HPS&STNEWSLETTER

hps&stnewsletter

july 2021

The hps&st newsletter is emailed monthly toabout 9,500 individuals who directly or indirectlyhave an interest in the contribution of history andphilosophy of science to theoretical, curricularand pedagogical issues in science teaching, and/orinterests in the promotion of innovative, engagingand effective teaching of the history and philo-sophy of science. The newsletter is sent on todifferent international and national hps lists andinternational and national science teaching lists.In print or electronic form, it has been publishedfor 40+ years.

The newsletter seeks to serve the diverse interna-tional community of hps&st scholars and teach-ers by disseminating information about eventsand publications that connect to concerns of thehps&st community.

Contributions to the newsletter (publications,conferences, opinion pieces, &.) are welcome andshould be sent direct to the editor: Michael R.Matthews, unsw (m.matthews@unsw.edu.au).

The newsletter, along with resources, obitu-aries, opinion pieces and more, are available atthe website: http://www.hpsst.com/

hps&st newsletter staff

Editor Michael Matthews

Assistant Editor(Opinion Page& Formatting) Nathan Oseroff-Spicer

Assistant Editor(Publications& Website) Paulo Maurício

RegionalAssistant Editor(North America) Thomas L. Isenhour

RegionalAssistant Editor(Latin America) Nathan Lima

RegionalAssistant Editor(Asia) Huang Xiao

issn: 2652-2837

contents

hps&st Newsletter Assistant EditorsAppointed . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3

Science & Education Journal . . . . 4

narst Strand 13: History, Philo-sophy, Sociology, and Nature of Science 5

Forum on the History of Physics,2021 Essay Contest . . . . . . . . . 6

British Society for the History of Sci-ence, Summer Conference . . . . . 6

First Meeting on History and Philo-sophy of Physics Education in South-ern Brazil . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7

Transformational hps Network . . . 7

University of Pittsburgh Centre forPhilosophy of Science . . . . . . . 8

The Usefulness of Popper: A Scient-ist’s Response to Professor CharlotteSleigh . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9

Recent hps&st Research Articles . . 17

Recent hps&st Related Books . . . 19

Varia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31

Charles Darwin: Justice of the PeaceBook File . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31

Michael R. Matthews: History,Philosophy and Science Teaching: APersonal Story, Springer, 2021 . . . 32

Coming hps&st Related Conferences 33

hps&st Related Organisations andWebsites . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34

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hps&st Newsletter Assistant Edit-ors Appointed

Pleasingly, three regional assistant editors havebeen appointed to join Paulo Maurício (Lisbon)and Nathan Oseroff-Spicer (London). Notices ofhps&st related meetings, conferences, publica-tions, website, or activities can be sent direct torelevant assistant editors whose details and emailsare given below.

North America

Thomas L. Isenhour is an analytical chemist with aBS degree from the University of North Carolinaand a PhD from Cornell. His expertise includesnuclear analytical chemistry, spectroscopy, anddata interpretation. He is a teacher, researcher,administer, and consultant to industry and gov-ernment. He has taught more than 20,000 stu-dents in chemistry, environmental science, math-ematics and the history of science.

He recently completed a five-year term as Prov-ost and Vice President for Academic Affairs at OldDominion University, VA.

He has recently been a member of People-To-People Ambassador delegations to China, SouthAfrica, Brazil, and India as well as traveling tomeetings and excursions in about 50 other coun-tries. A recent book he has authored is The Evolu-tion of Modern Science (Bookboon 2013)

Latin America

Nathan Lima is a professor at the Federal Univer-sity of Rio Grande do Sul, Porto Alegre, Brazil. Heworks in teacher training; has a degree in Physicsand a PhD in Physics Education. He has been ateacher at Federal Center for Technological Edu-cation in Rio de Janeiro. During this period, heworked with Prof. Guerra (current president ofthe ihpst), learning about Cultural History of Sci-ence and is a partner in her research group.

Given the current situation in the world and espe-cially in Brazil, he researches the relations betweenepistemic and political practices. First, the prob-

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lem of post-truth and its implications for scienceeducation. Second the political and epistemicclashes in the management of covid-19 in Brazil.

Asia

Huang Xiao is Associate Dean and Professor ofTeachers Education College in Zhejiang NormalUniversity, China. Her first degree is in Physicshaving studied quantum statistics and quantummechanics in Department of Physics, East ChinaNormal University. She has had visiting researchappointments at Ohio State University, CardiffUniversity, Hong Kong Institute of Education,and the Illinois Institute of Technology (2014-15)where sheworkedwith Judy andNormLederman.

Her research fields include the history and philo-sophy of science, scientific inquiry and nature of

science, and stem education.

She participated in one project of the NationalNatural Science Foundation ofChina and one pro-ject of philosophy and social sciences of ZhejiangProvince.

She was a co-translator (with Liu Enshan and GuoYuanlin) into Chinese ofMichaelMatthews’ book,Science Teaching: The Contribution of hps (2015).

Science & Education Journal

Science & Education journal first appeared in1992, with four numbers per year. It was thefirst research journal dedicated to the applica-tion of historical, sociological and philosophicalscholarship to theoretical, curricular and pedago-gical problems in the teaching of science. Editorshave been Michael Matthews (1992-2015), KostasKampourakis (2015-20), Sibel Erduran (2020-).

Contributors include a long list of major con-temporary philosophers and historians, as well asphilosophers of education, cognitive scientists andscience educators. Due to the quantity and qual-ity of manuscripts submitted, the journal has pro-gressively grown to ten numbers per volume.

The journal has been, on all measures, very suc-cessful. In 2020 there were 248,479 article down-loads.

The impact factor of the journal has gone up to2.114 in 2020 from 1.266 in 2019.   Other metricsinclude:   Education & Educational ResearchJournal Citation Indicator: 163/722, Quartile 1,77.49 percentile in 2020 – as compared to 163/258,Quartile 3, 37.02 percentile in 2019.   History &Philosophy of ScienceJournal Citation Indicator: 18/104, Quartile 1,

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83.17 percentile in 2020 –  as compared to 19/74,Quartile 2, 75 percentile in 2019   In terms of rankby journal impact factor for Education & Educa-tional Research, the journal went up from 179/263to 151/264 (Q3, 42.99 JIF percentile).   Overall,these trends are very promising and shows thatthe journal continues to be a strong platform forresearch in History & Philosophy of Science andcontinues to improve its impact in the Education& Educational Research category.

Editor-in-ChiefSibel Erduran, University of Oxford, UKAssociate Editors: Olivia Levrini (University ofBologna), Mauricio Pietrocola (University of SaõPaulo) Book Review Editor: Gabor Zemplen(Eötvös Loránd University)

narst Strand 13: History, Philo-sophy, Sociology, and Nature of Sci-ence

The National Association for Research in ScienceTeaching is holding its annual conference in Van-couver, BC, 27-30, March 2022.

For 20 years ormore, Strand 13 of theNARST con-ference has been devoted to papers and sympo-sia relating to ‘History, Philosophy, Sociology, andNature of Science’. Relevant papers are encour-aged, and need be submitted by August 15 HERE.

Strand Coordinators

Alison Cullinane, Department of Education, Uni-versity of Oxford. Her research interests includeteacher education, nature of science, practical sci-ence and assessment. She is in year two of a two-year post as Strand 13 co-ordinator for the narstconference. She has a BSc.ED, an MSc and a PhDin Science Education all from the University ofLimerick, Ireland. She is also currently involvedin the Horizon 2020 project, fedora. This isa European project that is addressing the futureneeds of science education.

Gunkut Mesci, Department of Mathematics and

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Science Education, Giresun University, Turkey.He has a PhD (2016), and an MS (2012) in Sci-ence Education both from the Western MichiganUniversity. He was a Visiting Scholar in the De-partment of Mathematics and Science Educationat the University of Georgia, 2019 - 2020.

He has taught a number of science educationcourses across different institutions in the U.S andTurkey. He is in the first year of a two-year post asStrand 13 coordinator.

Forum on the History of Physics,2021 Essay Contest

The Forum on the History of Physics (fhp) of theAmerican Physical Society is proud to announcethe 2021 History of Physics Essay Contest.

The contest is designed to promote interest in thehistory of physics among those not, or not yet,professionally engaged in the subject. Entries canaddress the work of individual physicists, teams ofphysicists, physics discoveries, or other appropri-ate topics. Entries should not exceed 2,500 words,including notes and references. Entries should beboth scholarly and generally accessible to scient-ists and historians.

The contest is intended for undergraduate andgraduate students but is open to anyone withouta Ph.D. in either physics or history. Entries withmultiple authors will not be accepted. Entries willbe judged on originality, clarity, and potential tocontribute to the field. Previously published work,or excerpts thereof, will not be accepted. The win-ning essay will be published as a Back Page inaps News and its author will receive a cash awardof $1,000, plus support for travel to an aps annual

meeting to deliver a talk based on the essay. Thejudges may also designate one or more runners-up, with a cash award of $500 each.

Entries will be judged by members of the fhp Ex-ecutive Committee and are due by September 1,2021. They should be submitted, as Word docu-ments or pdfs, by emailing fhp@aps.org with “Es-say Contest” in the subject line. Entrants shouldsupply their names, institutional affiliations (ifany), mail and email addresses, and phone num-bers. Winners will be announced by October 1,2021.

The Forum on the History and Philosophy ofPhysics, established in 1980, brings together phys-icists, historians, and other members of aps withan interest in the history of physics and its im-pact on culture, education, and physics researchitself. The Forum issues a semiannual News-letter and organises and sponsors sessions at theMarch Meeting and April Meeting.

British Society for the History ofScience, Summer Conference

The British Society for the History of Science(bshs) is delighted to publish the full schedule forits online summer conference, running next weekfrom 13th to 15th July. Please visit the conferencewebsite to discover the many panels, papers, dis-cussions and social events that comprise this year’sevent.   Last year saw 1500 people from aroundthe world attending our festival, and we lookforward to welcoming many scholars and inter-ested parties again next week.  There is no regis-tration process and every event is free to attend,but you will need to sign up to access each ses-sion on the website.  If you miss an event, you will

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be able to catch it on demand later (provided par-ticipants have agreed to recording) via the samelink. Questions about the conference may be dir-ected to conferences@bshs.org.uk.   If you en-joy the conference, the bshs warmly invites youto become a member, to support our continu-ing work in supporting research, grants, outreach,prizes, conferences and more.  Rates start at just£20/year.

Professor Charlotte SleighPresident, British Society for the History of Sci-ence

First Meeting on History and Philo-sophy of Physics Education inSouthern Brazil

The First Meeting on History and Philosophy ofPhysics Education in Southern Brazil ran fromMay 26th through May 28th, organised by the fol-lowing professors from universities in SouthernBrazil: Cleci da Rosa (University of Passo Fundo),Nathan Lima (Federal University of Rio Grandedo Sul), João Harres (Pontifical Catholic Univer-sity of Rio Grande do Sul), Marcia Saito (FederalInstitute of Paraná) and Marinês Cordeiro (Fed-eral University of Santa Catarina).

