science 45 (1978), pp. 158-163.
• "Foundations of Probability: A Modal Frequency Interpretation", in G. Toraldo di Francia (ed.), Problems in the Foundations of Physics, pp.344-394. Amsterdam: North- Holland Pub. Co. 1979.
• "Russell's Philosophical Account of Probability", in G.W. Roberts (ed.), Bertrand Russell Memorial Volume (London: Allen and Unwin, 1979), pp.384-413.
• "Rational Belief and Probability Kinematics", Philosophy of Science, Vol. 47, June1980, pp. 165-187.
• "Discussion: A Problem for Relative Information Minimizers in Probability Kinematics", British Journal for the Philosophy of Science 32(1981), 375-379.
  
• "Rational Belief and the Common Cause Principle", 193-209 in R. McLaughlin (ed.), What? Where? When? Why? Essays in honour of Wesley Salmon (Dordrecht: Reidel, 1982).
• "Calibration: A Frequency Justification for Personal Probability", pp. 295-319 in R.S. Cohen and L. Laudan (eds.) Physics, Philosophy, and Psychoanalysis (Dordrecht: Reidel, 1983).
• "Theory Confirmation: Tension and Conflict", pp. 319-329 in Epistemology and Philosophy of Science: Proceedings of the Seventh International Wittgenstein Symposium (Vienna: Hoelder-Pichler-Tempsky, 1983).
• "Shafer on Conditional Probabilities", Journal of Philosophical Logic 12 (1983), pp.467- 470.
• (with R.I.G. Hughes) "Symmetry Arguments in Probability Kinematics" in P. Kitcher and P. Asquith (eds.) PSA 1984, vol. 2, pp. 851-869. East Lansing, Mich.: Philosophy of Science Association, 1985.
• "A Demonstration of the Jeffrey Conditionalization Rule", Erkenntnis 24 (1986), 17-24.
• "A Problem for Relative Information Minimizers in Probability Kinematics, Continued" with R.I.G. Hughes and G. Harman, British Journal for the Philosophy of Science 37(1986), 453-475.
• "Symmetries in Personal Probability Kinematics" in N. Rescher (ed.) Scientific Inquiry in Philosophical Perspective. Lanham, MD: University Press of America, 1987, pp. 183-224.
• "Armstrong on Laws and Probabilities", Australasian Journal of Philosophy, 65 (1987), 243-260.
• "Simmetrie e cinematica della probabilita personale" in M. C. Galavotti and G. Gambetta (eds.), Epistemologica ed Economia. Bologna: CLUEB, 1988, pp. 21-42.
• "The problem of old evidence", pp. 153-165 in David F. Austin (ed.), Philosophical Analysis (Dordrecht: Reidel, 1988).
• "Probabilities in physics: an empiricist view", pp. 339-347 in P. Weingartner and G. Schurz (eds.) Philosophy of the Natural Sciences, Vienna: Hoelder-Pichler-Tempsky, 1989 (proceedings of the XIIIth Wittgenstein Conference, Kirchberg 1988).
• "Figures in a Probability Landscape", pp. 345-356 in Dunn, M. and Gupta, A. (eds.) Truth or Consequences. Dordrecht: Kluwer, 1990.
• "Jeffrey Shifts and Self-Adjoint Operators", Philosophy of Science 59 (1992), 163-175.
• "La credenza e il problema di Ulisse e le Sirene", pp. 77-106 in A. E. Galeotti (ed.) Individui e Istituzioni. Torino: La Rosa Editrice, 1992.
• "Faire figure dans un monde probabiliste" (translation of a modified version of #108), 307-322 in Daniel Laurier and Francois Lepage (eds.), Essais sur le Langage et l'Intentionalite'. Montreal: Bellarmin, 1992; Paris: Vrin, 1992.
• "Belief and the problem of Ulysses and the Sirens", Philos. Studies 77 (1995), 7-37
  
• "Fine-grained opinion, probability, and the logic of belief", Journal of Philosophical Logic, 24 (1995), 349-377.
• "Science, probability, and the proposition", PSA94, vol. 2, pp. 339-348. East Lansing, MI: Philosophy of Science Association, 1995.
• "Frequency and the Myth of Probability", pp. 55-67 in H. Poser and U. Dirks, Hans Reichenbach: Philosophie im Umkreis der Physik. Berlin: Akademie Verlag, 1998.

