Davis Baird

Professor, Philosophy

DBaird@clarku.edu

Davis Baird, Professor of Philosophy, was Clark’s Provost from 2010 until 2021. He came to Clark in 2010 from the University of South Carolina, where he served on the faculty for 28 years (1982-2010). During his time at South Carolina he was Dean of the South Carolina Honors College for five years (2005-2010) and he chaired the Philosophy Department for 13 years (1992-2005). From 2004 until his departure to Clark he was the Louise Fry Scudder Professor of Philosophy.

Before his time at South Carolina, he was Visiting Assistant Professor at the University of Arizona (1981-82), where he taught after receiving his Ph.D. in philosophy of science, language and logic from Stanford University (1981). He also holds a master's degree in philosophy of science from Stanford (1981), and a bachelor's degree in mathematics and philosophy from Brandeis University (1976).

As Provost, Baird was a principal architect of Clark's Liberal Education and Effective Practice [LEEP] model for undergraduate education. He also worked to expand Clark's professional graduate studies footprint. He was a primary driver behind the creation and launch of Clark’s Office of Diversity and Inclusion.

Baird's research has focused on the history and philosophy of science and technology. During the 2000s he led an interdisciplinary team of researchers working on the societal implications of emerging nanotechnologies. As Principal Investigator, he has received more than $3.0 million in funding from the National Science Foundation. His specific focus with this work concerned the function of scientific images, particularly images of nanoscale objects. He also conducted research on the commercialization of scientific knowledge.

Prior to his work on nanotechnology, Baird's research focused on the history and philosophy of scientific instruments. He is interested in the epistemology of scientific instruments, that is, how the things that we make express our knowledge. His book Thing Knowledge: A Philosophy of Scientific Instruments (University of California Press, 2004) won the 2006 Paul Bunge Prize. As the son of Walter Baird, co-founder of one of the early developers of spectrographic instrumentation (Baird Associates, founded 1936), he follows a familial interest.

Baird currently is working on a different family inheritance. His grandfather, Earl Clement Davis (1876-1953) was a Unitarian minister from 1905 until his death, the last 20 years at the First Parish Church in Petersham, Massachusetts. Baird is editing a trunk-full of his grandfather’s sermons and other writings as part of an examination of liberal Christian religion in the first half of the twentieth Century.

Baird is the author of Inductive Logic: Inferring the Unknown (Prentice Hall, 1992; Pearson Publishing, 1999) and is co-editor of Discovering the Nanoscale (IOS press, 2004) and of two collections published in the Boston Studies in the Philosophy of Science series: Heinrich Hertz: Classical Physicist, Modern Philosopher (Kluwer, 1994) and Philosophy of Chemistry: Synthesis of a New Discipline (Springer, 2006).
Degrees
- Ph.D. in Philosophy of Language and logic, Stanford University, 1981
- M.A. in Philosophy of Science, Stanford University, 1978
- B.A. in Mathematics and Philosophy, Brandeis University, 1976
Affiliated Department(s)
- Philosophy Department
Scholarly and Creative Works
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- Other Scholarly or Creative Work
  
  Life and Work of Earl Clement Davis, Unitarian Minister, 1905-1953
  
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  2022
  
  Davis Baird
- Presentations
  
  Invited comment on Johannes Lenhard and Ann Johnson's "Chapter 5: Systems Thinking and the Mainframe Culture of Prediction"
  
  Reading Group of the Consortium of History of Science, Technology and Medicine
  
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  Zoom
  
  February 18
  
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  2022
  
  Sponsored by Consortium of History of Science, Technology and Medicine
  
  Davis Baird
- Chapters In Books
  
  Vollendete Tatsachen: Voom endgültig Vorläufigen und vorläufig Endgültigen in der Wissenschaft
  Chapter: Wohl gesetzte Tatsachen, translation of Facts-Well-Put
  