The meeting featured speeches, roundtables, andwork presentations by undergraduate and gradu-ate students. The meeting attracted 133 par-ticipants, and 48 works were presented. Thespeeches were given by Ricardo Karam (Univer-sity of Copenhagen), Olival Freire (Federal Uni-versity of Bahia), Andreia Guerra (cefet-rj andPresident of ihpst), Agustín Adúriz-Bravo (Uni-versity of Buenos Aires), Ivã Gurgel (University ofSão Paulo) and Eduardo Barra (Federal University

of Paraná). The speeches and roundtables wereheld in Portuguese and can be watched here.

The meeting’s website is available here.

Transformational hps Network

A new international network for historians andphilosophers of science called ‘Transformationalhps’ has been formed.

Transformational hps exists to support and pro-mote research at three specific intersections withthe History and Philosophy of Science:

• research queering hps

• research decolonising or making global viewsof hps

• research integrating disability studies and hps

The range of possible activities which the networkintends to participate in is quite extensive, but isprimarily dedicated to making a larger numberof researchers and students familiar with the pos-sibilities for historiographical and philosophicaldevelopment in these areas. A visitor to the sitewill find some initial resources supplied by themembers, including lists of their relevant public-ations and topical reading lists. These resourceswill grow over time.

Some university departments and scholarly soci-eties have started to increase the representation

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of and support available to students and research-ers belonging to marginalised groups, includingpeople of colour, queer people, disabled people,and trans people. There are also some existing in-ternational organisations and groups working tosuch ends. For example, Minorities and Philo-sophy aims to generally secure the position ofscholars from minority groups in philosophy, andin the history of science, Science Beyond the Westis a focal point for those interested in globalisingand/or decolonising the history of science. Trans-formational hps is intended to tie together suchefforts, across our three strands of interest, so thatthey might rise together.

Further details about themembership, and how tobecome a member can be found on the networkwebsite:

http://www.transformationalhps.org/.

To contact the network please write to any of theexisting members listed on the above website.

University of Pittsburgh Centre forPhilosophy of Science

Summer Program 5 (psp5)Beginning July 12th!Meet the class of 2021 and participating faculty:https://www.centerphilsci.pitt.edu/psp5-2/

visitors2021-22 Senior Visiting Fellow:  Heather Douglas2021-22 Postdoctoral Fellows:  Ravit Dotan andAydin MohseniFall 2021 Visiting Fellows:  Brian McLoone, Mat-thew Parker, Hyundeuk Cheon, Anthony Beavers,and Darrell Rowbottom

Philosophy of Medicine

The mission of Philosophy of Medicine is to serveas the flagship journal for the field by advan-cing research in philosophy of medicine, by enga-gingwidelywithmedicine, health sciences and thepublic, and by providing open-access content forall.Website: https://philmed.pitt.edu/philmed

Check out the latest publications:“Randomized Controlled Trials in Medical AI:A Methodological Critique” http://philmed.pitt.edu/philmed/article/view/27

“The Trade-off between Impartiality and Freedomin the 21st Century Cures Act”http://philmed.pitt.edu/philmed/issue/view/3

Sponsorship for the journal is provided by theCenter for Philosophy of Science.

View Centre Talks on YoutubeIf youwant to watch one of our talks from this pastyear, please visit our YouTube channel here.

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In addition, you can get to know our fellows in our5-Minute Fellows videos here.

Center for Philosophy of ScienceUniversity of PittsburghPittsburgh, PA USAEdouard Machery, DirectorInquiries: pittcntr@pitt.eduWebsite: https://www.centerphilsci.pitt.edu

The Usefulness of Popper: A Scient-ist’s Response toProfessorCharlotteSleigh

Bradley E. Alger, Professor Emeritus, Universityof Maryland School of Medicine

Bradley Alger ran a neuroscience research labor-atory and taught graduate and medical students atthe University of Maryland School of Medicine forover 35 years. He and his colleagues made funda-mental discoveries in the neurophysiology of themammalian brain, publishing over 100 research pa-pers with a major focus on the regulation of inhib-itory systems by natural processes, including endo-genous cannabinoids, “the brain’s own marijuana.”He retired from active research in 2014.

Alger was educated at the University of Califor-nia, Berkley and Harvard University and did hispostdoctoral work with Roger A. Nicoll, at the Uni-versity of California, San Francisco. His book, De-fense of the ScientificHypothesis: FromReproducibil-ity Crisis to Big Data, was published by Oxford Uni-versity Press in 2019.

His YouTube series of short videos on topics fromthe book can be found here.

Introduction

In “The Abuses of Popper,” (Aeon, February, 2021;hps&st, April 2021) historian Charlotte Sleighcomprehensively dismantles the philosophy ofKarl Popper. She sees Popper’s foundationalprinciple of “falsification” as a relic of a long-discredited philosophy; less than worthless, a netnegative within philosophy of science, the sci-entific community, and in politics.

As a scientist and a Popperian, I write in responseto Professor Sleigh. I argue that Sleigh’s premiseis flawed and hence much of her argument is mis-guided. I also go over some serious negative con-sequences that would follow if science abandonedPopper’s pragmatic philosophy.

Her argument has four stages: first, the premise:long ago, Popper’s principle of falsification was“quickly demolished by philosophers”. This cre-ates a mystery: how to understand its lasting pop-ularity among scientists? Second, the “solution” ofthe mystery: a small cohort of influential scient-

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ists and economists made anxious by unfavour-able perceptions of their fields, craved public andprofessional respect. Popperianism was ideallysuited to image rehabilitation, and they embracedthe man and his program. Third, linkage of sci-entific and ethical concerns: themen in the cohortidentified scientific practice in general with Pop-perian procedures. Thus, Sleigh infers, if sciencegoes wrong, Popper is wrong: ‘falsification offersmoral non-accountability to its adherents’. Andscience goes wrong when it associates with eugen-ics, nuclear weapons, and especially, the collectionof doctrines called neoliberalism. Hence, Popperis guilty of providing an intellectual smokescreenfor these undesirable moral doctrines. Fourth andfinally, Sleigh pinpoints falsification as the Pop-perian doctrine that is responsible for maimingthe public’s ability to understand crucial societaldebates related to, e.g., social inequality, poverty,the abuse of labor, and the dangers of tobaccosmoking and global climate change. These are sinsfor which Popperians must answer.

Professor Sleigh implies that bad societal out-comes inevitably result from Popper’s scientificmethodology. However, defending his scientificphilosophy, as I will do, does not imply defence ofthe social and political movements, which I can’tcomment on. I will show that in her zeal to con-demn neoliberalism, she condemns Popper’s use-ful approach for conducting science. This skewsher account and undermines the very causes sheis most passionate about.

As everyone may not be familiar with Popper’sthought, I’ll briefly review two key concepts. Thefirst is the scientific hypothesis (not the statisticalone, which is an entirely different thing; “hypo-thesis,” as used here, always means “scientific hy-pothesis”). The second is fallibilism. “Fallibil-ism tells us that there is no conclusive justifica-

tion and no rational certainty for any of our beliefsor theses” (The Internet Encyclopedia of Philo-sophy).

A hypothesis is a proposed explanation for someaspect of nature (I won’t distinguish among hypo-theses, theories, and laws as they share many prop-erties). The fundamental goal of science is to un-derstand nature, and hypotheses are key to achiev-ing it. A hypothesis is proposed as a true accountof why things are the way they are. It must also betestable and falsifiable, i.e., there must be, in prin-ciple, at least one experiment or observation thatwould, if the results came out a certain way, implythat the hypothesis is false.

What about fallibilism? Probably all scientists andmost philosophers are fallibilists. They under-stand that there is residual doubt about any ex-planation for an empirical phenomenon at somelevel of analysis. We can’t be 100% certain thatany scientific hypothesis is correct in every detail.Even cursory reflection on themany historical sci-entific “facts” that eventually turned out to be falseconveys the fallibilistic world view. Sleigh appearsto dismiss fallibilism but doesn’t engage directlywith it and says little about how science works.

Popperian scientific methodology – some ba-sics

Anyone who accepts fallibilism and believes thatscience is intent on discovering truths about theworld must say how science can make progressif everything it learns is uncertain to some de-gree. According to Sleigh, the Popperians’ view ofscience “doesn’t presume to provide the final an-swer to any question, but contents itself with try-ing to disprove things. Science, so the Popperi-ans claim, is an implacablemachine for destroying

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falsehoods.”

The first and last parts of this claim (no “finalanswers” and “destroying falsehoods”) are accur-ate, but the middle—“contents itself with trying todisprove things”—is flagrantly misleading. Whatdoes it mean, exactly? That Popperians believethat disproof is all there is to science? That Pop-perian science is “content” with a collection offalsified hypotheses? Simply incorrect.

The Popperian approach is simple: if empiricalresults and a complex theoretical system, includ-ing our scientific hypothesis, contradict one an-other, something must be wrong, and it is thescientist’s duty to locate the error; if everythingremains consistent, then we could be right, butwe can never know. Ordinarily, scientists de-duce and empirically test predictions from a hy-pothesis. Disagreement between predicted andobserved results suggests the hypothesis is false,whereas agreement between them means the hy-pothesis could be correct. This is progress and isthe essence of his falsification strategy. Popperi-ans are vitally interested in getting to the truthabout nature, they want to explain and understandit and will not be content with anything less. Theyaccept that the best that basic scientists can do isto avoid believing in falsehoods. But their processproduces much more than destroyed falsehoods.

Recall that a hypothesis is proposed as a true ex-planation. A tested-and-not-falsified hypothesisthen is, by supposition, true – as far as we know,and it remains a viable avenue for exploration andinquiry– and we use it to make further discover-ies. Moreover, when action is called for (e.g., wemust build a bridge), Popper recommends basingour actions on the most severely tested-and-not-falsified (he calls them corroborated) hypothesesthat we have. There is a distinction between the

ideal goal of ultimate truths about nature, and thefunctional goal of guiding real-world actions. Ba-sic science seeks ultimate truths; applied sciencesettles for the best hypotheses available—and weare to understand ‘best’ as ‘surviving our most rig-orous attempts to show it is false’. Thus, falsifica-tion, the acid test of all hypotheses, has both the-oretical and practical applications.

Of course, science is not only about generatingor testing formal hypotheses. Scientists have al-ways gathered information and made inferenceswithout hypotheses and Popper saw these activ-ities as normal aspects of science. Psychologicalor cognitive processes, such as induction or gen-eralisation, were outside his interests. And herecognised that the scientific community collect-ively judges scientific claims. None of these fea-tures contradicts or supersedes his thinking. Onlywhen observations need explanations, when thequestion, “why?” must be answered, does thefalsification program kick in.

Plainly, there are major differences between thegoals of Popperian hypothesis-testing and itsmethods (determinedly filtering out falsehood).Failure to recognise this is a mistake. Science ispossible though “proof ” is impossible. It is thefantasy of attaining certainty that must be aban-doned.

Was Popper vanquished by “philosophy?”

