Frederick Britt
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fbritt.bsky.social
Frederick Britt
@fbritt.bsky.social
PhD student in philosophy of science at the University of Bern (CH), interested in the pragmatics of eliminative reasoning and part of the SNSF-Project, "Extending the Scope of Causal Realism". Otherwise, family & climbing:)
Pinned
Call for papers: Synthese Topical Collection "Meta-Level Reflections on the Scientific Realism Debate". Deadline: March 31, 2026. Guest editors: Matthias Egg, Mahdi Khalili & myself, @unibe.ch. Looking forward to your contributions!

philevents.org/event/show/1...

#philsci
Synthese Topical Collection "Meta-Level Reflections on the Scientific Realism Debate"
Call for Papers: Meta-Level Reflections on the Scientific Realism Debate Guest Editors: Matthias Egg, Mahdi Khalili and Frederick Britt (University of Bern) Topical Collection Description: It has...
philevents.org
Reposted by Frederick Britt
People have long wondered if dinosaurs really would've thrived if not for the asteroid that killed them. Two new studies, involving paleontologists @stevebrusatte.bsky.social and Lindsay Zanno, dig further into that question.
Were Dinos On Their Way Out Before The Asteroid Hit? Maybe Not
Two new studies suggest that, contrary to longstanding beliefs, dinosaurs were not on the decline before the Chicxulub asteroid impact.
buff.ly
November 7, 2025 at 6:19 PM
Call for papers: Synthese Topical Collection "Meta-Level Reflections on the Scientific Realism Debate". Deadline: March 31, 2026. Guest editors: Matthias Egg, Mahdi Khalili & myself, @unibe.ch. Looking forward to your contributions!

philevents.org/event/show/1...

#philsci
Synthese Topical Collection "Meta-Level Reflections on the Scientific Realism Debate"
Call for Papers: Meta-Level Reflections on the Scientific Realism Debate Guest Editors: Matthias Egg, Mahdi Khalili and Frederick Britt (University of Bern) Topical Collection Description: It has...
philevents.org
November 1, 2025 at 3:42 PM
Reposted by Frederick Britt
@philsci-archive.bsky.social is finally here! Nice!
October 25, 2025 at 1:18 PM
Reposted by Frederick Britt
A weirdly underappreciated problem about Inference to the Best Explanation is how it can handle uncertain evidence. This new paper, now forthcoming in Philosophy of Science, proposes a strategy for doing that (and argues that Einstein may have used it). #philsky #philsci

doi.org/10.1017/psa....
Inferring to the Best Explanation from Uncertain Evidence | Philosophy of Science | Cambridge Core
Inferring to the Best Explanation from Uncertain Evidence
doi.org
September 12, 2025 at 11:20 AM
Reposted by Frederick Britt
Something beautiful for the weekend!

An extraordinary Acheulean handaxe knapped around a fossil shell c. 500,000-300,000 years ago!

The shell’s central display has been described as an example of aesthetic intention by the toolmaker.

West Tofts, Norfolk. 📷 MAA Cambridge University

#Archaeology
September 13, 2025 at 11:58 AM
Reposted by Frederick Britt
Chess Variant

xkcd.com/3139/
September 10, 2025 at 7:22 PM
Reposted by Frederick Britt
Perspectival Realism + Ecological Psychology = Ecological Perspectivism

"Science offers knowledge of reality in terms of affordances, which are relational to the instruments and abilities of scientific communities."

#PhilSci #PsycSci
We have been working on this for the last five years, and it's great that our paper will be published in Synthese. philsci-archive.pitt.edu/26226/ Ecological psychology is a good fit for perspectival realism.
Ecological Perspectivism: Understanding Perspectival Realism through Ecological Psychology - PhilSci-Archive
philsci-archive.pitt.edu
August 27, 2025 at 4:55 AM
Reposted by Frederick Britt
He's already replied, but @markrubin.bsky.social is an excellent scholar coming from metasci side reaching across to philsci. A lovely newsletter of his landed in mailbox today on how metasci might need to incorporate more critical (dare I say philosophical?) perspectives⤵️
What is Critical Metascience and Why is it Important?
If science is the subject of metascience, then metascience is the subject of critical metascience!
markrubin.substack.com
August 12, 2025 at 1:11 PM
Reposted by Frederick Britt
Fun article in the NYT today describing a statistical model for ranking baseball players across eras. The Extinct connection? The model (called the "Full House" model) is inspired by Stephen Jay Gould's work on the disappearance of .400 hitting. Pretty coooool
www.extinctblog.org/palaeonews/2...
OMG OMG OMG — Extinct
Okay, so… this morning, I read this fun little article in the New York Times, which describes a statistical model designed to rank baseball players across eras. Barry Bonds came out on top, which ...
www.extinctblog.org
August 12, 2025 at 2:29 PM
It's been over a month since our conference on the realism debate, held at the @unibe.ch and supported by the @snsf.ch. The recordings are now available online!😁

The image and audio quality, I'm afraid, is mixed despite editing, but here they are:

www.philosophie.unibe.ch/research/pro...

