Annual Lecture Series (in-person)
Lunchtime Talks (in-person)
Conferences (in-person)
Online-Only Events
The Lost Generation of Philosophers of Science: An Illustration Nicholas Rescher, University of Pittsburgh ABSTRACT: WWII derailed many philosophers of science from their career track. A most interesting example of this is Albert Wohlstetter (1913 - 1997), laureate of the Presidential Medal of Merit. My talk will provide the details. You have the option to […]
Evolutionary Functions of Consciousness W Tecumseh Fitch, Dept of Behavioral and Cognitive Biology, University of Vienna, Austria ABSTRACT: Recent scientific discussions of consciousness have been dominated by the search for the neural correlates of consciousness and/or philosophical debates concerning the so-called “Hard Problem” – why should conscious cognitive states have a phenomenal, subjective component? Many […]
Can Meaningless Statements be Approximately True? On the Semantic Component of Scientific Realism Darrell Rowbottom, Lingnan University, Center Visiting Fellow ABSTRACT: This paper argues that statements may be approximately true despite being neither true nor false. This has a significant consequence for scientific realism; it makes it possible to relax the semantic component thereof. You […]
Human Achievement and Artificial Intelligence Brett Karlan, University of Pittsburgh, HPS ABSTRACT: Shortly after the deep neural network AlphaGo defeated Go grandmaster Lee Sedol in a series of matches in 2016, Sedol announced his retirement from professional Go. In his retirement announcement, Sedol expressed a sentiment many others have echoed about the encroachment of AI […]
Lise Vesterlund, Andrew W. Mellon Professor of Economics, University of Pittsburgh Gender Differences in Task Allocations: Cause and Effect Women and men are shown to hold different work assignments, with women spending less time on work that advances their careers (promotable work) and more time on work that is unlikely to affect career advancement (non-promotable […]
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 […]