When Professor Sleigh says that philosophers de-molished Popper’s falsification program, she al-ludes to the argument advanced by Pierre Duhemand W.V.O. Quine (cf. Harding, ed.). The gist ofthe Duhem-Quine Thesis (sometimes called “hol-ism”) is that all hypotheses depend on other auxil-iary hypotheses, which in turn depend on others,

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etc. As each hypothesis is entangled in a web ofother hypotheses, we cannot test any one of themin isolation, let alone falsify it. Here’s an example:a biologist who uses a microscope to test her bio-logical hypothesis about a tiny organism impli-citly accepts all hypotheses that make up the sci-ence of optics. These are “auxiliary” hypotheses.If an auxiliary hypothesis about how light inter-acted with her biological material were incorrect,then she couldmisinterpretwhat the resultsmeantfor her biological hypothesis. This very argumentwas made when Galileo first reported observingthemoons of Jupiter – skeptics said theywere arte-facts of the strange new device, the telescope, thathe used. In fact, any observation might have ex-planations not involving the original hypothesis.This means, so the argument goes, that Popperianfalsification cannot work.

But the conclusion is false. First, practically speak-ing, it must be possible for scientists to falsify sci-entific hypotheses in principle since scientists havealready tested and falsified countless hypotheses inpractice: Galileo’s observations of Jupiter’s moonsfalsified major facets of Aristotelian cosmology,the famous Michelson-Morley experiment effect-ively falsified the hypothesis that light traveledthrough a luminiferous ether, tests of Einstein’stheory of General Relativity falsifiedNewton’s the-ory of gravity, etc. And these are just a few his-torically noteworthy cases. Every day, scientistsin laboratories around the world test and falsifymore mundane hypotheses. How do they do thatgiven Duhem’s insight (which is undisputed, evenby Popper)?

Philosophers re-evaluate; falsification actuallycan work

Popper was a Duhemian holist. In fact, the firsttime Popper sets out his criterion for demarcationin The Logic of Scientific Discovery, he says, ‘…itmust be possible for an empirical scientific systemto be refuted by experience’ (Popper 1959, p. 18,emphasis added).

Even critical philosophers came to agree that theprinciple of falsification has merit. By 1969 Quinehad modified his earlier opinion that the Duhem-Quine thesis implied that “the unit of empiricalsignificance is the whole of science” and arrived atthe same position as Popper: a sufficiently tight-knit system of theoretical statements on its owncan contract experience. While he still agreedwith Duhem that hypotheses were inextricablyembedded in webs, he now proclaimed that “the-ories” were valid units of empirical significancethat could be tested. As Quine (1991, 286) said,focusing on the “whole of science”,

This [statement] is true enough in a legalistic sortof way, but it diverts attention from what is more tothe point: the varying degrees of proximity to ob-servation…I have invoked not the whole of sciencebut chunks of it, clusters of sentences just inclusiveenough to have critical semantic mass. But this Imean a cluster sufficient to imply an observable ef-fect of an observable experimental condition’.

A theory, one form of “cluster of sentences”, is alsoa web of hypotheses, but the component hypo-theses are taken together as a single conceptual en-tity. A theory makes predictions about the world,and we can test it by seeing if its predictions workout. Thus, says Quine, while no single compon-ent hypothesis can be tested in isolation, a theorycan be tested and falsified wholesale (his rationale

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is somewhat involved and not strictly germane).Naturally, if the theory is falsified, we won’t knowwhich of its component hypotheses to blame, asboth Quine and Popper readily recognised. Nev-ertheless, Quine’s acknowledgement that falsific-ation is possible is a significant development thatProfessor Sleigh’s account omits.

Next, note that Quine’s revised view presupposesa sharp distinction between hypotheses and the-ories. Yet, the Duhem-Quine Thesis blurred thedistinction. The Thesis states that a hypothesis isnot a simple, unitary statement but a web of hypo-theses; a central hypothesis plus auxiliary hypo-theses. Thus the hypothesis, as a complex entitymakes predictions and can be tested and poten-tially falsified if its predictions fail. As always, ifthe hypothesis is falsified, we won’t know whetherthe central hypothesis or an auxiliary hypothesis isto blame. A hypothesis, in other words, is equival-ent to a “mini-theory.” The important point is thatre-interpretation of hypothesis as suggested by theDuhem-Quine Thesis shows how to understandPopperian hypothesis-testing in a rational way.

Howsciencedealswith theproblemscausedbythe Duhem-Quine Thesis

Although few scientists know about the Duhem-Quine Thesis, an appreciation for the difficulties itcreates is baked into their bones. Their strategiesfor coping with it include:

1. “calibration experiments” to ensure that theirinstruments do what they’re supposed to (Ga-lileo’s telescope worked fine when trained onfamiliar earthbound objects),

2. “control experiments” where experimentalvariables that could provide alternative explan-

ations are systematically manipulated while theone of interest is held constant;

3. multiple kinds of experiments to test separatepredictions of a given hypothesis – different in-struments, chemicals, subjects, etc. Finally,

4. replication; the strength of a finding is ampli-fied when it is independently confirmed in sev-eral laboratories.

Each technique enmeshes the central hypothesisin a different web of hypotheses. Because thecentral hypothesis alone remains constant, exper-imental conclusions that converge across varyingconditions are probably attributable to it, ratherthan to any auxiliary hypothesis. Consistencyof results justifies placing greater confidence in acentral hypothesis, whether for practical or theor-etical purposes.

In summary, hypothesis-testing by falsificationis more complex and nuanced than we mightnaïvely have expected. The principle of falsifica-tion has not been demolished and remains a use-ful tool. Scientists understand that alternative ex-planations are conceivable and that “falsificationis never final.” Science, in Popper’s world view,is a process; not a vault loaded with incontestablefacts.

Are some hypotheses off-limits?

Professor Sleigh claims that the existence of “pro-tected” hypotheses that are supposedly off-limitsto questioning is another flaw in Popper’s pro-gram. But there are no such hypotheses. Popper’s“supreme” methodological rule (Popper, 1959,33) is that no genuine scientific statement can beprotected against falsification. Scientists do fre-quently find it convenient to assume, temporar-

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ily, that a well-corroborated hypothesis is true tofoster progress in both the laboratory and the realworld. Nonetheless, all hypotheses are open tochallenge.

Indeed, testing and rejecting firmly establishedhypotheses can lead to extraordinary advancesand career rewards. Here’s an example fromneuroscience. Since the late 1800’s, an ele-mental hypothesis has been that the nerve cell(neuron) alone carries out the brain’s information-processing activity. All the textbooks said so. Wenow know this hypothesis is false. It appears thatglia cells, non-neuronal cells, are vital partners inbrain signalling. The neuron hypothesis was agood-enough approximation to allow many dis-coveries that did not hinge on recognising glialcell involvement to be made. Like Newton’s law ofgravity, the old idea continued to be useful evenas its deeper inadequacies emerged. No matterhow useful, however, the neuron hypothesis wasdoomed as newmethods and instruments permit-ted it to be tested in ever finer ways. Popper wouldhave applauded.

Scientists and their support for Popper

Sleigh associates Popper and some of his admirerswith reactionary intellectual and political move-ments. I cannot critique her account (Shear-mur, hps&st, May 2021, rebuts her charge ofPopper’s neoliberalism) beyond noting that shedoesn’t make a compelling case that the associ-ation between Popperianism and the movementsis necessary or causal, i.e., that Popper’s ideasmust lead to evil societal outcomes. Her char-acterisation of the scientists who supported Pop-per is certainly misleading. Despite its includ-ing John Eccles and Peter Medawar (both NobelPrize winners), and Herman Bondi, Sleigh sums

up the group as primarily scientists whose work“could least easily be potted in an attempted labor-atory disproof,” and therefore “turned to Popperfor vindication.” In fact, Medawar’s Prize wasfor work that critically tested, and corroborated,an important hypothesis in immunology. Simil-arly, Eccles was well known for having, early-on,leaned toward the electrical (“spark”) hypothesisof neuronal communication, against the compet-ing, chemical (“soup”) hypothesis. When refine-ment of experimental techniques allowed, he dir-ectly tested his electrical hypothesis and decis-ively showed that it was false. He instantly aban-doned the idea, joined the “soup boys,” and didthe research on neuronal signalling that led tohis Prize. Bondi (knighted for his work) was amathematician and theoretical physicist who ad-vanced several testable cosmological hypotheses(themost famous of which, the Steady StateModelof the universe, was falsified by evidence that led tothe Big Bang Theory). Perhaps because ProfessorSleigh’s premise is that Popper’s principle of falsi-fication is worthless, she doesn’t raise the possib-ility that these scientists and others found it genu-inely useful and advocated Popper’s program forthat reason.

Does the principle of falsifiability have amoraldimension?

Amajor theme in Sleigh’s essay is that science (andtechnology) and ethics are intertwined. Scient-ists are responsible for the societal impact of theirwork. In particular, they are culpable not only ifthey actively support immoral causes, but also iftheir work is used by others who do. She cites Na-omi Oreskes’s and Eric Conway’s book, Merchantsof Doubt, that documents the craven behaviourof a few scientific luminaries who carried water

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for the fossil-fuel industry, often grossly distortingPopper’s program in the process. This, she implies,proves its moral bankruptcy. I can’t excuse thesescientists’ behaviour, but I disagree that Popper isresponsible if his program is mis-applied for evilpurposes.

If scientists hide behind Popperian falsification todo evil, then they’re evil. But does adopting theprinciple automatically lead to evil deeds? Onthe contrary, staunch proponents of the anthro-pogenic hypothesis of global climate change citePopper too (Mercer, 2016); evidence that his ideasare neither evil nor intrinsically prone to fosteringevil.

Furthermore, rather than targeting Popper’s fallib-ilism or falsifiability per se, Sleigh is underscoringthe real dangers of simultaneously maintainingan unusually high degree of skepticism towardshighly-corroborated hypotheses and credulity to-wards repeatedly falsified hypotheses for specificpolitically motivated reasons, an inversion of theentire Popperian project.

Creativity in science

Sleigh scoffs at Popper’s view that scientists ar-rive at hypotheses through “conjecture” (guess-work), an act of creativity. To her, this was a trans-parent and shoddy attempt by scientists to piggy-back on the respect accorded to high culture –the humanities and the arts – at a time when thepublic increasingly feared science as a potentiallydangerous scourge. She evokes Stanley Kubrick’scomically demented and malevolent “Dr. Stran-gelove” as the archetypalmad scientist fromwhichthe academic scientists wanted to distance them-selves.

Even if Sleigh were right that science needed and

sought the image-polishing it got from publiclyassociating itself with Popper’s vision of scienceas a creative endeavour, that would not mean hisvision was wrong. Besides, “creativity” is a termthat often masks our ignorance of how our mindswork. It refers to amental or cognitive process thatwe don’t know much about. Popper (and RichardFeynman among others) acknowledges ignoranceof how scientists formulate hypotheses by callingit guesswork. It is hard to read anything sinisterinto this usage.

What would science be like in ProfessorSleigh’s world?

This is a tricky question. She disparages Popperand his program without offering specific sugges-tions for improvement. For example, she casts as-persions on the concept that all scientific facts aretested-and-not-falsified hypotheses. What is thealternative? That some facts are established bey-ond conceivable doubt? That confirmed truthsmake up the body of science? This insidious mis-conception contributes to public misunderstand-ing and mistrust of science, but she doesn’t refuteit.

