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LTT: R. Pennock

1117 Cathedral of Learning 4200 Fifth Ave, Pittsburgh, PA, United States

Robert Pennock, Distinguished University Professor of Philosophy, Michigan State University Curiosity Systematized: Virtue Philosophy of Science and the Philosophy of Mind ABSTRACT: I have argued for a virtue philosophy of science as a normative reconstruction of the mindset and characteristic practices of scientists—a peculiarly curious population of knowledge-seekers. Arising in relation to the scientific task […]

LTT: E. Fischer

1117 Cathedral of Learning 4200 Fifth Ave, Pittsburgh, PA, United States

Eugen Fischer, University of East Anglia, Center Visiting Fellow Experimental Argument Analysis: How Stereotypes Shape Arguments ABSTRACT: The analysis of philosophical arguments is commonly regarded as model of an armchair activity. The talk explains when and why experimental methods need to complement familiar armchair methods of argument analysis; it reviews methods from psycholinguistics that can […]

LTT: J. Norton

1117 Cathedral of Learning 4200 Fifth Ave, Pittsburgh, PA, United States

John D. Norton, Distinguished University Professor of HPS, University of Pittsburgh How Analogy Helped Create the New Science of Thermodynamics ABSTRACT:  In 1824, Sadi Carnot’s “On the Motive Power of Fire” laid out the general framework of thermodynamics. The work seems to burst unexpected and fully formed into science, brimming with extraordinary, novel ideas. He […]

LTT: G. Rogers

1117 Cathedral of Learning 4200 Fifth Ave, Pittsburgh, PA, United States

Gayle Rogers, University of Pittsburgh The Science of Speculation: A Revolution in Experimentation and Moneymaking Abstract: This talk will trace the development of speculation as a twin phenomenon in the scientific and financial revolutions of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Initially doubted as a mode of airy, conjectural thought inferior to demonstrable experimentation, speculation came […]

ALS: E. Tal

Online Lecture

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 […]

LTT: Laura Menatti

1117 Cathedral of Learning 4200 Fifth Ave, Pittsburgh, PA, United States

Laura Menatti, University of the Basque Country, Center Visiting Fellow Health and environment: A Relational Account Abstract In this talk I propose a situated and relational framework to address the relationship between health and environment. This research has been developed at the crossroad of environmental philosophy and philosophy of medicine. Historically, the environment has received little attention in the definitions […]

LTT: Ruth Kastner

1117 Cathedral of Learning 4200 Fifth Ave, Pittsburgh, PA, United States

Ruth Kastner, University of Maryland, Center Visiting Fellow Curing Several Diseases of Physics with One Simple Remedy Abstract: Modern physics presents us with a number of stubborn problems and challenges, chief among them the measurement problem of quantum theory. I suggest that many of these problems arise from an underlying, unduly classical metaphysical picture of […]

LTT: Heather Douglas

1117 Cathedral of Learning 4200 Fifth Ave, Pittsburgh, PA, United States

Heather Douglas, Michigan State University, Center Senior Visiting Fellow Rethinking Public Funding for Science Abstract: Public funding for science increased dramatically after WWII.  The initial justifications for public funding for science centered on the idea that basic research needed public funding because private funding would not be forthcoming for research so far removed from practical […]

LTT: Leonardo Bich

1117 Cathedral of Learning 4200 Fifth Ave, Pittsburgh, PA, United States

Leonardo Bich, University of the Basque Country, Center Visiting Fellow An Operational Approach to Defining Life Abstract: Despite numerous and increasing attempts to define what life is, there is no consensus on necessary and sufficient conditions for life. Accordingly, some scholars have questioned the value of definitions of life and encouraged scientists and philosophers alike […]

ALS: C. Lee

Online Lecture

Carole Lee, Department of Philosophy, University of Washington Institutional Racism in Science: Black-White Disparities in NIH Grant Review Abstract:  In the wake of the Black Lives Matter movement and disproportionately deadly impact of COVID-19 on communities of color, researchers have called for an end to institutional racism in scientific education, publishing, and funding.  In this […]

PHEP2022

1008 Cathedral of Learning 4200 Fifth Ave, Pittsburgh, PA, United States

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 […]

FFF: Maria Serban

Online Lecture

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 […]

LTT: Serife Tekin

1117 Cathedral of Learning 4200 Fifth Ave, Pittsburgh, PA, United States

Serife Tekin, University of Texas, San Antonio Unmuting Patients in Psychiatric Epistemologies: Insights from the Opioid Crisis One of the central aims of psychiatry is to identify the properties of mental disorders to enable their diagnosis and treatment. As a branch of both science and medicine, psychiatry draws on a variety of scientific and medical […]

Institutions and the Scientific Research Agenda

1008 Cathedral of Learning 4200 Fifth Ave, Pittsburgh, PA, United States

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 […]

