The news section of the German Society for Philosophy of Science (GWP)
Eingereicht von Anna Leuschner
An der Bergischen Universität Wuppertal ist zum 01.04.2023, befristet auf 3 Jahre (mit Option auf Verlängerung um weitere 3 Jahre), eine Stelle als Post Doc (E 13 TV-L) mit 100 % der tariflichen Arbeitszeit zu besetzen (Teilzeit ist möglich) .
Fachliche und persönliche Einstellungsvoraussetzungen:
- Abgeschlossenes Universitätsstudium (Master oder vergleichbar) im Fach Philosophie und Promotion im Bereich Wissenschaftsphilosophie
- Forschungsschwerpunkt in mindestens einem der folgenden Bereiche: Wissenschaft und Werte, (Grenzen der) Forschungsfreiheit, Wissenschaftsfeindlichkeit und -leugnung, Philosophie der Klimawissenschaften und des Klimawandels, Philosophie der Sozialwissenschaften, feministische Wissenschaftsphilosophie
- Erste Erfahrung in eigenständiger Forschung und Lehre
- Teamorientiertes Arbeiten, insbesondere im interdisziplinären Kontext
Erwünscht sind ferner erste Publikationen in einschlägigen Fachzeitschriften sowie eine bereits bestehende Skizze für ein eigenständiges, potentielles Drittmittelprojekt
Aufgaben und Anforderungen:
- Lehrverpflichtung im Umfang von 4 LVS im Bereich der Wissenschaftsphilosophie
- Einwerbung von Drittmitteln
- Unterstützung der Professur bei Aufgaben der akademischen Selbstverwaltung
- Veröffentlichung wissenschaftlicher Aufsätze und aktive Teilnahme an einschlägigen Fachkonferenzen
- Eigenständige Organisation wissenschaftlicher Veranstaltungen
- Vorbereitung eines eigenen Forschungsvorhabens mit dem Ziel der Habilitation
Bewerbungen (mit Anschreiben, Lebenslauf, Nachweis des Studienabschlusses und der Promotion, Arbeitszeugnissen, ggf. Nachweis einer Schwerbehinderung als PDF-Datei) sind grundsätzlich nur möglich über das Onlineportal der Bergischen Universität Wuppertal:
https://stellenausschreibungen.uni-wuppertal.de
Kennziffer: 22629
Bewerbungsfrist: 30.11.2022
Ansprechpartnerin für Rückfragen: Prof. Dr. Anna Leuschner
Submitted by Borut Trpin (MCMP, LMU Munich).
*********************************************
The Munich Center for Mathematical Philosophy invites abstracts for the following event:
Epistemic Justification: Formal Epistemology Meets Mainstream Epistemology
MCMP, LMU Munich
30 March – 1 April, 2023
https://www.mcmp.philosophie.uni-muenchen.de/events/workshops/container/epistemic_justification_2023/index.html
*********************************************
It is often assumed that knowledge claims must be justified. But what kind of justification is required for knowledge? Under what conditions is it rational to expect that a believed proposition is (probably) true? And, is it possible to address skeptical concerns by invoking epistemic justification? These are some of the questions currently being debated, often in the context of underlying positions ranging from versions of foundationalism to infinitism and coherentism. This conference will address these questions, bringing together researchers from formal epistemology and mainstream epistemology. In doing so, we will address, among other things, how degrees of belief are justified, how perception is related to justification, how belief change relates to justification, under what conditions (if any) is coherence truth-conducive, how social interaction and social systems relate to epistemic justification, and whether there can be degrees of justification and, if so, how they can be measured. Overall, this conference is driven by the belief that dialogue between different epistemological approaches is beneficial to all and promotes progress in the discipline.
Call for papers
If you are interested in presenting a paper (20 min presentation/10 min discussion) at the conference, please submit a title, a short abstract (about 100 words, no references) and an extended abstract of 1000-1500 words via Easychair by December 5, 2022.
Link for submissions: https://easychair.org/conferences/?conf=epijust2023
Dates and Deadines
CfP: December 5, 2022
Registration: March 1, 2023
Organizers
Borut Trpin (MCMP/LMU Munich)
Stephan Hartmann (MCMP/LMU Munich)
Submitted by Deniz Sarikaya (CLPS, Vrije Universiteit Brussels).
TDPhiMa 3: Philosophical and Linguistic Approaches to Computational Mathematics
September 7 & 8, 2022
Essen, Germany & Online (Zoom), but the main part is offline.
https://sites.google.com/view/tdphima3/startseite
= Call for registration:
Registration is free of charge and everybody is welcome to attend.
