History and Philosophy of Science

Department of

History and Philosophy of Science
University of Pittsburgh



PhilSci Pre-print Archive
An electronic archive for preprints in the philosophy of science offered as a free service to the philosophy of science community. The goal of the Archive is to promote communication in the field by the rapid dissemination of new work. The archive is sponsored by: Philosophy of Science Association, Center for Philosophy of Science and the University of Pittsburgh Library System.

Center for Philosophy of Science
The Center, which celebrates its 40th anniversary in 2001, exists to promote scholarship and research, to encourage scholarly exchanges, and to foster publications in the philosophy of science as well as in philosophically informed history of science and related fields. Amongst its many activities are an extensive Visiting Fellows Program, frequent conferences and workshops, bi-weekly lunchtime talks and the Annual Lecture Series.

Archives for Scientific Philosophy
In recent decades the University of Pittsburgh has established itself as a leader in scientific philosophy, one of the twentieth century's most important intellectual currents. Furthermore, the University has committed itself to assembling archival resources for investigating the history of scientific philosophy. Known as the Archives of Scientific Philosophy (ASP), these holdings include the scholarly papers of Rudolf Carnap, Hans Reichenbach, Frank Plumpton Ramsey, Paul Hertz, and Rose Rand. In addition, the Archives holds microfilm copies of the papers of Herbert Feigl (the originals being housed at the University of Minnesota ). The Archives also includes the private working libraries of Carnap and Reichenbach and microfilm copies of the manuscripts of Ludwig Wittgenstein and the Archives for the History of Quantum Physics. Most materials are housed in the Special Collections Department of the University's Hillman Library.

Experimental HPS Lab
The Department of History and Philosophy of Science owns a lab. We use it to run experiments that bear on philosophical debates and to reconstruct important experiments in the history of science. PDF e-books and videos of experiments that document our projects are posted on the lab webpage.

HPS Pittsburgh Graduate Research Groups

Regular HPS Graduate "WIP" (Work in Progress) talks
Quantum Field Theory Group
Wittgenstein Reading Group
Department of Philosophy
The Department of HPS works closely with Pittsburgh's world class philosophy program at both graduate and undergraduate levels. The strengths of the two departments are assessed in: The Philosophical Gourmet Report.

Philosophy at CMU
The Department of HPS has close links with the Department of Philosophy at Carnegie Mellon University.

Newton's Regulae Philosophandi - under construction
The only complete listing of the extant revisions to Newton's landmark "Rules of Philosophizing".