What about the process of falsification? Should itbe entirely off-limits, as Sleigh seems to imply, oronly when mis-interpreted? In Why Trust Science,Naomi Oreskes vigorously rejects falsification asthe “one true scientific method,” while implicitlyacknowledging its influence in science. Oreskes’soverarching message is that consensus of opinionamong scientific experts who have no vested in-terest in the matters in question is the primarybasis for justified trust in science. She doesn’t denythat scientists take falsifying evidence into accountin arriving at consensus.

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Professor Sleigh implies that doing awaywith Pop-perian thinking will be an unalloyed plus for sci-ence and society. To the contrary, taking a wreck-ing ball to Popper’s scientific methodology wouldleave the public with a more inaccurate, less validpicture of science than it has. Greater public mis-information, mistrust, and skepticism about sci-ence may well lead to or exacerbate a range of so-cietal ills.

To achieve Professor Sleigh’s aims, it would seemmore sensible to foster a realistic public under-standing of science – its goals, methods, achieve-ments, andweaknesses. Informed citizens are bet-ter able to appreciate and support effective, so-cially sensitive, and desirable actions. Science isinherently complicated and educating the publicabout it is no trivial task. It is also extremely im-portant. Science will, after all, be done, whetherunder Popperian auspices or not.

Unanticipated negative consequences of Pro-fessor Sleigh’s Approach

Although Sleigh focuses on climate change den-iers’ co-optation of Popper for their own ends, asnoted, committed climate change believers alsocite Popper. They argue that the anthropogenicclimate change hypothesis is testable and has beencorroborated by severe tests. Thus, presently, ourbest hypothesis is that the climate crisis is real,man-made, and gravely serious. It therefore can,and should, be (provisionally) accepted as true.Popper would agree that we are fully justified intaking appropriate actions even if “all the data arenot in.” Doing awaywith Popperianismwould un-dercut these supporting arguments.

Moreover, it is climate change deniers who pushthe false notion of perfect, certain knowledge

when “all the data are in,” as the goal of science.This mis-representation is fundamental to theirarguments for delaying action to mitigate climatechange. Furthermore, when the hoped-for per-fect knowledge is not forthcoming, its absencefosters cynicism and distrust in the whole sci-entific enterprise. The deniers get away with thisin part because Popper’s critics don’t distinguishbetween Popperian goals – ultimate truth versuspractical guidance – and between these goals andthe method of falsification.

Sleigh reports that “anti-science skeptics seizeupon a single anomalous piece of data to claim tohave disproved the entire edifice of combined re-search…” Their claim is an absurd disfigurementof Popper’s thinking. A single piece of anomal-ous data is never sufficient to disprove an edifice ofresearch. Anti-science skeptics make such claimsbecause they are unaware of, or assume the publicis unaware of, the facts about Popper’s methodo-logy and it immense usefulness in everyday sci-ence.

In 1959, C.P. Snow presciently laid out the dangersthat arise when large portions of a society are ig-norant of the science and technology onwhich thesociety depends. In failing to make clear the dif-ferences between the aims of basic and applied sci-ence, in ridiculing and misrepresenting the prin-ciple and value of falsification, in appearing todeny the reality of fallibilism, Popper’s critics cre-ate a knowledge vacuum that true believers andunscrupulous scientists fill with dangerous non-sense that misleads many and betrays everyone.We can and must do better.

Bibliography

Harding, S.G., ed. (1976). Can Theories be

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Refuted: Essays on the Duhem-Quine Thesis.Netherlands: Springer. Vol. 81.

Mercer, D. (2018). Why Popper can’t resolvethe debate over global warming: Prob-lems with the uses of philosophy of sci-ence in the media and public framingof the science of global warming, PublicUnderstanding of Science. 27(2):139-152.doi:10.1177/0963662516645040

Oreskes, N., Conway, E. (2011) Merchants ofDoubt: How a Handful of Scientists Obscuredthe Truth on Issues from Tobacco Smoke to Cli-mate Change. New York: Bloomsbury

Oreskes, N. (2020) Why Trust Science? The Uni-versity Center for Human Values Series. Prin-ceton: Princeton University Press.

Popper, K.R. (1959). The Logic of Scientific Discov-ery. Trans. by K. Popper, Julius Freed, and LanFreed. References are to (Popper 2000, Lon-don: Routledge). London: Hutchinson & Co.

Quine, W.V.O. (1991). “Two Dogmas in Retro-spect”. Canadian Journal of Philosophy 21.3.

—— (1969). “Epistemology Naturalized” in Onto-logical Relativity and Other Essays. New York:Columbia University Press.

Snow, C.P. 1959. The Two Cultures and The Sci-entific Revolution. New York: Cambridge Uni-versity Press.

Invitation to Submit Opinion Piece

In order to make better educational use of thewide geographical and disciplinary reach of thishps&st newsletter, invitations are extended forreaders to contribute opinion or position pieces or

suggestions about any aspect of the past, presentor future of hps&st studies.

Contributions can be sent direct to MichaelMatthews or Nathan Oseroff-Spicer.

Ideally, they might be pieces that are already onthe web, in which case a few paragraphs introduc-tion, with link to web site can be sent, or else thepieces will be put on the web with a link given inthe newsletter.

They will be archived in the opinion folder at thehps&st web site: http://www.hpsst.com/.

PhD Theses in hps&st Domain

The hps&st newsletter is the ideal medium forpublicising and making known submitted andawarded doctoral theses in the hps&st domain.

The following details should be submitted to theeditor at m.matthews@unsw.edu.au:

• Candidate’s name and email

• Institution

• Supervisor

• Thesis title

• Abstract of 100-300 words

• Web link when theses are required to be sub-mitted for open search on web.

Recent hps&st Research Articles

Perspectives on Science (Volume 29, Issue 3, May-June 2021)

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Special Issue: Logic and Methodology in theEarly Modern PeriodGuest Editor: Elodie Cassan

Synthese (Volume 198, supplement issue 14, June2021) Special Issue: First Principles in ScienceIssue editors: Catherine Herfeld and MilenaIvanova

Ampatzidis, G., & Ergazaki, M. (2021). Can thehistory of the balance of nature-idea informthe design of narratives for highlighting gen-eral aspects of nature of science?. Reviewof Science, Mathematics and ICT Education,15(1), 77-88. doi:10.26220/rev.3574

Boniolo, G., Onaga, L. (2021) Seeing clearlythrough COVID-19: current and future ques-tions for the history and philosophy of the lifesciences. hpls, 43, 83. doi:10.1007/s40656-021-00434-2

Chacón-Díaz, L.B. (2021). A Textbook Analysisto Uncover the Hidden Contributors of Sci-ence and Mathematics. Sci & Educ, 1-19.doi:10.1007/s11191-021-00246-7 online first

Danne, N.M. (2021). A dialogue on the ethicsof science: Henri Poincaré and Pope Francis.Euro Jnl Phil Sci 11, 62. doi:10.1007/s13194-021-00385-2

de Felipe, Í.O. (2021). The Universality of Sci-ence and Traditional Chinese Medicine: APhilosophical Survey. Sci & Educ, 1-18.doi:10.1007/s11191-021-00249-4 online first

Hecht, E. (2021). The true story of Newtoniangravity. American Journal of Physics, 89, 683.doi:10.1119/10.0003535

Kaiser, M., Buklijas, T., Gluckman, P. (2021)Models and numbers: Representing the world

or imposing order? Perspectives on Science.doi:10.1162/posc_a_00373 Just Accepted

Larison, K.D. (2021). On Beyond Constructiv-ism: Using Intersubjective Approaches to Pro-mote Learning in the Science Classroom. Sci&Educ, 1-27. doi:10.1007/s11191-021-00237-8 online first

Lee, J. (2021). A missing piece inhigh school science education: Re-search ethics in the classroom. Inter-national Journal of Science Education.doi:10.1080/09500693.2021.1934602 onlinefirst

Marques, C.A., Machado, A.A.S.C. (2021). Anintegrated vision of the Green Chemistryevolution along 25 years. Found Chem.doi:10.1007/s10698-021-09396-6

Melogno, P. (2021). From Externalism toInternalism: The Historiographical De-velopment of Thomas Kuhn. Found Sci.doi:10.1007/s10699-021-09801-5 online first

Morris, A. M. A. (2021). “The joint labours of in-genious men”: John Smeaton’s Royal Societynetwork and the Eddystone Lighthouse. Cen-taurus, 1– 19. doi:10.1111/1600-0498.12398

Park, C., Hong, H. G. (2021). Educational Prac-tices in Sommerfeld School: A Case of Scient-ist Education from the View of Nature of Sci-ence. Sci & Educ, 1-19. doi:10.1007/s11191-021-00212-3 online first

Pence, C.H. (2021). W.F.R. Weldon changeshis mind. Euro Jnl Phil Sci 11, 61.doi:10.1007/s13194-021-00384-3 online first

Salta, K., Paschalidou, K., Tsetseri, M. et al.(2021). Shift From a Traditional to a Distance

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Learning Environment during the covid-19 Pandemic: University Students’ Engage-ment and Interactions. Sci & Educ, 1-30.doi:10.1007/s11191-021-00234-x online first

Stanley, M. (2021). No slaves to words: S. P.Thompson’s theory of history. Centaurus.doi:10.1111/1600-0498.12397 online first

Stein, H. (2021). Physics and Philosophy Meet:the Strange Case of Poincaré. Found Phys, 51,69. doi:10.1007/s10701-021-00460-x

Velilla-Jiménez, H.E. (2021). Credibility and evid-ence in the handling of SARS-CoV-2. hpls,43, 79. doi:10.1007/s40656-021-00433-3

Winrich, C., Garik, P. (2021). Integrating Historyof Science in In‐service Physics Teacher Edu-cation: Impact on Teachers’ Practice. Sci &Educ., 1-32. doi:10.1007/s11191-021-00219-wonline first

Travassos-Britto, B., Pardini, R., El-Hani, C. N., &Prado, P. I. (2021). Towards a pragmatic viewof theories in ecology. Oikos 130(6): 821-830doi:10.1111/oik.07314

Recent hps&st Related Books

Alexandrova, Anna (2021). A Philosophy for theScience of Well-Being. New York, NY: Oxford uni-versity Press. isbn: 978-0-197-59889-4 (New inPaperback)

“Well-being, happiness and quality of life are nowestablished objects of social and medical research.Does this science produce knowledge that is prop-erly aboutwell-being? What sort of well-being? Thedefinition and measurement of these objects reston assumptions that are partly normative, partlyempirical and partly pragmatic, producing a great

diversity of definitions depending on the projectand the discipline. This book, written from theperspective of philosophy of science, formulatesprinciples for the responsible production and in-terpretation of this diverse knowledge. Tradition-ally, philosophers’ goal has been a single concept ofwell-being and a single theory about what it con-sists in. But for science this goal is both unlikelyand unnecessary. Instead the promise and author-ity of the science depends on it focusing on the well-being of specific kinds of people in specific con-texts. Skeptical arguments notwithstanding, thiscontextual well-being can be measured in a validand credible way - but only if scientists broadentheir methods to make room for normative con-siderations and address publicly and inclusively thevalue-based conflicts that inevitably arise when ameasure of well-being is adopted. The science ofwell-being can be normative, empirical and object-ive all at once, provided that we line up values toscience and science to values.” (From the Publisher)

More information available here.

