Summary
Specializations
History and philosophy of science; science, technology, society; epistemology; philosophy of mind (cognitive scientific aspects), pragmatism.
Research
Professor Nickles' presentations include lecture and conference appearances in London, Cambridge, Ghent, Brussels, Berlin, Nancy, A Coruña, Barcelona, Rome, Catania, Vienna, Helsinki, Toronto, Vancouver, Buenos Aires, Mexico City, Guanajuato, Athens, Beijing, and New Delhi.
Nickles is the editor of Scientific Discovery, Logic and Rationality and of Scientific Discovery: Case Studies (both Reidel, 1980); Thomas Kuhn (Cambridge University Press, 2003); coeditor, with Joke Meheus, of Models of Discovery and Creativity (Springer, 2009), coeditor with Léna Soler, Emiliano Trizio, and William C. Wimsatt, of Characterizing the Robustness of Science: After the Practice Turn in Philosophy of Science (Springer, 2013); and coeditor with Emliano Ippoliti and Fabio Sterpetti, of Models and Logic in Science. He has recent and forthcoming publications in several journals, books, and encyclopedias. Tom is one of two dozen science studies people featured in How to Take the Naturalistic Turn, edited by the late Werner Callebaut (University of Chicago, 1993).
Nickles has served as an external member of the graduate faculty of the University of Catania, Italy, where he was recently involved in a project funded by the European Union concerning the role of university scientific research in improving economic innovation. He is also a member of a research group at the Archive Poincaré at Nancy 2 University in France. He is a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (the world's largest scientific organization) and recently served as chair of its Section L: History & Philosophy of Science. Nickles has received several National Science Foundation research grants and has been a member of several grants panels at NSF.
Professor Nickles was named Nevada Professor of the Year in 2009 by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching.
Teaching
- Phil 101 — Introduction to Philosophy
- Phil 224 — Introduction to Philosophy of Science
- Phil 315 — Survey of 20th Century Anglo-American Philosophy
- Phil 316 — American Pragmatism
- Phil 325 — Philosophy of History
- Phil 326 — Symbolic Logic
- Phil 434/634 — Philosophy of Cognitive Science
- Phil 435/635 — Philosophy of Mind
- Phil 438/638 — Problems in the History and Philosophy of Science
- Phil 480 — Capstone: Science, Technology and Society
- Phil 494 — Selected Topics: Normativity
- Phil 494 — Selected Topics: Levels of Reality
- CH 202 (Core Humanities) — The Modern World
Education
- Ph.D., Princeton University, 1969