Annual Lecture Series (in-person)
Lunchtime Talks (in-person)
Conferences (in-person)
Online-Only Events
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 […]
Spacetime Functionalism Conference Cathedral of Learning 1008, April 1st-2nd Spacetime Functionalism holds that spacetime is spacetime by virtue of the role it plays with respect to other physics. It promises to help with certain interpretational puzzles, including some of those arising in quantum gravity. But the exact kind of functionalism involved, the extent to which […]
Title: Validity drifts in psychiatric research Abstract: I develop the notion of validity drift and apply it to psychiatric research. A validity drift occurs when, in the course of developing new measurement procedures, researchers end up studying something different from what they originally aimed to study. I explain why and how validity drifts occur with […]
Title: Crafting Scientific Narratives Abstract: How do particular sets of experimental data become evidence for particular scientific claims? In this talk I call attention to the narrative constraints that shape data interpretation within individual publications and the larger research trajectories they comprise. I present a case study involving a particular C. elegans laboratory in which […]
Title: Where the Philosophy of Cognitive Science Went Wrong Abstract: One can hardly overestimate the influence of Jerry Fodor on the philosophy of cognitive science. Fodor has left us two main problems. Firstly, the problem of vindicating folk psychology. Secondly, the problem of explaining our cognitive capacities. These two problems arise for Fodor’s preferred view, […]
Title: Expectation and exception: expertise as an epistemic constraint Abstract: I document historical cases of anomalies that resulted in theory changes, with an eye to the course of their reception by mainstream experts. With some regularity, a theory-changing anomaly first comes to the attention of amateurs or scientists with expertise in a domain other than […]
Dan Burnston (Center for Philosophy of Science, Philosophy Department at Tulane University) and Wayne Wu (Philosophy and the Neuroscience Institue CMU) to participate. Intention and Agency in Mind and Brain! The debate will also be available live-streamed on YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCrRp47ZMXD7NXO3a9Gyh2sg.