David J. Stump
University of San Francisco
Fall Term 2012
Relativized (Dynamic, Functional or Pragmatic) a priori in the Philosophy of Science in the 20th Century

David J. Stump is Professor of Philosophy at the University of San Francisco.  A native Californian, he was educated at the University of California and Northwestern University.  He is co-editor, with Peter Galison, of The Disunity of Science, and is author of journal articles on Poincaré, Duhem, the history and philosophy of mathematics, and general philosophy of science.  His research is centered on late 19th and early 20th century philosophy and science and the exchange between the two, especially in physics, mathematics and logic.  

David is finishing a book on the idea of the relativized (dynamic, functional or pragmatic) a priori in the philosophy of science in the twentieth century which sets out a novel position in the current discussion of the relativized a priori within philosophy of science.  His next project to be undertaken during residence will be to start working on an entry for the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy on Henri Poincaré, which will be a collaborative effort with Gerhard Heinzmann.

He has been active in the International Society for the History of the Philosophy of Science (HOPOS) since its beginning and has served as chair of the steering committee, as a steering committee member, local arrangements chair and co-chair and is currently listmaster of the discussion forum HOPOS-L.  Last spring he organized and hosted a workshop on pragmatism in the philosophy of science and he co-organizes the Bay Area Philosophy of Science group.  David is married and has two grown children.  He enjoys travel, hiking, museums and reading popular accounts of science and technology.   He refuses to watch television but is a fan of NPR and alternative radio programming.   

2014

David Stump published the entry "Henri Poincaré" in the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (co-written with Gerhard Heinzmann). He has finished his book manuscript, responded to reviewers and awaits a contract.

2015

David Stump’s book, Conceptual Change and the Philosophy of Science:  Alternative Interpretations of the A Priori is due out on Routledge, 7/1/2015.  In the fall he was a visiting scholar at the Archives Henri Poincaré, University of Lorraine, Nancy, France, where he participated in seminars and conferences and gave a paper.  He also gave a paper at the 10th International HOPOS Conference, Ghent, Belgium, over the summer.  David’s essay review of three biographies of Poincaré is due out soon in the HOPOS journal:   J. Gray, Henri Poincaré:  A Scientific Biography , F. Verhulst, Henri Poincaré: Impatient Genius, and J-M. Ginoux and C. Gerini, Henri Poincaré:  Une Biographie au(x) quotidian(s)”.  

2016

David Stump’s book, Conceptual Change and the Philosophy of Science:  Alternative Interpretations of the A Priori came out on Routledge and was the subject of a book symposium at the Pacific Division Meeting of the APA.  Other publications include “The Pragmatic Theory of the A Priori” in Pragmatism in Transition: Contemporary Perspectives on C. I. Lewis.  P. Olen & C. Sachs, eds.  Palgrave Macmillan, forthcoming, and an essay review of three biographies of Poincaré for the HOPOS journal:  J. Gray, Henri Poincaré:  A Scientific Biography , F. Verhulst, Henri Poincaré: Impatient Genius, and J-M. Ginoux and C. Gerini, Henri Poincaré:  Une Biographie au(x) quotidian(s)”.  David will give a paper at the 11th International HOPOS Conference in Minneapolis, and at the Quad Fellows conference in Lund.

2017

David Stump is publishing the following: 
Science and Hypothesis: The Complete Text by Henri Poincaré, a new translation by Mélanie Frappier, Andrea Smith, and David J. Stump; introduction by David J. Stump. New York and London: Bloomsbury, in press
“The Relative A Priori” in Handbook of Logical Empiricism, T. Uebel, ed. London: Routledge, forthcoming
“The Pragmatic Theory of the A Priori” in Pragmatism in Transition: Contemporary Perspectives on C. I. Lewis,  P. Olen & C. Sachs, eds.  London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2017, chapter 7, in press.