Open research questions in Historical Philosophy and Science
118 gap statements mined from Historical Philosophy and Science papers in our 4.5M-paper local library, which holds 1,893 papers on the topic — drawn mostly from each paper's own stated research gap, future-work, challenge and limitation notes, and its abstract. The ones listed below are a selection still marked open; each names the study that raised it, with a DOI link where the paper has one.
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What the literature leaves open
The updated version seeks to address this gap by integrating new scholarship. The book provides a more comprehensive survey of the background of early modern physical sciences.
Robert K. DeKosky, Knowledge and Cosmos: Development and Decline of the Medieval Perspective, 2nd edn London: Bloomsbury, 2023. Pp. 532. ISBN 978-0-7618-7400-3. $38.99 (paperback). · 2026 · DOIThe current understanding of space and time is based on the postulati del foglio, but this is not sufficient. The paper argues that there is a need for a new perspective on the relationship between space, time, and velocity.
There is a gap in Aristotelian scholarship regarding the distinction between separated and inseparable voids. The paper identifies this gap and aims to contribute to its understanding.
What Aristotle Thinks Void Is: An Analysis of the Separated and Inseparable Voids of Physics IV.6–9 · 2026 · DOIThe initial lack of recognition of Pacini's discovery of Pacinian corpuscles. The limited understanding of the role of Pacinian corpuscles in tactile perception.
Future research could further explore the relationship between science and religion. Future research could also examine the role of metaphysical commitments in scientific inquiry. Future research could investigate the implications of the paper's findings for our understanding of the historical development of modern science.
The paper argues that the role of Christian doctrine in the emergence of the scientific method has not been fully appreciated. The paper aims to fill this gap by providing a historical and philosophical analysis of the emergence of the scientific method within the paradigm of Christianity.
The research must critically reassess discourses on non-lethal acoustic technologies. The study needs to integrate insights from contemporary sound studies.
The research highlights the need to move beyond the dominance of visual paradigms in war studies.
There is limited evidence of their personal connection, with some speculation that they may have known each other. The paper aims to explore this gap and provide insight into their possible relationship.
This article explores three understudied compendia of natural philosophy originating from the Vienna Faculty of Arts between the 1450s and 1470s: two anonymous untitled texts preserved in MS Praha, Národní knihovna, IV F 18 and MS Melk, Benediktinerstift, Cod.
On some compendia of natural philosophy from the fifteenth-century University of Vienna · 2025 · DOIFuture research should explore how to apply the principles of neutrality, hypothesizing, and circularity in practice. Future research should investigate the relationship between curiosity and effective therapy.
The paper argues that this gap is significant because curiosity is essential for effective therapy.
The lack of attention to the localization of illness. The need for a new perspective on the importance of spatialization.
From Tocqueville’s perspective they are lacking in both reason and aristocratic, or political, passion (Winthrop 1985). Tocqueville seems to have thought that this recognition and provision was insufficient.
The study highlights the need for geography to learn from its past to overcome present-day difficulties.
If it were permitted to the full extent required for the productive development of the human personality, rather than limited by the need to maintain control over the masses, the fulfillment of this important opportunity for happiness would necessarily lead to intensified demands for satisfaction and happiness in other areas of life.
The challenge of educational research lacking characteristics of a scientific discipline.
The paper suggests that future research should continue to examine the relationship between legal positivism and Dworkin's views. It recommends further study of the implications of the consistency thesis for legal theories and practices.
It highlights the need for a critical examination of the arguments against the consistency thesis.
The gap is the lack of understanding of Augustine's doctrine of participation. The paper identifies a need to explore the relationship between Augustine's doctrine and Kenneth Burke's metaphysics of Identification and Persuasion.
The author highlights the need to consider the relationship between media entertainment and instant gratification in arts education.
The paper suggests that future research should focus on the word-sentence distinction. The author recommends further analysis of Skinner's work and its limitations.
The author suggests that the word-sentence distinction is not adequately addressed in prior research.
Prior studies have focused on the novel's representation of space, but this paper offers a new perspective on the dialectics of space. The paper identifies a gap in the understanding of the relationship between the characters and the landscape.
The study identifies a gap in the understanding of Galileo's thought experiment and its underlying assumptions. It also identifies a gap in the understanding of Aristotle's view on free fall and its relationship to the laws of motion.
Most-cited papers in Historical Philosophy and Science
- Meaning and Understanding in the History of Ideas · History and Theory · 1969 · 974 citations
- Between Geography and Philosophy: What Does It Mean to Be in the Place-World? · Annals of the Association of American Geographers · 2001 · 467 citations
- Hypothesizing, Circularity, and Neutrality Revisited: An Invitation to Curiosity · Family Process · 1987 · 444 citations
- Measurement Without Theory · The Review of Economics and Statistics · 1947 · 426 citations
- Francis Galton's Account of the Invention of Correlation · Statistical Science · 1989 · 386 citations
- Space‐Time, ‘Science’ and the Relationship between Physical Geography and Human Geography · Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers · 1999 · 356 citations
- Engineering affective atmospheres on the moving geographies of the 1897 Andrée expedition · Cultural Geographies · 2008 · 319 citations
- An Historical Review of the Gravity and Potential Concepts of Human Interaction · Journal of the American Institute of Planners · 1956 · 228 citations
- Reciprocity, transitivity, and the mysterious three-cycle · Social Networks · 2014 · 192 citations
- Beyond Postcolonialism … and Postpositivism: Circulation and the Global History of Science · Isis · 2013 · 185 citations
Most recent work
- Ontologia della Misura · Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research) · 2026
- Pseudo-Lullian Alchemy and the Mercurial Phoenix: Giovanni da Correggio's De Quercu Iulii pontificis sive de lapide philosophico · Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research) · 2026
- Utopianism and Early Modern Scientific Collaboration · OpenEdition (OpenEdition) · 2026
- What Aristotle Thinks Void Is: An Analysis of the Separated and Inseparable Voids of Physics IV.6–9 · Apeiron · 2026
- The Momentum of the Medium: General Covariance alla Donatello · Journal for General Philosophy of Science · 2026
- A logical examination of Aristotle and Galileo’s “two iron balls” problem · Humanities and Social Sciences Communications · 2026
- Filippo Pacini and the discovery of the Pacinian corpuscles · Neurological Sciences · 2026
- Alexander von Humboldt’s Examen critique de l’histoire de la géographie du Nouveau Continent et des progrès de l’astronomie nautique aux quinzième et seizième siècles (1836-1839) · Transit · 2026
- The Emergence of the Scientific Method Within the Paradigm of Christianity · Disputatio philosophica · 2026
- McNamara, Rafael: La ontología del espacio de Gilles Deleuze (Gilles De-leuze’s ontology of space), RAGIF ediciones, Deleuze y las fuentes de su filosofía VII, Buenos Aires 2022 · AUC INTERPRETATIONES · 2026
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