However, physical participation slots are limited and will be organized by a first come first served. To register, please visit:
https://sites.google.com/view/tdphima3/registration
Registration for physical participation is open till August 26, 2022.
Registration for online participation stays open till September 5.
== Speakers:
– Thorsten Altenkirch, University of Nottingham
– Marcos Cramer, Technische Universität Dresden
– Bernhard Fisseni, Universität Duisburg-Essen
– Juan Luis Gastaldi, ETH Zurich
– Mikkel Willum Johansen, Københavns Universitet
– Hinrich Lorenzen, Europa-Universität Flensburg
– Deniz Sarikaya, CLPS, Vrije Universiteit Brussels
– Michael Schmitz, Europa-Universität Flensburg
– Bernhard Schröder, Universität Duisburg-Essen
– Henrik Kragh Sørensen, Københavns Universitet More TBA
== Topic:
TDPhiMa is a conference series that looks at mathematical texts from a philosophical and linguistic perspective. Text is a crucial medium for the dissemination of mathematical ideas, agendas, and results to the scientific community and educational contexts. This makes focusing on mathematical texts a natural and significant part of the philosophical study of mathematics. In addition, research on mathematical texts can benefit from the knowledge and methods of other disciplines such as linguistics and computer science to study problems in the philosophy of mathematics.
In the third iteration of TDPhiMa, we focus on the application of these methods within computational mathematics, including the context of automated theorem proving. Relevant topics include:
1. Big data approaches.
2. Input language for automated theorem provers 3. Language processing for evidence texts 4. Frame Semantics and other tools from classical AI.
5. Philosophical implications of the aforementioned topics
== Contact:
Web: https://sites.google.com/view/tdphima3/startseite
Mail: deniz.sarikaya (at) vub (.) be
== Support
We are thankful for the support by the Turing Center of ETH Zürich, the Universität Duisburg-Essen, the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Individual Fellowship, H2020-MSCA-IF-2018, the Deutsche Vereinigung für mathematische Logik und für Grundlagen der Exakten Wissenschaften.
== Organizers:
Bernhard Fisseni, Juan Luis Gastaldi, Deborah Kant, Deniz Sarikaya and Bernhard Schröder
Submitted by Ludger Jansen (University of Rostock).
Philosophy of Biomimetics: Project, website, mailing-list, events
We are happy to announce a new project entitled “Learning from Nature: Epistemological and Ontological Foundations of Biomimetics”, which is funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG) and located at the universities of Tuebingen and Rostock.
We have set up a *mailing-list* to connect with researchers and developers interested in the philosophy of biomimetics. To subscribe, please visit our *website*:
https://biomimetics.hypotheses.org
There you can also find information about upcoming *events*. We plan a series of events concerning the philosophy of biomimetics and have set up a mailing list dedicated to this topic. You are invited to join the events and the list.
Kind regards,
Manfred Drack (Tuebingen) & Ludger Jansen (Rostock)
Dr. Mag. Manfred Drack,
Institute of Evolution and Ecology
University of Tübingen
Auf der Morgenstelle 28E
72076 Tübingen, Germany
Prof. Dr. Ludger Jansen
Institute of Philosophy
University of Rostock
18051 Rostock, Germany
NEW BLOG
https://biomimetics.hypotheses.org
Submitted by Niki Pfeifer (University of Regensburg).
Call for online participation: “Reasoning and uncertainty: probabilistic, logical, and psychological perspectives”
August 9-10, 2022
The aim of this interdisciplinary workshop is to bring together philosophers,
probability theorists, logicians, artificial intelligence researchers, and
psychologists to discuss selected problems in the broad domains of reasoning
and uncertainty, including inferences about conditionals, inconsistency, and
coherence, how to argue and make decisions rationally, and how to represent and
manage uncertainty and incomplete knowledge. We also aim to discuss
philosophical foundations and methodological questions concerning reasoning
research. For example, whether and how combining conceptual, formal (like
(non-classical) logic, (coherence-based) probability logic, artificial
intelligence models), and empirical research methods may cross-fertilise
reasoning research on normative and descriptive dimensions.
