Josh R. Hunt
Josh R. Hunt
Pronouns: He/his or they/them
Assistant Professor
CONTACT
Philosophy
529 Hall of Languages
Email: jhunt11@syr.edu
Degrees
Ph.D. in Philosophy, University of Michigan (2022)
M.S. in Mathematics, University of Michigan (2019)
M.Phil. in History and Philosophy of Science, University of Cambridge (2015)
B.Phil. in Philosophy, University of Pittsburgh (2014)
B.S. in Chemical Engineering, University of Pittsburgh (2014)
Social/Academic Links
Courses Taught
Philosophy of Science (PHI 373), Logic (PHI 251)
Josh Hunt focuses on two related areas in philosophy of science, with connections to metaphysics and epistemology. The first concerns the nature of effective problem-solving in mathematics, chemistry, and physics. Why do experts spend so much time reformulating existing proofs, theories, and problem-solving procedures? The second concerns various metaphysically-loaded aspects of scientific practice, including laws of nature, causation, explanation, and fundamentality. Can we respect the power of these concepts while remaining metaphysically neutral?
History and Philosophy of the physical sciences and mathematics; General philosophy of science; Meta-philosophy
American Philosophical Association, Philosophy of Science Association, British Society for Philosophy of Science, Philosophy of Physics Society, American Mathematical Society
- “Expressivism about Explanatory Relevance,” Philosophical Studies (2022)
- “Understanding and Equivalent Reformulations,” Philosophy of Science (2021)
- “Hamiltonian Privilege,” with Gabriele Carcassi and Christine Aidala, Erkenntnis (2023)
- “Epistemic Dependence & Understanding: Reformulating through Symmetry,” British Journal for the Philosophy of Science (forthcoming)
- “Interpreting the Wigner–Eckart Theorem”, Studies in History and Philosophy of Science (2021)
- John Dewey Teaching Prize, University of Michigan Philosophy Department (2020)
- National Science Foundation, Graduate Research Fellowship Program (2015—19)
- Hanneke Janssen Memorial Prize in History and Philosophy of Physics (2015)