Seminar Courses at Stanford

Moral Foundations of Capitalism EthicSoc 157, with cognate listing in American Studies Winter 2010, Mondays and Wednesdays, 4:15–5:30

American capitalism, at least as originally promulgated, presumed a moral foundation of selfish individualism. Critics of such a morality have consequently denigrated capitalism. But others have tried to defend it either by appealing to an alternate foundation or by defending the morality of selfish individualism. In this course, we will explore three such groups of defenders: free-market economists who have defended capitalism on social, economic, or collective grounds; theologians and conservatives who have defended capitalism using a religious or altruist foundation; and Ayn Rand, who has proposed to defend the morality of selfishness.

Nineteenth-Century Philosophy of Science HPS 220, with cognate listings in Philosophy and History Autumn 2009, Wednesdays, 3:15–5:05

The nineteenth century was the center of what has been called the Second Scientific Revolution. John Dalton revolutionized chemistry with his atomic theory, Adolphe Quetelet social sciences with his development of statistics, Charles Darwin life sciences with his theory of natural selection, Louis Pasteur medicine with his germ theory. Whole sciences of electricity, electromagnetism and thermodynamics were built up virtually from scratch. The foundations were laid for relativity and quantum mechanics.

With all this there was also a revolution—or rather several overlapping revolutions—in the philosophy of science. The century opened with a virtually universal belief in a Newtonian world of deterministic laws and in the method of inductive inquiry developed by Francis Bacon. By the end of the century, statistically oriented science was replacing deterministic and Bacon's inductive method was mocked.

In this course we will explore this revolutionary shift in the philosophy of science, giving particular attention to the complete reversal in admiration for Bacon's inductive method. How did it happen that by the end of the century philosophers of science were saying that the method all those revolutionary scientists said they used was in fact worthless?

What is Science? Explaining Nature from Pythagoras to Popper HPS 154, with cognate listings in Philosophy and History Will be taught again in 2010–11

How do scientists know what they know—or claim to know? It’s an important question, not just for scientists themselves, but for any of us who drive on bridges without fear, subject ourselves to doctor’s prescriptions, or must decide whether grade-school teachers should teach evolution or intelligent design. Science and its products pervade our personal, political, institutional, and cultural lives. We need to know where it comes from and whether it is reliable. How do scientists know what they know? Well, we might say, they use the “scientific method.” But, alas, there are now and have long been vigorous disagreements over exactly what a proper scientific method is.

Past student evaluations

“The readings were so inspiring for discussion: controversial, challenging, incomprehensible at times (in an insightful way)” “The best professor I’ve had at Stanford—intelligent, interesting and interested, enthusiastic and endlessly encouraging.” “McCaskey’s passion for the material influences his students, and results in an incredibly enjoyable and informative 2 hour discussion seminar.” “Excellent teacher. Very excited about the material, very interested in what the students have to say. The best class I have taken here.” More . . .

My research is on the history of the philosophy of science, especially the history of the concept of induction from Socrates to Popper, with Francis Bacon seemingly always at the center.

Jacopo Zabarella, De Methodis and De Regressu

Big current project. A collated Latin edition and original English translation for Harvard University Press’s I Tatti Renaissance Library. Manuscript should be finished in mid 2010. (Want to read the draft?)

Jacopo Zabarella’s Real Influence on Early Modern Science A presentation given at the History of Science Society Annual Meeting, November 2009.

Bacon’s Idols and Harvey’s Eggs A presentation given at Case Western Reserve University, October 9, 2009.

Review of Steven Matthews, Theology and Science in the Thought of Francis Bacon Technology and Culture 50, July 2009

Jacopo Zabarella: The Last of the Renaissance Aristotelians and His Influence on Early Modern Science A presentation given at Northern California Renaissance Conference, May 2009.

Whately’s Revolution A presentation given at the conference “Induction: Historical and Contemporary Approaches”, University of Ghent, July 2008.

“Freeing Aristotelian Epagôgê from Prior Analytics II 23” APEIRON, December, 2007, pp. 345–74.

Review of Stephen A. McKnight, The Religious Foundations of Francis Bacon’s Thought” Technology and Culture 48, July 2007.

Myths in the History of Induction Colloquy talk at St. John’s University, Queens, NY, October 2007.

Regula Socratis: The Rediscovery of Ancient Induction in Early Modern England My dissertation of 2006. A revisionist account of how philosophical induction was conceived in the ancient world and how that conception was transmitted, altered, and then rediscovered. I show how philosophers of late antiquity and then the medieval period came step-by-step to seriously misunderstand Aristotle’s view of induction and how that mistake was reversed by humanists in the Renaissance and then especially by Francis Bacon. I show, naturally enough then, that in early modern science, Baconians were Aristotelians and Aristotelians were Baconians.

Francis Bacon, Novum Organum An edition constructed for wikisource.org. Includes Latin original and multiple translations.

“Induction and Concept-Formation in Francis Bacon and William Whewell” Concepts Workshop, Department of HPS, Pittsburgh, May 2004. A paper about the relationship between concept formation and induction in Bacon and Whewell. This includes what I think is the world’s best 2000-word introduction to Whewellian induction.