Workshop website: https://go.ur.de/reasunc2022
Speakers
Andrea Capotorti (University of Perugia, Italy)
Nicole Cruz (University of Innsbruck, Austria)
Chris Fermüller (TU Wien, Austria)
Sabine Frittella (INSA Centre Val de Loire, France)
Angelo Gilio (Sapienza University of Rome, Italy)
Anthony Hunter (University College London, UK)
Gianluigi Oliveri (University of Palermo, Italy)
David Over (Durham University, UK)
Romina Schmid (University of Regensburg, Germany)
Leon Schöppl (University of Regensburg, Germany)
Bart Verheij (University of Groningen, Netherlands)
Organizers:
Niki Pfeifer (University of Regensburg, Germany)
Hans Rott (University of Regensburg, Germany)
Giuseppe Sanfilippo (University of Palermo, Italy)
The workshop will be held in presence. Because of COVID-19
restrictions, we offer the possibility for online
participation. Please register (for free) here:
https://forms.gle/B1iEiA8JGK8Y5v8M6
The Zoomlink for online participation will be sent to registered
participants shortly before the workshop starts.
Submitted by Ulrich Krohs (Universität Münster).
Promotionsstelle Philosophie der Biologie v der Kognition/Emotionen v Allgemeine Wissenschaftsphilosphie an der Universität Münster
Deadline: Aug 14, 2022
Im Philosophischen Seminar im Fachbereich Geschichte/Philosophie der WWU ist zum 01.10.2022 oder zum nächstmöglichen Termin eine Stelle als
Wissenschaftliche*r Mitarbeiter*in
(E 13 TV-L)
zu besetzen. Angeboten wird eine auf drei Jahre befristete Teilzeitstelle (50%). Die Lehrverpflichtung der ausgeschriebenen Teilzeitstelle beträgt 2 SWS.
Ihre Aufgaben:
- Durchführung eines Promotionsprojekts zu einem Thema der Philosophie der Biologie, der allgemeinen Wissenschaftsphilosophie, der Philosophie der Kognition oder der Philosophie der Emotionen (ggf. von Nicht-Primaten). Die Stelle ist der Professur für Philosophie mit Schwerpunkt Wissenschaftstheorie und Naturphilosophie (Prof. Dr. Ulrich Krohs) zugeordnet.
- Durchführung eigener Lehrveranstaltungen im Bereich Philosophie/Wissenschaftsphilosophie (2 SWS).
- Beteiligung an der Selbstverwaltung.
Einstellungsvoraussetzungen:
- Ein mit überdurchschnittlichem Erfolg abgeschlossenes Hochschulstudium in Wissenschaftsphilosophie, Philosophie oder einem anderen für das Promotionsvorhaben einschlägigen Fach.
- Ein aussichtsreiches Promotionsvorhaben in einem der genannten Gebiete, das eine besonders erfolgreiche Promotion erwarten lässt.
Darüber hinaus wünschen wir uns:
- Sichere Englischkenntnisse in Wort und Schrift
- Team- und Kommunikationsfähigkeit
Ihre weiteren Optionen:
- Sofern das Projekt thematisch dazu passt, können Sie dem DFG-geförderten Transregio-Sonderforschungsbereich TRR212, Projekt D01 assoziiert werden
- oder sich der interdisziplinären Münster Graduate School of Evolution anschließen.
- Ob Pflege oder Kinderbetreuung – unser Servicebüro Familie bietet Ihnen konkrete Unterstützungsangebote, damit Sie Privates und Berufliches unter einen Hut bekommen.
Die WWU tritt für die Geschlechtergerechtigkeit ein und strebt eine Erhöhung des Anteils von Frauen in Forschung und Lehre an. Bewerbungen von Frauen sind daher ausdrücklich erwünscht; Frauen werden bei gleicher Eignung, Befähigung und fachlicher Leistung bevorzugt berücksichtigt, sofern nicht in der Person eines Mitbewerbers liegende Gründe überwiegen.
Bei Fragen vorab kontaktieren Sie gerne Prof. Krohs.
Wir freuen wir uns über Ihre Bewerbung ausschließlich per email (ulrich.krohs@uni-muenster.de) mit Lebenslauf, einem aussagekräftigen Exposé des geplanten Promotionsvorhabens, Ihrer Bachelor- und ggf. Masterarbeit, sowie Ihrer Zeugnisse und ggf. eines aktuellen Transcript of Records (bitte alles in einem einzigen Pdf) bis zum 14. August 2022
Vollständige Stellenausschreibung: https://www.uni-muenster.de/Rektorat/Stellen/ausschreibungen/st_20222207_sk3.html
Submitted by Ulrich Krohs (University of Münster).