Quantum Mechanics

See also: philosophical logic - quantum logic

• "A Formal Approach to the Philosophy of Science" in R. Colodny (ed.), Paradigms and Paradoxes: The Philosophical Challenge of the Quantum Domain, (Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press, 1972), pp. 303-366.
• "The Einstein-Podolski-Rosen Paradox", Synthese 29 (1974), pp. 291-309.
• "A Semantic Analysis of Bohr's Philosophy of Quantum Mechanics" (jointly with C.A. Hooker) in Harper, W.L. and C.A. Hooker (eds.), Foundations of Probability and Statistics, Volume 3 (Dordrecht: Reidel, 1975), pp. 222-241.
• "Hidden Variables and the Modal Interpretation of Quantum Mechanics", Synthese 42 (1979), pp. 155-165.
• "A Modal Interpretation of Quantum Mechanics" in Current Issues in Quantum Logic (1981).
• "The Charybdis of Realism: Epistemological Implications of Bell's Inequality", Synthese 5 (1982), 25-38.
• "The Problem of Indistinguishable Particles" in J.T. Cushing, C.F. Delaney, G.M.Gutting (eds.) Science and Reality: Recent Work in the Philosophy of Science. Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press, 1984.
• "Statistical Behaviour of Indistinguishable Particles" in P. Mittelstaedt and E-W. Stachow (eds.) Recent Developments in Quantum Logic. Zurich, 1985.
• "EPR: When is a Correlation not a Mystery", pp. 113-128 in P. Lahti and P. Mittelstaedt (eds.) Symposium on the Foundations of Modern Physics: 50 Years of the Einstein- Podolsky-Rosen Experiment. Singapore: World Scientific, 1985.
• "On Explanation in Physics" pp. 109-113 in J. Cushing and E. McMullen, (eds.), The Philosophical Consequences of Quantum Mechanics, University of Notre Dame Press, 1989. Printed as Appendix to a reprint of "The Charybdis of Realism"
• "The modal interpretation of quantum mechanics", pp. 440-460 in P. Lahti and P. Mittelstaedt (eds.), Symposium on the Foundations of Modern Physics 1990. Singapore: World Publishing Co. 1991.
• "The problem of measurement in quantum mechanics", pp. 497-503 in P. Lahti and P. Mittelstaedt (eds.), Symposium on the Foundations of Modern Physics 1990. Singapore: World Publishing Co. 1991.
• "La Meccanica Quantistica: uno spettro di interpretazioni", Iride 7 (1991), 28-50.
• "Interpretation of QM: Parallels and Choices", pp. 7-14 in L. Accardi (ed.) The Interpretation of Quantum Theory: Where Do We Stand?. Rome: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana (distributed Fordham University Press), 1994.
• "Modal interpretation of repeated measurement: reply to Leeds and Healey", Philosophy of Science 64 (1997), 669-676.

Semantic Approach to Theories

• "On the Extension of Beth's Semantics of Physical Theories", Philosophy of Science 37 (1970), pp. 325-334.
• "A Formal Approach to the Philosophy of Science" in R. Colodny (ed.), Paradigms and Paradoxes: The Philosophical Challenge of the Quantum Domain, (Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press, 1972), pp. 303-366.
• "The Formal Representation of Physical Quantities", Boston Studies in Philosophy of Science 13 (1974), pp. 196-209.
• "The Semantic Approach to Scientific Theories" in N.J. Nersessian (ed.) The Process of Science. Dordrecht: Martinus Nijhoff, 1987.
• "Structure and perspective: philosophical perplexity and paradox", pp. 511-530 in M. L. Dalla Chiara et al. (eds.) Logic and Scientific Methods. Dordrecht: Kluwer, 1997.

