Explanation, Prediction, and Confirmation

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-viii

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2. Formal Methods

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 9-9

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   2. The No Miracles Intuition and the No Miracles Argument

      • John Worrall

      Pages 11-21

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   3. The Scope and Limits of the No Miracles Argument1

      • Stathis Psillos

      Pages 23-35

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   4. Causation, Association and Confirmation

      • Gregory Wheeler, Richard Scheines

      Pages 37-51

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   5. An Objective Bayesian Account of Confirmation

      • Jon Williamson

      Pages 53-81

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   6. An Explication of the Use of Inference to the Best Explanation

      • Adam Grobler

      Pages 83-91

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   7. A Formal Logic for the Abduction of Singular Hypotheses1

      • Joke Meheus

      Pages 93-108

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   8. Probabilities in Branching Structures

      • Thomas Müller

      Pages 109-121

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3. Philosophy of the Natural and Life Sciences

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 123-123

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   2. Causality and Explanation: Issues from Epidemiology

      • Raffaella Campaner

      Pages 125-135

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   3. Invariance, Mechanisms and Epidemiology

      • Samuel Schindler

      Pages 137-140

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   4. What’s Wrong with the Pragmatic-Ontic Account of Mechanistic Explanation?

      • Alexander Reutlinger

      Pages 141-152

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   5. Causality and Evidence Discovery in Epidemiology

      • Michael Joffe

      Pages 153-166

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   6. Inferences to Causal Relevance from Experiments

      • Gerd Graßhoff

      Pages 167-182

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   7. Comparing Part-Whole Reductive Explanations in Biology and Physics1

      • Alan C. Love, Andreas Hüttemann

      Pages 183-202

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   8. The Arrival of the Fittest

      • Peter McLaughlin

      Pages 203-222

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   9. The Arrival of the Fittest What?

      • Thomas A. C. Reydon

      Pages 223-237

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4. Philosophy of the Cultural and Social Sciences

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 239-239

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   2. Normativity is the Key to the Difference Between the Human and the Natural Sciences

      • Wolfgang Spohn

      Pages 241-251

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This volume, the second in the Springer series Philosophy of Science in a European Perspective, contains selected papers from the workshops organised by the ESF Research Networking Programme PSE (The Philosophy of Science in a European Perspective) in 2009. Five general topics are addressed: 1. Formal Methods in the Philosophy of Science; 2. Philosophy of the Natural and Life Sciences; 3. Philosophy of the Cultural and Social Sciences; 4. Philosophy of the Physical Sciences; 5. History of the Philosophy of Science. This volume is accordingly divided in five sections, each section containing papers coming from the meetings focussing on one of these five themes. However, these sections are not completely independent and detached from each other. For example, an important connecting thread running through a substantial number of papers in this volume is the concept of probability: probability plays a central role in present-day discussions in formal epistemology, in the philosophy of thephysical sciences, and in general methodological debates---it is central in discussions concerning explanation, prediction and confirmation. The volume thus also attempts to represent the intellectual exchange between the various fields in the philosophy of science that was central in the ESF workshops.

• Causality
• Explanation
• Probability
• Realism
• Time

• Inst. History & Foundations of Science, Utrecht University, Utrecht, Netherlands

  Dennis Dieks

• , Faculty of Humanities, University of A Coruña, Ferrol, Spain

  Wenceslao J. Gonzalez

• Tilburg, Netherlands

  Stephan Hartmann

• , Philosophy School of Social Science, University of Manchester, Manchester, Montserrat

  Thomas Uebel

• Konstanz, Germany

  Marcel Weber

Policies and ethics