Philosophy of Science and Mathematics

A list of selected publications in philosophy of natural science, social science and philosophy of mathematics. For more information, please visit the personal webpages of the members of this research group.

Volumes

• Bangu, Sorin. (forthcoming) Philosophy of Mathematics After Wittgenstein. Cambridge Univ. Press.
• Cahill, Kevin M. (Ed.) (2024). Wittgenstein on Practice: Back to the Rough Ground. Plagrave Macmillan.
• Cahill, Kevin M. (2021). Towards a Philosophical Anthropology of Culture: Naturalism, Relativism, and Skepticism. New York: Routledge.
• Bangu, Sorin. (Ed.) (2018). Naturalizing Logico-Mathematical Knowledge: Approaches from Philosophy, Psychology and Cognitive Science. Routledge.
• Cahill, K. and Thomas Raleigh. (Eds.) (2018). Wittgenstein and Naturalism. New York: Routledge.
• Cahill, K., Martin Gustafsson and Thomas Schwarz-Wenzer. (Eds.) (2017). Finite but Unbounded: New Approaches in Philosophical Anthropology. Berlin Studies in Knowledge Research. Berlin: de Gruyter.
• Bangu, S. & Cahill, K. M. (Eds.) (2017). Filosofi for Realister. Universitetsforlaget.
• Bangu, Sorin. (2012). The Applicability of Mathematics in Science: Indispensability and Ontology. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.
• Cahill, Kevin M. (2011). The Fate of Wonder: Wittgenstein's Critique of Metaphysics and Modernity. Columbia Univ. Press.

Papers (selection)

• Bangu S. & J. Schatz (2025) "Wittgenstein on Cantor's Proof". Synthese. Vol. 206, art. 130.
• Bangu, S. (2025) "Wittgenstein on Proof and Concept-Formation". Philosophical Quarterly. 75, 1:1–20.
• Bangu, S. (2025) "The Comeback of Natural Philosophy. Essay review of Penelope Maddy Natural Philosophy and Other Essays (Oxford Univ. Press, 2022)" Philosophy of Science. Forthcoming.
• Baumgartner, M. and L. Casini (2025) "Constitution, Non-Causal Explanation, and Demarcation" Ergo, 12:14, doi: 10.3998/ergo.6924.
• Skiba, L. (2025) "Higher-Order Being and Time" Nous 59: 464–494.
• Zahle, J. (2025). "Bias and Debiasing Strategies in Qualitative Data Collection," Philosophy of Science 92(3):606-623. https://doi.org/10.1017/psa.2024.70.
• Zahle, J. (2025). "Process Tracing with Qualitative Data," in The Routledge Handbook of Causality and Causal Methods, Phyllis Illari and Federica Russo (eds.). London: Routledge Publishers, pp. 419-429.
• Zahle, J. and Ylikoski, P. (2025). “Objectivity in Social Research: An Introduction” Synthese, 205(206): 1-9. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11229-025-05006-6.
• Zahle, J., Jiménez-Buedo, M., Mantzavinos, C., Montuschi, E (eds.) (2025). “Special Issue: Selected Papers from the 13th ENPOSS Meeting. Bergen, 28-30 August 2024, Philosophy of the Social Sciences, 55(5). 

