Research in Development

A selection of ongoing research projects

A selection of ongoing research projects, conceptual papers, and philosophical investigations. These manuscripts are works in progress intended to develop new research directions before journal submission. Titles and abstracts may evolve as the projects mature.

My research focuses on the conceptual foundations of science, artificial intelligence, and technological society. Across these domains I investigate the conditions that make inference, responsibility, explanation, and institutional knowledge possible. Rather than treating philosophy of science, AI ethics, and philosophy of technology as separate disciplines, my work seeks general principles that recur across them — with particular attention to the relationship between object constitution, inference, and human judgment.

Theme

Philosophy of Science

Constitutive License: Object Constitution and the Limits of Scientific Inference

Working Paper

Argues that philosophy of science lacks a general account of how the constitution of scientific objects determines the inferential scope of empirical research. Introduces the Inheritance Principle — inferential scope is inherited from object constitution rather than generated by evidence alone — and develops constitutive license, constitutive non-self-sufficiency, and constitutive overreach as consequences.

Keywords · Philosophy of science • Scientific inference • Measurement • Object constitution • Epistemology

Inferential License

Conceptual Paper

Every empirical design carries an inferential license that defines which conclusions are justified by the design employed. Scientific error begins when claims exceed that license. Develops a general account applicable to AI, psychology, medicine, and the social sciences.

Evidence Is Not Ground

Discussion Paper

Evidence supports claims only within a previously constituted conceptual framework. Evidence cannot by itself establish the adequacy of the framework that gives it meaning.

Theme

Artificial Intelligence

Epistemic Infrastructure

Working Paper

Artificial intelligence increasingly functions as infrastructure for knowledge production rather than merely as a tool. Explores how AI reorganises attention, memory, justification, and institutional knowledge.

Administrative Epistemic Lag

Working Paper

Governance often regulates emerging technologies using inherited conceptual categories developed for previous technological eras. Argues that accumulated administrative expertise can itself become a source of epistemic lag.

Benchmark Success and Constitutive Overreach

Research Note

Explores why benchmark improvements are frequently interpreted as evidence for broader capabilities than the benchmark actually licenses.

Theme

Technology and Society

Philosophy of Formation

Conceptual Project

Investigates human formation under conditions of algorithmic mediation and optimisation, connecting philosophical anthropology, ethics, education, and AI.

Maintenance Before Innovation

Working Paper

Argues that philosophy of technology has disproportionately emphasised innovation while neglecting maintenance, repair, and infrastructural continuity.

Conceptual Notes

Smaller ideas in development

A short section for smaller ideas that may later become full papers.

Constitutive Silence
Epistemic Automation
Determinant Substitution
Proxy Ontology
Institutional Friction
Object Constitution
Inferential Scope
Explanation Beyond Measurement

A note on these manuscripts

These manuscripts are shared to document ongoing research and encourage scholarly discussion. They should be regarded as work in progress unless otherwise indicated.