Associate Teaching Professor, Director of Graduate Studies
Contact Information
M381 Savery Hall
Office Hours
Autumn 2025: Tuesdays and Thursdays, 11:30 - 12:30
Biography
Ph.D. from University of Pennsylvania, 2011
B.A. from Colorado State University, 2004
Curriculum Vitae
(323.83 KB)
I have taught at the University of Washington since 2012. I teach across the curriculum. You can find my teaching statement and a few reading lists I put together here.
My research is mainly in the history of analytic philosophy, the history of philosophy of science, values in science, and their intersections. I also like to draw attention to philosophers who have so far not figured prominently in our narratives about the development of analytic philosophy and philosophy of science in the 20th century, e.g., Susan Stebbing, Margaret MacDonald, Stephen Toulmin, and Mary Hesse. Read more about my research here.
I'm the current treasurer for The International Society for the History of Philosophy of Science (HOPOS).
Research
Selected Research
- Franco, Paul L. 2025. “Mary Hesse’s Early Work on Scientific Language and the Open Texture of Models.” Gori, Pietro (ed). Mary B. Hesse (1924-2016): Metaphors, Models, and the Growth of Scientific Knowledge. Women in the History of Philosophy and Sciences. Springer. (Invited; ~9k words)
- Franco, Paul L. 2025. “A History of Metaethics and Values in Science.” Tsou, Jonathan Y., Shaw, Jamie, and Fehr, Carla (eds.). Values, Pluralism, and Pragmatism: Themes from the Work of Matthew J. Brown. Boston Studies in the Philosophy and History of Science. v. 347. Springer.
- Franco, Paul L. 2024. “Susan Stebbing on Logical Positivism and Communication”, Ergo an Open Access Journal of Philosophy 10: 48. doi: https://doi.org/10.3998/ergo.5185
- Franco, Paul L. 2023. "Behavior, valuation, and pragmatism in C.I. Lewis and W.V. Quine." Asian Journal of Philosophy. 2, Article number: 27. https://doi.org/10.1007/s44204-023-00084-0
- Franco, Paul. 2023. Review of Matthew J. Brown's Science and Moral Imagination: A New Ideal for Values in Science. In Philosophy of Science. https://doi.org/10.1017/psa.2023.20
- Franco, Paul L. 2021. "Ordinary language philosophy, explanation, and the historical turn in philosophy of science." Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part A. Volume 90: 77-85
- Franco, Paul L. 2020. "Hans Reichenbach's and C.I. Lewis's Kantian Philosophies of Science." Studies in History and Philosophy of Science, Part A. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.shpsa.2019.03.005.
- Franco, Paul L. 2019 “Speech Act Theory and the Multiple Aims of Science.” Philosophy of Science 86:5 https://doi.org/10.1086/705452
- Franco, Paul L. 2018. Review of Pragmatism in Transition: Contemporary Perspectives on C.I. Lewis, edited by Peter Olen and Carl Sachs.| Transactions of the C.S. Peirce Society 54:2: 273-280. https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.2979/trancharpeirsoc.54.2.08
- Franco, Paul L. 2018. “Ordinary Language Criticisms of Logical Positivism,” HOPOS: The Journal of the International Society for the History of Philosophy of Science 8, no. 1: 157 - 190.
- Franco, Paul L. 2017. "Assertion, Nonepistemic Values, and Scientific Practice." Philosophy of Science 84: 160-180. | DOI: 10.1086/688939
- Franco, Paul L. 2016. "Paul Franco on Nathaniel Goldberg's Kantian Conceptual Geography." Virtual Critique. URL: https://virtualcritique.wordpress.com/2016/08/24/paul-franco-on-nathaniel-goldbergs-kantian-conceptual-geography/
- Franco, Paul L. 2012. "Are Kant’s Concepts and Methodology Inconsistent with Scientific Change? Constitutivity and the Synthetic Method in Kant," HOPOS: The Journal of the International Society for the History of Philosophy of Science 2, no. 2: 321-353. https://doi.org/10.1086/664819
Courses Taught
Autumn 2025
Summer 2025
Spring 2025
Winter 2025
Autumn 2024
Spring 2024
Winter 2024
Autumn 2023
Summer 2023
Spring 2023
Winter 2023
Autumn 2022
Summer 2022
Spring 2022
Winter 2022
Autumn 2021
Summer 2021
Spring 2021
Winter 2021
Autumn 2020
Summer 2020
Spring 2020
Winter 2020
Affiliations
Professional Affiliations
HOPOS Society, Philosophy of Science Association