Alisa N. Bokulich
Φ-Geo Group
Alisa Bokulich’s research is primarily focused on scientific modeling, data, and explanation in the physical sciences, especially (more recently) the Earth sciences (geosciences). She has published on a wide range of topics, including history of physics (e.g., Bohr’s correspondence principle, Dirac, Maxwell), intertheory relations (especially quantum-classical relation), thought experiments, supertasks, fictions in science, metaphysical indeterminacy, non-causal explanations, data models, and modeling in the geosciences. She has developed an alternative view of scientific explanation she calls the “eikonic” conception and is developing with Wendy Parker a philosophical account of data they call the ‘pragmatic representational’ (PR) view of data.
Bokulich is the author of Reexamining the Quantum-Classical Relation: Beyond Reductionism and Pluralism, which came out with Cambridge University Press in 2008, and co-editor of four additional volumes (Philosophy of Quantum Information & Entanglement, Scientific Structuralism, Kuhn’s SSR 50 Years On, Turing 100).
She is currently writing a new monograph on the philosophy of the geosciences, which draws on conceptual and methodological issues in geomorphology, stratigraphy, paleontology, and geochronology, with chapters on issues related to models, data, uncertainty, typification, and the philosophy of geologic time.
Bokulich also runs a research group at BU on the Philosophy of the Geosciences called “Phi-Geo”: Φ-Geo
Current Book Project
Philosophy of the Geosciences: Data, Models, & Uncertainty
Current Paper Projects & Talk Themes
“Are We In a Sixth Mass Extinction?” (with Federica Bocchi, Leticia Castillo Brache, Gloria Grand-Pierre, & Aja Watkins)
“The Holocene Temperature Conundrum: Lessons for & from the Philosophy of Data”
“Kuhn’s ‘5th Law of Thermodynamics’: Measurement, Uncertainty, & Anomalies” (with Federica Bocchi)
“Synchronizing the Molecular and Fossil Clocks: Discordance and Iteration” (with Katherine Valde)
“Philosophy of Geologic Time”
“Learning to Measure What Isn’t There: The Problem of Missing Time”
“Peirce & the Philosophy of Metrology”
“Managing Uncertainty in Radiometric Dating”
Recent and Upcoming Talks
Integrated History & Philosophy of Climate Data, Oeschger Centre for Climate Change Research, University of Bern, Switzerland, August 25-27, 2021 More info...
European Philosophy of Science Association, University of Turin, Italy, 15-18 September, 2021, More info...
Philosophy of Scientific Experimentation 6 (PSX6): Uncertainty in Experimental Contexts, Saint Louis University, October 15-16, 2021, More info...
2021 Vienna Circle Lecture, Vienna, Austria, December 10, 2021, More info...
Radcliffe Fellows' Presentation: "Measuring the Earth: C. S. Peirce, Uncertainty, and the Pragmatic Philosophy", Radcliffe Institute, Harvard University & online, Dec. 15th, 2021, More info (including registration)...
Du Châtelet Prize Conference: "Measurement practices in the physical sciences: correlation, calibration and stabilization", Duke University, April 6-9, 2022, More info...
Measurement at the Crossroads, Milan, Italy June 29 - July 1, 2022, More info...
Society for the Philosophy of Science in Practice, Ghent, Belgium, July 2-4, 2022 More info...
The Future of the Past: Philosophical Issues in the Historical Sciences” in Jerusalem, Israel (and online), August 8-9, 2022 More info...
Philosophy of Science Association Meeting, Pittsburgh, PA, November 10-13, 2022, More info...
American Geophysical Union (AGU), History of the Earth Sciences for the Future, Chicago, IL, December 12-16, 2022, More info...
Batterman Fest, University of Pittsburgh, January 28, 2023, More info...
Integrated History & Philosophy of Science (&HPS9), University of South Carolina, March 16-18, 2023, More info...
American Philosophical Association - Pacific Division, San Francisco, CA, April 5-8, 2023, More info...
Elected to Governing Board 2018-2021
Associate Member Harvard HoS
Director of CPHS since 2010