23 found
Order:
Disambiguations
Greg Frost-Arnold [22]Gregory Frost-Arnold [1]
  1.  66
    Carnap, Tarski, and Quine at Harvard: Conversations on Logic, Mathematics, and Science.Greg Frost-Arnold - 2013 - Chicago, Illinois: Open Court Press.
    During the academic year 1940-1941, several giants of analytic philosophy congregated at Harvard, holding regular private meetings, with Carnap, Tarski, and Quine. Carnap, Tarski, and Quine at Harvard allows the reader to act as a fly on the wall for their conversations. Carnap took detailed notes during his year at Harvard. This book includes both a German transcription of these shorthand notes and an English translation in the appendix section. Carnap’s notes cover a wide range of topics, but surprisingly, the (...)
    Direct download (2 more)  
     
    Export citation  
     
    Bookmark   29 citations  
  2. The No‐Miracles Argument for Realism: Inference to an Unacceptable Explanation.Greg Frost-Arnold - 2010 - Philosophy of Science 77 (1):35-58.
    I argue that a certain type of naturalist should not accept a prominent version of the no-miracles argument (NMA). First, scientists (usually) do not accept explanations whose explanans-statements neither generate novel predictions nor unify apparently disparate established claims. Second, scientific realism (as it appears in the NMA) is an explanans that makes no new predictions and fails to unify disparate established claims. Third, many proponents of the NMA explicitly adopt a naturalism that forbids philosophy of science from using any methods (...)
    Direct download (8 more)  
     
    Export citation  
     
    Bookmark   34 citations  
  3. How to be a Historically Motivated Anti-Realist: The Problem of Misleading Evidence.Greg Frost-Arnold - 2019 - Philosophy of Science 86 (5):906-917.
    The Pessimistic Induction over the history of science argues that because most past theories considered empirically successful in their time turn out to be not even approximately true, most present ones probably aren’t approximately true either. But why did past scientists accept those incorrect theories? Kyle Stanford’s ‘Problem of Unconceived Alternatives’ is one answer to that question: scientists are bad at exhausting the space of plausible hypotheses to explain the evidence available to them. Here, I offer another answer, which I (...)
    Direct download (4 more)  
     
    Export citation  
     
    Bookmark   7 citations  
  4. Can the Pessimistic Induction be Saved from Semantic Anti-Realism about Scientific Theory?Greg Frost-Arnold - 2014 - British Journal for the Philosophy of Science 65 (3):521-548.
    Scientific anti-realists who appeal to the pessimistic induction (PI) claim that the theoretical terms of past scientific theories often fail to refer to anything. But on standard views in philosophy of language, such reference failures prima facie lead to certain sentences being neither true nor false. Thus, if these standard views are correct, then the conclusion of the PI should be that significant chunks of current theories are truth-valueless. But that is semantic anti-realism about scientific discourse—a position most philosophers of (...)
    Direct download (10 more)  
     
    Export citation  
     
    Bookmark   8 citations  
  5. Should a historically motivated anti-realist be a Stanfordite?Greg Frost-Arnold - 2019 - Synthese 196:535-551.
    Suppose one believes that the historical record of discarded scientific theories provides good evidence against scientific realism. Should one adopt Kyle Stanford’s specific version of this view, based on the Problem of Unconceived Alternatives? I present reasons for answering this question in the negative. In particular, Stanford’s challenge cannot use many of the prima facie strongest pieces of historical evidence against realism, namely: superseded theories whose successors were explicitly conceived, and superseded theories that were not the result of elimination-of-alternatives inferences. (...)
    Direct download (8 more)  
     
    Export citation  
     
    Bookmark   4 citations  
  6. ‘‘Quine’s Evolution from ‘Carnap’s Disciple’ to the Author of “Two Dogmas.Greg Frost-Arnold - 2011 - Hopos: The Journal of the International Society for the History of Philosophy of Science 1 (2):291-316.
    Recent scholarship indicates that Quine’s “Truth by Convention” does not present the radical critiques of analytic truth found fifteen years later in “Two Dogmas of Empiricism.” This prompts a historical question: what caused Quine’s radicalization? I argue that two crucial components of Quine’s development can be traced to the academic year 1940–1941, when he, Russell, Carnap, Tarski, Hempel, and Goodman were all at Harvard together. First, during those meetings, Quine recognizes that Carnap has abandoned the extensional, syntactic approach to philosophical (...)
    Direct download (5 more)  
     
    Export citation  
     
    Bookmark   9 citations  
  7. The identical rivals response to underdetermination.Greg Frost-Arnold & P. D. Magnus - 2009 - In P. D. Magnus & Jacob Busch (eds.), New waves in philosophy of science. New York: Palgrave-Macmillan.
    The underdetermination of theory by data obtains when, inescapably, evidence is insufficient to allow scientists to decide responsibly between rival theories. One response to would-be underdetermination is to deny that the rival theories are distinct theories at all, insisting instead that they are just different formulations of the same underlying theory; we call this the identical rivals response. An argument adapted from John Norton suggests that the response is presumptively always appropriate, while another from Larry Laudan and Jarrett Leplin suggests (...)
    Direct download (4 more)  
     