• Bangu, S. (2024) "A Note on 'Philosophical Investigations into AI Alignment: A Wittgensteinean Framework' by J.A. Perez-Escobar and D. Sarikaya." Philosophy and Technology. Vol. 37, art. 96
• Bangu, S. (2024) "Mind the gap: Noncausal Explanations of Dual Properties". Philosophical Studies. 181: 789–809.
• Baumgartner, M. and C. Falk (2024) "Quantifying the Quality of Configurational Causal Models" Journal of Causal Inference 12(1), 20230032, doi: 10.1515/jci-2023-0032.
• Baumgartner, M., A.T. Kelley, M.A. Incze, A.N.C. Campbell, E.V. Nunes , D.O. Scharfstein (2024) "Predictors of Urine Toxicology and Other Biological Specimen Missingness in Randomized Trials of Substance Use Disorders" Drug and Alcohol Dependence 260, doi: 10.1016/j.drugalcdep.2024.111368.
• De Souter, L. (2024) "Evaluating Boolean relationships in Configurational Comparative Methods". Journal of Causal Inference, vol. 12, no. 1, pp. 2023-0014.
• Marchionni, C, Zahle, J. & Godman, M. (2024). “Reactivity in the Human Sciences,” European Journal for Philosophy of Science, 14(8):1-24. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13194-024-00571-y.
• Swiatczak, M. and M. Baumgartner (2024) "Data Imbalances in Coincidence Analysis: A Simulation Study" Sociological Methods & Research, 54(2), 739-771, doi: 10.1177/00491241241227039.
• Zahle, J & Huvenes, T.T. (2024). “Examen philosophicum fra allmenndannelse til ekspertdannelse,” Norsk Filosofisk Tidsskrift 59(1-2):3-13. https://doi.org/10.18261/nft.59.1-2.
• Zahle J. & Godman, M., Marchionni, C. (eds.) (2024) “Reactivity in The Human Sciences,” Topical Collection, European Journal for Philosophy of Science.
• Zahle, J., Runhardt, R., Jiménez-Buedo, M., Mantzavinos, C., Montuschi, E., (eds.) (2024). “Special Issue: Selected Papers from the 12th ENPOSS Meeting, Nijmegen, August 30 – September 1, 2023, Philosophy of the Social Sciences, 54(5).

• Bangu, S. & V. Ardourel. (2023). “Finite-Size Scaling Theory: Quantitative and Qualitative Approaches to Critical Phenomena“. Studies in the History and Philosophy of Science. 100: 99-106.
• Bangu S., Marianna Antonutti-Marfori and Emiliano Ippoliti (2023). “The Explanatory and Heuristic Power of Mathematics“. Synthese (201; art. 154) Introduction to the homonymous topical collection.
• Bangu S., Marianna Antonutti-Marfori and Emiliano Ippoliti. (Eds) (2023). "The Explanatory and Heuristic Power of Mathematics." Synthese, 2023. Topical collection.
• Bangu, S. (2023) "On the Grammar of Mathematical Propositions." In Contributions/Beiträge to International Wittgenstein Symposium 2023: 100 Years of Tractatus LogicoPhilosophicus — 70 Years after Wittgenstein’s Death. A Critical Assessment 6. - 12. Aug 2023. Pp. 29-37. Eds. A. Pichler; E. Heinrich-Ramharter; F. Stadler. Kirchberg am Wechsel.
• Baumgartner, M. and Falk, C. (2023). "Configurational Causal Modeling and Logic Regression". Multivariate Behavioral Research 58:2, 292-310.
• Baumgartner, M. and C. Falk (2023) "Boolean Difference-Making: A Modern Regularity Theory of Causation" The British Journal for the Philosophy of Science 74(1), 171-197, doi: 10.1093/bjps/axz047.
• Zahle, J. (2023). (published online). "Reactivity and Good Data in Qualitative Data Collection". European Journal for Philosophy of Science, 1-18.
• Zahle, J. (2023). “Qualitative Research in Political Science” in The Oxford Handbook of Philosophy of Political Science. Jeroen van Bouwel and Harold Kincaid (eds.). Oxford: Oxford University Press pp. 204-220.
• Zahle, J., Jesús Zamora-Bonilla, Byron Kaldis, MarÍa Jiménez-Buedo, Eleonora Montuschi, Rosa Runhardt (eds.) (2023). “Special Issue: Selected Papers from the 11th ENPOSS Meeting, Málaga, September 21-23, 2022,” Philosophy of the Social Sciences, 53(5).

