Stathis Psillos (; ; born 22 June 1965) is a Greek

philosopher of science Philosophy ('love of wisdom' in Ancient Greek) is a systematic study of general and fundamental questions concerning topics like existence, reason, knowledge, Value (ethics and social sciences), value, mind, and language. It is a rational an ...

. He is Professor of

Philosophy of Science Philosophy of science is the branch of philosophy concerned with the foundations, methods, and implications of science. Amongst its central questions are the difference between science and non-science, the reliability of scientific theories, ...

and

Metaphysics Metaphysics is the branch of philosophy that examines the basic structure of reality. It is traditionally seen as the study of mind-independent features of the world, but some theorists view it as an inquiry into the conceptual framework of ...

at the

University of Athens The National and Kapodistrian University of Athens (NKUA; , ''Ethnikó kai Kapodistriakó Panepistímio Athinón''), usually referred to simply as the University of Athens (UoA), is a public university in Athens, Greece, with various campuses alo ...

, Greece and a member of the Rotman Institute of Philosophy of the

University of Western Ontario The University of Western Ontario (UWO; branded as Western University) is a Public university, public research university in London, Ontario, Canada. The main campus is located on of land, surrounded by residential neighbourhoods and the Thame ...

. In 2013–15, he held the Rotman

Canada Research Chair Canada Research Chair (CRC) is a title given to certain Canadian university research professors by the Canada Research Chairs Program. Program goals The Canada Research Chair program was established in 2000 as a part of the Government of Canada ...

in Philosophy of Science at the University of Western Ontario, Canada. In 2015, he was classified among the 91 most cited living philosophers with public

Google Scholar Google Scholar is a freely accessible web search engine that indexes the full text or metadata of Academic publishing, scholarly literature across an array of publishing formats and disciplines. Released in Beta release, beta in November 2004, th ...

pages.

Biography

Efstathios Psillos was born in

Athens Athens ( ) is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Greece, largest city of Greece. A significant coastal urban area in the Mediterranean, Athens is also the capital of the Attica (region), Attica region and is the southe ...

, Greece. He studied

physics Physics is the scientific study of matter, its Elementary particle, fundamental constituents, its motion and behavior through space and time, and the related entities of energy and force. "Physical science is that department of knowledge whi ...

at the

University of Patras The University of Patras (UPatras; , ''Panepistímio Patrón'', ΠΠ) is a public university in Patras, Greece. It is the third-largest university in Greece with respect to the size of the student body, the staff, and the number of department ...

, Greece. Having obtained a state scholarship to study philosophy abroad, Psillos went on to

King's College London King's College London (informally King's or KCL) is a public university, public research university in London, England. King's was established by royal charter in 1829 under the patronage of George IV of the United Kingdom, King George IV ...

to study for an MSc in History and Philosophy of Science. Under the supervision of

David Papineau David Papineau (; born 1947) is a British academic philosopher, born in Como, Italy. He works as Professor of Philosophy of Science at King's College London and the City University of New York Graduate Center, and previously taught for several ye ...

he obtained a PhD in Philosophy in 1994 from King's College London with a thesis titled ''Science and Realism: A Naturalistic Investigation into Scientific Enquiry''. The examiners were John Worrall and William Newton-Smith. Between 1993 and 1998 he was initially assistant editor and subsequently deputy editor of the ''

British Journal for the Philosophy of Science ''British Journal for the Philosophy of Science'' is a peer-reviewed, academic journal of philosophy, owned by the British Society for the Philosophy of Science and published by University of Chicago Press. The journal publishes work that uses p ...

''. Between 1995 and 1998, he was a

British Academy The British Academy for the Promotion of Historical, Philosophical and Philological Studies is the United Kingdom's national academy for the humanities and the social sciences. It was established in 1902 and received its royal charter in the sa ...

Post-Doctoral Fellow, at the Dept. of Philosophy, Logic and Scientific Method,

London School of Economics The London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE), established in 1895, is a public research university in London, England, and a member institution of the University of London. The school specialises in the social sciences. Founded ...

. Since 1998, he has been a Research Associate of the Centre for the Philosophy of the Natural and Social Sciences,

. He joined the Department of Philosophy and History of Science at the University of Athens, Greece, in 1999. Psillos was among the founders of the European Philosophy of Science Association and served as its first elected President (2007–2009). In the midst of the Greek socio-economic crisis he organised the 3rd congress of the European Philosophy of Science Association, in Athens, in October 2011. From 2009 to 2014, he was the editor of the journal ''

Metascience Metascience (also known as meta-research) is the use of scientific methodology to study science itself. Metascience seeks to increase the quality of scientific research while reducing inefficiency. It is also known as "research on research" and ...