    Export citation  
     
    Bookmark   9 citations  
  8. The Rise of ‘Analytic Philosophy’: When and How Did People Begin Calling Themselves ‘Analytic Philosophers’?Greg Frost-Arnold - 2017 - In Sandra Lapointe & Christopher Pincock (eds.), Innovations in the History of Analytical Philosophy. London, United Kingdom: Palgrave-Macmillan. pp. 27-67.
    Many have tackled the question ‘What (if anything) is analytic philosophy?’ I will not attempt to answer this vexed question. Rather, I address a smaller, more manageable set of interrelated questions: first, when and how did people begin using the label ‘analytic philosophy’? Second, how did those who used this label understand it? Third, why did many philosophers we today classify as analytic initially resist being grouped together under the single category of ‘analytic philosophy’? Finally, for the first generation who (...)
    Direct download (2 more)  
     
    Export citation  
     
    Bookmark   2 citations  
  9. From the Pessimistic Induction to Semantic Antirealism.Greg Frost-Arnold - 2011 - Philosophy of Science 78 (5):1131-1142.
    The Pessimistic Induction (PI) states: most past scientific theories were radically mistaken; therefore, current theories are probably similarly mistaken. But mistaken in what way? On the usual understanding, such past theories are false. However, on widely held views about reference and presupposition, many theoretical claims of previous scientific theories are neither true nor false. And if substantial portions of past theories are truth-valueless, then the PI leads to semantic antirealism. But most current philosophers of science reject semantic antirealism. So PI (...)
    Direct download (10 more)  
     
    Export citation  
     
    Bookmark   7 citations  
  10. Was Tarski's Theory of Truth Motivated by Physicalism?Greg Frost-Arnold - 2004 - History and Philosophy of Logic 25 (4):265-280.
    Many commentators on Alfred Tarski have, following Hartry Field, claimed that Tarski's truth-definition was motivated by physicalism—the doctrine that all facts, including semantic facts, must be reducible to physical facts. I claim, instead, that Tarski did not aim to reduce semantic facts to physical ones. Thus, Field's criticism that Tarski's truth-definition fails to fulfill physicalist ambitions does not reveal Tarski to be inconsistent, since Tarski's goal is not to vindicate physicalism. I argue that Tarski's only published remarks that speak approvingly (...)
    Direct download (4 more)  
     
    Export citation  
     
    Bookmark   7 citations  
  11. Confused Terms in Ordinary Language.Greg Frost-Arnold & James R. Beebe - 2020 - Journal of Logic, Language and Information 29 (2):197-219.
    Confused terms appear to signify more than one entity. Carnap maintained that any putative name that is associated with more than one object in a relevant universe of discourse fails to be a genuine name. Although many philosophers have agreed with Carnap, they have not always agreed among themselves about the truth-values of atomic sentences containing such terms. Some hold that such atomic sentences are always false, and others claim they are always truth-valueless. Field maintained that confused terms can still (...)
    Direct download (3 more)  
     
    Export citation  
     
    Bookmark   1 citation  
  12.  27
    Too Much Reference: Semantics for Multiply Signifying Terms.Greg Frost-Arnold - 2008 - Journal of Philosophical Logic 37 (3):239-257.
    The logic of singular terms that refer to nothing, such as ‘Santa Claus,’ has been studied extensively under the heading of free logic. The present essay examines expressions whose reference is defective in a different way: they signify more than one entity. The bulk of the effort aims to develop an acceptable formal semantics based upon an intuitive idea introduced informally by Hartry Field and discussed by Joseph Camp; the basic strategy is to use supervaluations. This idea, as it stands, (...)
    Direct download (4 more)  
     
    Export citation  
     
    Bookmark   6 citations  
  13. How to be an anti-reductionist about developmental biology: Response to Laubichler and Wagner.Greg Frost-Arnold - 2004 - Biology and Philosophy 19 (1):75-91.
    Alexander Rosenberg recently claimed (1997) that developmental biology is currently being reduced to molecular biology. cite several concrete biological examples that are intended to impugn Rosenberg's claim. I first argue that although Laubichler and Wagner's examples would refute a very strong reductionism, a more moderate reductionism would escape their attacks. Next, taking my cue from the antireductionist's perennial stress on the importance of spatial organization, I describe one form an empirical finding that refutes this moderate reductionism would take. Finally, I (...)
    Direct download (8 more)  
     
    Export citation  
     
    Bookmark   5 citations  
  14. The Large Scale Structure of Logical Empiricism: Unity of Science and the Elimination of Metaphysics.Greg Frost-Arnold - 2005 - Philosophy of Science 72 (5):826-838.
    Two central and well-known philosophical goals of the logical empiricists are the unification of science and the elimination of metaphysics. I argue, via textual analysis, that these two apparently distinct planks of the logical empiricist party platform are actually intimately related. From the 1920’s through 1950, one abiding criterion for judging whether an apparently declarative assertion or descriptive term is metaphysical is that that assertion or term cannot be incorporated into a language of unified science. I explore various versions of (...)
    Direct download (12 more)  
     
