For my academic homepage at the University of Durham, UK, click here.
I’m a science-first philosopher of science, based at the University of Durham, UK. I care about science, evidence, and truth.
What is science-first philosophy of science?
I think philosophical questions about science should be asked, and answered by starting with the actual science. Scientists are, for the most part, doing a brilliant job. And science can achieve, and has achieved, some astonishing things. It has delivered knowledge of things that initially seem impossible to know. If we are going to criticise science, then we had better be sure we really understand the science properly. If we have a philosophical view that sounds particularly silly to scientists, then it probably is silly (witness Karl Popper’s attitude towards the theory of evolution!). And if we have a philosophical view that dicates that science should be done rather differently to how it *is* done, then that view is most likely wrong.
News
2023
I am plenary speaker at BSPS 2023.
I am an invited speaker at CLMPST 2023.
Identifying Future-Proof Science is published in the US.
Interviewed by Times Higher Ed – see here.
Interviewed by Coda Story – see here.
2022
Identifying Future-Proof Science is available!
Entire book available electronically via Oxford Academic
Read Chapter 1 (open access)
Huge thanks to the British Academy for entrusting me with a Mid-Career Fellowship, which allowed me the time to complete the book.
I was a keynote speaker at The Future of the Past.
I was a keynote speaker at this conference, celebrating the 550th anniversary of the birth of Nicolaus Copernicus.
I took up the role of Associate Editor at the BJPS.
Interview with Fraser Cain – see here.
Elected as Corresponding Member of Académie Internationale de Philosophie des Sciences (AIPS)
2021
I am leading a Leverhulme-funded research project, running 2021-24, entitled Exploring Uncertainty and Risk in Contemporary Astrobiology, or ‘EURiCA’. Details here.
Professor Peter Vickers 