Symmetry

• (with R.I.G. Hughes) "Symmetry Arguments in Probability Kinematics" in P. Kitcher and P. Asquith (eds.) PSA 1984, vol. 2, pp. 851-869. East Lansing, Mich.: Philosophy of Science Association, 1985.
• "A Demonstration of the Jeffrey Conditionalization Rule", Erkenntnis 24 (1986), 17-24.
• "Symmetries in Personal Probability Kinematics" in N. Rescher (ed.) Scientific Inquiry in Philosophical Perspective. Lanham, MD: University Press of America, 1987, pp. 183-224.
• "Simmetrie e cinematica della probabilita personale" in M. C. Galavotti and G. Gambetta (eds.), Epistemologica ed Economia. Bologna: CLUEB, 1988, pp. 21-42.
• "Symmetry Arguments in Science and Metaphysics", pp. 385-409 in W. Deppert (ed.), Exact Sciences and Their Philosophical Foundations (Frankfurt: Verlag Peter Lang, 1988).

Time and Space, Relativity

• "Capek on Eternal Recurrence", Journal of Philosophy 59 (1962), pp. 371-375.
• "Conventionality in the Axiomatic Foundations of the Special Theory of Relativity", Philosophy of Science 36 (1969), pp. 64-73.
• "On Massey's Explication of Gruenbaum's Conception of Metric", Philosophy of Science 36 (1969), pp. 346-353.
• "Earman on The Causal Theory of Time", Synthese 24 (1972), pp. 87-95; also in P. Suppes (ed.), Space, Time and Geometry (Reidel 1973).
• "Time, Physical and Experiential", Epistemologia l (1978), pp. 323-338.
• "Symmetry Arguments in Science and Metaphysics", pp. 385-409 in W. Deppert (ed.), Exact Sciences and Their Philosophical Foundations (Frankfurt: Verlag Peter Lang, 1988).
• "Time in physical and narrative structure", pp. 19-37 in J.Bender and D. E. Wellbery (eds.) Chronotypes: The Construction of Time. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1991.

Miscellaneous

• "Philosophy of Science" (with H. Margenau), Contemporary Philosophy/La Philosophie Contemporaine, ed. R. Klibansky (Firenze, 1968), 25-30.
• "Causality" (with H. Margenau) -- Location of (9), pp. 319-328.
• "A Formal Approach to the Philosophy of Science" in R. Colodny (ed.), Paradigms and Paradoxes: The Philosophical Challenge of the Quantum Domain, (Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press, 1972), pp. 303-366.
• "Putnam on the Corroboration of Theories", The Structure of Scientific Theories, ed. F. Suppe (Urbana: University of Illinois Press 1974), pp.434-436.
• "Bressan and Suppes on Modality" in K.F. Schaffner and R.S. Cohen (eds.), PSA 1972 (Reidel Publishing Co., 1974).
• "Theories and Counterfactuals", Action, Knowledge and Reality, ed. H.N. Castaneda (Bobbs-Merrill Co., 1975).
• "Platonism's Pyrrhic Victory", in A.L. Anderson, et al. (eds.), The Logical Enterprise (New Haven: Yale University Press 1975), pp. 39-50.
• "On the Radical Incompleteness of the Manifest Image (Comments on Sellars)", pp.335- 343 in F. Suppe and P. Asquith, eds., PSA 1976, Volume II(Philosophy of Science Association, East Lansing, 1977), pp. 335-343.
• "Modality" in H. Kyburg (ed.), Current Research in Philosophy of Science (Philosophy of Science Association 1979).
• "A Re-examination of Aristotle's Philosophy of Science", Dialogue 19 (1980), pp. 20-45.
  