Ågren, J. Arvid (2021). The Gene’s-Eye View ofEvolution. New York, NY: Oxford UniversityPress. isbn: 978-0-198-86226-0

“To many evolutionary biologists, the central chal-lenge of their discipline is to explain adaptation,the appearance of design in the living world. Withthe theory of evolution by natural selection, CharlesDarwin elegantly showed how a purely mechanisticprocess can achieve this striking feature of nature.Since then, the way many biologists have thoughtabout evolution and natural selection is as a theoryabout individual organisms. Over a century later, asubtle but radical shift in perspective emerged withthe gene’s-eye view of evolution in which naturalselection was conceptualised as a struggle betweengenes for replication and transmission to the nextgeneration. This viewpoint culminated with the

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publication ofThe SelfishGene by RichardDawkins(Oxford University Press, 1976) and is now com-monly referred to as selfish gene thinking.

“The gene’s-eye view has subsequently played acentral role in evolutionary biology, although itcontinues to attract controversy. The central aimof this accessible book is to show how the gene’s-eye view differs from the traditional organismalaccount of evolution, trace its historical origins,clarify typical misunderstandings and, by usingexamples from contemporary experimental work,show why so many evolutionary biologists still con-sider it an indispensable heuristic. The book con-cludes by discussing how selfish gene thinking fitsinto ongoing debates in evolutionary biology, andwhat they tell us about the future of the gene’s-eyeview of evolution.

“The Gene’s-Eye View of Evolution is suitable forgraduate-level students taking courses in evolution-ary biology, behavioural ecology, and evolutionarygenetics, as well as professional researchers in thesefields. It will also appeal to a broader, interdisciplin-ary audience from the social sciences and human-ities including philosophers and historians of sci-ence.” (From the Publisher)

More information available here.

Caneva, Kenneth L. (2021). Helmholtz and theConservation of Energy: Contexts of Creation andReception. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press. isbn:978-0-262-04573-5

“In 1847, Herman Helmholtz, arguably the mostimportant German physicist of the nineteenth cen-tury, published his formulation of what becameknown as the conservation of energy—unarguablythe most important single development in physicsof that century, transforming what had been a con-glomeration of separate topics into a coherent fieldunified by the concept of energy. In Helmholtz and

the Conservation of Energy, Kenneth Caneva offersa detailed account of Helmholtz’s work on the sub-ject, the sources that he drew upon, the varying re-sponses to his work from scientists of the era, andthe impact on physics as a discipline.

“Caneva describes the set of abiding concerns thatprompted Helmholtz’s work, including his rejec-tion of the idea of a work-performing vital force,and investigates Helmholtz’s relationship to bothan older generation of physicists and an emergingcommunity of reformist physiologists. He ana-lyses Helmholtz’s indebtedness to Johannes Müllerand Justus Liebig and discusses Helmholtz’s tenseand ambivalent relationship to the work of RobertMayer, who had earlier proposed the uncreatability,indestructibility, and transformability of “force.”Caneva examines Helmholtz’s continued engage-ment with the subject, his role in the acceptanceof the conservation of energy as the central prin-ciple of physics, and the eventual incorporation ofthe principle in textbooks as established science.”(From the Publisher)

More information available here.

Carrier, M., Mertens, R., & Reinhardt, C.(2021). Narratives and Comparisons Adversar-ies or Allies in Understanding Science? Biele-feld: Bielefeld University Press, transcript.doi:10.14361/9783839454152 [Open Access]

“As a powerful tool in the production of knowledge,comparing plays a crucial part in the sciences andthe humanities. This volume explores the relation-ship between comparing and narrating in epistemicpractices and clarifies the ways in which narrativesenable or impede practices of comparing. It takesinto account related activities, such as measuringand classifying, modelling, establishing norms andcategories, as well as organising and popularisingknowledge, to analyse the ambivalent relationship

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between narratives, scientific explanation, and un-derstanding. The contributions bring out the epi-stemic role of narratives, and elucidate how narrat-ives are connected to comparisons and scientific ex-planations.” (From the Publisher)

More information is availabledoi:10.14361/9783839454152/html

Cavicchi, Elizabeth & Heering, Peter (Eds.)(2021). Historical Scientific Instruments in Con-temporary Education (Scientific Instruments andCollections, Volume: 9). Leiden: Brill.isbn: 978-9-004-49967-6

“These essays draw on recent and versatile workby museum staff, science educators, and teachers,showing what can be done with historical scientificinstruments or replicas. Varied audiences - withmembers just like you - can be made aware ofexciting aspects of history, observation, problem-solving, restoration, and scientific understanding,by the projects outlined here by professional prac-titioners. These interdisciplinary case studies, ran-ging from the cinematic to the hands-on, show howinspiration concerning science and the past can giveintellectual pleasure as well as authentic learningto new participants, who might include people likeyou: students, teachers, curators, and the interestedand engaged public.

“Contributors are Dominique Bernard, PaoloBrenni, Roland Carchon, Elizabeth Cavicchi,Stéphane Fischer, Peter Heering, J.W. Huisman,Françoise Khantine-Langlois, Alistair M. Kwan,Janet Laidla, Pierre Lauginie, Panagiotis Lazos,Pietro Milici, Flora Paparou, Frédérique Plantevin,Julie Priser, Alfonso San-Miguel, Danny Segers,Constantine (Kostas) Skordoulis, Trienke M. vander Spek, Constantina Stefanidou, and GiorgioStrano.” (From the Publisher)

More information available here.

Clayton, Aubrey (2021). Bernoulli’s Fallacy: Stat-istical Illogic and the Crisis ofModern Science. NewYork, NY: Columbia University Press.isbn: 978-0-231-19994-0

“There is a logical flaw in the statistical methodsused across experimental science. This fault is nota minor academic quibble: it underlies a reprodu-cibility crisis now threatening entire disciplines. Inan increasingly statistics-reliant society, this samedeeply rooted error shapes decisions in medicine,law, and public policy with profound consequences.The foundation of the problem is a misunderstand-ing of probability and its role in making inferencesfrom observations.

“Aubrey Clayton traces the history of how statist-ics went astray, beginning with the groundbreak-ingwork of the seventeenth-centurymathematicianJacob Bernoulli and winding through gambling,astronomy, and genetics. Clayton recounts thefeuds among rival schools of statistics, exploringthe surprisingly human problems that gave rise tothe discipline and the all-too-human shortcom-ings that derailed it. He highlights how influen-tial nineteenth- and twentieth-century figures de-veloped a statistical methodology they claimed waspurely objective in order to silence critics of theirpolitical agendas, including eugenics.

“Clayton provides a clear account of the math-ematics and logic of probability, conveying com-plex concepts accessibly for readers interested inthe statistical methods that frame our understand-ing of the world. He contends that we need totake a Bayesian approach—that is, to incorporateprior knowledge when reasoning with incompleteinformation—in order to resolve the crisis. Rangingacross math, philosophy, and culture, Bernoulli’sFallacy explains why something has gone wrongwith how we use data—and how to fix it.” (Fromthe Publisher)

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More information available here.

Domski, Mary (2021). Newton’s Third Rule andthe Experimental Argument for Universal Gravity.Abingdon: Routledge. isbn: 978-1-032-02036-5

“This book provides a reading of Newton’s ar-gument for universal gravity that is focused onthe evidence-based, ”experimental” reasoning thatNewton associates with his program of experi-mental philosophy. It highlights the richness andcomplexity of the Principia and also draws import-ant lessons about how to situate Newton in his nat-ural philosophical context.

“The book has two primary objectives. First, it de-fends a novel interpretation of the third of Newton’sfour Rules for the Study of Natural Philosophy—what the author terms the Two-Set Reading of Rule3. Second, it argues that this novel interpreta-tion of Rule 3 sheds additional light on the differ-ences between Newton’s experimental philosophyand Descartes’s ”hypothetical philosophy,” and thatit also illuminates how the practice of experimentalphilosophy allowed Newton to make a universalforce of gravity the centerpiece of his explanationof the system of the world.

“Newton’s Third Rule and the Experimental Argu-ment for Universal Gravity will be of interest to re-searchers and advanced students working on New-ton’s natural philosophy, early modern philosophy,and the history of science.” (From the Publisher)

More information available here.

Grunwald, Armin (2021). Living Technology:Philosophy and Ethics at the Crossroads BetweenLife and Technology. Abingdon: Routledge.isbn: 978-9-814-87770-1

“The boundaries between inanimate technologyand the realm of the living become increasingly

blurred. Deeper and deeper technological interven-tions into living organisms are possible, coveringthe entire spectrum of life from bacteria to humans.Simultaneously, digitalisation and artificial intelli-gence (AI) enable increasingly autonomous techno-logies. Inanimate technologies such as robots be-gin to show characteristics of life. Contested issuespop up, such as the dignity of life, the enhancementof animals for human purposes, the creation of de-signer babies, and the granting of robot rights.

“The book addresses the understanding of the on-going dissolution of the life/technology borders,the provision of ethical guidance for navigating re-search and innovation responsibly, and the philo-sophical reflection on the meaning of the currentshifts. It offers three specific perspectives for under-standing the challenges and providing orientation.First, the dissolution of the boundaries betweentechnology and life is analysed and reflected fromboth sides. Second, the search for orientation isnot restricted to ethics but also involves philosophyof technology and of nature, as well as anthropo-logy. Finally, instead of restricting the analysisto specific areas of life, e.g., bacteria or animals,the book presents a comprehensive look at the en-tire spectrumof living organisms—bacteria and vir-uses, plants, animals and humans—and robots aspossible early forms of emerging technical life.”

More information available here.

Heath, Joseph (2021). Philosophical Foundationsof Climate Change Policy. New York, NY: OxfordUniversity Press. isbn: 9780-1-975-6798-2

“There is widespread agreement that somethingmust be done to combat anthropogenic climatechange. And yet what is the extent of our oblig-ations? It would clearly be unjust for us to allowglobal warming to reach dangerous levels. But whatis the nature of this injustice? Providing a plaus-ible philosophical specification of the wrongness of

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our present inaction has proven surprisingly diffi-cult. Much of this is due to the temporal structureof the problem, or the fact that there is such a signi-ficant delay between our actions and the effects thatthey produce. Many normative theories that soundplausible when applied to contemporaneous prob-lems generate surprising or perverse results whenapplied to problems that extend over long periodsof time, involving effects on individuals who havenot yet been born. So while states have a range ofsensible climate change policies at their disposal,the philosophical foundations of these policies re-mains indeterminate.

