Annual Lecture Series (in-person)
Lunchtime Talks (in-person)
Conferences (in-person)
Online-Only Events
Progress and its Problems: Coming to Terms with Theory Change in the Metaphysics of Science Kerry McKenzie, University of California, San Diego Abstract: Progress is often cited as definitive of science. Thinking about the sense, if any, that metaphysics progresses might therefore help us get a purchase on the demarcation between science and metaphysics and […]
A Kantian Approach to Climate Justice and the Reasons Why We do not Act Christine Heybl Leuphana University of Lüneburg Abstract: In this lunchtime talk, I invite you to hear what Kant would have had to say about the great injustices of our age. Namely I will focus on climate change and how Kant […]
Evolution, Reasoning and Causal Nihilism Alex Broadbent University of Johannesburg Abstract: Causal reasoning is widely thought to be a cognitive trait that is a distinguishing feature of humanity, accountable for our success at spreading through the world and shaping it. In this paper I argue that there is neither empirical nor conceptual evidence to support […]
Did Humans, Neanderthals, and Denisovans interbreed? Facts versus Received Wisdom in Molecular Systematics Jeffrey H. Schwartz Emeritus Professor of Anthropology University of Pittsburgh Abstract: Belief in the infallibility of molecular analyses – especially of nuclear and mitochondrial DNA – in determining “who’s related to” and even “who’s been sleeping with whom?” pervades human evolutionary studies, […]
Cognitive Novelties, Informational Form, and Structural-Causal Explanations Andrew Buskell, Center Visiting Fellow Abstract: Recent work has established a framework for explaining the origin of cognitive novelties—qualitatively distinct cognitive traits—in human beings. This niche construction approach argues that humans engineer epistemic environments in ways that facilitate the ontogenetic and phylogenetic development of such novelties. I here […]
Explosive Proofs of Mathematical Truths Simon DeDeo, CMU & the Santa Fe Institute Abstract: Justifications for believing a mathematical proof are traditionally based in the validity of its underlying deductive steps. However, in a skeptical argument going back to Hume, this should make even weak belief in a theorem unjustified because errors compound exponentially. To […]
THIS TALK HAS BEEN CANCELLED DUE TO COVID-19 CONCERNS Science Policies and the Unpredictability of Scientific Inquiry Stephanie Ruphy, University Jean Moulin Abstract: What is the appropriate mode of setting the research agenda? The autonomy of science as regards the choice of its priorities is often defended on the ground that limiting scientists’ freedom to follow […]
Healing or Hacking the Earth?: Lessons from the Metaphors of Climate Intervention Gillian Barker, University of Western Ontario Abstract: Thinking about interventions in the climate system designed to have effects at the global scale takes us into new conceptual territory. Scientists and others have drawn on a wide array of metaphors to help navigate its […]
A Less Myopic View of the Virtues of Blinding and of Tests for Blinding in Clinical Trials John Worrall, London School of Economics Abstract: Performing a clinical trial double-blind controls for various biases that might affect the outcome if the trial were unblinded. It would seem, then, that a trial that begins and continues to be […]
4th Annual Pittsburgh Summer Program in Philosophy of Science for Underrepresented Groups This program is not open to the public. Learn more here.
