Month: September 2015

I gave a talk at the EPSA meeting in Düsseldorf on what I call the argument from the good lot (pdf). It uses a case study from genetics in the first half of the 20th century – how was DNA shown to bear hereditary information? – to argue that scientists work hard to avoid one of the great pitfalls of inferences to the best explanation: the bad lot.

I’ve uploaded the slides (pdf) to a talk I gave last week at a workshop in Oulu in Finland. This is my latest attempt to explicate the methodology of integrated history and philosophy of science (or at least of one type of such work). The workshop’s topic was “Testing philosophical theories against the history of science”, and the full program is well worth a look – it was a stimulating event.