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The status of theory and hypotheses

In Peter R. Anstey (ed.), The Oxford handbook of British philosophy in the seventeenth century. Oxford, England: Oxford University Press. pp. 169 (2013)

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  1. Newton: From Certainty to Probability?Kirsten Walsh - 2017 - Philosophy of Science 84 (5):866-878.
    Newton’s earliest publications contained scandalous epistemological claims: not only did he aim for certainty; he also claimed success. Some commentators argue that Newton ultimately gave up claims of certainty in favor of a high degree of probability. I argue that no such shift occurred. I examine the evidence of a probabilistic shift: a passage from query 23/31 of the Opticks and rule 4 of the Principia. Neither passage supports a probabilistic approach to natural philosophy. The aim of certainty, then, was (...)
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  • Francis Bacon's method and the investigation of light.James Everest - 2015 - Intellectual History Review 25 (4):391-400.
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  • Kant's Theory of Scientific Hypotheses in its Historical Context.Boris Demarest & Hein van den Berg - 2022 - Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part A 92:12-19.
    This paper analyzes the historical context and systematic importance of Kant's hypothetical use of reason. It does so by investigating the role of hypotheses in Kant's philosophy of science. We first situate Kant’s account of hypotheses in the context of eighteenth-century German philosophy of science, focusing on the works of Wolff, Meier, and Crusius. We contrast different conceptions of hypotheses of these authors and elucidate the different theories of probability informing them. We then adopt a more systematic perspective to discuss (...)
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  • Newton on Islandworld: Ontic-Driven Explanations of Scientific Method.Adrian Currie & Kirsten Walsh - 2018 - Perspectives on Science 26 (1):119-156.
    . Philosophers and scientists often cite ontic factors when explaining the methods and success of scientific inquiry. That is, the adoption of a method or approach is explained in reference to the kind of system in which the scientist is interested: these are explanations of why scientists do what they do, that appeal to properties of their target systems. We present a framework for understanding such “Opticks to his Principia. Newton’s optical work is largely experiment-driven, while the Principia is primarily (...)
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  • Newton’s Scaffolding: the instrumental roles of his optical hypotheses.Walsh Kirsten - forthcoming - In A. Vanzo & P. Anstey (eds.), Experiment, Speculation and Religion in Early Modern Philosophy. Routledge.
    Early modern experimental philosophers often appear to commit to, and utilise, corpuscular and mechanical hypotheses. This is somewhat mysterious: such hypotheses frequently appear to be simply assumed, odd for a research program which emphasises the careful experimental accumulation of facts. Isaac Newton was one such experimental philosopher, and his optical work is considered a clear example of the experimental method. Focusing on his optical investigations, I identify three roles for hypotheses. Firstly, Newton introduces a hypothesis to explicate his abstract theory. (...)
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