Liam Bright, London School of Economics Scientific Conclusions Need Not Be Accurate, Justified, or Believed by their Authors (This talk is being given by Liam Bright and was coauthored by Haixin Dang) ABSTRACT: It is often claimed that assertions are utterances held to certain norms, called norms of assertion. Some philosophers believe assertions are governed […]
Michael Dietrich, Univ. of Pittsburgh, Dept. of HPS The Politics of Embryology: Johannes Holtfreter’s Flight from Nazi Germany ABSTRACT: Johannes Holtfreter was forced to leave Nazi Germany. Unlike other exiled biologists though, Holtfreter was not of Jewish ancestry. He was a rare political refugee. But, did his forced migration have an impact on his […]
Mark Wilson, Department of Philosophy, University of Pittsburgh How “Wavelength” Found its Truth-Values ABSTRACT: Philosophers of science and metaphysicians frequently declare that they are only interested in the “fundamental part” of a theory T, and not in the grubby tactics utilized to extract concrete conclusions from them. “As a philosopher I am only interested in […]
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 […]
CANCELLED Subrena Smith, Univ. of New Hampshire, Dept. of Philosophy Constructing Human Behavior ABSTRACT: Behavioral sciences purport to give descriptive accounts of human beings as behavioral systems. Those accounts have it that human beings, because of their nature, behave in certain ways. In this talk, I show that this is not what is done. Infused […]
Elizabeth Schechter Indiana University, Department of Philosophy and the Cognitive Science Program Self-Consciousness After Split-Brain Surgery ABSTRACT: In this talk, I first argue that the two hemispheres of a split-brain subject are associated with distinct conscious thinkers and, indeed, distinct thinkers of self-conscious thoughts, R and L. I then argue that the dynamics of self-conscious […]
Yolonda Wilson, National Humanities Center Fellow & Encore Public Voices Fellow Empathy and Structural Injustice in the Assessment of Patient Noncompliance ABSTRACT: It is well established that health status is at least partly socially determined. Yet even with this awareness, patients are sometimes treated as though compliance with medical advice and health-seeking behavior are solely […]
James Woodward, Univ. of Pittsburgh Dept. of HPS Flagpoles, Anyone? Independence, Invariance and the Direction of Causation This talk will be a Zoom webinar and registration is required. Registration link: https://pitt.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_ky9mJLfcQDmwfxX9wy_EaA ABSTRACT: This talk will explore some recent ideas concerning the directional features of explanation (or causation). I begin by describing an ideal of […]
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 […]
“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 […]
Stéphanie Ruphy Ecole Normale Supérieure - Université PSL Science Policies and the Unpredictability of Scientific Inquiry This talk will be online via Zoom and pre-registration is required. Register here: https://pitt.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_HfaWE2RyQieV1M7pvqg0Gw ABSTRACT: What is the appropriate mode of setting the research agenda? The autonomy of science as regards the choice of its priorities is often defended […]
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 […]
Mak Pedroso, Center Visiting Fellow Wicked Nature: Coping with Uncertainty through Redundancy This talk will be held via Zoom and pre-registration is required. Registration link: https://pitt.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_T-Z7lis2QqSLhbvhVRQnrg ABSTRACT: In their struggle for existence, organisms grapple with high levels of uncertainty since they possess limited information about their environments. As a result, the evolutionary fate of lineages […]
Diane O'Leary, Center Visiting Fellow Making Philosophical Sense of Medicine’s Position on Mind and Body This talk will be held via Zoom and pre-registration is required. Registration link: https://pitt.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_DdjHmqsNQ5mpAlcoWamrQg ABSTRACT: Medicine has cultivated a philosophical identity in the last forty years, challenging the biomedical model in favor of a holistic approach that “integrates mind and […]
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 […]
Ed Slowik, Center Visiting Fellow A Note on Kant as Precursor of Mach: Reconsidering Kant’s "Metaphysical Foundations of Natural Science" from a Huygensian Frame This talk will be held via Zoom and pre-registration is required. Register here: https://pitt.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_H0Xxw_YDRqaaW_NQJe1yYw ABSTRACT: Over the past several decades, important studies of Kant’s pre-critical period natural philosophy (by, e.g., Watkins, […]
Matt Haber University of Utah, Department of Philosophy The Species Problem Problem and the No Solution Solution This talk will be online via Zoom and pre-registration is required. Register here: https://pitt.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_REvgdYgITVSuQ0uSG-hPCw ABSTRACT: I propose that the species problem is a genuinely skeptical problem. That is just to say that no single answer will resolve […]
Nic Fillion, Center Visiting Fellow The Cogency of Arguments Involving Approximations This talk will take place via Zoom and pre-registration is required. Register here: https://pitt.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_KHPk9mCNRGOESTGHeskKdg ABSTRACT: In philosophy, we spend a great deal of time talking about what makes arguments cogent, since an understanding of what makes arguments cogent plays a crucial role in our […]
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 […]
Mike Schneider, Center Visiting Fellow Stabs in the Dark Sector This talk will be held via Zoom and pre-registration is required. Registration link: https://pitt.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_DbLCsyAGQH-V9sk0i_2RmQ ABSTRACT: ?CDM, our current theory of the evolution of large scale structure (LSS) in cosmology, constitutes an extraordinary achievement of modern physics. Consequent to our trust in the theory, empirical claims […]