Donald A.

Gillies
Donald A. Gillies (/ˈɡɪliːz/; born 1944) is a British
philosopher and historian of science and Donald A. Gillies
mathematics. He is an Emeritus Professor in the Born 1944
Department of Science and Technology Studies at Alma mater Cambridge
University College London. University
London School of
Economics
Contents Era Contemporary
Career philosophy

Books and articles (selection) Region Western

philosophy
References
School Analytic
External links
Institutions University College
London
Career Doctoral Imre Lakatos
advisor
After undergraduate studies in mathematics and Other academic Karl Popper
philosophy at Cambridge, Gillies became a graduate advisors
student of Karl Popper and Imre Lakatos (his official
PhD supervisor) at the London School of Economics, Doctoral David Corfield
where he completed a PhD on the foundations of students
probability.[2] Main interests Philosophy of
mathematics
Gilles is a past President[2] and a current Vice- Philosophy of
President[3] of British Society for the Philosophy of artificial
Science. From 1982 to 1985 he was an editor of the
intelligence
British Journal for the Philosophy of Science.[2]
Notable ideas Non-Bayesian
Gillies is probably best known for his work on confirmation
Bayesian confirmation theory, his attempt to simplify theory
and extend Popper’s theory of corroboration. He
Influences
proposes a novel "principle of explanatory surplus",
likening a successful theoretician to a successful Karl Popper, Imre Lakatos
entrepreneur. The entrepreneur generates a surplus Influenced
(of income) over and above his initial investment (the David Corfield[1]
outgoes) to meet the necessary expenses of the
enterprise. Similarly, the theoretician generates a
:
 surplus (of explanations) over and above his initial investment (of assumptions) to make
the necessary explanations of known facts. The size of this surplus is held to be a measure
of the confirmation of the theory, but only in qualitative, rather than quantitative, terms.

Gillies has researched the philosophy of science, most particularly the foundations of
probability; the philosophy of logic and mathematics; and the interactions of artificial
intelligence with some aspects of philosophy, including probability, logic, causality and
scientific method. In the philosophy of mathematics, he has developed a method of
dealing with very large transfinite cardinals from an Aristotelian point of view.[4]

Books and articles (selection)

Gillies, Donald and Chihara, Charles S. (1988). "An Interchange on the Popper-Miller
Argument (http://fitelson.org/probability/cgpm.pdf)". Philosophical Studies, Volume 54,
pp. 1–8.
Gillies, Donald (1989). "Non-Bayesian Confirmation Theory and the Principle of
Explanatory Surplus". The Philosophy of Science Association, PSA 1988, Volume 2,
pp. 373–380.
Gillies, Donald ed. (1992). Revolutions in Mathematics. Oxford Science Publications.
The Clarendon Press, Oxford University Press, New York.
Gillies, Donald (1996). "Artificial intelligence and scientific method". Oxford: Oxford
University Press.[5]
Gillies, Donald (2000). Philosophical Theories of Probability. London: Routledge.
Gillies, Donald (2010). An objective Theory of Probability. London: Routledge.
Gillies, Donald (2011). Frege, Dedekind, and Peano on the Foundations of Arithmetic.
London: Routledge.

References
1. Corfield interviewed by McLarty - Thales + Friends (https://thalesandfriends.org/2007/
07/22/mclarty-corfield/)
2. Wenceslao J. González, Contemporary Perspectives in Philosophy and Methodology
of Science. (https://books.google.com/books?id=94aZqJWfSowC&pg=PR5&dq=%22
Donald+A.+Gillies%22&as_brr=3&ei=sqRdS5TJHJK-MqiC3egB&cd=8#v=onepage&q
=%22Donald%20A.%20Gillies%22&f=false) Netbiblo, 2006, ISBN 0-9729892-3-4; pp.
v-vi
3. BSPS Officers and Committees 2009-2010 (http://www.thebsps.org/society/bsps/com
mittee.html), British Society for the Philosophy of Science. Accessed January 25,
2010
4. Gillies, Donald (2015). "An Aristotelian approach to mathematical ontology". In Davis,
Ernest; Davis, Philip J. (eds.). Mathematics, Substance and Surmise (https://www.spri
nger.com/gp/book/9783319214726). Cham: Springer. pp. 147–176.
ISBN 9783319214726.
5. Gillies, Donald A. "Books" (https://donaldgillies.wordpress.com/books/). Donald A.
:
 Gillies Personal Website. Retrieved 28 August 2022.

External links
Donald Gillies's personal webpage (http://www.ucl.ac.uk/sts/gillies/), University
College London

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This page was last edited on 28 August 2022, at 05:03 (UTC).

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