Enno Fischer

Lab studies won’t tell us why someone died—but they do matter for showing what’s possible (and what isn’t). We also unpack how some claims that restraint positions are “safe” rely on experiments that don’t actually test those claims.

Studying asphyxiation in the lab: the role of experimental evidence in cause-of-death inquiry - History and Philosophy of the Life Sciences Like most scientific and medical disciplines, forensic medicine employs evidence from experimental studies. Yet, unlike most disciplines, forensic medicine is primarily interested in the post-hoc eval...

Can lab experiments help settle real-world death cases?
In our new paper, we look at experimental asphyxiation studies at the center of debates on deaths in custody.👇
link.springer.com/article/10.1...
#philsci #philsky #HPS

This is the sixth article from the TC that @ennofischer.bsky.social & I are editing for EJPS and it's a special one. Enno sets the stage for the other contributions by showing why the pursuitworthiness of experiments merits philosophical reflection in its own right. link.springer.com/collections/...

Promotional image announcing the publication of a paper in the European Journal for Philosophy of Science. The article, classified as a “Paper in General Philosophy of Science,” is titled The Pursuitworthiness of Experiments and is authored by Enno Fischer. The image also shows the journal name, publication details (2026, volume 16, issue 5), DOI information, the author’s name with ORCID icon, and the submission and acceptance dates.

How to decide whether to pursue an experiment? @ennofischer.bsky.social articulates the "context of pursuit" for experiments, in which facilities, research questions, expected gain & feasibility help determine what experiments are worth doing👇 link.springer.com/article/10.1... #philsci #philsky #HPS

Evidence-based medicine and the promises and limits of digital health and wearable technology New approaches to biomedical evidence are emerging in relation to innovative technologies and data sources. These include digital health, which promis…

New paper, the first of 2026, and it's a big one!

📗Evidence-based medicine and the promises and limits of digital health and wearable technology, out in Studies in History and Philosophy of Science www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

#philsky #philsci #histsci

This is the fifth article from the TC that @ennofischer.bsky.social & I are currently editing for the EJPS! A critical mass of papers is accruing, and we still have fantastic theoretical contributions and case studies from a range of sciences in the pipeline! link.springer.com/collections/...

Promotional image announcing the publication of a paper in the European Journal for Philosophy of Science. The article, classified under “Philosophy of the Biomedical Sciences,” is titled “When to recommend no experiment? Drug regulation and the institutional shaping of pursuitworthiness” and is authored by HyeJeong Han.

In her latest 📃, HyeJeong Han argues that in regulatory science (e.g., 💊 regulation), economic considerations shape decisions to halt experimentation. She shows how costs become integrated into evidential standards & impact institutionalized judgments👇 link.springer.com/article/10.1... #philsci #HPS

Thanks for the great talk, Catherine!

This is the fourth article published in the Topical Collection that @ennofischer.bsky.social and I are editing for EJPS: "The Pursuitworthiness of Experiments Across the Sciences" (link.springer.com/collections/...). More exciting articles are coming soon—don’t miss what’s next! #philsci #histsci

Screenshot of the header of a journal article from the European Journal for Philosophy of Science. The article is labeled as a ‘Paper in Philosophy of Science in Practice’ and is titled "Funding big science: managing diversity, social responsibility, and limited resources." The author is Jamie Shaw, with an ORCID icon displayed.

In his latest paper, Jamie Shaw discusses the pursuitworthiness of different types of Big Science—normal, revolutionary & socially oriented—with attention to funding allocation mechanisms, risks, benefits, pluralism & social responsibility 👇 link.springer.com/article/10.1... #HPS #metasci #philsky

This paper is the third contribution to the TC @ennofischer.bsky.social and I are editing for EJPS: link.springer.com/collections/... So far articles covering high-energy physics, neurolinguistics & sex-related biomedical research have been published! Stay tuned—more exciting pieces are on the way!

Screenshot of the header of a journal article from the European Journal for Philosophy of Science (2025), article 15:71. The article is categorized under “Paper in the Philosophy of the Biomedical Sciences” and is titled “Sex as a biological variable and the pursuitworthiness of exploratory inquiry,” authored by Marina DiMarco, with an ORCID icon beside the name.

In her new 📃, Marina DiMarco analyzes the NIH’s Sex as a Biological Variable (SABV) policy in the context of exploratory inquiry & confirmatory experimentation, arguing that it offers important reflections on pursuitworthiness judgments 👇 link.springer.com/article/10.1... #philsci #HPbio #HPS

This paper is the second addition to the TC @ennofischer.bsky.social & I are editing for EJPS: link.springer.com/collections/... Stay posted for more exciting articles in the pipeline covering pursuitworthiness criteria across the sciences and general theoretical pieces reflecting on these issues!