PostDoc position Philosophy of biology (and of mind) at the University of Münster
Deadline: Aug 14, 2022
The Collaborative Research Centre (CRC) Transregio 212 “A Novel Synthesis of Individualisation across Behaviour, Ecology and Evolution: Niche Choice, Niche Conformance, Niche Construction (NC3)“, subproject D01 (https://www.uni-bielefeld.de/fakultaeten/biologie/forschung/verbuende/sfb_nc3/projects/d01ph2#comp_00005c3e9e38_00000000a7_0131) with Prof Ulrich Krohs, at the University of Münster, Germany, is seeking to fill the position of a
Postdoctoral Research Associate
Wissenschaftliche/r Mitarbeiter/in
(salary level TV-L E 13, 100%)
for the externally funded project “The role of individual internal states in niche choice, niche construction, and behavioural niche conformance”. The position, commencing on 1 October 2022 or as soon as possible thereafter, is a fixed-term full-time position offered until 31 December 2025 (corresponding to the project’s duration).
Project D01 aims to understand possible fitness effects of internal states of individuals. In the course of the project we pursue the following aims:
- Reconstructing the explanatory relevance of emotions for behavioural decisions and explicating the concept of emotion.
- Explaining the relevance of individual differences of emotional states for the evolutionary outcome of NC3-mechanisms.
- Fixing the status of emotions in different evolutionary frameworks.
The project will draw on the philosophical debate about emotions.
Your tasks:
- conduct independent research according to the tasks of project D01
- actively participate in the regular meetings and events of the research group
- contribute to organizing workshops and other events
- organizational tasks that are part of the self- administration of the university
Our expectations:
- a university degree in a discipline that is relevant to the project (e. g. philosophy, philosophy of science, biology, life sciences or science studies), a PhD in the philosophy of science, philosophy of mind or another field relevant to the project
- an independent and innovative research profile in a field relevant to the project
- experience in interdisciplinary research
- relevant publications in international, peer- reviewed journals
- an autonomous and active manner of working
- proficiency in written and spoken English
Preferred experience and skills
- internationally orientated research activities
- experience organizing workshops and conferences
- German language skills are not a requirement, but a willingness to learn is desirable.
The University of Münster strongly supports equal opportunity and diversity. We welcome all applicants regardless of gender, nationality, ethnic or social background, religion or ideology, disability, age, sexual orientation or gender identity. We are committed to creating family-friendly working conditions and offer part-time options for most positions.
The University of Münster is an equal opportunity employer and is committed to increasing the proportion of women academics. Consequently, we actively encourage applications by women. Female candidates with equivalent qualifications and academic achievements will be preferentially considered within the framework of the legal possibilities.
If you have any questions, please contact Prof Krohs at ulrich.krohs@uni-muenster.de.
To apply, please provide (1) a letter of motivation, (2) a CV including a list of publications and conference contributions, (3) a summary of your dissertation (2-3 pages), (4) a statement of current and future research, which also discusses why you want to work in the project described above (2-4 pages), (5) two of your most relevant publications and (6) names and contact details of one or two referees willing to write confidential letters of recommendation.
All materials should be sent as a single PDF file to ulrich.krohs@uni-muenster.de by 14 August 2022
Full job advertisement: https://www.uni-muenster.de/Rektorat/Stellen/ausschreibungen/st_20222207_sk4.html
Submitted by Gerhard Schurz (DCLPS, University of Düsseldorf).
The Department of Psychology at the University of Göttingen, Germany, invites applications for a
Postdoctoral Research Position in Cognitive Science (f/m/d)
with TV-L E13, 100 % for 3 years.
The position
The position is linked to a five-year project on the topic “Mechanisms, Capacities, and Dependencies: A New Theory of Causal Reasoning”, led by Michael R. Waldmann, funded by the German Research Foundation (Koselleck program). The goal of the project is the development of a novel theory of causal cognition, integrating insights from Pearl’s hierarchical causal inference theory with new theories of mechanisms developed in philosophy of science (New Mechanism view). The goal of the project is to develop a new psychological theory that explains everyday causal cognition. The theory will be experimentally tested by investigating different causal models, mechanisms, and tasks in various content domains and populations (adults, children, non-human primates). Additionally, computational models of the theory will be developed and the role of mechanisms in psychological research will be analyzed. The project will bring together an interdisciplinary group of researchers from different fields of cognitive science, including cognitive, developmental, and experimental psychology, computer science, computational modelling, AI, and philosophy of science.
Requirements
A PhD degree in Psychology, Cognitive Science, Artificial Intelligence, Computer Science, Philosophy, or a related field is required.
In the first round of hiring, candidates who have an interest in developing new computational models of causal cognition are especially encouraged to apply. But candidates with other skills, who are interested in causal cognition, should also contact us. The group will be located at the University of Göttingen but German language skills are not required.
