Andrew Pyle (born 17 March 1955) is a British

philosopher 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 ...

on the history of philosophical

atomism Atomism () is a natural philosophy proposing that the physical universe is composed of fundamental indivisible components known as atoms. References to the concept of atomism and its Atom, atoms appeared in both Ancient Greek philosophy, ancien ...

. Pyle is professor Emeritus in Early

Modern Philosophy Modern philosophy is philosophy developed in the modern era and associated with modernity. It is not a specific doctrine or school (and thus should not be confused with ''Modernism''), although there are certain assumptions common to much of i ...

at the

University of Bristol The University of Bristol is a public university, public research university in Bristol, England. It received its royal charter in 1909, although it can trace its roots to a Merchant Venturers' school founded in 1595 and University College, Br ...

, where he also received his doctorate. His dissertation was titled ''Atomism and its Critics:

Democritus Democritus (, ; , ''Dēmókritos'', meaning "chosen of the people"; – ) was an Ancient Greece, Ancient Greek Pre-Socratic philosophy, pre-Socratic philosopher from Abdera, Thrace, Abdera, primarily remembered today for his formulation of an ...

to Newton''. Pyle also writes on the

history of science The history of science covers the development of science from ancient history, ancient times to the present. It encompasses all three major branches of science: natural science, natural, social science, social, and formal science, formal. Pr ...

and has given talks within the university on the nature of

science Science is a systematic discipline that builds and organises knowledge in the form of testable hypotheses and predictions about the universe. Modern science is typically divided into twoor threemajor branches: the natural sciences, which stu ...

historically. Pyle is one of the editors of the ''Continuum Encyclopedia of British Philosophy''. Andrew Pyle engaged in an apologetics debate with William Lane Craig in 2008 on the topic: Does the Christian God Exist? In 2018, Bristol University held an all day conference honouring the thematic themes of Pyle's research

Publications

*''Hume's Dialogues on Natural Religion'' (Continuum, 2006) *''Malebranche'' (Routledge, London, 2003) *''Boyle on Science and the Mechanical Philosophy: A Reply to Chalmers'', Studies in the History and Philosophy of Science 33 (2002), 175-190 *''The Rationality of the Chemical Revolution'', in Nola & Sankey, eds, After Popper, Kuhn and Feyerabend (Kluwer, Dordrecht, 2000) *''Atomism and its Critics: Democritus to Newton'' (Thoemmes, Bristol 1995)

References

External links

Andrew Pyle's faculty page at the University of Bristol
1955 births Academics of the University of Bristol 20th-century English philosophers 21st-century English philosophers British historians of philosophy Hume scholars Living people {{UK-philosopher-stub