Chris Dorst, Ph.D.
Associate Professor and Graduate Coordinator
Website
Currently Teaching
- PHI 5135 Graduate Logic
Office Hours (Spring)
- Tuesdays 1:30–3:30pm
- By appointment
Areas of Specialization
- Philosophy of Science
- Philosophy of Physics
Curriculum Vitae
Selected Publications
Forthcoming, with Marc Lange. "The Necessity of Accidents." The Journal of Philosophy.
Forthcoming. "Productive Laws in Relativistic Spacetimes." Philosophers' Imprint.
2024. "Does the Best System Need the Past Hypothesis?" Philosophy of Science.
2023. "Predictive Infelicities and the Instability of Predictive Optimality." In Humean Laws for Human Agents, Michael Hicks, Siegfried Jaag, and Christian Loew (eds.), Oxford University Press.
2022, with Kevin Dorst. "Splitting the (In)Difference: Why Fine-Tuning Supports Design." Thought.
2022. "Laws, Melodies, and the Paradox of Predictability." Synthese.
2021. "There is No Measurement Problem for Humeans." Noûs.
2020. "Why do the Laws Support Counterfactuals?" Erkenntnis.
2019. "Humean Laws, Explanatory Circularity, and the Aim of Scientific Explanation". Philosophical Studies.
2019. "Toward a Best Predictive System Account of Laws of Nature". British Journal for the Philosophy of Science.
2017. "Bet Accepted: A Reply to Freitag". Philosophical Quarterly.
2016. "Evidence, Significance, and Counterfactuals: Schramm on the New Riddle of Induction". Erkenntnis.
Selected Presentations
"Superfluous Ideological Superstructure (or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Textbook Quantum Mechanics)." Syracuse Philosophy Annual Workshop and Network. Syracuse NY. June 2023.
"How Not to Disconfirm GRW." Eastern APA - Society for the Metaphysics of Science Group Session, Montreal QC. January 2023.
"Fine-Tuning Divine Indifference." Pacific APA, Vancouver BC. April 2022.
"Productive Laws in Relativistic Spacetimes." Florida Philosophical Association, Miami FL. Feb 2022.
"Humeanism and the Paradox of Predictability." Central APA, Virtual Meeting. Feb 2021.
"Laws, Melodies, and the Paradox of Predictability." Accepted for Mount Holyoke Summer Philosophy Conference, Mount Holyoke MA. (Cancelled due to pandemic.)
"Predictive Infelicities and the Neo-Humean Conception of Laws."
Florida Philosophical Association, Gainesville FL. Nov 2019.
British Society for the Philosophy of Science Annual Meeting, Durham, UK. Jul 2019
"Why do the Laws Support Counterfactuals?" Society for the Metaphysics of Science Annual Conference, Milan, Italy. Aug 2018
Comments on Siegfried Jaag and Christian Loew's "Humean Reductionism and (Iterated) Counterfactuals" Society for the Metaphysics of Science Annual Conference, Milan, Italy. Aug 2018
Comments on David Kinney's "Bayesian Networks and Multi-Level Causation'. Central APA, Chicago IL. Feb 2018.
"Laws of Nature, Prediction, and Reductionism". Eastern APA, Savannah GA. Jan 2018
"Why are the Laws so Useful?" 33rd Boulder Conference on the History and Philosophy of Science, Boulder CO. Oct 2017.
"A Tension in the Best System Account of Laws" Pacific APA, Seattle WA. Apr 2017.
"Contemporary Perspectives on the DN Model of Scientific Explanation" Guest Lecture at Salem State University, Salem MA. Apr 2017.
Comments on Katie Elliott's "The Applicability Problem for Chance Explanation" UNC Philosophy of Science Conference, Chapel Hill NC. Nov 2015.
Comments on Lynn Chiu's "An Ecological Challenge Against the Propensity Interpretation of Fitness". Pacific APA, Vancouver BC. April 2015.
Comments on Guy Hetzroni's "Causation and Unification in Quantum Explanations". Hebrew University—UNC Joint Conference in Philosophy, Chapel Hill NC. May 2014.
"The Conventionality of the Brain's Functional Topography". Pitt—CMU Graduate Conference in Philosophy of Science, Pittsburgh PA. Mar 2014.