''. In 2008, Psillos was elected member of ''l’Academie Internationale de Philosophie des Sciences'' (AIPS). In 2007, he was co-chair of the Programme Committee for the Philosophy of Science for the

World Congress of Philosophy The World Congress of Philosophy (originally known as the International Congress of Philosophy) is a global meeting of philosophers held every five years under the auspices of the International Federation of Philosophical Societies (FISP). First or ...

, which took place in Seoul, South Korea, in July 2008. In July 2011, he was the Springer Lecturer, at the 11th International IHPST Conference, held at the

University of Thessaloniki The Aristotle University of Thessaloniki ( AUTh; ), often called the University of Thessaloniki, is the second oldest Tertiary education, tertiary education institution in Greece. Named after the philosopher Aristotle, who was born in Stagira (anc ...

. In July 2012 he was William Evans Visiting Professor at the

University of Otago The University of Otago () is a public university, public research university, research collegiate university based in Dunedin, Otago, New Zealand. Founded in 1869, Otago is New Zealand's oldest university and one of the oldest universities in ...

, New Zealand. In March–May 2013, he delivered the Cardinal Mercier lectures in Philosophy at the

Université catholique de Louvain UCLouvain (or Université catholique de Louvain , French for Catholic University of Louvain, officially in English the University of Louvain) is Belgium's largest French-speaking university and one of the oldest in Europe (originally establishe ...

, in Belgium. In 2015, he was elected member of

Academia Europaea The Academia Europaea is a pan-European Academy of humanities, letters, law, and sciences. The Academia was founded in 1988 as a functioning Europe-wide Academy that encompasses all fields of scholarly inquiry. It acts as co-ordinator of Europe ...

(Academy of Europe) for his contribution to promoting learning, education and research. Psillos is the author and editor of 8 books (two of which have been award-winning) and over 120 papers and reviews in learned journals and edited books, mainly on scientific realism, causation, explanation and the history of philosophy of science. He has delivered more than 150 talks in seminars and conferences around the world.

Philosophical work

Psillos is best known for his work in

scientific realism Scientific realism is the philosophical view that the universe described by science (including both observable and unobservable aspects) exists independently of our perceptions, and that verified scientific theories are at least approximately true ...

and the metaphysics of science. He is a notable defender of semantic realism about scientific theories (the view that theoretical assertions are no less meaningful than observational ones)Psillos's interview
with Richard Marshall for '' 3:AM Magazine'' (Archived at

Internet Archive The Internet Archive is an American 501(c)(3) organization, non-profit organization founded in 1996 by Brewster Kahle that runs a digital library website, archive.org. It provides free access to collections of digitized media including web ...

). and also a notable critic of semantic

anti-realism In analytic philosophy, anti-realism is the position that the truth of a statement rests on its demonstrability through internal logic mechanisms, such as the context principle or intuitionistic logic, in direct opposition to the realist notion t ...

about scientific theories (the view that theoretical terms of past scientific theories often fail to refer to anything) and

structural realism Neorealism or structural realism is a theory of international relations that emphasizes the role of power politics in international relations, sees competition and conflict as enduring features and sees limited potential for cooperation. The ana ...

Works

* ''Scientific Realism: How Science Tracks Truth'', Routledge, 1999. * ''Causation and Explanation'', Acumen (2002) & McGill-Queens University Press (2003)'' rize of the Presidents of the British Society for the Philosophy of Science for the best textbook in the Philosophy of Science * ''Logic: The Structure of Argument'' (with Demetris Portides and D A Anapolitanos), Nefeli, 2007 (in Greek). * ''Philosophy of Science A-Z'', Edinburgh University Press, 2007. * ''The Routledge Companion to the Philosophy of Science'' (with

Martin Curd Martin Curd is an American philosopher and associate professor of philosophy at Purdue University. Curd is known for his works on philosophy of science Philosophy of science is the branch of philosophy concerned with the foundations, metho ...

), Routledge, 2008 hoice Outstanding Academic Title for 2008 * ''Science and Truth'', Okto Publishers 2008 (in Greek). * ''Knowing the Structure of Nature: Essays on Realism and Explanation'', Macmillan-Palgrave, 2009. * ''The Routledge Companion to the Philosophy of Science'' (with Martin Curd), Second Revised and Expanded Edition, Routledge, 2013.

Notes

References

External links

Psillos's homepage

"Philosophy of Science"
Richard Marshall's interview with Stathis Psillos in 3:16AM, Marshall's philosophy interviews blog
"Interview by Federica Russo"
''Reasoner'', Volume 5, no. 7, July 2011, pp. 102–106. {{DEFAULTSORT:Psillos, Stathis 1965 births Living people Alumni of King's College London 20th-century Greek philosophers Academic staff of the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens University of Patras alumni Academics from Athens 21st-century Greek philosophers