Office Location: 201 West Duke Bldg (East Campus)
Office Phone: +1 919-660-3054, +1 919-660-3050
Fax:  (919) 660-3060
Email Address:
Web Page: http://fds.duke.edu/db/aas/Philosophy/faculty/sterrett

Education:
Ph.D. Philosophy, University of Pittsburgh
M. A. Mathematics, University of Pittsburgh
M. A. Philosophy, University of Pittsburgh
B. S. Engineering, Cornell University

Specialties:

Philosophy of Science
943

Research Interests:

Susan G. Sterrett (Ph.D. Philosophy University of Pittsburgh) joined the Duke faculty in Fall 2000.

She works in philosophy of science, broadly construed to include not only physics, but sciences such as psychology, the social sciences, and biology. She also investigates topics in the history of science and history of philosophy in the course of pursuing questions in the philosophy of science.

Professor Sterrett is especially interested in analogical reasoning and the use of various kinds of models in reasoning. She has published on a wide range of topics, including philosophy of science, philosophy of mathematics, philosophy of physics, philosophy of biology, philosophy of psychology, philosophy of mind, philosophy of artificial intelligence, and Early Analytic Philosophy. There is a common thread running through these various efforts, however: an interest in analyzing arguments or modes of reasoning that appeal to one or more concepts associated with Analogies, Models, Similarity, Correspondence, or Mappings.

Recent work includes:

• (Talk) S. G. Sterrett, "Could There Be A General Theory of Similarity?"April, 2009, 36th Annual Philosophy of Science Conference, Inter-University Center, Dubrovnik, Croatia

• (Talk; Paper in submission) S.G. Sterrett, "Abstracting Matter", Models and Simulations 3 Conference, University of Virginia, March 6th - 9th, 2009

• (Paper) "Historical Context and Philosophy of Science: Reply to Peter Simons' 'Coincidence and Kite-Flying' "

• (Paper) "Similarity and Dimensional Analysis" by S. G. Sterrett (to appear), in Handbook of the Philosophy of Science, edited by Dov Gabbay, Paul Thagard, and John Woods, vol. 9 (2009), Elsevier. Preprint: http://philsci-archive.pitt.edu/archive/00004474/

• (Talk) "What Makes Good Models Good?" (Presented at "Models and Prediction in Science, Science Studies & Public Policy: A Research Workshop" University of California, San Diego. May 26-28, 2006 )

• (Book) Wittgenstein Flies a Kite: A Story of Models of Wings and Models of the World published November 2005 by Pi Press (Penguin). Abstract: Wittgenstein told friends on many occasions that he came to see how things in the world can be represented in language by thinking about scale models, and that it occurred while he was a soldier, in the autumn of 1914. This book is the result of investigating the idea that perhaps he meant experimental engineering scale models. It is well known that Wittgenstein had been an aeronautical engineer before going to Cambridge to study philosophy with Bertrand Russell in 1911. Why only in 1914, then, did this insight occur? It so happens that 1914 was the year that the basis of the method of experimental engineering scale models was formally set out and presented, by a philosophically-minded physicist, as a matter of a purely logical principle about any symbolic system that is used to represent physical relationships. In fact, a whole array of discussions about similarity arose in 1913-1914, in physics, biology, and chemistry. The book lays out this previously untold story in the history of ideas, presents a new reading of Wittgenstein's philosophical work (Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus) and explains how many heretofore puzzling claims in it click into a coherent account on this new reading. (list of errata to first edition sent on request; email author at sterrett@duke.edu )

• "Models of Machines and Models of Phenomena" (http://philsci-archive.pitt.edu/archive/00002245/ ) - International Studies in Philosophy of Science, Vol. 20, No. 1, pp. 69-80 (2006). Also presented at PSA (Philosophy of Science Association Biennual Meeting ) 2004.

• "How Many Thoughts Can Fit in the Form of a Proposition?" (http://philsci-archive.pitt.edu/archive/00001816/ ) - (in submission).

• "Pictures of Sounds: Wittgenstein on Gramophone Records and the Logic of Depiction" (http://philsci-archive.pitt.edu/archive/00002019/) - Studies in the History and Philosophy of Science, Part A, Vol. 36, Issue 2, Pages 351-362 (June 2005).

• "Analogous Principles: Some Historical Case Studies" - Talk presented at conference "Philosophical Perspectives on Scientific Understanding", August 27, 2005, The Free University, Amsterdam, Netherlands.

• "The Proper Uses of Proportion: Understanding Galileo's Advance Over the Pythagoreans" - Talk presented at 12th UK Conference on Foundations of Physics, September 2-5, 2003, University of Leeds, Leeds, UK.

• "Kinds of Models" (http://philsci-archive.pitt.edu/archive/00002363/) - Talk presented at STS Interdisciplinary Roundtable: "The Multiple Meanings of Models" March 20, 2003, John Hope Franklin Center, Duke University.

• "Physical Models and Fundamental Laws: Using one Piece of the World to Tell About Another" (http://philsci-archive.pitt.edu/archive/00000720/) - Mind and Society Vol. 3, No. 5 (2002).

• "Too Many Instincts: Contrasting Philosophical Views on Intelligence in Humans and Non-Humans"   - JETAI Vol. 14, No. 1, pp. 39-60 (March 2002). Reprinted in Thinking About Android Epistemology edited by Ken Ford, Clark Glymour, and Patrick Hayes, MIT Press (March 2006).