Application
The position (TV-L E 13, 100%) is available from November 2022 but the start date is flexible. Candidates should apply electronically to michael.waldmann@bio.uni-goettingen.de (subject: post-doc) by 02.08.2022. Please submit a cover letter explaining your motivation and fit, a CV, one or two samples of written work, and contact information of three potential referees for letters of recommendation. Please contact us also if you are interested in a later start date as the project is funded for five years.
The University of Göttingen is an equal opportunities employer and places particular emphasis on fostering career opportunities for women. Qualified women are therefore strongly encouraged to apply in fields in which they are underrepresented. The university has committed itself to being a family-friendly institution and supports their employees in balancing work and family life. The mission of the University is to employ a greater number of severely disabled persons. Applications from severely disabled persons with equivalent qualifications will be given preference.
Please note:
With the submission of your application, you accept the processing of your applicant data in terms of data-protection law. Further information on the legal basis and data usage is provided in the Information General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) https://www.uni-goettingen.de/hinweisdsgvo
Submitted by Axel Gelfert (TU Berlin).
The deadline for online registration of the Fourth International Conference of the German Society for Philosophy of Science (GWP.2022) is July 22, 2022.
Speakers are required to register online.
If you wish to attend the conference, please register via:
https://gwp2022.wissphil.de/gwp2022-registration
The conference will take place on August 15-17, 2022, at the TU Berlin and is an in-person event. Our plenary speakers are:
* Anjan Chakravartty (Miami)
* Mazviita Chirimuuta (Edinburgh)
* Brigitte Falkenburg (Dortmund/Berlin)
* Branden Fitelson (Northeastern/Boston)
* Hans Rott (Regensburg)
* Jutta Schickore (IU Bloomington)
Conference Website: https://gwp2022.wissphil.de/
We are very much looking forward to seeing you in Berlin.
Local organization: Axel Gelfert
GWP organization: Uljana Feest, Christian J. Feldbacher-Escamilla, Alexander Gebharter, Vera Hoffmann-Kolss, Thomas Reydon, Gerhard Schurz
Submitted by Cord Friebe (University of Siegen).
Call for Application: Researcher
The University of Siegen is a modern university with an international orientation and a focus on interdisciplinary research. It currently has around 18,000 students and covers a range of research fields from the humanities, social and economic sciences to natural sciences, engineering and life sciences. With over 2,000 employees, the university is one of the largest employers in the region and offers a unique environment for teaching, study, research and knowledge transfer.
We seek:
In the Faculty I: School of Arts and Humanities, Department of Philosophy, we are looking for a postdoctoral researcher as of the 01.10.2022 at the following conditions:
- 100% = 39, 83
- Pay grade 13 TV-L
- limited 30.09.2026
Your tasks:
- Design and development of a research project about ‘Kant on Cognitive Science/Artificial Intelligence’
- Publication of research results in relevant international journals
- Conception, and organization of international conferences, workshops and data sprints
- Teaching duties: 4 semester hours per week
Your profile:
- PhD in Philosophy
- Research interest both in Kant and in Cognitive Science/Artificial Intelligence
- Relevant publications and conference presentations (at least to a classical author, and at least to the current philosophy of mind)
- Experience in organizing workshops and conferences
- Willingness to engage in interdisciplinary cooperation
- Ability to work independently as well as part of a team, very good communication skills
- Knowledge of German is desirable
- Promotion of own scientific or artistic qualification according to the Wissenschaftszeitvertragsgesetz [act on temporary employment in higher education] (e.g. habilitation)
Our range of services:
- Diverse opportunities to take on responsibility and make a visible contribution in the research and teaching environment
- A modern understanding of leadership and collaboration
- Good work-life balance, for example, through flexible working hours and work location, as well as support with child care
- Extensive personnel development program
- Health management with a wide range of prevention and counseling services.
We look forward to receiving your application by 31th July. Please apply exclusively via our job portal (https://jobs.uni-siegen.de). Unfortunately, we cannot consider applications in writing or by e-mail.
Your contact person:
Prof. Dr. Cord Friebe
4499
cord.friebe@uni-siegen.de
Equal opportunities and diversity are promoted and embodied at the University of Siegen. The advertisement is explicitly addressed to people of all genders; applications from women will be given special consideration in accordance with the State Equal Opportunities Act. We also welcome applications from people with different personal, social, and cultural backgrounds, people with severe disabilities, and people of equal status.
