Annual Lecture Series (in-person)
Lunchtime Talks (in-person)
Conferences (in-person)
Online-Only Events
Title: The Sense of Commitment in Joint Action: Towards a Comparative Perspective Abstract: Recent research provides evidence that, in the context of joint action, individuals’ sense of commitment sustains their motivation to persist in performing actions which their joint action partners are expecting and may be relying on them to perform. I will provide an […]
Title: Inductive Risk and Value Freedom, Revisited Abstract: Work on the role of values in science has grown and diversified dramatically in the 21st century. But there is a near-consensus on one basic point, namely the value-ladeness – that is, ladeness with social, moral and political values – of all aspects of the scientific process, […]
The 22nd Annual Pitt-CMU Graduate Student Philosophy Conference will occur Saturday, March 4th at the Cathedral of Learning. Please see the attached flyer for information about the speakers and schedule. All are welcome to attend, registration is preferred. This year's Keynote Speaker is the William H. Miller III Professor of Philosophy at Johns Hopkins University, Jenann Ismael. Register Here: 2023 Pitt-CMU Grad […]
Title: The Wordly Infrastructure of Causation Abstract: This talk is based on joint work with Naftali Weinberger and Porter Williams. It will describe an alternative to currently dominant philosophical approaches to the metaphysics of causation. It is motivated by the gap that currently exists between metaphysical accounts and recent epistemological research on causal reasoning and […]
Title: Replacing STEM with Natural Philosophy: Reconfiguring the Science/Philosophy Relationship Abstract: The idea of this project is to seek to replace the current notions of STEM with the classical ideal of natural philosophy and to see if a contemporary form of natural philosophy could be evolved in our present-day teaching and research contexts. The broad […]
Title: Spacetime, functionalism, and inertial frames Abstract: I advocate a form of spacetime functionalism that identifies spacetime with whatever picks out a structure of inertial frames. In this talk, I’ll defend the spacetime-inertia connection against some challenges. Be sure to check out Eleanor's upcoming Conference: Spacetime Functionalism! This talk will also be available […]
Friday 3/24 3:30PM - 5:30PM CL 1008 Title: Starting Points in Ohio: A pragmatist account of the asymmetry of explanation Abstract: Recent discussions around explanation have concerned the issue of asymmetry, an issue dating back at least to the well-known example of the shadow of a flagpole. What is the source of the directionality in […]
Title: A Novel Perspective on Pluralism in Climate Modeling Abstract: Modeling the mass-extinction event at the Permian Triassic Boundary (PTB), which is believed to have followed a warming event triggered by significant increase in CO2 levels, has become an important area of research in climate science. However, to model conditions at the PTB, scientists must choose between […]
Title: Renormalization group explanations in particle physics Abstract: Despite the highly analogous forms that renormalization group methods take in particle physics and condensed matter physics, there are key modal differences between these domains. This leads to different types of explanatory aims in particle physics. Rather than explaining universality, the renormalization group is used to explain […]