LTT: Ravit Dotan

1117 Cathedral of Learning 4200 Fifth Ave, Pittsburgh, PA, United States

Ravit Dotan, University of California Berkeley AI Ethics and Investors Abstract: Should investors integrate AI ethics into investment strategies? If so, how? The goal of my talk is to lead a conversation about this topic. To that end, I will go over what AI is, what AI ethics is, how AI ethics can impact companies' […]

LTT: P. Reinagel

1117 Cathedral of Learning 4200 Fifth Ave, Pittsburgh, PA, United States

Pamela Reinagel The limited role of null hypothesis testing in Biology: A practicing biologist's perspective on the Reproducibility Crisis Abstract: In recent years there has been much discussion of rigor, reliability and reproducibility in science. Some metascience analyses, reproducibility projects, and proposed science reforms appear to make naive assumptions about the goals, methods, and products of […]

FFF: Alison Fernandes

1008 Cathedral of Learning 4200 Fifth Ave, Pittsburgh, PA, United States

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 […]

ALS: C. Buckner

1008 Cathedral of Learning 4200 Fifth Ave, Pittsburgh, PA, United States

Cameron Buckner, Department of Philosophy, University of Houston The new DoGMA of Empiricism: Deep Learning and Domain-General Faculties Abstract:  Deep learning is a research area in computer science that has over the last ten years produced a series of transformative breakthroughs in artificial intelligence—creating systems that can recognize complex objects in natural photographs as well […]

LTT: A. Mohseni

1117 Cathedral of Learning 4200 Fifth Ave, Pittsburgh, PA, United States

Join us for a lunch time talk by Aydin Mohseni, University of California, Irvine. Title: Modeling Interventions in the Replication Crisis Scientific studies vary in their methodological soundness. Interventions in evidentiary standards and research practices can differentially affect studies as a function of their soundness. The conjunction of these facts has unrecognized implications for proposed […]

Causation With A Human Face: James Woodward Book Workshop

1008 Cathedral of Learning 4200 Fifth Ave, Pittsburgh, PA, United States

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 […]

Machine Wisdom Workshop 2

1008 Cathedral of Learning 4200 Fifth Ave, Pittsburgh, PA, United States

  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, […]

LTT: Riet van Bork

Title: TBA Abstract: TBA This talk will also be available live streamed on You Tube at https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCrRp47ZMXD7NXO3a9Gyh2sg.  

LTT: Nicholas Rescher (Postponed)

1117 Cathedral of Learning 4200 Fifth Ave, Pittsburgh, PA, United States

This Talk has been postponed, date TBA.   Title: "The Concept of Control" Abstract: The talk will argue that control is a complex and inherently unclear inception ill suited to the significant work that philosophers--especially ethicists--have envisioned for it. This talk will also be available live streamed on You Tube at https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCrRp47ZMXD7NXO3a9Gyh2sg.

LTT: Ingo Brigandt

1117 Cathedral of Learning 4200 Fifth Ave, Pittsburgh, PA, United States

Title: Gender and values at the intersection of molecular biology and psychiatry Abstract: This talk points to socio-political values that call for more integration between molecular and social-environmental approaches to human cognition and neuropsychiatry, such as improving human mental health and reducing societal inequities. My general perspective on the overall landscape of human behavior research […]

ALS: Doreen Fraser

1008 Cathedral of Learning 4200 Fifth Ave, Pittsburgh, PA, United States

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 […]

LTT: R. Krempel

1117 Cathedral of Learning 4200 Fifth Ave, Pittsburgh, PA, United States

Title: Aphantasia, unsymbolized thinking and conscious thoughts Abstract: According to a common view, conscious thoughts necessarily involve mental images. This is alleged to be the case not only when one entertains conscious thoughts about perceptible things like cats or waterfalls, but also when one thinks about more abstract things, like the nature of concepts. In […]

LTT: Tadeusz Zawidzki

1117 Cathedral of Learning 4200 Fifth Ave, Pittsburgh, PA, United States

Title: Pattern Finding and Pattern Making Abstract: Human beings are proficient pattern finders (e.g., scientific laws), and pattern makers (e.g., art, architecture, political systems). According to philosophical tradition, going back at least to Aristotle, these different capacities are made possible by fundamentally distinct cognitive competencies: theoretical vs. practical reason. But some of our most effective […]

LTT: Sandra Mitchell

1117 Cathedral of Learning 4200 Fifth Ave, Pittsburgh, PA, United States

Title: The Bearable Thinness of Being: A Pragmatist Metaphysics of Affordances Abstract: Taking a pragmatist stance toward the practices and products of science shapes our answers to central philosophical questions. I will explicate how scientists’ conceptual and representational practices work in concert with their observational and experimental ones to stabilize acceptance of claims of scientific […]

ALS: Quayshawn Spencer

1008 Cathedral of Learning 4200 Fifth Ave, Pittsburgh, PA, United States

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 […]