The first History and Philosophy of Science Workshop, held in October, gathered faculty and graduate students from Princeton and Bilkent University’s Philosophy departments, organized by Dan Garber (Princeton) and Alireza Fatollahi (Bilkent), with special guests Tarek Dika (Toronto) and David Miller (Auburn). This year’s theme focused on the concept of “method” in ancient and early modern philosophy.
The workshop examined key philosophical methods and concepts across historical figures. It began with a study of Socratic induction and Aristotle’s notion of scientific knowledge (epistêmê) in the Posterior Analytics, exploring how Aristotelian induction might yield knowledge of first principles. Next, the focus shifted to Descartes’s methodological approach in Regulae ad directionem ingenii, with debate over its application in his later work—Dan Garber suggested Descartes abandoned this approach, while Tarek Dika argued he continued to employ it throughout his career. Finally, Newton’s methodology was analyzed through his Principia and Opticks, particularly his “rules of reasoning” and his stance against hypotheses in natural philosophy.
