College: Darwin
Supervisor: Hasok Chang Advisor: Richard Staley
Thesis topic: The Problem of the Earth’s Figure: Measurement, Theory, and Evidence in Physical Geodesy
PhD Summary: My dissertation provides a new answer to a basic question: how did we come to have strong evidence for Isaac Newton's law of particle-to-particle gravitation? I argue that the answer lies buried in the history of physical geodesy, an often-overlooked research program aimed at deriving and measuring the Earth's figure. This is a bold claim because physicists, philosophers, and historians almost unequivocally assume that Newton's theory was tested in astronomy. I substantiate my claim by reconstructing the history of the problem of the Earth’s figure from Newton's Principia up to 1924. Getting this history right is not only about setting the record straight. Gravitational physics has long served as a methodological paradigm for obtaining strong empirical evidence. Throughout the dissertation, I show that focusing on physical geodesy provides us with new lessons on how theorizing, measurement, and statistical inference contribute to empirical success.
General research interests: I have been primarily working on measurement, statistical inference, and theory-testing in gravitational physics (mostly geophysics), but I am also deeply interested in various issues in general philosophy of science, ethics of science, the global and political history of physical science, and the philosophy of social science.
Selected Publications:
(8) The Epistemic Privilege of Measurement: Motivating a Functionalist Account. Philosophy of Science (forthcoming). philsci-archive preprint.
(7) Newton as Geodesist: The Problem of the Earth’s Figure and the Argument for Universal Gravitation, Newsletter of the American Physical Society. [Short print version & full version incl. mathematical appendix]
(6) The Promises and Pitfalls of Precision: Measurement and Systematic Error in Physical Geodesy, 1800-1910. Annals of Science. S.I.: Promises of Precision (forthcoming).
(5) Pluralizing Measurement: Physical Geodesy’s Measurement Problem and its Resolution, 1880-1924. Studies in the History and Philosophy of Science A 96 (2022), 51-67.
(4) How Incoherent Measurement Succeeds: Coordination and Success in the Measurement of the Earth’s Polar Flattening. Studies in the History and Philosophy of Science A 88 (2021), 45-62.
(3) Theodolites at 20000 Feet: Justifying Precision Measurement during the Trigonometrical Survey of Kashmir, 1855-65. Notes and Records: The Royal Society Journal of the History of Science (2021).
(2) The Limits of Conventional Justification: Industry Bias and Inductive Risk beyond Conventionalism. Frontiers in Research Metrics and Analytics, S.I.: Public Research and Private Knowledge – Science in Times of Diverse Research Funding (2020).
(1) Aktiver Realismus und die Geltungsansprüche wissenschaftlicher Wahrheiten, in Michael Jungert, Andreas Frewer, Erasmus Mayr (eds.): Wissenschaftsreflexion: Interdisziplinäre Perspektiven zwischen Philosophie und Praxis (Paderborn: Mentis, 2020).
Selected Talks:
Recovering a Lost Arc in the History of Statistical Inference: Geodetic Statistics from Laplace to Peirce. 5th AIP Early Career Conference for Historians of Physics, American Institute of Physics / Niels Bohr Archives Copenhagen (2023).
Approximation as Severe Testing: Laplace's Geophysical Argument for Particle-to-Particle Gravitation. Foundations of Physics, University of Bristol (2023).
Newton as Geodesist: The Problem of the Earth’s Figure and the Argument for Universal Gravitation, FHPP Award Lecture. April Meeting of the American Physical Society, Minneapolis (2023)
[With Cristian Larroulet Philippi]: Is Physical Measurement Relevantly Similar to Human Science Measurement? Workshop: Coordination and Validity in Measurement across Science and Medicine, Max Planck Institute for the History of Science Berlin (2023).
Old and New Problems in Geodetic Modelling. Department of Earth and Planetary Science, Harvard University (2022).
The Epistemic Privilege of Measurement: Motivating a Functionalist Account. Philosophy of Science Association, 28th Biennial Meeting, Pittsburgh (2022).
Pluralizing Measurement: Physical Geodesy’s Measurement Problem and its Resolution, 1880-1924, Du Châtelet Award Lecture, Duke University (2022)
Two Kinds of Industry Bias: From Conventionalism to Empiricism, Public Research and Private Knowledge: Science in Times of Diverse Research Funding, Friedrich-Alexander-University Erlangen-Nuremberg. (2021)
Awards:
Freer Prize Fellowship, Royal Institution of Great Britain (2023-24)
American Physical Society's History and Philosophy of Physics Essay Price (2022)
Du Châtelet Prize in Philosophy of Physics, Duke University (2021)
Vice Chancellor’s and Darwin College PhD Scholarship, University of Cambridge (2020)
Rausing PhD Studentship, Department of HPS Cambridge (declined)
Kurt-Hahn Scholarship, University of Cambridge (2019)
Graduate Scholarship of the German Academic Exchange Service (2019)
JRAAS Junior Research Fellowship, Faculty of Humanities, University of Porto (2018)
Personal Scholarship of the German Academic Scholarship Foundation (2017)
Outreach:
Discussion with Matt Teichman on the philosophy of measurement, Elucidations Podcast (forthcoming).
“Why Geophysics needs History and Philosophy”, Science and Society Dialogue, American Geophysical Union, 8 Nov 2022.
The Map of Kashmir that almost did not get made, Interview with Chandrima Banerjee, The Times of India, 18 Mar Edition (2021).
Why does measurement need an epistemology and what could it look like? Elucidations: Philosophy Blog by the University of Chicago (2021)
Structuring Imperial Knowledge about India at the Great Exhibition of 1851. History of Knowledge: Blog by the German Historical Institute Washington (2019).
Teaching:
Cambridge University
- HPS Part 2, Paper 4, Philosophy of Climate Science (2023-24)
- HPS Part 2, Paper 2, Physical Sciences, Empire, and Modernity (2023-24)
- Philosophy Part 2, Philosophy of Science (2022-23)
- HPS Part 2, Paper 2, Science in the Age of Empire (2022-23)
- HPS Part 2, Philosophy and Scientific Practice (2022-23)
- HPS Part 2, Epistemology and Metaphysics of Science (2021-22)
- HPS Part 1B, Introduction to Philosophy of Science (2020-21)
KTH Royal University of Stockholm
- Guest Lecture on "Values and Risk in Science", Scientific Methodology Seminar, Department of Engineering (2022/23)
- Guest Lecture on "Inductive Risk for Engineers", Scientific Methodology Seminar, Department of Engineering (2021/22)
- Guest Lecture on "Inductive Risk for Engineers", Scientific Methodology Seminar, Department of Engineering (2020/21)
Boston University
- Guest Lecture on "Ethics of Measurement", Philosophy of Science Undergraduate Course, Department of Philosophy (2021/22)
University of Porto
- Literature and Philosophy of Language (2018-19)
University of Kassel
- Historical Research Methodologies (2016/17, 2017/18)
- Global Ethics (2017/18)
I am also affiliated with the Philosophy of the Geosciences research group at Boston University. In Cambridge, I am co-organizing the Pragmatism Reading Group, the Integrating HPS seminar, and the Measurement Reading Group. Feel free to reach out to me regarding any of these!
