Eric Barnes

Curriculum vitae

I have worked primarily in the philosophy of science, including the nature of scientific progress, scientific explanation, confirmation theory, and the realist–anti-realist debate. My primary focus over the last several years has been on predictivism, the claim that evidence confirms theory more strongly when it is predicted than when theories are built to fit such evidence. My current research interests are in the freedom of the will and social and political autonomy.

Publications (Selected)

The Paradox of Predictivism (Cambridge University Press, 2008).

"Historical Moral Responsibility: Is the Infinite Regress Problem Fatal?", Pacific Philosophical Quarterly (forthcoming).

"Character Control and Moral Responsibility," Philosophical Studies (forthcoming).

"Freedom, Creativity, and Manipulation," Noûs 47 (forthcoming). Prepublished online 3 September 2013, DOI: 10.1111/nous.12043.

"The Roots of Predictivism," Studies in the History and Philosophy of Science (forthcoming).

"Evidence and Leverage: Comment on Roush," British Journal for the Philosophy of Science 59 (2008): 549-57.

"Predictivism for Pluralists," British Journal for the Philosophy of Science 56 (2005): 421-50.

"The Miraculous Choice Argument for Realism," Philosophical Studies 111 (2002): 97-120.

"Neither Truth nor Empirical Adequacy Explain Novel Success," Australasian Journal of Philosophy 80 (2002): 418-31.

"Ockham's Razor and the Anti-Superfluity Principle," Erkenntnis 53 (2000): 353-74.

"The Quantitative Problem of Old Evidence," British Journal for the Philosophy of Science 50 (1999): 249-64.

"Probabilities and Epistemic Pluralism," British Journal for the Philosophy of Science 49 (1998): 31-47.

"Why P Rather than Q?: The Curiosities of Fact and Foil," Philosophical Studies 73 (1996): 35-53.

"Inference to the Loveliest Explanation," Synthese 103 (1995): 251-77.

"Explanatory Unification and the Problem of Asymmetry," Philosophy of Science 59 (1992): 558-71.

"The Causal History of Computational Activity: Maudlin and Olympia," Journal of Philosophy 88 (1991): 304-16

Courses Taught

PHIL 3372: Liberty
PHIL 3351: History of Western Philosophy (Ancient)
PHIL 1305: Introduction to Philosophy
PHIL 1301: Elementary Logic