Brian Baigrie

Associate Professor and Director of Undergraduate Studies
VC 320, Victoria College, 91 Charles St. W., University of Toronto, Toronto, ON M5S 1K7

Campus

Fields of Study

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 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