Alan Chalmers

Publications

What Is This Thing Called Science?, Queensland University Press, Open University Press and Hackett Publishing Company. First Edition, 1976, Second Revised Edition, 1982, Third Revised Edition, 1999, Fourth Revised Edition, with Postscript, 2013.

(Translated into French, German, Dutch, Italian, Spanish, Greek, Polish, Estonian, Latvian, Japanese, Chinese, Korean, Indonesian, Turkish, Iranian, Danish, Norwegian and Portuguese.)

 Science and Its Fabrication, Open University Press and University of Minnesota Press, 1990.

(Translated into French, German, Dutch, Spanish, Korean and Chinese)

The Scientist’s Atom and the Philosopher’s Stone: How Science Succeeded and Philosophy Failed to Gain Knowledge of Atoms. Springer, 2009.

One Hundred Years of Pressure: Hydrostatics from Stevin to Newton, Springer, 2017.

Articles

‘Curie’s principle’, British Journal for the Philosophy of Science, 21, 1970, 133-48.

‘Maxwell’s methodology and his application of it to electromagnetism’, Studies in History and Philosophy of Science, 4, 1973, 107-64.

‘The limitations of Maxwell’s electromagnetic theory’, Isis, 64, 1973, 469-83.

‘On learning from our mistakes’, British Journal for the Philosophy of Science, 24, 1973, 164-73.

‘Maxwell and the displacement current’, Physics Education, 1975, 45-9.

‘The extraordinary pre-history of the law of refraction’, Australian Physicist, 12, 1975, 85-8.

‘Towards an objectivist account of theory change’, British Journal for the Philosophy of Science, 30, 1979, 227-33.

with J. Bishop, ‘Rationalism, empiricism and beyond’ in The Search for the Human World, Deakin University Press, 1980, pp. 49 - 145.

‘A critique and an improvement of Lakatos’s methodology of scientific research programmes’, Methodology and Science, 13, 1980, 2-27.

‘Epidemiology and the scientific method’, Community Health Studies, 6, 1980, 36-40, reprinted in International Journal of Health Studies, 12, 1982, 659-66.

‘Rationality is wonderful: Lakatos’s half-theory of the history of science’, Erkenntnis, 16, 1981, 167-76.

‘Planetary distances in Copernican theory’, British Journal for the Philosophy of Science, 32, 1983, 374-5.

‘James Clerk Maxwell’ in Makers of Nineteenth Century Culture, Ed., J. Wintle, Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1983, pp. 411-2.

‘The primacy of practice: A reply to Mervyn Susser’, International Journal of Health Studies, 13, 1983, 329-31.

with R. Nicholas, ‘Galileo on the dissipative effect of a rotating earth’, Studies in the History and Philosophy of Science, 14, 1983, 315-40.

‘Planetary distances and Copernican theory: A reply’, British Journal for the Philosophy of Science, 34, 1983, 372-74.

‘A non-empiricist account of experiment’, Methodology and Science, 17, 1984, 95-114.

‘Methodological individualism: An incongruity in Popper’s philosophy’ in Popper and the Human Sciences, eds. G. Currie and A. Musgrave, Martinus Nijhoff, 1985, pp. 73-87.

‘The case against a universal, a-historical scientific method’, Bulletin of Science, Technology and Society, 5, 1985, 555-67.

‘Galileo’s telescopic observations of Venus and Mars’, British Journal for the Philosophy of Science, 36, 1985, 555-67.

‘Scientific realism without dogmatism’, Methodology and Science, 18, 1985, 48-61. ‘The Galileo that Feyerabend missed: An improved case against method’ in J. A. Schuster and R. R. Yeo (eds), The Politics and Rhetoric of Scientific Method, Dordrecht: Reidel, 1986, pp. 1-31.

‘The heuristic role of Maxwell’s mechanical model of electromagnetism’, Studies in History and Philosophy of Science, 17, 1986, 415-27.