• Bangu S. (2022). “Factivism in Historical Perspective. Understanding the Gravitational Deflection of Light“. In Scientific Understanding and Representation: Mathematical Modeling in the Life and Physical Sciences. I. Lawler, K. Khalifa, E. Shech. (Eds.) Ch. 6, pp. 62-77. Routledge
• Parkkinen, V. P. (2022). "Variable relativity of causation is good". Synthese, 200(193)
• Zahle, J. & Kincaid, H. (2022). (published online). “Are ABM Explanations in the Social Sciences Inevitably Individualist?” Synthese, pp. 1-22.
• Zahle, J., Reiko Gotoh, Kei Yoshida, Chor-yung Cheung, Francesco Di Iorio, Paul Dumouchel, Mark Tamthai, Alban Bouvier, Byron Kaldis, Eleonora Montuschi, Jesús Zamora-Bonilla, David Henderson, Kareem Khalifa, Mark Risjord, Paul Roth, Deborah Tollefsen, and Stephen Turner (eds.) (2022). “Special Issue: Selected Papers from the joint ANPOSS, ENPOSS, and POSS-RT Meeting, Tokyo, 4-7 March 2021” Philosophy of the Social Sciences, 52(1-2).

• Bangu, S. (2021) "Hard and Blind: On Wittgenstein’s Genealogical View of Logical Necessity". Philosophy and Phenomenological Research 102 (2): 439-458
• Bangu, S. (2021) "The Appearance of Skepticism: Possibility, Conceivability and Infinite Ascent". Canadian Journal of Philosophy. 51:2, 94-107.
• Bangu, S. (2021). "Phase Transitions. In The Routledge Companion to the Philosophy of Physics. E. Knox and A. Wilson (eds.) Routledge. Ch. 36, pp. 512-23.
• Bangu, S. (2021). "Mathematical Explanations of Physical Phenomena". Australasian Journal of Philosophy. 99.4: 669–82
• Baumgartner, M. (2021). "Qualitative Comparative Analysis and Robust Sufficiency". Quality & Quantity, doi: 10.1007/s11135-021-01157-z
• Baumgartner, M. and M. Ambühl (2021). "Optimizing Consistency and Coverage in Configurational Causal Modeling". Sociological Methods & Research. doi: 10.1177/0049124121995554; Replication material.
• Casini, L. and M. Baumgartner (2021), "The PC Algorithm and the Inference to Constitution" [penultimate draft], The British Journal for the Philosophy of Science. doi: 10.1086/714820. Online supplementary material <https://people.uib.no/mba110/docs/rep_material_BJPS2018-395.zip>
• Parkkinen, V. P. and M. Baumgartner (2021). "Robustness and Model Selection in Configurational Causal Modeling". Sociological Methods & Research. doi: 10.1177/0049124120986200
• Swiatczak, Martyna Daria (2021). "Different algorithms, different models". Quality & Quantity: International Journal of Methodology, doi: 10.1007/s11135-021-01193-9
• Swiatczak, M. D. (2021). "Towards a neo-configurational theory of intrinsic motivation". Motivation and Emotion 45, 769-789
• Zahle, J. (2021). "Interpretivism and Qualitative Research" in Stephen Turner and the Philosophy of the Social. Christopher Adair-Toteff (ed.). Leiden: Brill, pp. 202-220.
• Zahle, J. (2021). “Limits to Levels in the Methodological Individualism-Holism Debate,” Synthese 198(7), pp. 6435-6454.
• Zahle, J. & Ylikoski, P. (eds.) (2021) “Objectivity in Social Research,” Topical Collection, Synthese.

