Peter Machamer
University of Pittsburgh, History and Philosophy of Science, Faculty Member
Some biological processes (our examples are DNA expression and a reflex response in the leech) move from step to step in a way that cannot be completely understood solely in terms of causes and correlations. This paper develops a notion... more
Some biological processes (our examples are DNA expression and a reflex response in the leech) move from step to step in a way that cannot be completely understood solely in terms of causes and correlations. This paper develops a notion of mechanistic information that can be used to explain the continuities of such processes. We compare them to processes (including the Krebs cycle) that do not involve information. We compare our conception of mechanistic information to some familiar notions including Crick’s idea of genetic information, Shannon-Weaver information, and Millikan’s biosemantic information.
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Galileo changed the very concepts or categoriesby which natural philosophy could deal withmatter and motion. Central to these changeswas his introduction of time as a fundamentalconcept. He worked with the pendulum and withthe inclined... more
Galileo changed the very concepts or categoriesby which natural philosophy could deal withmatter and motion. Central to these changeswas his introduction of time as a fundamentalconcept. He worked with the pendulum and withthe inclined plane to discover ...
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Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Daniela Bailer‐Jones died on 13 November 2006 at the age of 37. She had suffered from cancer for more than 10 years. Daniela touched and enriched the lives of many people, philosophers included. I met her in the summer of 1994 in the... more
Daniela Bailer‐Jones died on 13 November 2006 at the age of 37. She had suffered from cancer for more than 10 years. Daniela touched and enriched the lives of many people, philosophers included. I met her in the summer of 1994 in the south of France, at a ...
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Research Interests:
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Galileo and the Art of Reasoning: Rhetorical Foundations of Logic and Scientific Method. [Physics Today 34, 94 (1981)]. MA Finocchiaro, Peter Machamer Reviewer. Keywords. Book reviews. History of science.
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Research Interests: Philosophy and Synthese
... ulars, and it's not hard to see that memory plays an important part in this, eg, I must remember that it was the word "red" which I applied to this apple the first time, and perhaps that it was... more
... ulars, and it's not hard to see that memory plays an important part in this, eg, I must remember that it was the word "red" which I applied to this apple the first time, and perhaps that it was thecolor I was concerned with, in order to know that I should here and now apply the word ...
Page 1. PETER K. MACHAMER OBSERVATION Of the many problems involved in discussions of acceptability and justi-fication I wish to consider in this paper what types of sentences can be used in order to justify a given claim ...
In Pennsylvania's 1990 gubernatorial race, incumbent Robert Casey faced Auditor General Barbara Hafer. Casey is an ardent anti abortionist who supported and then signed what was at the time called the most restrictive abortion... more
In Pennsylvania's 1990 gubernatorial race, incumbent Robert Casey faced Auditor General Barbara Hafer. Casey is an ardent anti abortionist who supported and then signed what was at the time called the most restrictive abortion measure in the nation. Hafer, a former public ...
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The historiography of 17* century studies and the scientific revolution is replete with images, schemata and slogans meant to provide perspective and unification into the goings on four centuries past. The very concept ofthe scientific... more
The historiography of 17* century studies and the scientific revolution is replete with images, schemata and slogans meant to provide perspective and unification into the goings on four centuries past. The very concept ofthe scientific revolution itselfwas meant to focus scholar ...
We began writing this paper assuming that therewere conflicts be tween privacy and freedom of information. As the ideas developed and we spoke with other peoplewe came to believe that the basic conflict is between personal privacy and... more
We began writing this paper assuming that therewere conflicts be tween privacy and freedom of information. As the ideas developed and we spoke with other peoplewe came to believe that the basic conflict is between personal privacy and freedom of the press. This ...
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In Descartes' natural philosophy he has a great need for dispositions, or as he sometimes calls them, tendencies or inclinations. This need arises for anyone who employs an equilibrium model in the science of motion. In a balance... more
In Descartes' natural philosophy he has a great need for dispositions, or as he sometimes calls them, tendencies or inclinations. This need arises for anyone who employs an equilibrium model in the science of motion. In a balance at rest, both weights are pressing ...
1. Reference, perception, and realism Athanassios Raftopoulos and Peter Machamer, 2. Towards an (improved) interdisciplinary investigation of demonstrative reference Amanda Brovold and Rick Grush, 3. Visual demonstratives Mohan Matthen,... more
1. Reference, perception, and realism Athanassios Raftopoulos and Peter Machamer, 2. Towards an (improved) interdisciplinary investigation of demonstrative reference Amanda Brovold and Rick Grush, 3. Visual demonstratives Mohan Matthen, 4. Losing grip on the world: from ...
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Perhaps, the best way to approach a book with as broad a scope and as great an ambition as Philip Kitcher's The Advancement of Science is to think about its main goal. What vision is it trying to convey? Is it a worthy vision?... more
Perhaps, the best way to approach a book with as broad a scope and as great an ambition as Philip Kitcher's The Advancement of Science is to think about its main goal. What vision is it trying to convey? Is it a worthy vision? Later one can ask how well it was done. ...
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Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Poznan Studies in the Philosophy of the Sciences and the Humanities, 1998, Vol. 64. pp. 73-84. Peter Machamer INDIVIDUAL AND OTHER PERSON MORALITY: A PLEA FOR AN EMOTIONAL RESPONSE TO ETHICAL PROBLEMS I. The Set Up There are only two... more
Poznan Studies in the Philosophy of the Sciences and the Humanities, 1998, Vol. 64. pp. 73-84. Peter Machamer INDIVIDUAL AND OTHER PERSON MORALITY: A PLEA FOR AN EMOTIONAL RESPONSE TO ETHICAL PROBLEMS I. The Set Up There are only two possibilities ...
Chapter 4 Kuhn's Philosophical Successes? Peter Machamer Introduction Thomas Kuhn's The Structure of Scientific Revolutions was published in 1962 (Kuhn, 1962). Since its publication it has sold about 20 million... more
Chapter 4 Kuhn's Philosophical Successes? Peter Machamer Introduction Thomas Kuhn's The Structure of Scientific Revolutions was published in 1962 (Kuhn, 1962). Since its publication it has sold about 20 million copies and has been translated into 18 languages. 1 This ...
4 The Social in the Epistemic Peter Machamer Department of History and Philosophy of Science, University of Pittsburgh Lisa Osbeck Department of Psychology, State University of West Georgia In considering the role of values in science, it... more
4 The Social in the Epistemic Peter Machamer Department of History and Philosophy of Science, University of Pittsburgh Lisa Osbeck Department of Psychology, State University of West Georgia In considering the role of values in science, it has been traditional to ...
Peter MACHAMER THE NATURE OF METAPHOR AND SCIENTIFIC DESCRIPTION' Metaphors and similar tropes deal primarily with concepts and cognition, with the intellectual life of perceiving, understanding and acting. However, I will talk about... more
Peter MACHAMER THE NATURE OF METAPHOR AND SCIENTIFIC DESCRIPTION' Metaphors and similar tropes deal primarily with concepts and cognition, with the intellectual life of perceiving, understanding and acting. However, I will talk about language, and especially ...
ABSTRACT. In 1590, or thereabouts, Galileo wrote the manuscript De Motu (Galileo 1590). In this text he attempted to demonstrate the errors of Aristotelian natural philosophy and began his lifelong attempt to construct a science of... more
ABSTRACT. In 1590, or thereabouts, Galileo wrote the manuscript De Motu (Galileo 1590). In this text he attempted to demonstrate the errors of Aristotelian natural philosophy and began his lifelong attempt to construct a science of motion. The chief device in De Motu was his ...