“By far the most influential philosophical positionhas been the variant of utilitarianism most pop-ular among economists, which maintains that wehave an obligation to maximise the well-being of allpeople, from now until the end of time. Climatechange represents an obvious failure of maximisa-tion. Many environmental philosophers, however,find this argument unpersuasive, because it also im-plies that we have an obligation to maximise eco-nomic growth. Yet their attempts to provide altern-ative foundations for policy have proven unpersuas-ive. Joseph Heath presents an approach to think-ing about climate change policy grounded in socialcontract theory, which focuses on the fairness of ex-isting institutions, not the welfare of future genera-tions, in order to generate a set of plausible policyprescriptions.” (From the Publisher)

More information available here.

Horwitz, Allan V. (2021). dsm: A History of Psy-chiatry’s Bible. Baltimore, MD: Johns HopkinsUniversity Press. isbn: 978-1-421-44069-9

“Over the past seventy years, the Diagnostic andStatistical Manual of Mental Disorders, or dsm, hasevolved from a virtually unknown and little-usedpamphlet to an imposing and comprehensive com-pendium of mental disorder. Its nearly 300 con-

ditions have become the touchstones for the dia-gnoses that patients receive, students are taught, re-searchers study, insurers reimburse, and drug com-panies promote. Although the manual is portrayedas an authoritative corpus of psychiatric knowledge,it is a product of intense political conflicts, dissen-sion, and factionalism. The manual results fromstruggles among psychiatric researchers and clini-cians, different mental health professions, and avariety of patient, familial, feminist, gay, and vet-erans’ interest groups. The DSM is fundamentallya social document that both reflects and shapes theprofessional, economic, and cultural forces associ-ated with its use.

“In dsm, Allan V. Horwitz examines how themanual, known colloquially as ”psychiatry’s bible,”has been at the centre of thinking about mentalhealth in the United States since its original public-ation in 1952. The first book to examine its entirehistory, this volume draws on both archival sourcesand the literature on modern psychiatry to showhow the history of the dsm is more a story of thegrowing social importance of psychiatric diagnosesthan of increasing knowledge about the nature ofmental disorder. Despite attempts to replace it,Horwitz argues that the dsm persists because itsdiagnostic entities are closely intertwined with toomany interests that benefit from them.

“This comprehensive treatment should appeal tonot only specialists but also anyone “who is in-terested in how diagnoses of mental illness haveevolved over the past seven decades—from un-wanted and often imposed labels to resources thatlead to valued mental health treatments and socialservices.” (From the Publisher)

More information available here.

Inuzuka, Takaaki (2021). Alexander Williamson:A Victorian chemist and the making of modern Ja-pan. (Haruko Laurie, Tran.) London: UCL Press.isbn: 978-1-787-35931-4

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“Alexander Williamson was professor of chemistryat ucl (1849–87) and a leading scientist of his time.He taught and cared for visiting Japanese students,thereby assisting them with their goal of modern-ising Japan. This short, accessible biography ex-plores his contribution to nineteenth-century sci-ence as well as his lasting impact on Japanese so-ciety.

“In 1863 five students from the Chōshū clan, witha desperate desire to learn from the West, madetheir way to England. They were put in the careof Williamson and his wife. Their mission was tolearn about cutting-edge Western technology, sci-ence, economics and politics. When they returnedhome they rapidly became leading figures in Japan-ese life at a particularly turbulent time, one of themserving as the country’s first prime minister. Sub-sequently many other Japanese students followed intheir footsteps and studied at ucl.

“The remarkable story of the part Williamson anducl played in the modernisation of Japan is littleknown today. This biography will promote a deeperunderstanding of Williamson’s scientific innova-tions and his legacy for Anglo-Japanese relations.An Afterword briefly outlines the extraordinary ca-reers of the pioneering students after they left Bri-tain.” (From the Publisher)

More information available here.

Kampourakis, K. (2021). Understanding Genes(Understanding Life). Cambridge: CambridgeUniversity Press. isbn: 978-1-108-88415-0

“What are genes? What do genes do? These ques-tions are not simple and straightforward to answer;at the same time, simplistic answers are quite pre-valent and are taken for granted. This book aims toexplain the origin of the gene concept, its variousmeanings both within and outside science, as wellas to debunk the intuitive view of the existence of

’genes for’ characteristics and disease. Drawing oncontemporary research in genetics and genomics, aswell as on ideas from history of science, philosophyof science, psychology and science education, it ex-plains what genes are and what they can and cannotdo. By presenting complex concepts and researchin a comprehensible and rigorous manner, it exam-ines the potential impact of research in genetics andgenomics and how important genes actually are forour lives. Understanding Genes is an accessible andengaging introduction to genes for any interestedreader.” (From the Publisher)

More information available here.

Mendonça, Diana, Curado, Manuel, & Gouveia,Steven S. (Eds.) (2020). The Philosophy and Sci-ence of Predictive Processing. London: Blooms-bury Academic. isbn: 978-1-350-09975-3

“This book explores how predictive processing,which argues that our brains are constantly gener-ating and updating hypotheses about our externalconditions, sheds new light on the nature of themind. It shows how it is similar to and expandsother theoretical approaches that emphasise the act-ive role of the mind and its dynamic function.

“Offering a complete guide to the philosophicaland empirical implications of predictive processing,contributors bring perspectives from philosophy,neuroscience, and psychology. Together, they ex-plore the many philosophical applications of pre-dictive processing and its exciting potential acrossmental health, cognitive science, neuroscience, androbotics.

“Presenting an extensive and balanced overview ofthe subject, The Philosophy and Science of PredictiveProcessing is a landmark volume within philosophyof mind.” (From the Publisher)

More information available here.

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Meyns, Chris (Ed.) (2021). Information andthe History of Philosophy. Abingdon: Routledge.isbn: 978-0-815-35500-7

“In recent years the philosophy of information hasemerged as an important area of research in philo-sophy. However, until now information’s philo-sophical history has been largely overlooked.

“ Information and the History of Philosophy is thefirst comprehensive investigation of the history ofphilosophical questions around information, in-cluding work from before the Common Era tothe twenty-first century. It covers scientific andtechnology-centred notions of information, viewsof human information processing, as well as socio-political topics such as the control and use of in-formation in societies.

“Organised into five parts, 19 chapters by an inter-national team of contributors cover the followingtopics and more:

• Information before 500 ce, including ancientChinese, Greek and Roman approaches to in-formation;

• Early theories of information processing,sources of information and cognition;

• Information and computation in Leibniz, visual-ised scientific information, copyright and socialreform;

• The nineteenth century, including biological in-formation, knowledge economies and - inform-ation’s role in empire and eugenics;

• Recent and contemporary philosophy of in-formation, including racialised information,Shannon information and the very idea of an in-formation revolution.

“ Information and theHistory of Philosophy is a land-mark publication in this emerging field. As such, itis essential reading for students and researchers in

the history of philosophy, philosophy of science andtechnology, and library and information studies. Itis also a valuable resource for those working in sub-jects such as the history of science, media and com-munication studies and intellectual history.” (Fromthe Publisher)

More information available here.

Miret, M. J., & Puig, A. P. (2021). Science, Cultureand National Identity in Francoist Spain, 1939–1959. Cham: Springer. isbn: 978-3-030-58646-1

“This book examines the role that science and cul-ture held as instruments of nationalisation policiesduring the first phase of the Franco regime in Spain.It considers the reciprocal relationship betweenpolitical legitimacy and developments in scienceand culture, and explores the ‘nationalisation’ ef-forts in Spain in the 1940s and 1950s, via the com-plex process of transmitting narratives of nationalidentity, through ideas, representations and homo-genising practices. Taking an interdisciplinary ap-proach, the volume features insights into how sci-entific and cultural language and symbols were usedto formulate national identity, through institutions,resource distribution and specific national policies.Split into five parts, the collection considers policiesin the Francoist ‘New State’, the role of women inthese debates, and perspectives on the nationalisa-tion and internationalisation efforts that made useof scientific and cultural spheres. Chapters also fea-ture insights into cinema, literature, cultural dip-lomacy, mathematics and technology in debates onCatalonia, the Nuclear Energy Board, the SpanishNational Research Council, and how scientific toolsin Spain in this era fed into wider geopolitics withAmerica and onto the unesco stage.” (From thepublishers)

More information available here.

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Musgrave, Toby (2021). The Multifarious Mr.Banks: From Botany Bay to Kew: The Natural His-torian Who Shaped the World. New Haven, CT:Yale University Press. isbn: 978-0-300-25920-9

“As official botanist on James Cook’s first circum-navigation, the longest-serving president of theRoyal Society, advisor to KingGeorge III, the ‘fatherof Australia’, and the man who established Kewas the world’s leading botanical garden, Sir JosephBanks was integral to the English Enlightenment.Yet he has not received the recognition that hismul-tifarious achievements deserve.

“In this engaging account, Toby Musgrave revealsthe true extent of Banks’s contributions to scienceand Britain. From an early age Banks pursuedhis passion for natural history through study andextensive travel, most famously on the HMS En-deavour. He went on to become a pivotal fig-ure in the advancement of British scientific, eco-nomic, and colonial interests. With his enquiring,enterprising mind and extensive network of cor-respondents, Banks’s reputation and influence wereglobal. Drawing widely on Banks’s writings, Mus-grave sheds light on Banks’s profound impact onBritish science and empire in an age of rapid ad-vancement.” (From the Publisher)

More information available here.

Nelson, William Max (2021). The Time of Enlight-enment: Constructing the Future in France, 1750 toYear One. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.isbn: 978-1-487-50770-1

“A new idea of the future emerged in eighteenth-century France. With the development of modernbiological, economic, and social engineering, thefuture transformed from being predetermined andbeyond significant human intervention into some-thing that could be dramatically affected throughactions in the present.

“ The Time of Enlightenment argues that specificmechanisms for constructing the future first arosethrough the development of practices and instru-ments aimed at countering degeneration. In theirattempts to regenerate a healthy natural state, En-lightenment philosophies created the means to ex-ceed previously recognised limits and build a futurethat was not merely a recuperation of the past, butfundamentally different from it. A theoretically in-flected work combining intellectual history and thehistory of science, this book will appeal to anyoneinterested in European history and the history ofscience, as well as the history of France, the En-lightenment, and the French Revolution.” (Fromthe Publisher)

More information available here.

Pacey, Arnold & Bray, Francesca (2021) Techno-logy in World Civilization: A Thousand-Year His-tory. (Revised and Expanded Edition). Cam-bridge, MA: The MIT Press.isbn: 978-0-262-54246-3

“This milestone history of technology, first pub-lished in 1990 and now revised and expanded inlight of recent research, broke new ground by tak-ing a global view, avoiding the conventional Euro-centric perspective and placing the development oftechnology squarely in the context of a “world civil-isation.” Case studies include “technological dia-logues” between China and West Asia in the elev-enth century, medieval African states and the Is-lamic world, and the United States and Japan post-1950. It examines railway empires through the ex-amples of Russia and Japan and explores currentsynergies of innovation in energy supply and smart-phone technology through African cases.