• Bangu, Sorin. (2020). ‘Changing the Style of Thinking’. Wittgenstein on Superlatives, Revisionism, and Cantorian Set Theory. Iyyun. The Jerusalem Philosophical Quarterly (68): 1-21
• Baumgartner, M. (2020), Causation, in: The SAGE Handbook of Political Science, ed. by D. Berg-Schlosser, B. Badie, and L. Morlino, London: SAGE, pp. 305–321.
• Baumgartner M. and A. Thiem (2020), Often Trusted But Never (Properly) Tested: Evaluating Qualitative Comparative Analysis, Sociological Methods & Research 49, 279–311, doi: 10.1177/0049124117701487.
• Swiatczak, Martyna Daria; Krause, Tobias. (2020). In control we trust!? Exploring formal control configurations for municipally owned corporations. Journal of Public Budgeting, Accounting and Financial Management.
• Veli-Pekka Parkkinen and Jon Williamson. (2020). Extrapolating from model organisms in pharmacology. In B. Osimani & A. La Caze (eds.) Uncertainty in pharmacology. Springer.
• Whitaker R.G., N. Sperber, M. Baumgartner, et al. (2020) Coincidence analysis: a new method for causal inference in implementation science , Implementation Science 15, 108 (2020).
• Zahle, Julie. (2020) (online first). Objective Data Sets in Qualitative Research. Synthese.
• Zahle, J. and Kincaid, H. (2020). "Agent-Based Modelling With and Without Methodological Individualism" in Advances in Social Simulation - Looking in the Mirror, Harko Verhagen, Melania Borit, Giangiacomo Bravo, and Nanda Wijermans (eds.). Berlin: Springer, pp. 15-25.
• Zahle, J. (2020). "The Level Conception of the Methodological Individualism-Holism Debate" in Social Ontology, Normativity and Law, Miguel Garcia, Rachael Mellin and Raimo Tuomela (eds.). Berlin: de Gruyter, pp. 27-38.
• Zahle, J., Kaldis, B, Bouvier, A., Montuschi, E., Zamora-Bonilla, J. (eds.) (2020). ”Special Issue: Selected Papers from the 8th ENPOSS Meeting, Athens 28-30 August 2019,” Philosophy of the Social Sciences, 50(4).

• Bangu, S. (2019). "Discontinuities and Singularities, Data and Phenomena: For Referentialism". Synthese 196: 1919–1937
• Baumgartner M. and C. Falk. (2019). Boolean Difference-Making: A Modern Regularity Theory of Causation, The British Journal for the Philosophy of Science, doi: 10.1093/bjps/axz047.
• Kappel, K. and Zahle, J. (2019). "The Epistemic Role of Science and Experts in Democracy" in The Routledge Handbook of Social Epistemology, Peter Graham, Miranda Fricker, David Henderson, and Nikolaj Jang Lee Linding Pedersen (eds.). London: Routledge Publishers, pp. 397-405.
• Michael Wilde and Veli-Pekka Parkkinen. (2019). Extrapolation and the Russo-Williamson thesis. Synthese, 196(8), 3251-3262.
• Zahle, Julie. and Kincaid, H. (2019). Why be a Methodological Individualist? Synthese. 196(2): 655-675
• Zahle, Julie. (2019) (online first). Limits to Levels in the Methodological Individualism-Holism Debate. Synthese.
• Zahle, Julie. (2019). Data, Epistemic Values and Multiple Methods in Case Study Research. Studies in History and Philosophy of Science. Part A, 78:32-39.
• Zahle, J. & Kaidesoja, T. (2019) "Emergence in the Social Sciences" in The Routledge Handbook of Emergence, Sophie Gibb, Robin Findlay, & Tom Lancaster (eds.). London: Routledge Publishers, pp. 400-409.
• Zahle, J. & Ylikoski, P. (eds.) (2019). “Special Section: Case Study Research in the Social Sciences,” Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part A, 78.
• Zahle, J., Feest, U., Bouvier, A., Henderson, D. Kaldis, B., Montuschi, E., Risjord, M., Roth, P., Zamora-Bonilla, J. (eds.) (2019). ”Special Issue: Joint Session of the European Network for the Philosophy of the Social sciences (ENPOSS) and the Roundtable on Philosophy of the Social Sciences Hannover, August 30 – September 1, 2018,” Philosophy of the Social Sciences, 49(3).
• Zahle, J., Kwarciński, T., Bouvier, A., Kaldis, B., Montuschi, E., Zamora-Bonilla, J. (eds.) (2018). ”Special Issue: Selected Papers from the 6th ENPOSS Meeting, Krakow 20-22 September 2017,” Philosophy of the Social Sciences.

