Title: “The field framework in physics (and beyond)” Abstract: Over the past century, analogies between particle physics and condensed matter physics have successfully guided theoretical developments in both domains. Prominent examples include the construction of the Higgs model in particle physics and the development of renormalization group methods. Unlike prior historical uses of analogies in […]

Title: A Metaphysical Mapping Problem for Race Theorists and Human Population Geneticists Abstract. In this talk, I identify and clarify a mapping phenomenon that’s almost twenty years old. The phenomenon is that the populations at a fivefold subdivision of humans into biological populations—the so-called human continental populations—correspond one-to-one with the five official races of the […]

Title: Heterodox scientists: A sliver of hope for our increasingly conformist times? Abstract: Nowadays we all face tremendous pressures to conform to domineering narratives. This holds for science as much as for politics. Recent exposés of the silencing of scientific ideas—alternative public health policies during the COVID-19 pandemic and alternatives to the amyloid plaque explanation […]

Title: The RCT is dead.  Long live the RCT. Abstract: First introduced in the 1940s, the randomized clinical trial, or RCT, revolutionized medicine. Today, all new therapies must show efficacy in an RCT to gain regulatory approval, fueling a clinical trials industry of over $50 billion per year. Although deemed essential, RCTs have considerable statistical, […]

Friday 3/24 3:30PM - 5:30PM CL 1008 Title: Starting Points in Ohio: A pragmatist account of the asymmetry of explanation Abstract: Recent discussions around explanation have concerned the issue of asymmetry, an issue dating back at least to the well-known example of the shadow of a flagpole. What is the source of the directionality in […]