#philsci
Program and recordings
www.philosophie.unibe.ch
August 6, 2025 at 5:11 AM
Reposted by Frederick Britt
I'm hereby making an honest attempt at using this platform. It's all quite confusing to me, making me feel very old. But so be it; here goes!
July 19, 2025 at 2:25 PM
Reposted by Frederick Britt
The last twenty years have seen multiple methodological revolutions in the philosophy of science. In "Methods in the Philosophy of Science," Sophie Veigl and Adrian Currie introduce this range of methods through both practical advice and philosophical reflection: bit.ly/3GnXFxb
July 15, 2025 at 3:50 PM
Reposted by Frederick Britt
Science Makes the U.S. a Great Nation

History tells us what happens when great nations attack science

www.scientificamerican.com/article/scie...
Science Makes the U.S. a Great Nation
History tells us what happens when great nations attack science
www.scientificamerican.com
July 8, 2025 at 3:07 PM
Reposted by Frederick Britt
Ernst Mayr was born OTD in 1904.

“Most scientific problems are far better understood by studying their history than their logic.”

🌱🐋🦋🦫🧪 #HistSTM #PhilSci
July 5, 2025 at 3:25 PM
Reposted by Frederick Britt
Reposted by Frederick Britt
Looking back in time could inspire the aircraft innovations of the future.
How pterosaurs can inspire aircraft design
Looking back in time could inspire the aircraft innovations of the future.
tcnv.link
June 14, 2025 at 5:26 AM
Reposted by Frederick Britt
Get it while it's hot: BJPS Associate Editor Dana Tulodziecki's (@193.bsky.social) addition to the Cambridge Elements series, Underdetermination and Theoretical Virtues, is out now and free

#philsci #philsky #hps
Underdetermination and Theoretical Virtues
Cambridge Core - Philosophy of Science - Underdetermination and Theoretical Virtues
www.cambridge.org
June 10, 2025 at 3:18 PM
Reposted by Frederick Britt
In other disaster-related news, today marks 45 years since publication of the @science.org article by Walter & Luis Alvarez, Frank Asaro, & Helen Michel arguing that the dinosaurs were killed off by the impact of a massive asteroid or comet: www.lindahall.org/about/news/s... #HistSci 🔭 🧪
Walter Alvarez
Walter Alvarez, an American geologist, was born Oct. 3, 1940. His father, Luis Alvarez, was a physicist at Berkeley who was an important part of the Manhattan Project and who...
www.lindahall.org
June 6, 2025 at 10:15 PM
Reposted by Frederick Britt
Frequentist vs Bayesian Interpretations of Severity

Mayo (2025) responds to van Dongen et al. (2023)

van Dongen et al. (2023): doi.org/10.3758/s134...

Mayo (2025): www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/pdf/10.1...

#PhilSci #PsycSci #Stats
June 6, 2025 at 11:06 AM
Reposted by Frederick Britt
Now available! UNRELIABLE is an essential account of the reproducibility crisis that gives readers an inside look at how science is actually done. buff.ly/17HKth8
May 27, 2025 at 3:32 PM
Reposted by Frederick Britt
It was a privilege to be interviewed for this article, published today in Science: www.science.org/content/arti...
Social media consensus paper causes social media uproar
Preprint reporting common ground among researchers on smartphones and teen mental health is premature and flawed, critics say
www.science.org
May 22, 2025 at 8:53 PM
How (if at all) do we move forward in the debate on scientific realism?

Join us @unibe.ch from June 30 to July 2, 2025, either in person or online (it's free either way)—we have some exciting talks lined up and look forward to lively discussions!

Info: philosophie.unibe.ch/realism

#philsci
May 21, 2025 at 6:31 PM
Reposted by Frederick Britt
Today is May 13th, which means my new book, King Tyrant: A Natural History of #Tyrannosaurus rex is OUT NOW! Published by @princetonupress.bsky.social, this is the biggest and most detailed synthesis ever published on one of the best understood and most studied of all #dinosaurs. Thread follows...
May 13, 2025 at 4:40 PM