Publicaties

We argue that two well-known examples (strawberry distribution and Konigsberg bridges) generally considered genuine cases of distinctively mathematical explanation can also be understood as cases of distinctively generic explanation. The latter answer resemblance questions (e.g., why did neither person A nor B manage to cross all bridges) by appealing to 'generic task laws' instead of mathematical necessity (as is done in distinctively ...

Evidence-based management (EBMgt) is a relatively recent approach to management, developed by Denise Rousseau in a series of articles and in a book that she co-authored with Eric Barends (Barends & Rousseau 2018). It is based on the idea that good-quality management decisions require both critical thinking and use of the best available evidence. In this paper we want to contribute to the scholarship on evidence-based management by showing ...

The aim of this chapter is to understand why experimental philosophy of medical explanation can be important and to elaborate how it should be done to be philosophically interesting. It is structured around three theses. First: experimental philosophy of scientific explanation can legitimize normative philosophy of scientific explanation. Second: normative philosophy of scientific explanation can in turn establish the significance of the results ...

Casuistry, which involves analogical reasoning, is a popular methodological approach in bioethics. The method has its advantages and challenges, which are widely acknowledged. Meta-philosophical reflection on exactly how bioethical casuistry works and how the challenges can be addressed is limited. In this paper we propose a framework for structuring casuistry and analogical reasoning in bioethics. The framework is developed by incorporating ...

Alfred Cuzan proposed five "laws of politics" that allegedly govern elections in democracies. Drawing from insights in the general philosophy of science and the philosophy of the social sciences, I argue that-although his empirical evidence is impressive-he failed to develop a convincing argument for calling the five theses "laws." This article discusses other examples that often are claimed to be "laws of politics" and describes the global ...

There are several theses in political science that are usually explicitly called 'laws'. Other theses are generally thought of as laws, but often without being explicitly labelled as such. Still other claims are well-supported and arguably interesting, while no one would be tempted to call them laws. This situation raises philosophical questions: which theses deserve to be called laws and which not? And how should we decide about this? In this ...

In this paper we identify six theses that constitute core results of philosophical investigation into the nature of mechanisms, and of the role that the search for and identification of mechanisms play in the sciences. These theses represent the fruits of the body of research that is now often called New Mechanism. We concisely present the main arguments for these theses. In the literature, these arguments are scattered and often implicit. Our ...

While I agree with Jerome Wakefield that the meaning of our notion of disorder comprises both an evaluative and a factual component, I argue that the harmful dysfunction analysis cannot convincingly form a basis for distinguishing disorder from nondisorder in a consistent manner. I argue that disease is a multifaceted concept, for which a single definition involving a straightforward dichotomy between disorder and nondisorder is not justifiable, ...

While function modeling has been around in engineering design research since the 1960s, there have been no systematic, comparative studies devoted to assessing the adequacy of function modeling frameworks in light of engineering design objectives. This systematic assessment and comparison - called benchmarking - is now recognized as a central research issue in current function modeling research, but insight into how this benchmarking can be done ...