‘Bhaskar, Cartwright and realism in physics’, Methodology and Science, 20, 1987, 77-96.

‘The sociology of knowledge and the epistemological status of science’, Thesis XI, 21, 1988, 82-102.

‘Is Bhaskar’s realism realistic?, Radical Philosophy, 49, 1988, 18-23.

‘Realism in physics: A reply to Suchting’, Methodology and Science, 21, 1988, 296-9.

‘How to defend science against skepticism’, British Journal for the Philosophy of Science, 40, 1989, 249-53.

‘Social science and politics: A philosopher’s perspective’ in The Social Sciences and Health Research, eds J. Daly and E. Willis, Public Health Association of Australia, 1990, pp. 50-52.

‘Is a law reasonable to a Hume?’, Cogito, 6, 1992, 125-9.

‘Wisdom and the epistemological defense of science’, Metascience, 1, 1992, 57-71.

‘Galilean relativity and Galileo’s relativity’ in Correspondence, Invariance and Heuristics, Ed. S. French and H. Kaminga, Kluwer, 1993, pp. 189-205.

‘So the laws of physics needn’t lie’, Australasian Journal of Philosophy, 71, 1993, 96-205.

‘The lack of excellency of Boyle’s mechanical philosophy’, Studies in History and Philosophy of Science, 24, 1993, 541-64.

‘Maxwell’s electromagnetism’, Metascience, 4, 1993, 17-27.

‘Theory change and theory choice’, Methodology and Science, 27, 1994, 161-165.

‘Ultimate explanation in science’, Cogito, 9, 1995, 141-5

‘Cartwright on fundamental laws’, Australasian Journal of Philosophy, 74, 1996, 150-52

‘Did Democritus ascribe weight to atoms?, Australasian Journal of Philosophy, 75, 1997, 279-287.

‘Retracing the ancient steps to atomic theory’, Science and Education, 7, 1998, 69-84

’Twenty years on: Adding the cat’s whiskers’, Science and Education, 8, 1999, 327-338.

‘Making sense of laws of physics’ in H. Sankey (ed.), Causation and Laws of Nature, Dordrecht, Kluwer 1999, pp. 3-16.

‘What can particle physicists count on?’, Essay Review of P. Gallison, Image and Logic in Metascience, 8, 1999, 388-392.

‘What is this thing called philosophy of science? Response to reviewers of What Is Thing Called Science?, 3rd Edition, in Metascience, 9, 2000, 198-203.

with N. Rasmussen, ‘The role of theory in the use of instruments’ in J. Buchwald and A. Warwick (eds) , Histories of the Electron: The Birth of Microphysics. MIT Press, 2001, pp. 467-502.

‘Maxwell, mechanism and the nature of electricity’, Physics in Perspective, 3, 2001, 425-438

‘Experiment versus mechanical philosophy in the work of Robert Boyle’, Studies in History and Philosophy of Science, 33, 2002, 191-97.

‘Experiment and the growth of scientific knowledge’ in P. Gardenfors, J. Wolenski and K. Kijania-Placet (eds), In the Scope of Logic, Methodology and Philosophy of Science, Vol., 1, Dordrecht: Kluwer. 2002, pp. 157-169

‘The theory-dependence of the use of instruments in science’, Philosophy of Science, 70, 2003, 493-509

‘Introduction’ to P. O’Grady, Meet the Philosophers of Ancient Greece, Aldershot, Hampshire: Ashgate, 2005, pp. 3-7.

‘Democritus’ in P. O’Grady, Meet the Philosophers of Ancient Greece, Aldershot, Hampshire: Ashgate, 2005, 117-122.

‘Atomism from the 17th to the 20th Century’, The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, Fall 2005 Edition, Edward N. Zalta (ed.).

‘The status of Dalton’s atomic theory’, The Rutherford Journal, 1, 2005.