“The book uses the term “technological dialogue”to challenge the top-down concept of “technologytransfer,” showing instead that technologies are typ-ically modified to fit local needs and conditions,

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often triggering further innovation. The authorstrace these encounters and exchanges over a thou-sand years, examining changes in such technolo-gies as agriculture, firearms, printing, electricity,and railroads. A new chapter brings the narrat-ive into the twenty-first century, discussing tech-nological developments including petrochemicals,aerospace, and digitalisation fromoften unexpectedglobal viewpoints and asking what new kind of in-dustrial revolution is needed to meet the challengesof the Anthropocene.” (From the Publisher)

More information available here.

Solovey, Mark & Dayé, Christian (Eds.) (2021).Cold War Social Science: Transnational Entangle-ments. Cham: Springer. isbn: 978-3-030-70246-5

“This book explores how the social sciences be-came entangled with the global Cold War. Whileduly recognising the realities of nation states, na-tional power, and national aspirations, the studiesgathered here open up new lines of transnationalinvestigation. Considering developments in a widearray of fields – anthropology, development stud-ies, economics, education, political science, psy-chology, science studies, and sociology – that in-volved the movement of people, projects, fund-ing, and ideas across diverse national contexts, thisvolume pushes scholars to rethink certain funda-mental points about how we should understand –and thus how we should study – Cold War socialscience itself.” (From the Publisher)

More information available here.

Stearns, J. (2021). Revealed Sciences: The Nat-ural Sciences in Islam in Seventeenth-Century Mo-rocco (Cambridge Studies in Islamic Civilisation).Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.isbn: 978-1-107-58852-3

“Demonstrating the vibrancy of an Early ModernMuslim society through a study of the natural sci-ences in seventeenth-century Morocco, RevealedSciences examines how the natural sciences flour-ished during this period, without developing ina similar way to the natural sciences in Europe.Offering an innovative analysis of the relation-ship between religious thought and the natural sci-ences, Justin K. Stearns shows how nineteenth andtwentieth-century European and Middle Easternscholars jointly developed a narrative of the de-cline of post-formative Islamic thought, includingthe fate of the natural sciences in the Muslim world.Challenging these depictions of the natural sciencesin the Muslim world, Stearns uses numerous closereadings of works in the natural sciences to a de-tailed overview of the place of the natural sciencesin scholarly and educational landscapes of the EarlyModern Magreb, and considers non-teleologicalpossibilities for understanding a persistent engage-ment with the natural sciences in Early ModernMorocco.” (From the Publisher)

More information available here.

Watters, Audrey (2021). Teaching Machines: TheHistory of Personalized Learning. Cambridge,MA: The MIT Press. isbn: 978-0-262-04569-8

“Contrary to popular belief, ed tech did not beginwith videos on the internet. The idea of techno-logy that would allow students to “go at their ownpace” did not originate in Silicon Valley. In Teach-ing Machines, education writer Audrey Watters of-fers a lively history of predigital educational tech-nology, from Sidney Pressey’s mechanised positive-reinforcement provider to B. F. Skinner’s behavi-ourist bell-ringing box. Watters shows that thesemachines and the pedagogy that accompanied themsprang from ideas—bite-sized content, individu-alised instruction—that had legs and were later

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picked up by textbook publishers and early advoc-ates for computerised learning.

“Watters pays particular attention to the role ofthe media—newspapers, magazines, television, andfilm—in shaping people’s perceptions of teachingmachines as well as the psychological theories un-derpinning them. She considers these machines inthe context of education reform, the political re-verberations of Sputnik, and the rise of the testingand textbook industries. She chronicles Skinner’sattempts to bring his teaching machines to mar-ket, culminating in the famous behaviourist’s ef-forts to launchDidak 101, the “pre-verbal” machinethat taught spelling. (Alternate names proposed bySkinner include “Autodidak,” “Instructomat,” and“Autostructor.”) Telling these somewhat caution-ary tales, Watters challenges what she calls “the tele-ology of ed tech”—the idea that not only is compu-terised education inevitable, but technological pro-gress is the sole driver of events.” (From the Pub-lishers)

“Teaching Machines weaves together a riveting setof histories that offer a careful look at the past, butalso an insightful and prescient examination of thepresent and future of ed tech. Watters is an incisivewriter and an insistent scholar, always asking hardquestions of technology. This book will change theway we talk about education.” Jesse Stommel, As-sociate Professor, Athabasca University; ExecutiveDirector, Hybrid Pedagogy

“AudreyWatters proves that there is very little that isgroundbreaking or innovative about the ’new’ tech-nologies of the 2020s. She provokes us to askwhy edtech learns so little from its past failures. A much-needed book!” – Neil Selwyn, Distinguished Re-search Professor, Monash University

More information available here.

White, R., Hodge, M., & Radick, G. (2021). Dar-win’s Argument by Analogy: From Artificial to Nat-

ural Selection. Cambridge: Cambridge UniversityPress. isbn: 978-1-108-76951-8

“In On the Origin of Species (1859), Charles Darwinput forward his theory of natural selection. Con-ventionally, Darwin’s argument for this theory hasbeen understood as based on an analogy with ar-tificial selection. But there has been no consensuson how, exactly, this analogical argument is sup-posed to work – and some suspicion too that ana-logical arguments on the whole are embarrassinglyweak. Drawing on new insights into the history ofanalogical argumentation from the ancient Greeksonward, as well as on in-depth studies of Darwin’spublic and private writings, this book offers an ori-ginal perspective on Darwin’s argument, restoringto view the intellectual traditions which Darwintook for granted in arguing as he did. From this per-spective come new appreciations not only of Dar-win’s argument but of the metaphors based on it,the range of wider traditions the argument touchedupon, and its legacies for science after the Origin.”(From the Publisher)

More information available here.

Winther, Rasmus G. (2021). When Maps Becomethe World. Chicago IL: Chicago University Press.isbn: 978-0-226-67472-8

“Map making and, ultimately, map thinking is ubi-quitous across literature, cosmology, mathematics,psychology, and genetics. We partition, summar-ise, organise, and clarify our world via spatialisedrepresentations. Our maps and, more generally,our representations seduce andpersuade; they buildand destroy. They are the ultimate record of empiresand of our evolving comprehension of our world.

“This book is about the promises and perils of mapthinking. Maps are purpose-driven abstractions,discarding detail to highlight only particular fea-tures of a territory. By preserving certain features

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at the expense of others, they can be used to rein-force a privileged position.

“When Maps Become the World shows us how thescientific theories, models, and concepts we use tointervene in the world function as maps, and ex-plores the consequences of this, both good and bad.We increasingly understand the world around us interms of models, to the extent that we often take themodels for reality. Winther explains how in time,our historical representations in science, in carto-graphy, and in our stories about ourselves replaceindividual memories and become dominant socialnarratives—they become reality, and they can re-make the world.” (From the Publisher)

”A tour de force. Philosophers of science haveincreasingly resorted to analogies with maps andmapping in thinking about the relation of scientifictheories and models to the world(s) they are about.Winther interrogates this usage in multiple ways: ahistorical overview of map-making in the West, aphilosophical examination of the assumptions andcommitments of map language, and in-depth stud-ies of mapping practices in sciences from cosmo-logy to neuroscience to genetics. Wonderfully en-hanced by reproductions of maps from the manydomains inwhich they are used, this book giveswel-come philosophical substance to a widely used andincreasingly central concept in studies of science.” –Helen Longino, Stanford University

More information available here.

Rice, Collin (2021). Leveraging Distortions: Ex-planation, Idealization, and Universality in Sci-ence. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press.isbn: 978-0-262-54261-6

“A fundamental rule of logic is that in order for anargument to provide good reasons for its conclu-sion, the premises of the argument must be true.In this book, Collin Rice shows how the practice

of science repeatedly, pervasively, and deliberatelyviolates this principle. Rice argues that scientistsstrategically use distortions that misrepresent relev-ant features of natural phenomena in order to ex-plain and understand—and that they use these dis-tortions deliberately and justifiably in order to dis-cover truths that would be otherwise inaccessible.

“Countering the standard emphasis on causation,accurate representation, and decomposition of sci-ence into its accurate and inaccurate parts, Riceshows that science’s epistemic achievements canstill be factive despite their being produced throughthe use of holistically distorted scientific representa-tions. Indeed, he argues, this distortion is one of themost widely employed and fruitful tools used in sci-entific theorising. Marshalling a range of case stud-ies, Rice contends thatmany explanations in scienceare noncausal, and he presents an alternate view ofexplanation that captures the variety of noncausalexplanations found across the sciences. He pro-poses an alternative holistic distortion view of ideal-ised models, connecting it to physicists’ concept ofa universality class; shows how universality classescan overcome some of the challenges of multiscalemodeling; and offers accounts of explanation, ideal-isation, modelling, and understanding.” (From thePublisher)

More information available here.

Scerri, Eric (2020. The Periodic Table, Its Story andIts Significance (2nd edition.). New York, NY: Ox-ford University Press. isbn: 978-0-190-91436-3

”This second edition comprises 14 chapters, four ofthem new or modified versions of chapters in thefirst edition. The periodic table has evolved over thelast 150 years, even over the last decade, so both edi-tions of this book are valuable.” – R. E. Buntrock,Choice

”As a whole, this book is not highly technical, andit has the attractiveness of providing material that

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doesn’t appear in typical school textbooks. Gen-erally, those textbooks present the last triumphantversion, not the unsuccessful episodes’ history andcontext. Only a few experts know the ”dark side” ofthe story, so this book fills in many useful parts ofthat bigger picture. This book will appeal to schol-ars and science readers alike, especially those inter-ested in history of science, chemistry, physics, andphilosophy.” – Maria Elvira Callapez, ChemTexts

”The periodic table continues to generate newthoughts as the list of elements grows, its founda-tions are refined, and new portrayals are developed.Eric Scerri captures all these innovations in thistimely updating of his very readable account of theorigin, structure, and interpretation of the table.” –Peter Atkins, University of Oxford

”The 2nd edition of Eric’s Scerri’s journey throughthe periodic table is up-to-date, readable, and intel-lectually enticing. This icon of chemistry has neverhad a better expositor!” – Roald Hoffmann, CornellUniversity

”This second edition is a revised and expanded takeon the philosophical and historical aspects of theperiodic table that made his first edition such aworthy successor to van Spronsen’s classic history.”– Carmen Giunta, Le Moyne College

”Written to a high standard of scholarship,ThePeri-odic Table is the best book on this subject currentlyavailable. It gives both an historical and philosoph-ical perspective to the development of this key tothe elements, as well as including all the recent addi-tions to the table.” – John Emsley, author of Nature’sBuilding Blocks

”Since Eric Scerri’s The Periodic Table was the defin-itive book on the topic when it first appeared,it is wonderful to see that status claimed anewby this second edition during the InternationalYear of the Periodic Table. The story is still un-folding, thanks in large part to the ingenuity oftoday’s element-makers, and the additions bringthis volume right up to date. It remains as clear, bal-anced and thoughtful as ever, and is the best guide

to this iconic formulation of nature’s atomic build-ing blocks.” - Philip Ball, author of Elements: A VeryShort Introduction

More information available here.

