Campus
- St. George
Fields of Study
- History of Early Modern Science
- Philosophy of Medicine
- Philosophy of Science
Biography
PhD Supervisions
2023 Adrian Yee (IHPST): “Signaling, Machine Learning, & Democracy: A Theory of Misinformation.”
2022 Matthew Burns (STS, York University): “Predictive Networks and the Plate Tectonics Revolution.” (Co-Supervisor: Ernie Hamm, STS, York University).
2020 Mat Mercuri (IHPST): “Basing Clinical Decisions on GRADE Recommendations: Implications for Practice and Lessons Learned about Evidence.”
2019 Nick Overgaard (IHPST): “On the Collective Intentionality of Epistemic Communities.”
2014 Jean-Jacques Rousseau (IHPST) : “Science as Créole: A Case Against Incommensurability.”
2013 Brooke Abounader, “Models and Modelling in the Physical Sciences.” (Co-supervisor): James R. Brown.
2013 Hakob Barseghyan, “A Theory of Scientific Change.”
2006 Jenene Wiedemer, “Anesthesia and Entertainment: Nitrous Oxide in Nineteenth Century America” (co-supervisor: Pauline H. Mazumdar).
2003 Katherine Wright: “Being Human in Post-War American Thought and Culture: A History from the Cybernetic Perspective.”
2002 Jill Lazenby: “Climates of Collaboration: Interdisciplinary Science and the Social Identity Perspective.”
1999 Andris Krumins: “Symmetry, Conservation Laws, and Theoretical Particle Physics (1918-1979).”
Selected Publications
Books
• Electricity and Magnetism, A Historical Perspective. Greenwood Publications, 2007.
• (editor) Scientific Revolutions: Primary Texts in the History of Science. New Jersey: Prentice-Hall, 2003.
• (editor) History of Modern Science and Mathematics. New York: Charles Scribner’s Press, 2002, 4 volumes.
• (editor) The Renaissance and the Scientific Revolution: Biographical Portraits. Scribner’s Science Reference Series. Volume 1. New York: Charles Scribner’s & Sons, 2000.
• (editor) Picturing Knowledge: Historical and Philosophical Problems Concerning the Use of Art In Science, Toronto, University of Toronto Press, 1996.
Articles
• “Health Systems Resilience in Canada” (with Sara Allin, Amol Verma, and Fahad Razak). In Steve Thomas (ed.), The Elgar Handbook in Health Systems Resilience. Oxford: Oxford University Press (forthcoming, 2024).
• “Pandemics.” (with Mat Mercuri). In Fritz Alhoff (ed.), Public Health Global Ethics. Oxford University Press (in press, 2024).
• “Caring as the Unacknowledged Matrix of Evidence-Based Nursing” (with Victoria Wang). The Journal of Medical Ethics. (forthcoming 2023).
• “The Brave New World of Pandemic Resilience” (with Mat Mercuri). Journal of Evaluation in Clinical Practice 28(3) (2022): 1-6. DOI: 10.1111/jep.13
• “Patients Participation in the Clinical Encounter and Clinical Practice Guidelines: The Case of Patients’ Participation in a GRADEd World” (with Amiram Gafni and Mat Mercuri). Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part A. Part A, 85 (2021): 192-199. doi.org/10.1016/j.shpsa.2020.10.008
• “Covid-19 and the Generation of Novel Scientific Knowledge: Research Questions and Study Designs” (with Lucie Perillat). Journal of Evaluation in Clinical Practice 27(3) (2021): 708-715. Doi.org/10.1111/jep.13550
• “Covid-19 and the Generation of Novel Scientific Knowledge: Evaluating and Reporting Novel Scientific Knowledge” (with Lucie Perillat). Journal of Evaluation in Clinical Practice 27(3) (2021): 694-707. doi.org/10.1111/jep.13548
• “Relevance, Validity, and Evidential Reasoning in Clinical Practice” (with Mat Mercuri). Journal of Evaluation in Clinical Practice 26 (2020): 1341-1343.
• “What Counts as Evidence in an Evidence Based World?” (with Mat Mercuri), Journal of Evaluation in Clinical Practice 25 (2019): 533-535.
• “What Confidence Should We Have in Grade?” (with Mat Mercuri) Journal of Evaluation in Clinical Practice 24 (2018): 1240-46.
• “Going from Evidence to Recommendations: Can GRADE Get Us There?” (with Mat Mercuri and Ross Upshur), Journal of Evaluation in Clinical Practice 24 (2018): 1232-39.
• “Interpreting Risk as Evidence of Causality: Lessons Learned from a Legal Case to Determine Medical Malpractice” (with Mat Mercuri), Journal of Evaluation in Clinical Practice 22 (2016): 515-521.
• ”The Invention of ‘Light Writing’: Or How the Cosmos Came to Draw Itself.” Optics and Photonics News. Published by the Optical Society of America (Mar 2003), 50-54.
• “The New Science: Kepler, Galileo, and Mersenne.” In Steven Nadler, ed., A Companion to Early Modern Philosophy. London: Blackwell’s. 2002, pp. 45-59.
• “Röntgen’s Mysterious X Rays.” Optics and Photonics News. Published by the Optical Society of America (Jan 2002), 40-43.
• “Galileo’s Lunar Landscapes.” Optics and Photonics News. Published by the Optical Society of America 12 (2001), 32-36.
• “The Scientific Life of the Camera Obscura.” Optics and Photonics News. Published by Optical Society of America. 11 (2000), 18-21.
• “Rapid Discovery, Cross-Breeding Networks, and the Scientific Revolution.” Philosophy of the Social Sciences30 (2000), 257-273.
• “Descartes and la grande méchanique de la nature.” In B. Baigrie, ed., Picturing Knowledge: Historical and Philosophical Problems Concerning The Use of Art In Science. Toronto: The University of Toronto Press, 1996, pp. 87-133.
• “Scientific Practice: The View from the Tabletop.” In J. Buchwald, ed., Scientific Practice: Theories and Stories of Doing Physics. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1995, pp. 87-122.
• “The Vortex Theory of Planetary Motion, 1687-1713: Empirical Difficulties and Guiding Assumptions.” In A. Donovan, L. Laudan, and R. Laudan, eds., Scrutinizing Science. Dordrecht: D. Reidel Publishing Company, 1988, pp. 85-102.
• “On Consensus and Stability in Science” (with J. N. Hattiangadi), The British Journal for the Philosophy of Science43 (1992), 435-58.
• “” A Reappraisal of Duhem’s Conception of Scientific Progress.” Revue Inter¬national de Philosophie 182 (1992), 344-360.
• ““Generativist Versus Foundational Justification: A Reply to Andrew Lugg.” Studies in History and Philosophy of Science 23.3 (1992), 503-508.
• “Relativism, Truth and Progress.” Transactions of the Royal Society of Canada, Series V, Volume IV (1990), 9-19.
• “The Justification of Kepler’s Ellipse.” Studies in History and Philosophy of Science 21 (1990), 633-664.
• “Kepler’s Laws of Planetary Motion, Before and After Newton’s Principia: An Essay on the Transformation of Scientific Problems.” Studies in History and Philosophy of Science 18 (1987), 177-208.