Annual Lecture Series (in-person)
Lunchtime Talks (in-person)
Conferences (in-person)
Online-Only Events
Epistemology of Science aims to encourage collaboration between the disciplines of epistemology and philosophy of science. Participants from both disciplines will engage in both first-order discussion of issues at the intersection of epistemology and philosophy of science and meta-level discussion of how the two fields can productively interact. The workshop will feature keynote addresses by […]
Epistemology of Science aims to encourage collaboration between the disciplines of epistemology and philosophy of science. Participants from both disciplines will engage in both first-order discussion of issues at the intersection of epistemology and philosophy of science and meta-level discussion of how the two fields can productively interact. The workshop will feature keynote addresses by […]
Workshop on Mark Wilson’s Physics Avoidance November 9, 2019 Center for Philosophy of Science 1008 Cathedral of Learning University of Pittsburgh Pittsburgh, PA USA Wilson’s new collection of essays represents his mature thoughts on such philosophical issues as conceptual change, the use of models, and the role of scales in scientific contexts. It presents a […]
DAY 1: Mellon Institute, Room 348, CMU, 4400 Fifth Ave. Pittsburgh PA 15213 DAY 2: Cathedral of Learning, Room 1008, U. of Pitt, 4200 Fifth Ave. Pittsburgh PA 15213 Confirmed Keynote Speakers: Danielle Bassett (University of Pennsylvania, Department of Bioengineering) Sarah Robins (University of Kansas, Department of Philosophy) Carl Craver (Washington University in St. […]
4th Annual Pittsburgh Summer Program in Philosophy of Science for Underrepresented Groups This program is not open to the public. Learn more here.
Russ Poldrack, (Stanford University), Cognitive Ontologies, from Top to Bottom Part of our ongoing online seminar series. See the full list of talks here. Register using this link: https://pitt.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_KMNKu4fmQ9Wh5ZjvXJ3qQA Please note, registration will be for the entire seminar series. ABSTRACT: Cognitive ontologies have been primarily developed in a top-down manner […]
Part of our ongoing online seminar series. See the full list of talks here. Register using this link: https://pitt.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_KMNKu4fmQ9Wh5ZjvXJ3qQA Please note, registration will be for the entire seminar series. Uljana Feest (Leibniz Universität Hannover), “Cognitive Kinds and Investigative Practice” ABSTRACT: When psychologists investigate their objects of research, such as […]
Mike Anderson (Western University) & Paul Cisek (University of Montréal), Two Approaches to Reforming the Taxonomy of Cognitive Neuroscience Part of our ongoing online seminar series. See the full list of talks here. Register using this link: https://pitt.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_KMNKu4fmQ9Wh5ZjvXJ3qQA Please note, registration will be for the entire seminar series. ABSTRACT: In […]
Part of our ongoing online seminar series. See the full list of talks here. Register using this link: https://pitt.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_KMNKu4fmQ9Wh5ZjvXJ3qQA Please note, registration will be for the entire seminar series. Vincent Bergeron (University of Ottawa), “Carving the Mind at its Homologous Joints” ABSTRACT: In this talk, I provide an analysis of the […]
Part of our ongoing online seminar series. See the full list of talks here. Register using this link: https://pitt.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_KMNKu4fmQ9Wh5ZjvXJ3qQA Please note, registration will be for the entire seminar series. Brian Bruya (Eastern Michigan University), “Diverse Origins of Cognitive Ontology” ABSTRACT: The current method of testing inherited notions of cognitive ontology through […]
Jackie Sullivan (Western University), “Cognitive Ontologies, Epistemic Communities and Coordinated Pluralism” Part of our ongoing online seminar series. See the full list of talks here. Register using this link: https://pitt.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_KMNKu4fmQ9Wh5ZjvXJ3qQA Please note, registration will be for the entire seminar series. ABSTRACT: Is there only one right cognitive ontology, i.e., the […]
Part of our ongoing online seminar series. See the full list of talks here. Register using this link: https://pitt.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_KMNKu4fmQ9Wh5ZjvXJ3qQA Please note, registration will be for the entire seminar series. Yoed Kenett (University of Pennsylvania), “Developing a Neurally Informed Ontology of Creativity Measurement” Co-Authors: David J. M. Kraemer (Dartmouth College), […]
Joe McCaffrey (University of Nebraska, Omaha), Atlas of the Mind: Neural Degeneracy and Pluralistic Ontologies Part of our ongoing online seminar series. See the full list of talks here. Register using this link: https://pitt.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_KMNKu4fmQ9Wh5ZjvXJ3qQA Please note, registration will be for the entire seminar series. ABSTRACT: The recent debate on "Cognitive […]
