Books
2025 Shech, Elay, with Michael Watkins. The Metaphysics of Color. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009324212 Video abstract: https://vimeo.com/1026380837
2023 Shech, Elay. Idealization in Physics. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108946742 Video abstract: https://vimeo.com/765650693
2023 Shech, Elay. Scientific Understanding and Representation Modeling in the Physical Sciences (book of collected essays) co-editor with Kareem Khalifa and Insa Lawler. New York, NY: Routledge. https://www.routledge.com/Scientific-Understanding-and-Representation-Modeling-in-the-Physical-Sciences/Lawler-Khalifa-Shech/p/book/9781032054957
Refereed Publications
2025 Shech, Elay, with Kyle Heine. “The Mitonuclear Compatibility Species Concept, Intrinsic Essentialism, and Natural Kinds.” Philosophy of Science, 92(1):59-81. https://doi.org/10.1017/psa.2024.18
2025 Shech, Elay, with Michael Tamir and Rachel Rudolph. “Bias, Machine Learning, and Conceptual Engineering.” Philosophical Studies. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11098-024-02273-w
2024 Shech, Elay, with Michael Tamir. “The Curve Fitting Problem, Data Validation, and Inductive Generalization in Machine Learning.” Erkenntnis. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10670-024-00863-y
2023 Shech, Elay, with Michael Watkins. “The Problem of Perceptual Agreement.” Croatian Journal of Philosophy. Vol. XXIII, No. 69 doi.org/10.52685/cjp.23.68.1
2023 Shech, Elay, with Alison Springle. “Inductive Neutrality and Scientific Representation.” Synthese, 201, 81. doi.org/10.1007/s11229-023-04161-y
2023 Shech, Elay, with Michael Tamir. “Machine Understanding and Deep Learning Representation.” Synthese, 201, 51. doi.org/10.1007/s11229-022-03999-y
2022. Shech, Elay, with Michael Tamir. “Understanding from Deep Learning Models in Contexts.” In Lawler et al. (Eds.) Scientific Understanding and Representation: Modeling in the Physical Sciences, Routledge.
2022. Shech, Elay, with Michael Tamir. “Expecting Too Much from our Machine Learning Models.” In Lawler et al. (Eds.) Scientific Understanding and Representation: Modeling in the Physical Sciences, Routledge.
2022. Shech, Elay. “What Powers Logical Inference?” Metascience, doi.org/10.1007/s11016-022-00783-z
2022. Shech, Elay. “Darwinian-Selectionist Explanation, Radical Theory Change, and the Observable-Unobservable Dichotomy.” International Studies in Philosophy of Science, doi.org/10.1080/02698595.2022.2092824
2022. Shech, Elay. “Scientific Understanding in the Aharonov-Bohm Effect.” Theoria, doi.org/10.1111/theo.12409
2022. Shech, Elay, with Watkins, Michael. “Colors, Perceptual Variation, and Science.” Erkenntnis, doi.org/10.1007/s10670-022-00574-2
- Shech, Elay, with Kyle B. Heine. “Roles of Mitonuclear Ecology and Sex in Conceptualizing Evolutionary Fitness.” Biology & Philosophy, 36, Article number: 29 https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10539-021-09804-3
2019. Shech, Elay, with Gelfert, Axel. “The Exploratory Role of Models and Idealizations.” Studia Metodologiczne – Dissertationes Methodologicae. ISSN 0039-324X Issue on Culture(s) of Modelling in Science(s) (39) Preprint: http://philsci-archive.pitt.edu/13338/
2019. Shech, Elay, with McGivern, Patrick. “Fundamentality, Scale, and the Fractional Quantum Hall Effect.” Erkenntnis. doi: 10.1007/s10670-019-00161-y
2019. Shech, Elay. “Historical Inductions Meet the Material Theory.” Philosophy of Science, Volume 86 (December 2019), Issue 5. https://doi.org/10.1086/705524
2019 Shech, Elay. “Philosophical Issues Concerning Phase Transitions and Anyons: Emergence, Reduction, and Explanatory Fictions.” Erkenntnis, June 2019, Volume 84, Issue 3, pp 585–615. doi: 10.1007/s10670-018-9973-z
2018 Shech, Elay. “Infinitesimal Idealization, Easy Road Nominalism, and Fractional Quantum Statistics.” Synthese, May 2019, Volume 196, Issue 5, pp 1963–1990. doi: 10.1007/s11229-018-1680-4
2018 Shech, Elay. “Infinite Idealizations in Physics.” Philosophy Compass. doi: 10.1111/phc3.12514
2017 Shech, Elay. “Idealizations, Essential Self-Adjointness, and Minimal Model Explanation in the Aharonov-Bohm Effect.” Synthese, 1-25. doi: 10.1007/s11229-017- 1428-6
2016 Shech, Elay. “Fiction, Depiction, and the Complementarity Thesis in Art and Science” The Monist. Volume 99, Issue 3: 311-332. doi: 10.1093/monist/onw007
2015 Shech, Elay. “Two Approaches to Fractional Statistics in the Quantum Hall Effect: Idealizations and the Curious Case of the Anyon.” Foundations of Physics, Volume 45, Issue 9: 1063-110. doi: 10.1007/s10701-015-9899-0
2015 Shech, Elay. “Scientific Misrepresentation and Guides to Ontology: The Need for Representational Code and Contents.” Synthese, Volume 192, Issue 11: 3463-3485. doi: 10.1007/s11229-014-0506-2 (Online first in 2014). doi: 10.1007/s11229-014-0506-2
2013 Shech, Elay. “What is the ‘Paradox of Phase Transitions?’” Philosophy of Science, 80 (December 2013): 1170–1181. doi: 0031-8248/2013/8005-0040
2013 Shech, Elay. “On Gases in Boxes: A Reply to Davey on the Justification of the Probability Measure in Boltzmannian Statistical Mechanics.” Philosophy of Science, 80 (October 2013): 1-13. doi: 0031-8248/2013/8004-0001.
