Annual Lecture Series (in-person)
Lunchtime Talks (in-person)
Conferences (in-person)
Online-Only Events
- This event has passed.
LTT: B. McLoone
October 29, 2021 @ 12:10 pm - 1:30 pm EDT
Brian McLoone, Higher School Economics, Center Visiting Fellow
How Should We Think about Models with Impossible Assumptions?
ABSTRACT: This talk will be about complications that emerge when one renders a scientific model with an impossible assumption as a counterfactual. The talk will touch on a variety of topics, such as the nature of (im)possibility, the vacuity thesis (whose correctness I argue against), impossible worlds (whose utility I argue for), and it will draw on some completed but unpublished experimental work on how scientists reason from assumptions that they deem to be impossible.
Please Note: Non-Pitt individuals who want to attend our in-person talks must send an email in advance to Katie Labuda (kathleenlabuda@pitt.edu) requesting Guest Building Access, or you will not be able to enter the Cathedral of Learning.
If you’d prefer to watch online, please register here: https://pitt.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_hnkLi82VRsOclftS_CT6-Q