Carl Craver (Washington University), “Remembering: Epistemic and Empirical” Part of our ongoing online seminar series. See the full list of talks here. Register using this link: https://pitt.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_KMNKu4fmQ9Wh5ZjvXJ3qQA Please note, registration will be for the entire seminar series. ABSTRACT: The effort to unify philosophical and scientific theories of remembering is hampered […]
Art courtesy of Lynn Fellman* The aim of this virtual conference is to bring together anthropologists, biologists, historians, and philosophers of science to address the concept of ancestry in relation to scientific inferences about the evolutionary history of humans. In the past 50 years, ancestry and the inference thereof have become molecularized, automated, and commodified. […]
Laws for Nowhere Abstract: The standard concept of law is, I suggest, significantly spatiotemporal, posing the question of how there can be laws in non-spatiotemporal theories, and most pointedly how laws could hold in non-spatiotemporal regions of spacetime. I describe a couple of quantum gravity models of the Big Bang (in string theory and group […]
Laws Beyond Spacetime Abstract: Quantum gravity's suggestion that spacetime may be emergent and so only exist contingently would force a radical reconception of extant analyses of laws of nature. Humeanism presupposes a spatiotemporal mosaic of particular matters of fact on which laws supervene. I will show how the Humean supervenience basis of non-modal facts can […]
Quantum Gravity in Practice Abstract: I present a recent concrete calculation in Spinfoam Cosmology -the application of the covariant LQG techniques to the cosmos- as an example to discuss a number of conceptual issues that are at the core of quantum gravity and cosmology. These include: What are the observables when localization does not rely […]
Temporal Naturalism ABSTRACT: I discuss the progress of a research program called temporal naturalism, whose aim is to reframe naturalism and relationalism based on the hypotheses that time is fundamental, while space is emergent. By the fundamentality of time we mean that all that is real are causal processes that continually make definite facts out of […]
Decoupling from the Initial State? ABSTRACT: According to inflationary cosmology, the universe passed through a transient phase of exponential expansion that leaves several characteristic imprints in the universe’s post-inflationary state. This paradigm has enjoyed considerable phenomenological success, as a wide range of inflationary models are compatible with observations. The extent to which this success lends […]
If Time Had No Beginning ABSTRACT: Could the universe have had no beginning? I don’t mean, in raising this question, to deny or throw doubt on Big Bang cosmology and the existence in the past of a hot, dense state of Planckian curvature and temperature. But, in that case, how is the question to be […]
The New Modern Medicine Description: In this local online workshop, guests will respond to themes and work-in-progress from Jonathan Fuller’s current book project, titled The New Modern Medicine. This monograph explores characteristic philosophical problems that arise in the medicine that emerged by the late twentieth century, especially around contemporary epidemics (cancers, chronic diseases, and emerging infectious diseases), […]
Register to attend in person Register to attend on Zoom PHEP2022: Early Career Conference in Philosophy of Particle & High Energy Physics Particle physics is at a critical juncture: recent monumental experimental work at the Large Hadron Collider led to the Higgs discovery, but has not produced further experimental evidence of new physics. Current searches […]
Senior Visiting Fellow Conference Which scientific research gets pursued, and the details of how it gets pursued, is greatly influenced by the institutional structures which support science. By institutions, we mean those established social structures that direct resources (of various kinds, from money to intellectual property to ethical approval to jobs) for science. Key institutions […]
THIS WORKSHOP HAS BEEN POSTPONED TO APRIL 29th An Author Meets Critics Symposium on Jim Woodward’s new book, Causation With a Human Face. "Provides one of the first extended integrated treatments of both the philosophical and psychological literatures on normative and descriptive accounts of causal reasoning." James Woodward is Distinguished Professor of History & Philosophy […]
Artificial intelligence (AI) technologies are becoming ever more prevalent in daily life, and are being used in impactful decisions in fields as diverse as finance and criminal law. Given the multifaceted and complex nature of these technologies, it is crucial that researchers and theorists from fields such as philosophy, psychology, computer science, engineering, policy, […]