Screenshot of the article header from the European Journal for Philosophy of Science titled “The pursuitworthiness of experiments in neurolinguistics” by Nevia Dolcini, Bernard A. J. Jap, Chan Wa Kun and Stephen Politzer-Ahles. The header indicates it is a paper in philosophy of science in practice. The DOI is https://doi.org/10.1007/s13194-025-00691-z

What makes a neurolinguistics experiment worth pursuing? Nevia Dolcini & colleagues propose two axes of pursuitworthiness standing in an asymmetric relationship: methodological (thresholds for epistemic adequacy) & pragmatic (contextual priorities) 👇📃 link.springer.com/article/10.1... #philsci #HPS

At the Faculty of Arts, Humanities and Social Science, Institute of Philosophy, the Junior Professorship in Philosophy of Science (Jun.-Prof. Dr. Enno Fischer) offers a position as Research Associate / PostDoc (m/f/x) in Philosophy of Science / Philosophy of Physics (subject to personal qualification employees are remunerated according to salary group E 13 TV-L) starting at the earliest possible date. The position is limited to 2 years. The period of employment is governed by the Fixed Term Research Contracts Act (Wissenschaftszeitvertragsgesetz - WissZeitVG). The position offers the chance to obtain further academic qualification (usually preparation of habilitation thesis). The position is part of the DFG project "Progress through Principles: An Epistemology of Foundational Assumptions Guiding Contemporary Physics" which examines the heuristic role of guiding principles in foundational physics. Further information about the project is available at https://tu-dresden.de/gsw/phil/iphil/phisci/forschung.

Apply to join a team of wonderful colleagues at Philosophy at TU Dresden. I am advertising a 2-year PostDoc position in philosophy of science/philosophy of physics as part of the DFG project 'Progress through Principles', deadline 03.11.2025.
Details: tinyurl.com/493dffby
#philsci #philsky

At the Faculty of Arts, Humanities and Social Science, Institute of Philosophy, the Junior Professorship in Philosophy of Science (Jun.-Prof. Dr. Enno Fischer) offers a position as Research Associate / PostDoc (m/f/x) in Philosophy of Science / Philosophy of Physics (subject to personal qualification employees are remunerated according to salary group E 13 TV-L) starting at the earliest possible date. The position is limited to 2 years. The period of employment is governed by the Fixed Term Research Contracts Act (Wissenschaftszeitvertragsgesetz - WissZeitVG). The position offers the chance to obtain further academic qualification (usually preparation of habilitation thesis). The position is part of the DFG project "Progress through Principles: An Epistemology of Foundational Assumptions Guiding Contemporary Physics" which examines the heuristic role of guiding principles in foundational physics. Further information about the project is available at https://tu-dresden.de/gsw/phil/iphil/phisci/forschung.

Apply to join a team of wonderful colleagues at Philosophy at TU Dresden. I am advertising a 2-year PostDoc position in philosophy of science/philosophy of physics as part of the DFG project 'Progress through Principles', deadline 03.11.2025.
Details: tinyurl.com/493dffby
#philsci #philsky

This paper is the first to be published in the Topical Collection “The Pursuitworthiness of Experiments Across the Sciences,” which @ennofischer.bsky.social and I are editing for EJPS. Stay tuned for more exciting contributions spanning a wide range of sciences! 👇🔖 link.springer.com/collections/...

Screenshot of the article header from the European Journal for Philosophy of Science titled “Experiment and the pursuit of ugly models” by Martin King. The header indicates it is a paper in philosophy of the natural sciences. The DOI is https://doi.org/10.1007/s13194-025-00692-y

Physicists have long been enamored with “beautiful” models—but this seems to have changed in high-energy physics. In his new paper, Martin King argues that experimental contexts strongly determine the pursuitworthiness of “ugly models” 👇📃 link.springer.com/article/10.1... #philsci #philphysics #HPS

Flexible or Rigid? A Functionalist Approach to Epistemic Standards Epistemic standards have attracted some attention in recent discussions in social epistemology and philosophy of science. Yet these discussions typically lack a more general approach to what standa...

Standards like 'A4 paper' make life easier, but some situations call for custom solutions. Our new article explores the tension between rigidity and flexibility in 'epistemic' standards—rules for what we can justifiably claim to know.
www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....
#philsci #philsky

Screenshot of a journal article titled "Two ontogenetic challenges to trait individuation" by Alejandro Fábregas-Tejeda, published in Synthese (2025) 205:219. The abstract reads: "Trait individuation is an epistemically indispensable and heuristically fruitful practice in biological science. However, important ontological issues transcend an epistemology-only reading of what trait individuation entails (e.g., adaptation and homology), prompting scholars to advance models and frameworks to grapple with this problem. Here, I articulate two challenges that arise when advancing theories and frameworks to tackle trait individuation: the synchronicity and the diachronicity challenges. The synchronicity challenge involves specifying the traits an organism has at a given moment in ontogeny, whereas the diachronicity challenge involves understanding the causal processes that drive trait individuation in development and tracing these units across time. To delve deeper, I introduce extant functionalist and structuralist perspectives on trait individuation and evaluate how they address both challenges. Overcoming these challenges is necessary for such accounts to fulfill their theoretical promise of individuating the traits that organisms have in an ontologically sound way."