• Bangu, S. (2018). "Later Wittgenstein and the Genealogy of Mathematical Necessity". In Wittgenstein and Naturalism. K. Cahill and T. Raleigh (eds.) Pp. 151-173. Routledge.
• Bangu, Sorin. (2018). "Indispensability, Causation and Explanation". Theoria 33(2): 219-232. In the special issue Updating Indispensabilities: Hillary Putnam In Memoriam. Mary Leng (ed.)
• Bangu, Sorin & R. Moir. (2018). "The 'Miracle' of Applicability? The Curious Case of the Simple Harmonic Oscillator". Foundations of Physics 48(5): 507-525. In the special issue Philosophical Aspects in the Foundations of Physics. Miklos Redei, Harvey Brown, Klaas Landsman (eds.)
• Baumgartner, Michael and M. Ambühl. (2018). Causal Modeling with Multi-value and Fuzzy-set Coincidence Analysis. Political Science Research and Methods. doi: 10.1017/psrm.2018.45.
• Baumgartner, M. (2018). The Inherent Empirical Underdetermination of Mental Causation. Australasian Journal of Philosophy, 96, 335-350. doi: 10.1080/00048402.2017.1328451
• Baumgartner M., L. Casini, and B. Krickel (2018). Horizontal Surgicality and Mechanistic Constitution, Erkenntnis, doi: 10.1007/s10670-018-0033-5.
• Parkkinen, V.-P. and Williamson, J. (2018). Extrapolating from model organisms in pharmacology. In A. La Caze & B. Osimani (Ed.) Uncertainty in Pharmacology: Epistemology, Methods and Decisions. Springer: Boston Series in Philosophy of Science.
• Parkkinen, V.-P. (2018). Are model organisms theoretical models? Disputatio. 9(47), 471-499.
• Zahle, Julie. (2018). Values and Data Collection in Social Research. Philosophy of Science. 85(1): 144-163

• Bangu, Sorin. (2017). Scientific Explanation and Understanding: Unificationism Reconsidered. European Journal for Philosophy of Science 7(1): 103-126
• Baumgartner, M. and A. Thiem. (2017). Model Ambiguities in Configurational Comparative Research. Sociological Methods & Research 46, 954-987. doi: 10.1177/0049124115610351
• Parkkinen, V.-P. and Wilde, M. (2017). Extrapolation and the Russo–Williamson thesis. Synthese. 1-12. Online first 29 November 2017.
• Zahle, Julie. (2017). Privacy, Informed Consent, and Participant Observation. Perspectives on Science. 25(4): 465-487
• Zahle, Julie. (2017). Ability Theories of Practice and Turner's Criticism of Bourdieu. Journal for General Philosophy of Science. 48(4): 553-567.
• Zahle, J., Ylikoski, P., Bouvier, A., Kaldis, B., Montuschi, E., Zamora-Bonilla, J. (eds.) (2017). “Special Issue: Selected Papers from the 5th ENPOSS Meeting, Helsinki 24-26 August 2016,” Philosophy of the Social Sciences. 47(4-5).

• Bangu, Sorin. (2016). On 'The Unreasonable Effectiveness of Mathematics in the Natural Sciences'. In Models and Inferences in Science. T. Nickles, E. Ippoliti, F. Sterpetti. (eds.) Pp. 11-29. Springer.
• Bangu, Sorin. (2016). Later Wittgenstein on the Logicist Definition of Number. In Early Analytic Philosophy. New Perspectives on the Tradition. S. Costreie. (ed.) Western Ontario Series in Philosophy of Science Series. General ed. W. Demopoulos. Pp. 233-257. Springer
• Baumgartner, M. and A. Gebharter. (2016). Constitutive Relevance, Mutual Manipulability, and Fat-Handedness. The British Journal for the Philosophy of Science 67, 731-756. doi: 10.1093/bjps/axv003
• Cahill, Kevin. (2016). The Habitus, Coping Practices and the Search for the Ground of Action. Philosophy of the Social Sciences 46(5):498-524
• Parkkinen, V.-P. (2016). Robustness and evidence of mechanisms in early experimental atherosclerosis research. Studies in History and Philosophy of Science part C: Studies in History and Philosophy of Biological and Biomedical Sciences, 60, 44-55.
• Zahle, J., Bohman, J. Bouvier, A., Kaldis, B., Montuschi, E., Risjord, M., Roth, P., Turner, S., Wylie, A., Zamora-Bonilla, J. (eds.) (2016). ”Special Issue: Selected Papers from the RT- ENPOSS Meeting, Seattle 8-10 May 2015,” Philosophy of the Social Sciences, 46(2).