A Case for Old-Fashioned Observability, and a Reconstructed Constructive Empiricism

William James argues that relations between things are experienced as directly as the things themselves. The book that launched radical empiricism and shaped pragmatism.

William James

A leading philosopher of science defends the everyday empiricism of working scientists against the skeptical constructive empiricism of van Fraassen. A complete, up-to-date book from 2026.

John D. Norton

Proposes a reconstructed version of van Fraassen's constructive empiricism that keeps its spirit while fixing its weak points. Key reading for the realism debate.

Finnur Dellsén

Can we know what is possible or necessary from experience alone? This paper defends modal empiricism against the challenge facing mind-independent accounts of modality.

Sonia Roca-Royes

Argues that deep neural networks learn abstract categories much as Locke and Hume said the mind does. A fascinating bridge between classic empiricism and artificial intelligence.

Cameron Buckner