Proposed Work. Preparing a book, promised to Routledge, that will be a comprehensive and synthetic survey of the historical development of the philosophy of science from the mid-nineteenth century through the mid-twentieth century. PI will spend the spring and summer of 2008 rounding out research already completed and writing a first draft of the book. The majority of the work will be carried out at the PI's home institution during a sabbatical leave. Additional research will be conducted at various archives and institutes, including the Archives for Scientific Philosophy at the University of Pittsburgh (where the PI will be a Visiting Fellow at the Center for Philosophy of Science in the fall of 2007) and the Institute Vienna Circle in Vienna (spring 2008).
Intellectual Merit. The book will fill a major gap in the literature on the history of the philosophy of science, being the first of its kind to be able to draw upon the now extensive and still rapidly growing scholarship on the history of the philosophy of science that has appeared in the last twenty years. The book will also incorporate the fruits of the PI's extensive original research on such topics as the interactions between physics and philosophy of science, with special focus on Einstein's impact on the philosophy of science, and the political context within which the discipline developed and which it aspired to shape. But the book will be comprehensive in its scope, with respect to philosophical schools, national philosophical traditions, and influences from all scientific disciplines. It will present the results of new research on topics including the philosophical background of later-nineteenth century British natural philosophy, the history of French philosophy of science in the early-twentieth century, especially the circle around Emile Meyerson, and the influence of the biological, social, and human sciences on the development of the philosophy of science. The book will also be original in the extent to which it looks at the institutional context in which the philosophy of science emerged as a discipline.
Broader Impact. The book will fill an obvious and keenly felt need within the philosophy of science community, where one hopes that a better grasp of the discipline's history might catalyze discussion about the discipline's future directions. It book should also have an impact within the community of secondary school science teachers and education professionals who are struggling to satisfy newly-mandated guidelines for the inclusion of "the nature of science" in secondary school science education. A self-contained and accessible history of the philosophy of science is needed by science teachers. Under the PI's direction, Notre Dame's History and Philosophy of Science Graduate Program has already sought to assist this community through the creation of a summer graduate program in history and philosophy of science for secondary school science and mathematics teachers. The PI will also serve as local organizer and host for the 2009 biennial meeting of IHPST, the International History, Philosophy, and Science Teaching Group, the major international professional association serving the science teacher and trainer community.
