Department of History and Philosophy of Science

Jordi Cat

Jordi Cat received a M.A. from Stanford University, and a Ph.D. from the University of California at Davis in 1995. He has held postdoctoral positions at Harvard University, the Max Planck Institute for History of Science in Berlin, The London School of Economics and the University of Chicago. His research interests are primarily in history and philosophy of science, in particular the history and philosophy of physics and logical positivism. Among various topics in these fields, he is especially interested in models, scientific method, classical and quantum field theories, and unity of science.

He has published numerous articles in the history and philosophy of science and co-wrote a book, Otto Neurath: Philosophy between Science and Politics (Cambridge UP, 1995) with Nancy Cartwright, Lola Fleck, and Thomas Uebel.

He has recently co-founded the IU 19th-Century Studies Group and he is currently completing three books:

• Master and Designer of Fields: James Clerk Maxwell and Constructive, Connective and Concrete Natural Philosophy (Oxford University Press, forthcoming). On concreteness and construction, sources and resources in Maxwell's natural philosophy.
• Physics beyond Laws and Theories: The Limits of Unity, Universality and Precision (Johns Hopkins University Press, forthcoming). On philosophy of mathematical representation in physics.
• From the Human Sciences to Philosophy of Science (on the dynamical interaction between science, human science, philosophy and philosophy of science)

jcat@indiana.edu