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History and Philosophy of Science papers

Pofolia’s corpus holds 83 papers from History and Philosophy of Science (2012–2026), each with a short summary. Below, the 20 most-cited, then the most recently added.

At a glance

  • Most cited: The Logic of Scientific Discovery (2013, 7,809 citations).
  • The 20 papers listed have 36,481 citations between them.
  • 2 of the 2 with a known journal quartile appeared in a Q1 journal.
  • 1 have a free full text (open access).
  • Most frequent journals: Cambridge University Press eBooks, Choice Reviews Online, Oxford University Press eBooks.
  • Published between 2012 and 2024.

Most cited

Ranked by citation count. Because citations accumulate over time, this list naturally leans towards work published a few years ago; for where the field is now, see “recently added”. How to read the signals

  • The Logic of Scientific Discovery

    2013 · FWCI 4033.50 · 7,809 citations

    Karl Popper's "The Logic of Scientific Discovery" introduced the influential doctrine of falsificationism, fundamentally altering how science and knowledge are understood.

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  • Phenomenology of Perception

    2013 · FWCI 233.37 · 4,750 citations

    This is a new translation of Maurice Merleau-Ponty's seminal 1945 work, "Phénoménologie de la perception," making a landmark of 20th-century thought accessible to a new generation.

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  • Adaptation and Natural Selection: A Critique of Some Current Evolutionary Thought

    2018 · FWCI 636.26 · 2,798 citations

    This classic 1966 work by Williams delivered a foundational critique against the concept of group selection, strongly advocating for individual-level natural selection as the primary driver of evolution.

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  • Scientific Explanation and the Causal Structure of the World

    Princeton University Press eBooks · 2020 · FWCI 81.47 · 2,014 citations

    This work proposes a new philosophical theory of scientific explanation, centered on a novel, statistically-aligned treatment of causality, defending a causal/mechanical model.

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  • The Strategy of the Genes

    2014 · FWCI 109.66 · 1,962 citations

    This seminal 1957 work bridged analytical and theoretical biology, offering a conceptual framework for understanding biological organization, its generative processes, and evolution.

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  • What is this thing called science?

    Choice Reviews Online · 2014 · 1,581 citations

    This book offers a comprehensive historical and philosophical overview of scientific methodology, tracing the evolution of thought from early empirical observation to modern approaches like falsificationism and Bayesianism.

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  • Diffracting Diffraction: Cutting Together-Apart

    Parallax · 2014 · Q1 · FWCI 248.11 · 1,443 citations

    This paper introduces 'diffracting diffraction' as a new conceptual and methodological approach for understanding complex phenomena, moving beyond traditional analytical methods.

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  • A System of Logic, Ratiocinative and Inductive

    2023 · FWCI 248.84 · 1,442 citations

    Experiment is presented as a significant extension of observation, allowing researchers to actively create specific variations in circumstances to uncover causal laws, a capability nature rarely provides.

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  • Five Misunderstandings About Case-Study Research

    2016 · FWCI 1359.30 · 1,417 citations

    This article debunks five common misconceptions about case-study research, arguing that single-case studies can contribute to scientific development and theory building, not just hypothesis generation.

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  • The Righteous Mind: Why Good People Are Divided by Politics and Religion

    Philosophical Psychology · 2013 · Q1 · FWCI 340.63 · 1,410 citations

    This paper critiques Jonathan Haidt's "The Righteous Mind," arguing that while his aim to explain political and religious divides through distinct moral views is noble, his key explanations and prescriptions are flawed.

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  • The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals

    Cambridge University Press eBooks · 2013 · FWCI 73.75 · 1,354 citations

    Charles Darwin's 1872 monograph systematically studied human and animal facial expressions, challenging prior assumptions that these muscles were unique to humans for expression.

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  • Proofs and Refutations: The Logic of Mathematical Discovery

    2015 · FWCI 526.06 · 1,278 citations

    Imre Lakatos's "Proofs and Refutations" argues that mathematics grows through a dynamic process of proposing proofs, critiquing them, and improving upon them, rather than being a static collection of truths.

  • 3. Of Mimicry and Man: The Ambivalence of Colonial Discourse

    2019 · FWCI 475.32 · 1,218 citations

    Colonial discourse, particularly from post-Enlightenment England, is characterized by a "forked tongue" that simultaneously asserts authority and undermines itself through mimicry. This inherent ambivalence is evident in influential texts that attempt to reform colonial subjects.

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  • The Possibility of Naturalism

    2013 · FWCI 51.12 · 1,001 citations

    This philosophical work, first published in 1979, is a foundational text for critical realism, offering a significant alternative to positivist and post-positivist approaches in philosophy of science and social science.

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  • Evolution in Four Dimensions

    The MIT Press eBooks · 2014 · FWCI 77.98 · 986 citations

    This book proposes a pluralistic extension to evolutionary theory, arguing that heredity involves four dimensions beyond genes: genetic, epigenetic, behavioral, and symbolic inheritance systems.

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  • Realism and the Aim of Science

    2013 · FWCI 42.64 · 916 citations

    Karl Popper's "Realism and the Aim of Science" presents his non-justificationist theory of knowledge, asserting that science aims for true explanatory theories but can never definitively prove them true.

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  • Mind and Cosmos

    Oxford University Press eBooks · 2012 · FWCI 80.08 · 915 citations

    Philosopher Thomas Nagel argues that the dominant scientific worldview of materialist naturalism is inadequate to explain consciousness and other mind-related aspects of reality.

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  • Science and Hypothesis

    2024 · FWCI 6.33 · 828 citations · Open access

    Henri Poincaré's foundational work, 'Science and Hypothesis,' argues that scientific certainty is not absolute, emphasizing the crucial role of hypotheses as necessary tools for both experimenters and mathematicians.

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  • The Book of Why: The New Science of Cause and Effect

    2018 · FWCI 989.04 · 684 citations

    Judea Pearl's work on causality has revolutionized scientific inquiry, moving beyond mere correlation to enable claims about what causes what.

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  • Representation in Cognitive Science

    2018 · FWCI 74.33 · 675 citations

    This book proposes a novel, pluralistic account of how subpersonal mental representations acquire their content, combining naturalistic resources with insights from teleosemantics.

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Recently added

Journals in this field

The journals that publish most of this field’s papers. Quartile (Q1–Q4), SJR and h-index are from SCImago Journal Rank; “in this field” is how many of the journal’s pooled papers belong here. What is a Q1 journal? · What is the h-index?

JournalQuartileSJRh-indexIn this fieldSummaries
Big Data and SocietyQ12.008917
BMJQ11.00543147
Royal Society Open ScienceQ1—10314

Every journal in History and Philosophy of Science (Q1–Q4) →

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