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Job Morales

RESEARCH AREAS:

  • General Philosophy of Science

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JOB MORALES

Doctoral Student;
Department of Philosophy, Western University

Job is a doctoral student at Western. His interests include the metaphysics and epistemology of science. Within the metaphysics of science, he is interested in questions about causation, laws, and determinism. Within the epistemology of science, Bayesianism and scientific realism.

In his MA research paper, Job defends a Bayesian version of the No-Miracles Argument (NMA) for scientific realism.  Scientific realism is the thesis that our scientific theories are true.  Its most popular argument is the NMA, typically formulated as an abductive argument.  As such, it claims that the best explanation for the success of scientific theories is their truth.  Were they not true, they would not be successful.  Therefore, (probably) our theories are (approximately) true.  However, the NMA, as an abductive argument, commits the base-rate fallacy.  To avoid this problem, some have proposed that it should be reformulated as a Bayesian argument.  On the other hand, others have made objections to this reformulation, arguing that the NMA is acceptable as it is.  Job defends the Bayesian NMA against such objections.

University of Western Ontario

F/W 2015-16. PHIL 1200: Critical Thinking (TA).

Ryerson University

F 2013, W 2014, F 2014. SSH 105: Critical Thinking (TA).