Advances in Experimental Philosophy of Science

Richard Samuels is Professor of Philosophy at Ohio State University, and previously held appointments at King’s College London and the University of Pennsylvania. He has published numerous papers on topics in the philosophy of psychology and foundations of cognitive science.Daniel A. Wilkenfeld is Lecturer in the Department of History and Philosophy of Science at the University of Pittsburgh, USA.

• 1. Introduction, Richard Samuels & Daniel A. WilkenfeldPart I: Explanation and Understanding2. Scientific Understanding and the Human Drive to Explain, Elizabeth Kon & Tania Lombrozo3. The Challenges and Benefits of Mechanistic Explanation in Folk Scientific Understanding, Frank Keil Part II: Theories and Theory Change4. Information That Boosts Normative Global Warming Acceptance Without Polarization: Toward J. S. Mill’s Political Ethology of National Character, Michael Ranney, Matthew Shonman, Kyle Fricke, Lee Nevo Lamprey, & Paras Kumar5. Science in Vivo: Addressing Philosophical Questions About Science Through the Psychology of Scientific Thought, Andrew Shtulman6. Intuitive Epistemology: Children’s Theory of Evidence, Mark Fedyk, Tamar Kushnir, and Fei XuPart III: Special Sciences7. Applying Experimental Philosophy to Investigate Economic Concepts: Choice, Preference, and Nudge, Michiru Nagatsu8. Scientists’ Concepts of Innateness: Evolution or Attraction?, Edouard Machery, Paul Griffiths, Stefan Linquist, & Karola StotzPart IV: General Considerations9. Causal Judgment: What Can Philosophy Learn from Experiment? What Can It Contribute to Experiment?, James WoodwardIndex

The papers included in this ground-breaking collection, many authored by world class psychologists and philosophers, make a persuasive case that experimental methods can contribute to traditional debates in the philosophy of science as well as opening new domains of inquiry at the cutting edge of the field.