Skip to main content

Academic

Peter Vickers

Associate Professor and Reader, Department of Philosophy, University of Durham, UK

Very academic,

  • Tim Lyons and I are co-editing a volume, under contract with Oxford University Press, entitled Contemporary Scientific Realism and the Challenge from the History of Science. It is expected to appear in 2019.
  • Plenary lecture in Spain: Invitation to deliver a plenary address at the five-day International Ontology Conference, San Sebastian, Spain, October 2-6 2018.
  • As of 2018 I am the Associate Editor of Studies in History and Philosophy of Science
  • My OUP monograph Understanding Inconsistent Science appeared in 2013, and has received ten academic reviews to date. See e.g. here.
  • A few articles I am particularly proud of:

(2018): ‘Disarming the Ultimate Historical Challenge to Scientific Realism’, The British Journal for the Philosophy of Science. DOI: 10.1093/bjps/axy035. One of the anonymous reviewers wrote, “This is one of the best contemporary examples of integrated history and philosophy of science.”

(2017): ‘Conceptual Fragmentation and the Rise of Eliminativism’, European Journal for the Philosophy of Science 7(1): 17-40.

(2013): ‘A Confrontation of Convergent Realism’, Philosophy of Science 80(2): 189-211.

Less academic, more fun

The misleading evidence that fooled scientists for decades (The Conversation, June 2018, 66,000+ views)
‘The most remarkable numerical coincidence in the history of physics’ (‘Auxiliary Hypotheses’, 2017)
Is science inconsistent? (OUP blog, 2015)
Was the original prediction of gill slits in the human embryo a miracle? (‘Auxiliary Hypotheses’, 2015)

  • I am writing a popular science/philosophy of science book. I expect to complete it in 2019.
  • 2018: Weekend School in Oxford: Weekend School at the Oxford Centre for Continuing Education, on the topic of ‘Contemporary Scientific Realism and the Challenge from the History of Science’, 24-25th November 2018.
  • 2016: Weekend school at the Oxford Centre for Further Education: On 9-10th January 2016 I gave two presentations as part of a ‘weekend school’ at the Oxford Centre for Further Education, based on my book Understanding Inconsistent Science.