Submitted by Daniel Koenig (Universität Siegen).
Die Siegener AG Philosophie und Geschichte der Mathematik veranstaltet vom 19.-21. September 2022 eine Tagung zum Thema
Die theoretische Philosophie Ernst Cassirers – Perspektiven aus Mathematik- und Kulturphilosophie.
Ziel der Tagung ist es, zwei aktuelle Forschungsstränge zu Cassirers Philosophie zusammenzubringen, die normalerweise zu wenig voneinander bemerken: einen mathematik- und einen kulturphilosophischen. Dies soll entlang zentraler Begriffskonstellationen geschehen, die jeweils von beiden Perspektiven aus beleuchtet werden.
Die Tagung ist als Präsenzveranstaltung geplant. Teilnehmer werden gebeten, sich per E-Mail bei Frau Mielke (mielke@mathematik.uni-siegen.de) anzumelden. Eventuell wird kurzfristig ein zusätzlicher Live-Stream zur Tagung angeboten.
Teilnehmende Nachwuchswissenschaftler können wir bei ihren Reise- und Unterbringungskosten durch Mittel der DFG unterstützt werden. Interessierte bitten wir hierzu um ein kurzes Motivationsschreiben und Ihr CV bis zum 15.8.2022 an koenig@mathematik.uni-siegen.de
Weitere Informationen, wie das aktuelle Programm und Abstracts, finden Sie auf der Internetseite der Tagung:
Submitted by Alice Murphy (MCMP, LMU Munich).
The Munich Center for Mathematical Philosophy (MCMP) at Ludwig-Maximilians-University, Munich, is organising the eighth Summer School on Mathematical Philosophy for Female Students.
The summer school will take place online August 1-5, 2022. This year’s lecturers are Emily Sullivan, Atoosa Kasirzadeh and Anne Eaton.
*********************************************
The summer school, running yearly since 2014, is open to all women students who want to specialise in mathematical philosophy.
APPLICATION PROCEDURE:
To apply for participation, please fill out the online application form: https://www.efv.verwaltung.uni-muenchen.de/users/sign_in
There will be an opportunity for some of the students at the summer school to present their own research in the form of a 15 minute talk. If you would be interested in doing so, please also provide an abstract (up to 500 words) with your application. All students are invited to participate in the poster session.
THE APPLICATION DEADLINES HAVE BEEN EXTENDED:
Students with presentations: July 15th
All other applicants: July 22nd
We will be accepting applications on a rolling basis so we encourage students to apply as soon as possible.
PARTICIPATION FEE:
The participation fee is €20. Students in special circumstances can apply for a reduction. Students from LMU Munich can attend the summer school for free.
For further information and for program details, please visit the summer school website: https://www.mathsummer.philosophie.uni-muenchen.de/index.html
Minimal metaphysics or minimal anti-metaphysics?
Workshop: Minimal metaphysics or minimal anti-metaphysics?
Date: September 9 and 10, 2022
Location: University of Konstanz (Germany)
Organizer: Tobias Henschen
Speakers: Anjan Chakravartty, Michael Esfeld, Tobias Henschen, Andreas Hüttemann, James Ladyman, Michela Massimi, Alyssa Ney
Funded by Fritz Thyssen Foundation and GWP
Contingent on a successful application for additional funds, two stipends covering accommodation for three nights and travel expenses of up to 400 € will be available for two young researchers who wish to attend the workshop and to present a paper that is related to the topic described below. To apply for one of these stipends, please send a full paper or extended abstract to tobias.henschen@uni-konstanz no later than July 17, 2022. You will be informed no later than July 31, 2022, whether your application has been successful.
Submission deadline: July 17, 2022.
Date of notification: July 31, 2022.
Topic: Loosely following some basic ideas introduced by Chakravartty, let us say that philosophers of science engage in maximal metaphysics if they explain the content, experience, or practice of science in terms of unobservable entities, and if they endorse positions of metaphysical, semantic, and epistemic realism about these entities and observable entities, i.e. if they believe that these entities exist independently of the content, experience, or practice of science (metaphysical realism), that their explanations are (approximately) true (semantic realism), and that we can come to know that these explanations are true (epistemic realism). Let us also say that philosophers of science engage in maximal anti-metaphysics if they refuse to explain the content, experience, or practice of science in terms of unobservable entities; if they endorse a position of metaphysical, semantic, and epistemic realism about observable entities; and if they refuse to endorse a position of metaphysical, semantic, or epistemic realism about unobservable entities. Then standard scientific realists, Humeans and anti-Humeans qualify as maximal metaphysicians, and then logical empiricists and constructive empiricists qualify as maximal anti-metaphysicians.