  Published by Verlag
  
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  2021
  
  Davis Baird
  ,
  Alfred Nordmann
- Chapters In Books
  
  Significance Testing
  Chapter: Significance Testing
  
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  2011
  
  M. Dickson
  ,
  D. Baird
- Article in Refereed Journal
  
  Opportunities in the 'post-academic' world
  
  2007
  
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  2007
  
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  Vol. 2
  
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  Issue #6
  
  T. Vogt
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  D. Baird
  ,
  C. Robinson
- Article in Refereed Journal
  
  Building nanoliteracy in the university and beyond
  
  2006
  
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  2006
  
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  Vol. 24
  
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  Issue #6
  
  C. Toumey
  ,
  D. Baird
- Article in Refereed Journal
  
  Introduction
  
  2006
  
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  2006
  
  J. Schummer
  ,
  D. Baird
- Book
  
  Nanotechnology challenges: Implications for philosophy, ethics and society
  
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  2006
  
  J. Schummer
  ,
  D. Baird
- Article in Refereed Journal
  
  Editorial: Nanotech challenges, Part II
  
  2005
  
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  2005
  
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  Vol. 11
  
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  Issue #1
  
  D. Baird
  ,
  J. Schummer
- Article in Refereed Journal
  
  Editorial: Nanotech challenges, part I
  
  2004
  
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  2004
  
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  Vol. 10
  
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  Issue #2
  
  D. Baird
  ,
  J. Schummer
- Book
  
  Thing knowledge: A philosophy of scientific instruments
  
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  2004
  
  D. Baird
- Article in Refereed Journal
  
  Conceptual issues of research methodology for the behavioural, life and social sciences
  
  2003
  
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  2003
  
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  Vol. 52
  
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  Issue #2
  
  G. Mellenbergh
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  H.J. Adèr
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  D. Baird
  ,
  M.P.F. Berger
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  J. Cornell
  ,
  J.A.P. Hagenaars
  ,
  P.C.M. Molenaar
- Article in Refereed Journal
  
  Editor's note
  
  2002
  
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  2002
  
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  Vol. 6
  
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  Issue #2
  
  D. Baird
- Article in Refereed Journal
  
  Thing knowledge-Function and truth
  
  2002
  
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  2002
  
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  Vol. 6
  
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  Issue #2
  
  D. Baird
- Article in Refereed Journal
  
  Editor's note on volume numeration and publication dates
  
  2002
  
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  2002
  
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  Vol. 6
  
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  Issue #1
  
  D. Baird
- Article in Refereed Journal
  
  Organic necessity: Thinking about thinking about technology
  
  2001
  
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  2001
  
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  Vol. 5
  
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  Issue #1
  
  D. Baird
- Article in Refereed Journal
  
  Why trade?
  
  1999
  
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  1999
  
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  Vol. 7
  
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  Issue #2
  
  D. Baird
  ,
  M. Cohen
- Article in Refereed Journal
  
  Editors' introduction: Forays into the trading zone of image and logic
  
  1999
  
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  1999
  
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  Vol. 7
  
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  Issue #2
  
  D. Baird
  ,
  A. Nordmann
- Article in Refereed Journal
  
  Internal history and the philosophy of experiment: An essay review of the creation of scientific effects by Jed Z. buchwald; experiment and the making of meaning by david gooding; the mangle of practice by Andrew Pickering
  
  1999
  
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  1999
  
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  Vol. 7
  
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  Issue #3
  
  D. Baird
- Article in Refereed Journal
  
  Encapsulating knowledge: The direct reading spectrometer
  
  1998
  
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  1998
  
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  Vol. 3
  
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  Issue #3
  
  D. Baird
- Article in Refereed Journal
  
  Scientific Instrument Making, Epistemology, and the Conflict between Gift and Commodity Economies
  
  1997
  
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  1997
  
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  Vol. 2
  
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  Issue #3-4
  
  D. Baird
- Article in Refereed Journal
  
  Facts-well-put
  
  1994
  
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  1994
  
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  Vol. 45
  
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  Issue #1
  
  D. Baird
  ,
  A. Nordmann
- Article in Refereed Journal
  
  Analytical chemistry and the ‘big’ scientific instrumentation revolution
  
  1993
  
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  1993
  
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  Vol. 50
  
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  Issue #3
  
  D. Baird
- Article in Refereed Journal
  
  Scientific instruments, scientific progress and the cyclotron
  
  1990
  
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  1990
  
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  Vol. 41
  
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  Issue #2
  
  D. Baird
  ,
  T. Faust
- Article in Refereed Journal
  
  Exploratory factor analysis, instruments and the logic of discovery
  
  1987
  
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  1987
  
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  Vol. 38
  
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  Issue #3
  
  D. Baird
- Article in Refereed Journal
  
  Lehrer/Wagner consensual probabilities do not adequately summarize the available information
  
  1985
  
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  1985
  
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  Vol. 62
  
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  Issue #1
  
  D. Baird
- Article in Refereed Journal
  
  The fisher/pearson chi-squared controversy: A turning point for inductive inference
  
  1983
  
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  1983
  
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  Vol. 34
  
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  Issue #2
  
  D. Baird

Davis Baird

Degrees

Affiliated Department(s)

Scholarly and Creative Works