BJPS Short Reads
Activity Overview
Episode publication activity over the past year
Episodes
Exploitative Informing
21 Nov 2024
Contributed by Lukas
David Thorstad on how to exploit someone by giving them relevant information Read the essay here: www.thebsps.org/short-reads/exploitative-informin...
Black Holes and Reality
12 Nov 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Siddharth Muthukrishnan on how our philosophy of science affects our response to the information paradox Read the essay here: www.thebsps.org/short...
Explaining Human Mind-Reading
07 Nov 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Armin W Schulz asks how humans became stand-out mind-readers Read the essay here: www.thebsps.org/short-reads/mind-reading-schulz/
Ambiguous Decisions in Bayesianism and Imprecise Probability
31 Oct 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Mantas Radzvilas, William Peden, and Francesco De Pretis on whether imprecise beliefs lead to worse decisions under severe uncertainty Read the essay...
The Promise of Precision Medicine
24 Oct 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Axel Constant on whether there are alternatives to reductionism in precision psychiatry Read the essay here: www.thebsps.org/short-reads/precision-...
Making Science Funding Policy Fair
17 Oct 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Jamie Shaw on lotteries, biases, and affirmative action Read the essay here: www.thebsps.org/short-reads/science-funding-shaw/
Physical Dimensions Are Real
10 Oct 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Caspar Jacobs on why the Bureau International des Poids et Mesures is wrong Read the essay here: www.thebsps.org/short-reads/dimensions-are-real-jaco...
Binary Categories, Messy Individuals
03 Oct 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Alex Thinius and Rose Trappes on how scientists construct sex as a binary and categorical variable Read the essay here: www.thebsps.org/short-reads/b...
Institutional Decision-Making Heuristics
10 Jun 2024
Contributed by Lukas
David Thorstad on what lies beyond simple rules Read the essay here: https://www.thebsps.org/short-reads/thorstad-institutionaldecisionmaking/
Drawing the Line
29 Apr 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Davide Serpico and Valentina Petrolini on rethinking mental health and pathology through epigenetics. Read the essay here: https://www.thebsps.org/s...
What Do Newtonian Forces Have to Do with the Standard Model?
15 Apr 2024
Contributed by Lukas
James Ladyman and Lorenzo Lorenzetti on understanding effective realism through the lens of structural realism Read the essay here: https://www.thebs...
The Function of Biochemical Functions
05 Mar 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Francesca Bellazzi on what it means to say that a biochemical has a function. Read the essay here: https://www.thebsps.org/short-reads/biochemical-fu...
Accuracy and Calibration
19 Feb 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Robert Williams and Richard Pettigrew ask how we should measure the accuracy of probabilities. Read the essay here: https://wp.me/paiQQ4-2iw
Is the Free Energy Principle for Real?
07 Feb 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Ian Robertson, Julian Kiverstein, and Michael Kirchhoff on the literalist fallacy and realism about the free energy principle. Read the essay here: h...
To Err Is (Not Only) Human
22 Jan 2024
Contributed by Lukas
David Oderberg, Jonathan Hill, Christopher Austin, Ingo Bojak, François Cinotti, and Jon Gibbins ask what mistakes mean for philosophy and biology. ...
Accuracy and Coherence
03 Oct 2022
Contributed by Lukas
David Thorstad asks if bounded agents can have both accuracy and coherence. Read the essay: https://wp.me/paiQQ4-2ba
What Cognitive Science Has Forgotten about Computation
11 Sep 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Analog computation, properly understood, is the best candidate for characterizing neural computation, argues Corey J Maley. Read the essay here: https...
The Perfect Time to Reform Peer Review
29 Aug 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Liam Kofi Bright and Remco Heesen ask how we determine what to pay attention to. Read the essay: https://wp.me/paiQQ4-1SW
What If Light Doesn’t Exist?
22 Aug 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Mario Hubert on how an investigation of the initial-value problem challenges our view of electromagnetism. Read the essay here: https://wp.me/paiQQ4-2...
Haecceitism, Rigid Designation, and Thermodynamic Equilibrium
02 May 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Michael te Vrugt asks if exchanging two indistinguishable particles changes anything. Read the essay here: https://wp.me/paiQQ4-22Z
How to Open Two Locks with One Key
23 Mar 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Eddy Keming Chen offers a new solution to the puzzles of time’s arrow and quantum ontology. Read the essay: https://wp.me/paiQQ4-20r.
Why History Matters in Biology
10 Mar 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Justin Garson on the study of mechanisms and the study of history. Read the essay: https://wp.me/paiQQ4-1LN.
Mind the Gap
04 Mar 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Elanor Taylor on what makes a good explanation. Read the essay: https://wp.me/paiQQ4-1IZ
Blurring the Line between Laws and Initial Conditions
23 Feb 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Caspar Jacobs on what's wrong with the pristine interpretation. Read the essay: https://wp.me/paiQQ4-1TD
Why 'Not'?
14 Feb 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Luca Incurvati and Giorgio Sbardolini on the evolution of negation. Read the essay: https://wp.me/paiQQ4-1TT.
On the Limits of Scientific Objectivity
07 Feb 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Richard Healey on whether there are objective facts in the quantum world. Read the essay: https://wp.me/paiQQ4-1SZ.
Tune in and Find Out
30 Jan 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Florian J. Boge explains why it may be epistemically acceptable to tune models for experimental analysis. Read essay: https://wp.me/paiQQ4-1U9.
Models of Scientific Explanation and Inference to the Best Explanation
22 Nov 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Yunus Prasetya on what substantive accounts of explanation say about inference to the best explanation. Read the essay: https://wp.me/paiQQ4-1Rd
Digital Humanities and the Philosophy of Science
11 Nov 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Oliver M Lean, Luca Rivelli, and Charles H Pence on what philosophers can learn from a ‘distant reading’ of science journals. Read the essay: http...
Against Authorship
11 Nov 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Josh Habgood-Coote on whether authorship is an obstacle to recognising the division of labour in science. Read the essay: https://wp.me/paiQQ4-1NS
COVID-19, Induction, and Social Epistemology
11 Nov 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Igor Douven on evolutionary modelling and trust in science. Read the essay: https://wp.me/paiQQ4-1No
Does Economics Need Micro-foundations?
11 Nov 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Nadia Ruiz and Armin W Schulz offer a complexity-based reconceptualization of the debate. Read the essay: https://wp.me/paiQQ4-1J4