An interesting fact about recent work in the metaphysics of science is that many authors endorse (anti-)metaphysical positions that are minimal in some sense. Let us say that philosophers of science engage in minimal metaphysics if they explain the content, experience, or practice of science in terms of a limited range of unobservable entities, or if they endorse a position of metaphysical and epistemic realism about these entities, but no position of semantic realism. Let us also say that philosophers of science engage in minimal anti-metaphysics if they explain the content, experience or practice of science in terms of unobservable entities, if they reject positions of metaphysical, semantic, and epistemic realism about these entities and observable entities, and if they endorse positions of metaphysical, semantic, and epistemic anti-realism about these entities: if they believe that these entities are phenomenal entities, i.e. entities that do not exist independently of the content, experience, or practice of science (metaphysical anti-realism), that their explanations are true in the sense of corresponding to phenomenal entities (semantic anti-realism), and that we can come to know whether these explanations are true in this sense (epistemic anti-realism). Then authors like Esfeld, Hüttemann, Ladyman and Ney qualify as minimal metaphysicians, and then authors like Massimi qualify as minimal anti-metaphysicians.
Positions of minimal (anti-) metaphysics have moved closer to the (perhaps imaginary) line separating metaphysics (or realism) and anti-metaphysics (or anti-realism). But there are several questions that stand in need of discussion:
- Does metaphysical, semantic, and epistemic realism about a limited range of unobservable entities qualify as “minimal” metaphysics?
- Is it possible to endorse metaphysical and epistemic realism without endorsing semantic realism?
- Does minimal metaphysics collapse into maximal metaphysics or minimal anti-metaphysics?
- Does minimal anti-metaphysics collapse into maximal anti-metaphysics or minimal metaphysics?
- Would it make sense to interpret explanations of the content, experience, or practice of science in terms of dispositions, objective modal structure or the wave function as coordinating (or “transcendental”) principles?
- Would it make sense to understand dispositions, objective modal structure or the wave function as phenomenal entities?
- Can we make sure that the dependence of phenomenal entities on the content, experience, or practice of science is epistemic or semantic, rather than ontological?
The scientific goal of the workshop is to discuss these and similar questions.
Submitted by Corina Strößner (Birkbeck University of London).
Call for registration: “Concepts and Reasoning” Workshop
Bochum June 20 – 21, 2022
Center for Mind & Cognition, Institute of Philosophy II, Ruhr Universität Bochum
We are pleased to invite you to register for the two-day workshop on the topic of Concepts and Reasoning, to take place at Ruhr University Bochum on June 20th and 21st.
The purpose of this workshop is to stimulate the dialogue between philosophers and psychologists on foundational issues in conceptual representation and reasoning. A major aim is to discuss the role of concepts in reasoning, with focus on how semantic similarity and typicality guide different forms of everyday inference. Other topics to be addressed in the workshop are inference and metacognition, generics and communicative intentions, and conceptual combination and modifier effects.
The workshop is organized by the Emmy Noether Research Group From Perception to Belief and Back Again, located at the Institute for Philosophy II of the Ruhr University Bochum.
Preliminary programme
June 20
10:00 Steven Verheyen: “Typicality representations in conceptual space”
11:00 Coffee break
11:15 Annika Schuster: “Typicality and probability”
12:15 Lunch
13:15 Igor Douven: TBA
14:15 Coffee break
14:30 Corina Strößner: “Non-monotonic reasoning and modification”
15:30 Coffee break
15:45 Peter Gärdenfors: “Reasoning with generics as expectations”
June 21
10:00 James Hampton: TBA
11:00 Coffee break
11:15 Martin Jönsson: “What We Mean as What We Said or Would Have Said”
12:15 Lunch
13:15 Matías Osta-Vélez: “Analogy as a search procedure”
14:15 Coffee break
14:30 Shira Elqayam: “Inference is all around us: conditionals, fluency and affect”
15:30 Coffee break
15:45 Valerie Thompson: “Metareasoning: Reflective thinking, Feeling of Rightness, and Actively Open-Minded Thinking”
Registration
Attending the workshop is free of charge. You can register in the following link: https://forms.gle/SxeBKSvfwnrpiND2A
(Registration deadline is June 18th)
Venue
AKAFÖ Mensa der Ruhr-Universität Bochum, Room 2
https://goo.gl/maps/K3Jxuh2S6cyhtEnr6
Contact
Questions can be directed to Matías Osta-Vélez (matias.ostavelez@ruhr-uni-bochum.de) or Corina Strößner (corinastroessner@posteo.de)
Organisation
Matías Osta-Vélez
Corina Strößner
Peter Brössel
Lea Franz
Matteo De Benedetto
Submitted by Christian J. Feldbacher-Escamilla (University of Cologne).