Special Issues Edited
2023. “Recent Issues in Philosophy of Statistics: Evidence, Testing, and Applications,” co-editor with Molly Kao and Deborah Mayo. Forthcoming Topical Collection of Synthese. https://link.springer.com/journal/11229/topicalCollection/AC_7a0c66cb3907a036148e06bf855da963/page/1
2022. “Idealization, Representation, and Explanation Across the Sciences,” co-editor with Melissa Jacquart, and Martin Zach. Forthcoming Special Issue of Studies in History and Philosophy of Science. https://www.sciencedirect.com/journal/studies-in-history-and-philosophy-of-science/special-issue/10X9K0G3H30
2021. “John Norton’s Material Theory of Induction and Beyond,” co-editor with Wendy Parker, Special Issue of Studies in History and Philosophy of Science. https://www.sciencedirect.com/journal/studies-in-history-and-philosophy-of-science-part-a/special-issue/10205S9XGWG
2019. “Infinite Idealization in Science,” co-editor with Laura Ruetsche, Samuel Fletcher, and Patricia Palacios. Special Issue of Synthese. https://link.springer.com/journal/11229/196/5/page/1
Invited Publications
Popular Science and Public Philosophy
2025 Shech, Elay, with Michael Watkins. “Is green really ‘green’? The mind-bending science of color.” The Washington Post. https://www.washingtonpost.com/science/2025/04/22/colors-objective-reality-perception-philosophy/ Published also by The Conversation as “Colors are objective, according to two philosophers − even though the blue you see doesn’t match what I see.” https://theconversation.com/colors-are-objective-according-to-two-philosophers-even-though-the-blue-you-see-doesnt-match-what-i-see-234467 Republished in Portuguese. Republished in Fast Company, Live Science, Phys.org, and others. (Total: 45,670 Reads)
2025 Shech, Elay. “If it looks like a dire wolf, is it a dire wolf? How to define a species is a scientific and philosophical question.” The Conversation. https://theconversation.com/if-it-looks-like-a-dire-wolf-is-it-a-dire-wolf-how-to-define-a-species-is-a-scientific-and-philosophical-question-255375Republished in San Francisco Chronicle, Phys.org, and others. (Total: 6,504 reads)
2023 Shech, Elay. “The Truths in physics are dependent on falsehoods: Truth in physics is scale and context dependent” in The Institute of Art and Ideas. https://iai.tv/articles/the-truths-in-physics-are-dependent-on-falsehoods-auid-2415
Book Reviews
2024. Shech, Elay. “Review of Robert W. Batterman’s A Middle Way: A Non-Fundamental Approach to Many-Body Physics.” Solicited by Philosophy of Science. https://doi.org/10.1017/psa.2023.70
2022. Shech, Elay. “Middle Path Realism and Anti-realism: Review of Timothy D. Lyons’ and Peter Vicker’s (Eds.) Contemporary Scientific Realism: The Challenge from the History of Science.” Metascience. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11016-022-00736-6
2019. Shech, Elay. “Review of John Wright’s An Epistemic Foundation for Scientific Realism (Springer, 2018), British Journal for Philosophy of Science Review of Books http://www.thebsps.org/2019/06/shech-on-wright/
2019. Shech, Elay. “Review of K. Brad Wray’s Resisting Scientific Realism (Cambridge University Press, 2018), Philosophia https://doi.org/10.1007/s11406-019-00104-5
2014 Shech, Elay. “Review of Chunglin Kwa’s, Styles of Knowing: A New History of Science from Ancient Times to the Present (University of Pittsburgh Press, 2011),” History of Philosophy of Science, Spring 2014 issue (vol. 4, number 1). doi: 10.1086/675384
Introduction to Collectiosn
2023 Shech, Elay, with Molly Kao and Deborah Mayo. “Introduction to recent issues in philosophy of statistics: evidence, testing, and applications” in Synthese, 201, Article number: 120. Topical Collection on Recent Issues in Philosophy of Statistics: Evidence, Testing, and Applications. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11229-023-04128-z
2023 Shech, Elay, with Kareem Khalifa and Insa Lawler. “Introduction” in Scientific Understanding and Representation. New York, NY: Routledge.
2022 Shech, Elay, with Melissa Jacquart, and Martin Zach. “Introduction” in Studies in History and Philosophy of Science. Special Issue on Idealization, Representation, and Explanation Across the Sciences. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.shpsa.2022.09.003
2020 Shech, Elay, with Wendy S. Parker “Introduction.” Studies in History and Philosophy of Science. Volume 85, February 2021, Pages 30-33. Special Issue on John D. Norton Material Theory of Induction and Beyond. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.shpsa.2020.12.003
2019 Shech, Elay, with Laura Ruetsche, Samuel Fletcher, and Patricia Palacios. “Infinite Idealizations in Science: An Introduction.” Synthese May 2019, Volume 196, Issue 5, pp 1657–1669. Special Issue on Infinite Idealization in Science. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11229-018-02069-6
Teaching-Related Articles
2018 Shech, Elay. “Teaching & Learning Guide for: Infinite Idealizations in Physics.” Philosophy Compass. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/phc3.12519
2014 Shech, Elay. “Groups Can Engage Students at Different Levels.” Teaching Times,
http://www.teachingkb.cidde.pitt.edu/teaching-times/groups-can-engage-students-at-different-levels/
Elay Shech 