Research Statement
My main line of research investigates the nature, logic, and limitations of human reasoning. Working on such topics, I've naturally found myself having to cross interdisciplinary boundaries, especially between philosophy, logic, intellectual history, and the cognitive, mathematical, and computer sciences. Drawing from these disciplines, I hope to shed new light on the modes of reasoning humans actually employ, whether as individuals in everyday settings, or in more organized, social endeavors such as the sciences. And by bringing traditionally distinct areas of research on human reasoning to bear on one another, I aim to provide new advice and correctives for improving human reasoning in the real world.
My work has been published in top philosophy and psychology journals. In addition to my research, I maintain an active teaching schedule, supervise PhD students, and serve on the editorial board of The Reasoner.
Presentations
- “Trimming IBE’s Hedges: In Defense of Naive Explanatory Inference.” Philosophy Department Colloquium; Simon Fraser University; Burnaby, British Columbia, Canada. Invited Talk/Keynote, Presented, 02/09/2024.
- “Trimming IBE’s Hedges: In Defense of Naive Explanatory Inference.” Philosophy Department Colloquium; University of Illinois; Urbana-Champaign, Illinois. Invited Talk/Keynote, Presented, 01/26/2024.
- "Creative Intelligence, Abduction, and Inference to the Best Explanation." XVIIth Congress on Logic, Methodology and Philosophy of Science and Technology; Buenos Aires, Argentina. Conference Paper, Refereed, Presented, 07/2023.
- “Creative Intelligence, Abduction, and Inference to the Best Explanation.” Philosophy Department Colloquium; University of Illinois; Urbana-Champaign, Illinois. Invited Talk/Keynote, Presented, 01/20/2023.
- "On the Logical Structure of Best Explanations." 28th Biennial Meeting of the Philosophy of Science Association; Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Conference Paper, Refereed, Presented, 11/11/2022.
- "Conjunctive Explanations" (with David Glass). 27th Biennial Meeting of the Philosophy of Science Association; Baltimore, Maryland; November 19-22, 2020 [Rescheduled: November 11-14, 2021]. Conference Paper, Refereed, Presented, 11/2021.
- "The Structure of Best Explanations." 8th Biennial Conference of the European Philosophy of Science Association; University of Turin; Italy; September, 2021. Conference Paper, Refereed, Presented, 09/2021.
- "The Structure of Best Explanations." Colloquium; Düsseldorf Center for Logic and Philosophy of Science; Düsseldorf, Germany; May 18, 2021. Invited Talk/Keynote, Presented, 05/18/2021.
- "Computer Simulations and Conceptual Engineering." ARCHÉ Conceptual Engineering Seminar; ARCHÉ Philosophical Research Centre; University of St. Andrews; St. Andrews, Scotland; April 20, 2021. Invited Talk/Keynote, Presented, 04/2021.
- "The Structure of Best Explanations." British Society for the Philosophy of Science, Annual Conference; University of Kent; Canterbury, England; July 13-15, 2020. Conference Paper, Refereed, Accepted, 04/2020.
- "Inductive Logical Pluralism." Conference on Bayesian Epistemology: Perspectives and Challenges; Munich Center for Mathematical Philosophy, LMU Munich, Germany; August 10-14, 2020. Conference Paper, Refereed, Accepted, 03/2020.
Publications
- Jonah N. Schupbach (2023). On the Logical Structure of Best Explanations. Philosophy of Science. Vol. 90, 1150-1160.
Published, 12/2023.
https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/philosophy... - Jonah N. Schupbach & David H. Glass (2023). Introduction. (pp. 1-6). Vol. Conjunctive Explanations, Routledge.
Published, 10/2023.
https://www.taylorfrancis.com/chapters/edit/10.432... - Jonah N. Schupbach & David H. Glass (2023). Conjunctive Explanation: Is the Explanatory Gain Worth the Cost?. (pp. 144-169). Vol. Conjunctive Explanations, Routledge.
Published, 10/2023.
https://www.taylorfrancis.com/chapters/edit/10.432... - Jonah N. Schupbach & David H. Glass (2023). Conjunctive Explanations: The Nature, Epistemology, and Psychology of Explanatory Multiplicity. Routledge.
Published, 10/2023.
https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/edit/10.4324/9... - Bayesianism and Scientific Reasoning. Elements in the Philosophy of Science. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press (2022).
Published, 01/2022.
https://www.cambridge.org/core/elements/abs/bayesi... - "William Paley," in Stewart Goetz and Charles Taliaferro (eds.), The Encyclopedia of Philosophy of Religion. Malden, MA: Wiley (2021).
Published, 10/2021.
https://doi.org/10.1002/9781119009924.eopr0287 - "Conjunctive Explanations and Inference to the Best Explanation," TEOREMA: International Journal of Philosophy, 38, 3 (2019): 143-62. Published as part of a special issue on “Explanation in Science”. Published, 08/2019.
- Review of Truth-Seeking by Abduction, by Ilkka Niiniluoto (Springer International), Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews (August 2019).
