Annual Lecture Series (in-person)
Lunchtime Talks (in-person)
Conferences (in-person)
Online-Only Events
“The Center Debates” is a new initiative of the Center for Philosophy of Science. Our goal is to promote serious, but respectful and constructive exchanges about controversial topics of interest to historians and philosophers of science, scientists, and the lay public. Typically two speakers with a different perspective on a given topic are invited […]
Episode 2: COVID-19 Jonathan Fuller, University of Pittsburgh Dept. of HPS Marc Lipsitch, Harvard University, Dept. of Epidemiology The second installment of Center Debates, Center Debates: COVID-19, will provide philosophical and epidemiological perspectives on the current pandemic by examining several scientific controversies, including lockdowns, facemasks, and vaccine allocation and dosing schedules. Jonathan Fuller MD, […]
Identifying Future-Proof Science Featured Former Fellow Lunchtime Talk: Peter Vickers, Durham University This will be an online event. Register here: https://pitt.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_HRqsVLWNS-u0Q_2puihG_Q ABSTRACT: My forthcoming book Identifying Future-Proof Science argues that we can confidently identify many scientific claims that are future-proof: they will last forever (so long as science continues). Examples include the evolution of […]
What is the relationship between Gibbsian and Boltzmannian statistical mechanics? Relatedly, how should Gibbsian statistical mechanics and Boltzmannian statistical mechanics be interpreted? Is Gibbsian statistical mechanics or Boltzmannian statistical mechanics more fundamental? David Wallace (University of Pittsburgh, HPS Dept.) and Charlotte Werndl (University of Salzburg & LSE, Logic & Phil of Science) will walk us […]
Sara Green, University of Copenhagen Philosophy of Science as Visioneering Assessment: The Case of Precision Medicine ABSTRACT: Biomedical science is not only driven by theoretical achievements and technological developments, but also by visions for the future of medicine and society in general. By “visioneering”, I refer to the communication of visions by influential proponents within […]
Featured Former Fellow Lunchtime Talk: Yann Benetreau-Dupin, University of Western Ontario This will be an online event. Is Reading Peer Review a Good Idea? ABSTRACT: After a few years as a full-time staff editor for the large, multidisciplinary, open-access journal PLOS ONE (Public Library of Science), I wonder if leaving academic philosophy to read peer-review […]
This talk has been moved to online-only. Anthony Beavers, University of Evansville, Center Visiting Fellow Concerning a Machine Command Theory of Ethics ABSTRACT: In this presentation on meta-ethics, I will consider the possibility of a Machine Command Theory (MCT) of ethics that may allow an artificial intelligence to outperform conventional moral theories in determining and […]
Featured Former Fellow Lunchtime Talk: Erik Curiel, Munich Center for Mathematical Philosophy This will be an online event. Math Does Not Represent ABSTRACT: On the standard---almost universally (albeit often only implicitly) accepted---picture of the relation of mathematics in a physical theory to the world, mathematical entities represent physical entities, mathematical structures represent physical structures, and […]
A public talk in partnership with with the Kenneth P. Dietrich School of Arts & Sciences Words like “nothingness” and “empty space” may seem like simple concepts, referring to the complete absence of content. But in practice, these concepts have been topics of ongoing debate with important implications for our understanding of the universe. This […]
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), […]
Featured Former Fellow Lunchtime Talk: Naftali Weinberger, Munich Center for Mathematical Philosophy Signal Manipulation and the Causal Analysis of Racial Discrimination ABSTRACT: Discrimination is, in part, a causal concept. To say that an individual was discriminated against based on race entails that her race made a difference to how she was treated. Yet demographic variables […]
Eran Tal, Department of Philosophy, McGill University Measurement Outcomes as Best Predictors Abstract: I argue for a view of measurement that treats measurement results (‘outcomes’) as predictors of patterns in data. The data in question may be records of instrument indications, such as thermometer readings, or future data, such as records of health outcomes. Not […]
Featured Former Fellow Lunchtime Talk: Maria Serban, University of East Anglia The trouble with construct validity Abstract: An important part in the methodological discourse of psychology focuses on establishing the field as a hard science. The longstanding operationalist tradition emphasised the commitment to experimentalism, to identifying and individuating measurable variables, and to developing local […]
Join us for an online lecture by Alison Fernandes (Trinity College) Naturalism, Agency and the Metaphysics of Science Abstract: Methodological naturalism is a plausible approach to the metaphysics of science: we should use the methods of science when giving accounts of what science says there is and what it is like. Methodological naturalism is particularly […]
Title: Discovery in Synthetic Biology: A Call for Doing Philosophy in Science Abstract: The work of synthetic biologists strikes some as strange and foreign (Keller 2009). Synthetic biologists are in the business of exploring a range of biological possibilities rarely sampled by the nature world – or the world outside the lab (Malaterre 2013). In this talk, I’ll argue that a common logical structure characterizes the mode of discovery adopted by many research […]
Title: The World Crisis – And What To Do About It Abstract: Humanity faces two fundamental problems of learning: learning about the universe, and learning how to become civilized. We have solved the first problem, but not the second, and that puts us in a situation of great danger. Almost all our global problems have […]
Title: Understanding Integration: Lessons from Integrative Modeling in Structural Biology Abstract: Although the value of integrative research has been widely acknowledged, philosophers have yet to develop a comprehensive understanding of what, precisely, integration consists in and what makes it effective. In this paper, we provide a detailed descriptive and normative account of integration in structural […]
Title: Characterizing a Collaboration by Its Communication Structure Abstract: I present first results of my analysis of a collection of about 24,000 email messages from internal mailing lists of a major particle physics collaboration during the years 2010–2013. I represent the communication on these mailing lists as a network in which the members of the […]
Title: Are Universal Criteria of Analogical Reasoning Hopeless? Abstract: One of the most common forms of reasoning in science is reasoning by analogy. Roughly speaking, such reasoning involves the transposition of solutions that work well in one domain to another, on the basis of analogous properties between the two domains. Sometimes such reasoning works, and […]
Title: Grasping Observational Facts in Modern Cosmology Abstract: The understanding of the concept of ‘fact’ in modern (post-WWII) cosmology has been fluid. Cosmologists and philosophers’ perspectives have ranged, with some asserting the virtual indisputability of certain general cosmological facts, and others contending that the very use of the word 'fact' is an impediment to cosmological […]
Title: Problems and Possibilities: A Theory of Scientific Understanding Abstract: In this talk I will discuss joint work with Soazig Le Bihan on a novel theory of scientific understanding. Extant theories of scientific understanding fail to be suitably comprehensive. Either they fail to countenance relevant kinds of scientific understanding, e.g.~non-explanatory understanding or practical understanding, […]
Nicholas Shea (Institute of Philosophy, University of London) and John Krakauer (The Johns Hopkins Hospital Department of Neurology) will participate as our debaters. Abstracts: Nicholas Shea John Krakauer This will be an online only event and will be available live streamed on Zoom & YouTube: https://pitt.zoom.us/j/91614621442 https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCrRp47ZMXD7NXO3a9Gyh2sg.
Title: Is It the Same Experimental Result? Replication in Physics Abstract: One of the interesting issues in the philosophy of experiment is that of the replicability of experimental results. The scientific community enthusiastically endorses the idea that “Replication – the confirmation of results and conclusions from one study obtained independently in another is considered the […]