“Traits” are central units of biological analysis—but how should they be individuated, and relative to which ontogenetic frame of reference? In my new paper, I argue that answering this isn’t easy—and matters more than it seems. 📃👇 link.springer.com/article/10.1... #philsci #HPBio #evosky #evodevo

Rationally warranted promise: the virtue-economic account of pursuit-worthiness - Synthese Pursuing a scientific idea is often justified by the promise associated with it. Philosophers of science have proposed various ways of unpacking this idea of promise, including more specific indicator...

How do economic concepts relate to the promise of foundational research? In our new paper, we propose an account of scientific pursuitworthiness that spells out talk of 'costs' and 'benefits' in terms of theoretical virtues.
link.springer.com/article/10.1...
#philsci #philsky #HPS

Job ad for position in DFG project: "Progress through Principles: An Epistemology of Foundational Assumptions Guiding Contemporary Physics"

Apply to join a team of wonderful colleagues at Philosophy at TU Dresden. I am advertising a 3-year PhD position in philosophy of science/philosophy of physics as part of the DFG project 'Progress through Principles', deadline 28.06.2024. For details: tinyurl.com/3eb2f667
#philsci #philsky

Call for papers announcement from the European Journal for Philosophy of Science, published by Springer. The special issue is titled 'The Pursuitworthiness of Experiments Across the Sciences,' with guest editors Enno Fischer (TU Dresden) and Alejandro Fábregas-Tejeda (KU Leuven). The new deadline for submissions is 30 June 2025.

What makes a particular #experiment 'pursuitworthy'? Do criteria differ across scientific fields? @ennofischer.bsky.social & I have extended the deadline for submissions to our topical collection on these issues. Please help us spread the word! 👇 tu-dresden.de/gsw/phil/iph... #philsci #philsky #HPS

New GWP (German Soc for Phil of Sci) Executive Committee (2025-28), left to right: Michael Jungert (Managing Director), Enno Fischer (Treasurer), Lena Kästner (Vice President), Mathias Frisch, Anna Leuschner, Axel Gelfert (President). (Not pictured: Simon Friederich, JGPS representative) #philsci 👍

The life cycle of scientific principles—a template for characterizing physical principles - Synthese Scientific principles can undergo various developments. While philosophers of science have acknowledged that such changes occur, there is no systematic account of the development of scientific princip...

How do physical principles develop? We show that there are 5 processes: prehistory, elevation, formalization, generalization and challenge. For some principles these work better than for others. What does that tell us about such principles? See here: link.springer.com/article/10.1...

#PhilSci

Call for Papers for special issue of @epsaphilsci.bsky.social on
“The Pursuitworthiness of Experiments Across the Sciences”
Guest Editors: @ennofischer.bsky.social & @afabregastejeda.bsky.social
Deadline: 30 April 2025
#PhilSci

Guiding principles in physics - European Journal for Philosophy of Science Guiding principles are central to theory development in physics, especially when there is only limited empirical input available. Here I propose an approach to such principles looking at their heurist...

Whence the heuristic power of physical guiding principles such as correspondence and naturalness? In this article I argue that it arises from the way guiding principles integrate principles of nature and action principles. #philsci #philsky #Physics link.springer.com/article/10.1...

Promotional image announcing the call for papers for the topical collection "The Pursuitworthiness of Experiments Across the Sciences" to be published in the European Journal for Philosophy of Science (Guest Editors: Enno Fischer and Alejandro Fábregas-Tejeda). The call for papers runs from November 1, 2024 to April 20, 2025.

How do we judge whether a particular experiment is 'pursuitworthy'? What factors need to be considered? @ennofischer.bsky.social & I are receiving submissions exploring these & related questions for a topical collection in EJPS! Please help us spread the word! tu-dresden.de/gsw/phil/iph... #philsci

Das Institut für Philosophie @tudresden.bsky.social hat eine sog. Lektor*innen-Stelle im Angebot, für Fachdidaktik der Philosophie und Ethik. 100%, 12 SWS, unbefristet.
Deadline: 06.12. -- Gerne teilen! Wir sind ein sehr nettes, junges Institut (hab ich gehört 😏) #philsky

The SOCRATES group – Social Credibility and Trustworthiness of Expert Knowledge and Science-Based Information – invites applications for senior fellowships and postdoctoral fellowships (2-12 months) at Leibniz University Hannover, Germany. More info here: www.socrates.uni-hannover.de/en/opportuni...