Brian Baigrie

Associate Professor and Director of Graduate Studies
VC 317, Victoria College, 91 Charles St. W., University of Toronto, Toronto, ON M5S 1K7
brian.baigrie@utoronto.ca

Campus

  • St. George

Fields of Study

  • History of Early Modern Science
  • Philosophy of Medicine
  • Philosophy of Science

Biography

    PhD Supervisions

    Matthew Burns (STS, York University): “Predictive Networks and the Plate Tectonics Revolution.” (Co-Supervisor: Ernie Hamm, STS, York University). 2022
    Mat Mercuri (IHPST): “Basing Clinical Decisions on GRADE Recommendations: Implications for Practice and Lessons Learned about Evidence.” 2020
    Nick Overgaard (IHPST): “On the Collective Intentionality of Epistemic Communities.” 2019
    Jean-Jacques Rousseau (IHPST) : “Science as Créole: A Case Against Incommensurability.” 2014
    Brooke Abounader, “Models and Modelling in the Physical Sciences” (co-supervisor: James R. Brown). 2013
    Hakob Barseghyan, “A Theory of Scientific Change.” 2013.
    Jenene Wiedemer, “Anesthesia and Entertainment: Nitrous Oxide in Nineteenth Century America” (co-supervisor: Pauline H. Mazumdar). 2006.
    Katherine Wright: “Being Human in Post-War American Thought and Culture: A History from the Cybernetic Perspective.” 2003 
    Jill Lazenby: “Climates of Collaboration: Interdisciplinary Science and the Social Identity Perspective.”  2002
    Andris Krumins: “Symmetry, Conservation Laws, and Theoretical Particle Physics (1918-1979).” 1999.
     

    Selected Publications

    Books
    • The Creation of Modern Science, Parts One and Two. Toronto: TopHat Publications, 2018
    • 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
    • “Covid-19 and the Generation of Novel Scientific Knowledge During a Dangerous Time” (with Lucie Perillat).  Journal of Evaluation in Clinical Practice (forthcoming).
    • “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 (forthcoming, 2021).
    • “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 Practice25 (2019), 533-535.
    • “What confidence should we have in GRADE?” (with Mat Mercuri), Journal of Evaluation in Clinical Practice 24 (2018), 1240-1246.
    • “Going from Evidence to Recommendations: Can GRADE Get Us There?” (with Mat Mercuri and Ross Upshur). Journal of Evaluation in Clinical Practice.” Forthcoming 24 (2018), pp. 1232-1239.
    • “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, volume 22 (2016), pp. 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 Inter­national 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.

    Brian Baigrie on ResearchGate

    Administrative Service

    Director of Graduate Studies