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LTT: Meghan Page
March 28 @ 12:30 pm - 1:30 pm EDT
Title: A Novel Perspective on Pluralism in Climate Modeling
Abstract:
Modeling the mass-extinction event at the Permian Triassic Boundary (PTB), which is believed to have followed a warming event triggered by significant increase in CO2 levels, has become an important area of research in climate science. However, to model conditions at the PTB, scientists must choose between complex models that represent numerous small-scale processes for a short period, or low-resolution, simplified models that reconstruct a few large-scale processes for longer periods. These conflicting models display the sort of integration-resistant radical pluralism Longino describes in Studying Human Behavior. I suggest that while these various models are in fact incommensurable, we might still integrate them in a way that is related to Longino’s earlier notion of “transformative criticism.” To develop this technique, I turn to an unlikely conversation partner—literary critic Mikhail Bakhtin. I argue that Bakhtin’s account of a novel stylistic, in which various voices hold together by a related juxtaposition, may offer insight for wrestling with radical scientific pluralism.
This talk will also be available live streamed on You Tube at https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCrRp47ZMXD7NXO3a9Gyh2sg.