Scerri, Eric, & Ghibaudi, Elena (eds.) (2020).What is a Chemical Element? New York, NY: Ox-ford University Press. isbn: 978-0-190-93378-4

“The concept of a chemical element is foundationalwithin the field of chemistry, but there is widedisagreement over its definition. Even the Inter-national Union for Pure and Applied Chemistry(IUPAC) claims two distinct definitions: a spe-cies of atoms versus one which identifies chemicalelements with the simple substances bearing theirnames. The double definition of elements proposedby the International Union for Pure and AppliedChemistry contrasts an abstract meaning and anoperational one. Nevertheless, the philosophical as-pects of this notion are not fully captured by theIUPAC definitions, despite the fact that they werecrucial for the construction of the Periodic Table.Although rich scientific literature on the elementand the periodic table exists as well as a recentgrowth in the philosophy of chemistry, scholars arestill searching for a definitive answer to this import-ant question: What is an element?

“Eric Scerri and Elena Ghibaudi have teamed up toassemble a group of scholars to provide readers anoverview of the current state of the debate on chem-ical elements from epistemological, historical, andeducational perspectives. What Is A Chemical Ele-ment? fills a gap for the benefit of the whole chem-istry community-experimental researchers, philo-sophers, chemistry educators, and anyone lookingto learn more about the elements of the periodictable.”

More information available here.

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Thomas, John Meurig (2021). Albemarle Street:Portraits, Personalities and Presentations at TheRoyal Institution. New York, NY: Oxford Univer-sity Press. isbn: 978-0-192-89800-5

“The Royal Institution of Great Britain is renownedthe world over, first, because it is a premier arenafor the advancement of new scientific and techno-logical knowledge; and second because it highlightsthe advance of knowledge of all kinds. It bridgesthe sciences and the humanities, and as much pub-licity is given to advances in the arts, archaeology,architecture, drama and literature as to the pure andapplied sciences. More famous scientists have livedand worked in the Royal Institution than in anyother laboratory in the world. A roll-call includesRumford, Davy, Faraday, Tyndall, Dewar, Rayleigh,W. H. Bragg, W. L. Bragg and George Porter. Not isit only the home of continuous electricity, it is alsothe birthplace of many aspects of molecular biologyand viruses and enzymology. Some fifteen scient-ists who have won the Nobel Prize have, at one timeor another, worked or lectured at the RI. And emin-ent individuals, like Howard Carter and Coleridge,have lectured there.

“Albemarle Street - Portraits, Personalities andPresentations at The Royal institution is a livelyand compelling personal selection of the remark-able personalities and achievements of some of theextraordinary scientists and individuals who, dur-ing the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, workedor lectured at 21 Albemarle Street in Mayfair, cent-ral London. John Meurig Thomas offers a uniqueand valuable insight into the history of this presti-gious address, having himself lived and worked atthe Royal Institution for some twenty years.” (Fromthe Publisher)

More information available here.

Authors of hps&st-related papers and booksare invited to bring them to attention ofPaulo Maurício or Nathan Oseroff-Spicer forinclusion in these sections.

Varia

1. The Forum on History of Physics of the Amer-ican Physical Society has changed its name andremit to the Forum on History and Philosophyof Physics.

2. The International Astronomical Union Com-mission onHistory ofAstronomy (C-3) has justannounced its new elected leadership for the2021-2024 triennium:

• President: Christian Sterken (BE)

• Vice President: Sara Schechner (US)

• Organising committee new members:David Baneke (NL), Thomas Hockey (US),Ionnis Litvitzis (GR), Virginia Trimble (US)

• Organising committee continuing mem-bers: Ileanna Chinnici (IT), Eun Hee Lee(ROK), P.C. van der Kruit (NL)

• Advisor & Past President, Wayne Orchiston

3. The latest double issue of Ambix, the journalof the Society for the History of Alchemy andChemistry has been published. This special is-sue on ”Alchemy and the Early Modern Uni-versity” is free access through Taylor & Francisonline here.

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Charles Darwin: Justice of the PeaceBook File

Charles Darwin: Justice of the peace. The com-plete records (1857-1882)

Darwin has long been one of the most intensivelystudied men of science in history. One might eas-ily assume that there were no significant aspects ofhis life that had not already been revealed. And yetthere is a fascinating side to Darwin’s public lifethat has remained almost completely unknown.From July 1857 until he died inApril 1882, Darwinwas a justice of the peace. Although the bare factthat he was one has been known andmentioned inthe literature on Darwin from the very beginning,so far only brief mentions have ever appeared. Thereason for this brevity is that the official case re-cords are lost.

But newspaper reports have been found that en-able us to reconstruct the full story of Darwinas a justice of the peace. This lost record re-veals that Darwin was fully engaged with a verydifferent activity and community than we couldhave known just at the time when he wrote, pub-lished and saw his Origin of species first read bythe world. This lost record contains many sur-prises and not a few amusing episodes with whichthe great naturalist was involved in his local com-munity.

For example, the very day that Origin of specieswas published on 24 November 1859, a crime and“riot” occurred in his own sleepy village of Downethat he would later pass judgement on from thebench. It will come as a surprise to any readerinterested in Darwin to discover just how muchhis life was taken up with acting as a justice of thepeace at one of the most important and analysedparts of his life.

In addition, new research reveals that many of thedetails about what a justice of the peace (or magis-trate) actually did and even what oath they swore,were mistaken in the existing literature on Dar-win. Focusing on his neighbours, a fascinatingprivate diary reaction to reading Origin of speciesis published here for the first time. This book re-veals a whole new chapter of Darwin’s life.

Only 103 pages long, it is available on Amazon asa paperback (11.49)orkindle(0.99) and as a freePDF HERE

Dr John van Wyhe FLSDepartment of Biological Sciences,National University of SingaporeDirector of Darwin Onlinehttp://darwin-online.org.uk/people/van_wyhe.html

Michael R. Matthews: History,Philosophy and Science Teaching:A Personal Story, Springer, 2021

This book of ten chapters, 298 + xxv pages and 800references is an historical narrative of the author’sacademic appointments, his significant researchand publication endeavours, important editorialand institutional engagements, and appraisals ofmany important debates and contributors in sci-ence education.

The author is Honorary Associate Professor inthe School of Education at the University of NewSouth Wales. He has degrees in Geology, Psycho-logy, Philosophy, History and Philosophy of Sci-ence, and Philosophy of Education.

He has taught in high school, teachers’ college

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and university; was Foundation Professor of Sci-ence Education at the University of Auckland; wasFoundation President of the International His-tory, Philosophy and Science Teaching Group;was Foundation President of the Inter-DivisionalTeaching Commission of the dhst and dlmps;and is a Fellow of the Royal Society (New SouthWales).

The ten chapters begin with his Australian-Irishfamily life, his Catholic school education, his richundergraduate education, then further degrees atSydney University whilst school teaching, thenrange over a number of the central theoretical,curricular and pedagogical issues in science edu-cation to which he has contributed. The finalchapter is a proposal for hps-informed scienceteacher education.

The book gives accounts of philosophers whogreatly influenced his own thinking and who alsowere personal friends – Wallis Suchting, Abner

Shimony, Robert Cohen, Marx Wartofsky, IsraelScheffler, Michael Martin and Mario Bunge.

The book, throughout, advocates the importanceof clear writing and avoidance of faddism in bothphilosophy and in education. It documents, dis-turbingly, many examples of the latter.

Positive reviews by Michael Reiss (Science Edu-cation, University College London), Eric Scerri(Chemistry Department, University of CaliforniaLos Angeles) and Roland Schulz (Education, Si-mon Fraser University) are available here.

Book details, chapter titles and previews, and pur-chasing information can be seen here.

The book is available in print copy and eBook.From June 20 to July 18 there is a 20% dis-count available by using the following Springertoken when purchasing from the Springer site:xRMtG7SJe4B2Ddd. This token is part of theabove web address.

The book is available to individuals as a MyCopyfor eur/usd25. This is simply a paperback ver-sion of the print hardcover book. Obtaining aMy-Copy requires first that an individual’s institutionhas purchased the eBook. It does not apply whenthe hardcover alone has been purchased, thoughthe eBook alone suffices to make the MyCopyavailable. This often happens automatically as theeBookwill be part of a Springer package bought byinstitutions. If not, the institution needs to inde-pendently purchase the eBook. Librarians can ad-vise through which channels the MyCopy is thenpurchased. This is a most suitable arrangementfor instructors wishing to use the book as a coursetext.

Springer are facilitating reviews of the book inrelevant hps, Philosophy, Education and Science

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Education journals and newsletters. Review edit-ors should send reviewer’s name and email, alongwith journal/newsletter name and website to:

Nick Melchior Nick.Melchior@springer.com

Reviewers are initially provided with the eBook,and upon publication of the review, are mailed theprint version.

Coming hps&st Related Confer-ences

July 25-31, 2021, 26th International Congressof History of Science and Technology (dhst),Prague. (web conference)Information: https://www.ichst2021.org/

September 8-10, 2021 Conference, Société dephilosophie des sciences University of Mons, Bel-giumDetails: https://www.sps-philoscience.org/

March 27-30, 2022, narst Annual Conference,Vancouver, BCDetails: here.

July 3rd-7th, 2022, ihpst 16th International Con-ference, University of Calgary, CanadaDetails fromGlennDolphin: glenn.dolphin@ucalgary.ca.

July 18-22, 2022, ’Objects of Understanding: His-torical Perspectives on Material Artefacts in Sci-ence Education’, Europa-Universität Flensburg,GermanyDetails: Roland Wittje, roland.wittje@gmail.comand here.

July 24-29, 2023, 17th dlmpst Congress, Univer-sity of Buenos Aires Information: Pablo Loren-zano, pablo@unq.edu.ar.

hps&st Related Organisations andWebsites

iuhpst – International Union of History, Philo-sophy, Science, and Technology

dlmpst – Division of Logic, Mathematics, Philo-sophy, Science, and Technology

dhst – Division of History, Science, and Techno-logy

ihpst – International History, Philosophy, andScience Teaching Group

narst – National Association for Research in Sci-ence Teaching

esera – European Science Education ResearchAssociation

asera – Australasian Science Education ResearchAssociation

icase – International Council of Associations forScience Education

unesco – Education

hss – History of Science Society

eshs – European Society for theHistory of Science

aha – American History Association

isheastme – International Society for the Historyof East Asian History of Science Technology andMedicine

bshs – British Society for History of Science

epsa – European Philosophy of Science Associ-ation

aahpsss - The Australasian Association for the

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july 2021 hps&st newsletter

History, Philosophy, and Social Studies of Science

hopos – International Society for the History ofPhilosophy of Science

psa – Philosophy of Science Association

bsps – The British Society for the Philosophy ofScience

spsp – The Society for Philosophy of Science inPractice

ishpsb – The International Society for the His-tory, Philosophy, and Social Studies of Biology

pes – The Philosophy of Education Society (USA)

The above list is updated and kept on the hps&stwebsite here.

hps&st-related organisations wishing their webpage to be added to the list should contact assistanteditor Paulo Maurício (paulo.asterix@gmail.com)

The newsletter is typeset in XeLaTeX.The font is Minion Pro.The cover image is used with permission fromhttps://pixabay.com/, free for commercial use.

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