• "Critical Study: Paul Churchland, Scientific Realism and the Plasticity of Mind, Canadian Journal of Philosophy, 11 (1981), 555-567.
• "Essences and Laws of Nature", in R. Healey (ed.), Reduction, Time and Reality, Cambridge University Press (1981), pp. 189-200.
• "Theory Confirmation: Tension and Conflict", pp. 319-329 in Epistemology and Philosophy of Science: Proceedings of the Seventh International Wittgenstein Symposium (Vienna: Hoelder-Pichler-Tempsky, 1983).
• "Sulla realta' degli enti matematici" pp. 90-110 in Proceedings of the Conference on Levels of Reality, Florence 1978: M.Piatelli-Palmerini (ed.) Livelli di Realta'. Milano: Feltrinelli, 1984.
• "Theory Comparison and Relevant Evidence" in J. Earman (ed.), Testing Scientific Theories. Minnesota Studies in the Philosophy of Science, Vol.X. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1984.
• "Glymour on Evidence and Explanation" same location as 82.
• "Empiricism in the Philosophy of Science" pp. 245-308 in P.M. Churchland and C.A. Hooker (eds.) Images of Science: Essays on Realism and Empiricism, with a Reply by Bas C. van Fraassen. University of Chicago Press, 1985.
• "On the Question of Identification of a Scientific Theory" (Reply to Perez Ransanz), Critica 17 (1985), 21-25.
• "Aim and Structure of Scientific Theories", pp. 397-318 in International Congress of Logic, Methodology, and Philosophy of Science VII: 1983 (Salzburg) ed. R.B. Marcus, G. Dorn, and P. Weingartner. Amsterdam: North-Holland Pub. Co., 1986.
• "Que son las leyes de la naturaleza?", Dianoia 31 (1985), pp. 211-262 (appeared in 1986).
• "The World We Speak Of, and the Language We Live In", pp. 213-221 in Philosophy and Culture: Proc. of the XVII-th World Congress of Philosophy(Montreal, 1983). Montreal: Editions du Beffroi, 1986.
• "Armstrong on Laws and Probabilities", Australasian Journal of Philosophy, 65 (1987), 243-260.
• "The problem of old evidence", pp. 153-165 in David F. Austin (ed.), Philosophical Analysis (Dordrecht: Reidel, 1988).
• "Despues del fundacionismo: entre el carculo vicioso y el regresso al infinito", Di&noia 38 (1992), 217-240. ("After foundationalism: between vicious circle and infinite regress", Proceedings of the XI Simposio de Filosofaa del Instituto de Investigaciones Filos 1992.) [note: this appeared in 1993; it overlaps 3/4 of item 124.]
• "Armstrong, Cartwright, and Earman on Laws and Symmetry", Phenomenology and Philosophical Research, 53 (1993), 431-444.
• "Interpretation in Science and in the Arts" (with Jill Sigman), pp. 73-99 in G. Levine (ed.) Realism and Representation. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1993.
• "From vicious circle to infinite regress, and back again"; pp. 6-29 in D. Hull, M. Forbes, and K. Ohkruhlik (eds.) PSA 1992, Vol. 2 (proceedings of the Philosophy of Science Association Conference, Nov. 1992) Northwestern University Press, 1993.
• "The World of Empiricism", pp. 114-134 in Jan Hilgevoort (ed.) Physics and Our View of the World. Cambridge University Press, 1994.
• "A philosophical approach to the foundations of science", Foundations of Science 1 (1995/96), 5-9.
• "Science, Materialism, and False Consciousness", pp. 149-181 in Jonathan Kvanvig (ed.) Warrant in Contemporary Epistemology: Essays in Honor of Alvin Plantinga's Theory of Knowledge. Rowman Littlefield, 1996.
• "Structure and perspective: philosophical perplexity and paradox", pp. 511-530 in M. L. Dalla Chiara et al. (eds.) Logic and Scientific Methods. Dordrecht: Kluwer, 1997.
• "Elgin on Lewis' Putnam's Paradox", Journal of Philosophy 94 (1997), 85-93.
• "Sola experientia? Feyerabend's Refutation of Classical Empiricism", Philosophy of Science 64 (1997), S385-S395.
• "The False Hopes of Traditional Epistemology", Philosophy and Phenomenological Research 60 (2000), 253-280.
• "The theory of tragedy and of science: does nature have narrative structure?" pp. 31-59 in D. Sfendoni-Mentzou (ed.) Aristotle and Contemporary Science, vol 1. New York: Peter Lang, 2000
• "How is scientific revolution/conversion possible?", Proceedings of the American Catholic Philosophical Association 73 (1999 -- appeared in 2000), 63-80.
• "The sham victory of abstraction" (Review of Feyerabend, Conquest of Abundance), Times Literary Supplement 5073: June 23, 2000, 10-11.

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