Published, 08/2019.
https://ndpr.nd.edu/news/truth-seeking-by-abductio... - Review of Formal Epistemology and Cartesian Skepticism: In Defense of Belief in the Natural World, by Tomoji Shogenji (Routledge), Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews (June 2018).
Published, 06/2018.
https://ndpr.nd.edu/news/formal-epistemology-and-c... - “Robustness Analysis as Explanatory Reasoning,” British Journal for the Philosophy of Science, 69, 1 (March 2018): 275-300.
Published, 03/2018.
http://bjps.oxfordjournals.org/content/early/2016/... - “Troubles for Bayesian Formal Epistemology? A Response to Horgan,” Res Philosophica, 95, 1 (January 2018):189-97. Published, 02/2018.
- “Hypothesis Competition Beyond Mutual Exclusivity,” Philosophy of Science, 84, 5 (December 2017): 810-24 (with David H. Glass).
Published, 12/2017.
https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/abs/10.1086/... - “Inference to the Best Explanation, Cleaned Up and Made Respectable,” in Kevin McCain and Ted Poston (eds.), Best Explanations: New Essays on Inference to the Best Explanation. Oxford: Oxford University Press, (2017): 39-61. Published, 12/2017.
- “Experimental Explication,” Philosophy and Phenomenological Research, 94, 3 (2017): 672-710.
Published, 07/2017.
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/phpr.12... - "Formal Epistemology," in Oxford Handbooks Online. Oxford: Oxford University Press (with Igor Douven).
Published, 02/2017.
http://www.oxfordhandbooks.com/view/10.1093/oxford... - "Competing Explanations and Explaining-Away Arguments," Theology and Science 14, 3 (2016): 256-67.
Published, 08/2016.
http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/1474670... - "Experimental Philosophy Meets Formal Epistemology," in Justin Sytsma and Wesley Buckwalter (eds.), A Companion to Experimental Philosophy, pages 535-44. Oxford: Blackwell Publishing.
Published, 04/2016.
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/9781118... - "The Role of Explanatory Considerations in Updating," Cognition, 142: 299-311 (with Igor Douven).
Published, 09/2015.
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S... - "Robustness, Diversity of Evidence, and Probabilistic Independence," in Uskali Mäki, Ioannis Votsis, Stéphanie Ruphy, and Gerhard Schurz (eds.), Recent Developments in the Philosophy of Science: EPSA13 Helsinki, pages 305-16. Dordrecht: Springer.
Published, 08/2015.
http://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-319... - "Probabilistic Alternatives to Bayesianism: The Case of Explanation," Frontiers in Psychology, 6, 459 (with Igor Douven).
Published, 04/2015.
http://journal.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/fps... - "The Possibility of Coherentism and the Stringency of Ceteris Paribus Conditions," Theoria. An International Journal for Theory, History and Foundations of Science, 30, 1: 43-52.
Published, 03/2015.
http://www.ehu.eus/ojs/index.php/THEORIA/article/v... - "Is the Bad Lot Objection Just Misguided?" Erkenntnis, 79, 1 (February 2014): 55-64.
Published, 02/2014.
http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs10670-... - "Is the Conjunction Fallacy tied to Probabilistic Confirmation?" Synthese 184, 1 (2012): 13-27.
Published, 01/2012.
http://www.springerlink.com/content/d213300l12071p... - "Comparing Probabilistic Measures of Explanatory Power," Philosophy of Science 78, 5 (December 2011): 813-829.
Published, 12/2011.
http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1086/662278 - "New Hope for Shogenji’s Coherence Measure," British Journal for the Philosophy of Science 62, 1 (March 2011): 125-142.
Published, 03/2011.
http://bjps.oxfordjournals.org/content/62/1/125.ab... - "The Logic of Explanatory Power," Philosophy of Science 78, 1 (January 2011): 105-127 (with Jan Sprenger).
Published, 01/2011.
http://www.jstor.org/pss/10.1086/658111 - Review of Depth: An Account of Scientific Explanation, by Michael Strevens (Harvard University Press), Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews (June 2010), (with Stephan Hartmann).
Published, 06/2010.
http://ndpr.nd.edu/news/24400-depth-an-account-of-... - Review of Reflective Knowledge: Apt Belief and Reflective Knowledge, Volume II, by Ernest Sosa (Oxford University Press), The Review of Metaphysics 63, 3 (March 2010): 722-724. Published, 03/2010.
- "On the Alleged Impossibility of Bayesian Coherentism," Philosophical Studies 141, 3 (December 2008): 323-31.
Published, 12/2008.
http://www.springerlink.com/content/a2v0v04840645u... - "Must the Scientific Realist Be a Rationalist?" Synthese 154, 2 (January 2007): 329-34.
Published, 01/2007.
http://www.springerlink.com/content/5l8v23565186j6... - "On a Bayesian Analysis of the Virtue of Unification," Philosophy of Science 72, 4 (October 2005): 594-607.
Published, 10/2005.
http://www.jstor.org/pss/10.1086/505186 - "Paley's Inductive Inference to Design: A Response to Graham Oppy," Philosophia Christi 7, 2 (2005): 491-502. Published, 06/2005.