John T. Roberts works primarily in the philosophy of science. His book The Law-Governed Universe was published in 2009 by Oxford University Press. His published articles include: “Fine Tuning and the Infra-Red Bullseye,”Philosophical Studies (2012); “Chance without Credence,”British Journal for the Philosophy of Science (2012); “Some Laws are Contingent,” Australasian Journal of Philosophy (2010); “A Puzzle about Laws, Symmetries, and Measurable Quantities,” British Journal for the Philosophy of Science (2008); “Leibniz on Force and Absolute Motion,”Philosophy of Science (2003); “Contact with the Nomic, Parts I and II” (co-authored with John Earman) Philosophy and Phenomenological Research(2005); and “Ceteris Paribus, There is No Problem of Provisos” (co-authored with John Earman), Synthese (1999). He is currently working on the problem of induction, chance, probabilistic laws, and an a normativist approach to laws and counterfactuals.
Forthcoming:
“Ceteris Paribus Law-Statements as Vague, Statistical, Self-Referential, Self-Locating, and Perfectly in Order,” forthcoming in a special issue of Erkenntnis on ceteris paribus laws.
“The Range Conception of Probability and the Input Problem,”forthcoming in The Journal of General Philosophy of Science on Johannes von Kries’s contributions to the philosophy of probability.
Current Versions of Talks and Conference Presentations:
“Must a Cause be Earlier than Its Effect?”
“Humean Laws and the Power to Explain”
“Fuzzy Credence as Vague Credence”
“Again with the Grue: A New Solution to the Old and New Riddles of Induction”
“Towards a Unified Normativist Theory of the Natural Modalities”
Works in Progress:
- Laws About Frequencies?
- Concerning Reichenbach’s Neglected Remarks on the Ravens Paradox.
- Supervaluationism without Gaps.
Book:
The Law-Governed Universe (Oxford University Press, 2009) at Google Books
Or, you could BUY IT at:
A Precis (Ha!) of The Law-Governed Universe. (This is a 42-page summary of the main argument of the book.)
Some Published Articles:
- Fine-Tuning and the Infra-Red Bull’s Eye. Philosophical Studies 160(2), 287-303, 2012.
- Chance without Credence. British Journal for the Philosophy of Science. 64(1), 33-59, 2012.
- Extra-Physical Structure in a Physical World; or, Is the Study of Life Provincial? Monist 94(2), 221-243, 2011.
- Some Laws of Nature are Metaphysically Contingent. Australasian Journal of Philosophy, 88(3): 445-457, 2010.
- A Puzzle about Laws, Symmetries, and Measurable Quantities. British Journal for the Philosophy of Science 59: 143-168, 2008.
- Contact with the Nomic: A Challenge for Deniers of Humean Supervenience about Laws of Nature, Part I: Humean Supervenience (with John Earman). Philosophy and Phenomenologial Research 71(1): 1-22, 2005.
- Contact with the Nomic: A Challenge for Deniers of Humean Supervenience about Laws of Nature, Part II: The Epistemological Argument for Humean Supervenience (with John Earman). Philosophy and Phenomenologial Research 71(2): 253-286, 2005.
- Measurability and Physical Laws. Synthese 144(3): 433-447, 2005.
- Leibniz on Force and Absolute Motion, Philosophy of Science 70:553-573, 2003.
- Ceteris Paribus Lost (With John Earman and Sheldon Smith). Erkenntnis 57(3): 281-301, 2002.
- Ceteris Paribus, There is No Problem of Provisos (with John Earman). Synthese 118: 439-478, 1999.
- Lewis, Carroll, and Seeing Through the Looking Glass. Australasian Journal of Philosophy 76(3): 426-438, 1998.
Some Unpublished Papers:
- The Semantic Novelty of Theoretical Terms
- Coping with Severe Test Anxiety: Problems and Prospects for an Error-Statistical Philosophy of Science.