• "Darwin's Analogy Between Artificial and Natural Selection: How Does It Go?"   - Studies in History and Philosophy of Science, Part C, Vol. 33 (March 2002) pp. 151-168.

• "Physical Pictures: Engineering Models circa 1914 and in Wittgenstein's Tractatus" (http://philsci-archive.pitt.edu/archive/00000661/) - Talk presented at HOPOS 2000 in Vienna, Austria, July 2000 and reprinted in the edited volume, History of Philosophy of Science - New Trends and Perspectives (Vienna Circle Institute Yearbook 9/2001).

She is also the author of:

• "Turing's Two Tests for Intelligence"   - Minds and Machines Vol.10 No.4 (November 2000) pp. 541-559. (Reprinted in The Turing Test: The Elusive Standard of Artificial Intelligence edited by James H. Moor, Kluwer Academic 2003).

• "Nested Algorithms and the Original Imitation Game Test"   - Minds and Machines Vol. 12 No. 1 (February 2002), pp. 131-136.

• How Beliefs Make A Difference (PhD Dissertation, Department of Philosophy, University of Pittsburgh (1999)) Abstract: How are beliefs efficacious? One answer is: via rational intentional action. But there are other ways that beliefs are efficacious. This dissertation examines these other ways, and sketches an answer to the question of how beliefs are efficacious that takes into account how beliefs are involved in the full range of behavioral disciplines, from psychophysiology and cognition to social and economic phenomena.

• "Sounds Like Light: Einstein's Special Theory of Relativity and Mach's Work on Acoustics and Aerodynamics"   - Studies in History and Philosophy of Modern Physics Vol. 29 No. 1 (March 1998) pp. 1-35.

• "Frege and Hilbert on the Foundations of Geometry" (http://philsci-archive/00000723/) (Talk presented at Graduate Student Colloquium, University of Pittsbugh 1993/1994).

Professor Sterrett was a recipient of a Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation Career Enhancement Fellowship in 2003-2004.

Areas of Interest:

Philosophy of Science 
History and Philosophy of Science, 

Recent Publications   (More Publications)

• S.G. Sterrett. ""Similarity and Dimensional Analysis" (to appear)." Handbook of the Philosophy of Science 9 (Accepted, 2009).  [author's comments]
• S.G. Sterrett. ""Abstracting Matter"."   (Accepted, March 3 - 8th, 2009).  [author's comments]
• S.G. Sterrett. "Models of Machines and Models of Phenomena." International Studies in Philosophy of Science 20.1 (March, 2006): 69-80. [contribution.asp]  [abs] [author's comments]
• Susan G. Sterrett. Wittgenstein Flies A Kite: A Story of Models of Wings and Models of the World. Pi Press (Penguin Group imprint), Fall, 2005. (Appeared December 2005) [net]  [abs]
• S.G. Sterrett. "Pictures of Sound: Wittgenstein on Gramophone Records and the Logic of Depiction." Studies in the History and Philosophy of Science Part A 36.2 (June, 2005): 351-362. [pdf]  [abs]

Selected Invited Lectures

1. "Could There Be A General Theory of Similarity?", April, 2009, 36th Annual Philosophy of Science Conference, Inter-University Center, Dubrovnik, Croatia    
2. "What Makes Good Models Good?", May 26-28, 2006, University of San Diego, San Diego, California [htm]    
3. "Models of Machines and Models of Phenomena", November 18, 2004, Workshop on Applying Science at PSA 2004, Philosophy of Science Biennial Meeting, Austin, TX [00002088]    

Selected Talks

1. Analogous Principles: Some Historical Case Studies, August 27, 2005, The Free University, Amsterdam, Netherlands    
2. The proper uses of proportion: understanding Galileo's advance over the Pythagoreans, September 2-5, 2003, 12th UK Conference on Foundations of Physics, University of Leeds, UK    
3. The science of the similar: how to get things out of proportion, August 7-14, 2003, 12th Conference on Logic, Methodology and Philosophy of Science, Oviedo, Spain    
4. "Kinds of Models", March 20, 2003, John Hope Franklin Center, Duke University [available here]    
5. Intelligent behavior, habitual response or programmed movement? Turing, James and Descartes on intelligence in animals and machines, April 24, 2002, NC State Philosophy Club, Raleigh, NC    
6. "Too Many Instincts: Contrasting Philosophical Views on Intelligence in Humans and Non-Humans", February 9, 2002, North Carolina Philosophical Society/South Carolina Philsophy Society , College of Charleston, Charleston, SC    
7. Physical models and fundamental laws: using one piece of the world to tell about another, 2001, MBR '01 (Conference on Model Based Reasoning 2001), Pavia, Italy [00000720]    
8. Darwn's analogy between artificial and natural selection: how does it go?, March, 2001, Lunchtime Talk Series, Center for Philosophy of Science, University of Pittsburgh    
9. Physical pictures: engineering models circa 1914 and Wittgenstein's "Tractatus", 2000, HOPOS 2000 (History of Philosophy of Science), Vienna Austria [00000661]    
10. Sounds like light: Einstein's special theory of relativity and Mach's work on acoustics and aerodynamics, 1997, Lunchtime Talk Series, Center for Philosophy of Science, University of Pittsburgh [htm]