    Export citation  
     
    Bookmark   3 citations  
  15. Tarski's Nominalism.Greg Frost-Arnold - 2008 - In Douglas Patterson (ed.), New essays on Tarski and philosophy. New York: Oxford University Press.
    Alfred Tarski was a nominalist. But he published almost nothing on his nominalist views, and until recently the only sources scholars had for studying Tarski’s nominalism were conversational reports from his friends and colleagues. However, a recently-discovered archival resource provides the most detailed information yet about Tarski’s nominalism. Tarski spent the academic year 1940-41 at Harvard, along with many of the leading lights of scientific philosophy: Carnap, Quine, Hempel, Goodman, and (for the fall semester) Russell. This group met frequently to (...)
    Direct download  
     
    Export citation  
     
    Bookmark   1 citation  
  16. The limits of scientific explanation and the no-miracles argument.Greg Frost-Arnold - 2008
    There are certain explanations that scientists do not accept, even though such explanations do not conflict with observation, logic, or other scientific theories. I argue that a common version of the no-miracles argument (NMA) for scientific realism relies upon just such an explanation. First, scientists (usually) do not accept explanations whose explanans neither generates novel predictions nor unifies apparently disparate phenomena. Second, scientific realism (as it appears in the NMA) is an explanans that makes no new predictions, and fails to (...)
    Direct download (4 more)  
     
    Export citation  
     
    Bookmark  
  17. Synopsis and discussion. Workshop: Underdetermination in science 21-22 March, 2009. Center for philosophy of science.Greg Frost-Arnold, J. Brian Pitts, John Norton, John Manchak, Dana Tulodziecki, P. D. Magnus, David Harker & Kyle Stanford - manuscript
    This document collects discussion and commentary on issues raised in the workshop by its participants. Contributors are: Greg Frost-Arnold, David Harker, P. D. Magnus, John Manchak, John D. Norton, J. Brian Pitts, Kyle Stanford, Dana Tulodziecki.
    Direct download (3 more)  
     
    Export citation  
     
    Bookmark  
  18. The identical rivals response to underdetermination.Gregory Frost-Arnold & P. D. Magnus - 2009 - In P. D. Magnus & Jacob Busch (eds.), New waves in philosophy of science. New York: Palgrave-Macmillan.
    No categories
     
    Export citation  
     
    Bookmark  
  19. Make ontology easy again: Amie Thomasson: Ontology Made Easy. New York: Oxford University Press, 2015, xiii+345pp, $53.00 HB. [REVIEW]Greg Frost-Arnold - 2016 - Metascience 25 (3):497-500.
    A book review of Amie Thomasson's defense of Neo-Carnapianism in her "Ontology Made Easy" (2015, Oxford UP).
    Direct download (3 more)  
     
    Export citation  
     
    Bookmark  
  20. Replies to Creath, Ebbs, and Lavers. [REVIEW]Greg Frost-Arnold - 2015 - Metascience 25 (1):43-49.
    Author's replies to an APA book symposium on "Carnap, Tarski, and Quine at Harvard.".
    Direct download (3 more)  
     
    Export citation  
     
    Bookmark  
  21.  62
    Putting the ‘empiricism’ in ‘logical empiricism’: the director’s cut: Thomas Uebel: Empiricism at the Crossroads: The Vienna Circle’s Protocol-Sentence Debate. Chicago: Open Court Press, 2007, xvii+518 pp, US $89.95 PB. [REVIEW]Greg Frost-Arnold - 2010 - Metascience 20 (2):373-376.
    Putting the ‘empiricism’ in ‘logical empiricism’: the director’s cut Content Type Journal Article DOI 10.1007/s11016-010-9444-x Authors Greg Frost-Arnold, Department of Philosophy, Hobart and William Smith Colleges, Geneva, NY 14456, USA Journal Metascience Online ISSN 1467-9981 Print ISSN 0815-0796.
    Direct download (4 more)  
     
    Export citation  
     
    Bookmark  
  22.  41
    Review of Alan Richardson, Thomas Uebel (eds.), The Cambridge Companion to Logical Empiricism[REVIEW]Greg Frost-Arnold - 2008 - Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews 2008 (5).
    For much of the second half of the 20th Century, the primary role logical empiricism played was that of the argumentative foil. The 'received view' on a given topic (especially in philosophy of science, logic, or language) was frequently identified with some supposedly dogmatic tenet of logical empiricism. However, during the last twenty-five years, scholars have paid serious, sustained attention to what the logical positivists, individually and collectively, actually said. Early scholarship on logical empiricism had to engage in heavy-duty PR (...)
    Direct download  
     
    Export citation  
     
    Bookmark  
  23.  38
    Theoretical Virtues in Science: Uncovering Reality through Theory. [REVIEW]Greg Frost-Arnold - 2018 - Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews 2018.
    This is a book review of Samuel Schindler's _Theoretical Virtues in Science_.
    Direct download  
     
    Export citation  
     
    Bookmark