Annual Lecture Series (in-person)
Lunchtime Talks (in-person)
Conferences (in-person)
Online-Only Events
Prediction and Punishment: Cross-Disciplinary Workshop on Carceral AI Co-Sponsored by The Center for Philosophy of Science at the University of Pittsburgh and the Center for Ethics and Policy at Carnegie […]
Title: Perception and Preference in Poetry: Biases Toward AI-Generated Poems Abstract: AI-generated art and text have become increasingly common, and increasingly sophisticated. This talk presents findings showing that AI-generated poems […]
Title: Hodgkin and Huxley’s Use of Singular Compositional Abduction Abstract: One of the most significant achievements of Twentieth-Century physiology was Alan Hodgkin and Andrew Huxley’s development of theory of the […]
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. […]
Title: Myth-Busting or Meaning-Making? Public Science Communications and the Infodemic Abstract: A growth area of public-facing science communications during the COVID years has been the counter-offence against misinformation, that is, […]
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 […]
Title: An Understanding-First view of Explanation Abstract: Jaegwon Kim wrote once that “the idea of explaining something is inseparable from the idea of making it intelligible; to seek an explanation […]
Title: True Believers: The Incredulity Hypothesis and the Enduring Legacy of the Obedience Experiments Abstract: Stanley Milgram’s “obedience experiments” are among the most famous studies in social psychology, and perhaps, […]
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 […]
Title: What Does Quantum Mechanics Tell Us about Reality? Abstract: Quantum mechanics is admittedly the most difficult subject to understand. Physicists and philosophers, let alone students and laymen, are still […]
Title: Field notes on the second law of thermodynamics from a quantum physicist Abstract: Thermodynamics reigns as queen of the physical theories, governing everything from biophysics to cosmology. The second […]
Title: On Causal Locality in a Deflationary Account of Quantum Theory Abstract: Quantum theory can be reformulated in terms of old-fashioned configuration spaces and ‘indivisible’ stochastic laws, without a fundamental […]
Title: The Physics of Memory Abstract: Much of the mystery of time arises from the asymmetry of past versus future: not only asymmetries themselves, such as the apparent ‘openness’ of […]
Title: A Historical Case Study in Philosophical Conversation: J.B.S. Haldane (1892-1964) & Julian Huxley’s (1887-1975) Social Values in a Scientific Worldview Abstract: Rhetoric about the meaning of empirical work in […]
Revitalizing Science and Values April 5-7, 2024 Arnon Levy, Senior Visiting Fellow The arena of science and values has grown in size and prominence in recent philosophy of science. But […]
Title: Probabilism Under Scrutiny: Grappling with the Weight of Evidence Abstract: Probabilism, the philosophical view that the role of probability is to capture degrees of belief, support, confirmation, or plausibility […]
Title: Peirce Disappears: C.S. Peirce and Early Logical Empiricism Abstract: Scholars of the history of philosophy of science read and hear a lot about Duhem, Mach, Poincaré, and the members […]
Title: A Commitment Account of Norm Externalisation Abstract: It has been argued that moral norms fundamentally differ in character from conventional norms. One of the distinctive features of moral norms […]
This talk will also be our 2023-24 Adolf Grünbaum Memorial Lecture. Title: Causal Abstraction and Computational Explanation Abstract: A familiar idea in cognitive science is that it can be useful […]