The deadline for Early Bird Registration of the Fourth International Conference of the German Society for Philosophy of Science (GWP.2022) was extended. Early Bird Registration ends on June 15, 2022.
If you wish to attend the conference, please register via:
https://gwp2022.wissphil.de/gwp2022-registration
The conference will take place on August 15-17, 2022, at the TU Berlin and is an in-person event. Our plenary speakers are:
* Anjan Chakravartty (Miami)
* Mazviita Chirimuuta (Edinburgh)
* Brigitte Falkenburg (Dortmund/Berlin)
* Branden Fitelson (Northeastern/Boston)
* Hans Rott (Regensburg)
* Jutta Schickore (IU Bloomington)
Conference Website: https://gwp2022.wissphil.de/
Please note also that reserved hotel quota are available only until end of June and need to be booked before. More details on this are available on our practicalities site (https://gwp2022.wissphil.de/gwp2022-venue-practicalities/).
Local organization: Axel Gelfert
GWP organization: Uljana Feest, Christian J. Feldbacher-Escamilla, Alexander Gebharter, Vera Hoffmann-Kolss, Thomas Reydon, Gerhard Schurz
Submitted by Corina Strößner (Birkbeck University of London).
Call for registrations: Hybrid workshop on Bayesian learning and reasoning
11-12 July, Ruhr-Universität Bochum
Full program: https://bochumbayesianreasoning.wordpress.com/
Please register via email to firuze.mullaoglu@ruhr-uni-bochum.de until June 10th for in-person participation or until July 5th for online participation
Speakers:
Ulrike Hahn (Birkbeck)
Nico Orlandi (UCSC)
Josh Tenenbaum (MIT)
Julia Staffel (CU Boulder)
Mel Andrews (Cincinnati) & Wiktor Rorot (Warsaw)
Arnon Levy & Lotem-Elber Dorozko (HUJI)
Arthur Schwaninger (Zürich)
Alexander Gebharter (MCMP) & Barbara Osimani (UNIVPM)
Simon Mcgregor (Sussex)
Alexander Meehan (Yale) & Snow Zhang (NYU)
Sven Neth (Berkeley)
Anne Ruth Mackor (Groningen), Christian Dahlman (Lund) & David Lagnado (UCL)
Organisers:
Corina Strößner, Krys Dolega & Nina Poth
The event is funded by the German Research Foundation and the Volkswagen Foundation.
Submitted by Stephan Hartmann (MCMP, LMU Munich).
*********************************************
The Munich Center for Mathematical Philosophy invites registrations for the following event:
“AI in Science: Foundations and Applications”
at LMU Munich
June 9-10, 2022
All details, including speakers, abstracts and the schedule can be found on the workshop website.
*********************************************
Summary
Artificial intelligence (AI) is all the rage these days, promising many new innovations that will make our lives easier. It is also significantly changing the way we do science, raising several fundamental and methodological questions, such as the role of bias, explainability, and the limits of empirical methods. Addressing these questions requires an interdisciplinary effort to which various sciences, from computer science to social science to philosophy, can contribute. This workshop brings together relevant researchers from Cambridge and LMU Munich to engage in the relevant discussions. It is part of the project “Decision Theory and the Future of AI”, funded by the Cambridge – LMU Strategic Partnership Initiative. The workshop is also part of the Research Focus Next Generation AI at LMU’s Center for Advanced Studies (CAS).
Registration
The conference will be held in person (no hybrid format). If you want to attend the workshop, please send an informal email with the subject “LMU-Cambridge Workshop” to timo.freiesleben@campus.lmu.de that includes your first name and family name. The registration deadline is the 31st of May 2022.
Dates and Deadlines
Registration Deadline: 31 May 2022
Workshop: 9-10 June 2022
Special Evening Lecture by Huw Price
One day before the workshop (June 8), Huw Price will give a talk on “Time for Pragmatism“. The talk takes place at the main building at Geschwister-Scholl-Platz 1 in room F007. Attending this talk does not require registration.
Organizers
Timo Freiesleben (MCMP/LMU and GSN/LMU)
Stephan Hartmann (MCMP/LMU)
Huw Price (Cambridge/Bonn)
Tom Sterkenburg (MCMP/LMU)