‘Why Alan Musgrave should become an essentialist’ in C. Cheyne and J. Worrall (eds), Rationality and Reality: Conversations with Alan Musgrave, Springer, 2006, pp. 165 – 181.

'Aristotle: Critic or pioneer of atomism'? in Greek Research in Australia: Proceedings of the Biennial Conference of Greek Studies, April 2005, Elizabeth Close, Michael Tsianikas, George Francis and George Couvalis (eds), 2007, pp. 81-88.

‘Atom and aether in nineteenth-century physics’, Foundations of Chemistry, 10, 2008, 157-166

‘Aristotle on atomism’ in Greek Research in Australia: Proceedings of the Biennial International Conference of Greek Studies, 2007. Eds. E. Close, G. Couvalis, G. Frazis, M. Palaktsoglou and M. Tsianikas. Flinders University. 2009, pp. 55-62.

‘Can scientific theories be warranted?’ in Error and Inference: Recent Exchanges on Experimental Reasoning, Reliability and the Objectivity and Rationality of Science, Deborah G. Mayo and Aris Spanos (eds), Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2009, pp. 58-72.

‘Boyle and the origins of modern chemistry: Newman tried in the fire’, Studies in History and Philosophy of Science, 41, 2010, 1-10.

‘A Revisionist History of Atomism’: Review Symposium of The Scientist’s Atom and the Philosopher’s Stone. Author’s response to reviewers. Metascience, 19, 2010, 362-371.

‘Aristotle on homoeomerous substances’, Greek Research in Australia: Proceedings of the Eighth Biennial International Conference of Greek Studies, 2009. Flinders University, 2011

‘Understanding science through its history: A response to Newman’, Studies in History and Philosophy of Science, 42, 2011, 150-153.

‘The philosophical significance of Perrin’s experiments on Brownian motion’, British Journal for the Philosophy of Science, 62, 2011, 711-732.

‘Robert Boyle’ in The Handbook of the Philosophy of Chemistry, A. Woody, R. Hendry and P. Needham (Eds), Amsterdam: Elsevier, 2012, pp. 47-53.

‘Klein on the origin of the concept of chemical compound’, Foundations of Chemistry, 14, 2012, 37-53.

‘Intermediate causes and explanations: The key to understanding the scientific revolution’, Studies in History and Philosophy of Science, 43, 2012, 551-562.

‘Was Aristotle the founder of chemistry?’ in M. Tsianikas, N. Maada, G. Couvalis and M. (eds.), Greek Research in Australia: Proceedings of the Biennial International Conference of Greek Studies, Flinders University, 2013, pp. 79-85.

‘Qualitative novelty in seventeenth-century science: Hydrostatics from Stevin to Pascal’, Studies in History and Philosophy of Science, 51, 2015, 1-10.

‘Robert Boyle’s mechanical account of hydrostatics and pneumatics: Fluidity, the spring of the air and their relationship to the concept of pressure’. Archive for History of Exact Science, 19, 2015, 429-454.

“Boyle’s corpuscular chemistry: Atomism before its time’ in G. Fisher and E. Scerri (Eds), Essays in Philosophy of Chemistry, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2016, pp. 15-36.

‘Viewing past science from the point of view of present science, thereby illuminating both: Philosophy versus experiment in the work of Robert Boyle’, Studies in History and Philosophy of Science, 55, 2016, 27-35.

‘Theorizing the distinction between solids, liquids and air: Pressure from Stevin to Pascal’, in Friedrich Stadler (Ed,), Integrated History and Philosophy of Science: Problems, Perspectives and Case Studies, Vienna Circle Institute Year Book, Springer, 2017, pp. 55-67.

‘How pressure became a scalar, not a vector’, Physics in Perspective, 20, 2018, 115-179.

‘Non-teleological progress in hydrostatics from practitioners’ knowledge to scientific knowledge’ in Metascience, 28, 2019, 197-202.

Biography

Since 2015, as part of our commitment to community and science, Co Serve Consulting | Technology has hosted information about Alan and his work.