From the armchair » events

Surrogate Reasoning Workshop Program

brendan — Wed, 11 Aug 2010 02:21:22 +0000

The final program for our workshop on “Surrogate Reasoning in Philosophy and Science” at the Australian National University is now set:

Monday, 16 August

9:30-9:45 Coffee, Introduction and Welcome

9:45-11:15
Daniel Nolan: “Epistemological Advantages and Disadvantages for Fictionalism”

11:15-11:30 Coffee

11:30-12:45
John Matthewson: “Why the Dispute Over Model Ontology is Largely Verbal, and how We Ought to Resolve It”

12:45-14:00 Lunch

14:00-15:30
Magdalena Balcerak Jackson: “Thought Experiments and Models”

15:30-16:00 Afternoon Tea

16:00-17:30
Mark Colyvan: “Idealisations in Normative Models”

17:30-18:30 General Discussion; Daniel Stoljar and Brendan Balcerak Jackson discussants

Tuesday, 17 August

9:45-10:00 Coffee

10:00-11:30
Chris Pincock: “Representation via Concrete and Abstract Models”

11:30-11:45 Coffee

11:45-13:15
Michael Weisberg: “Getting Serious About Similarity”

13:15-14:30 Lunch

14:30-16:00
Kit Fine: “Models for Collective Intention”

16:00-16:30 Afternoon Tea

16:30-18:00 General Discussion; Peter Godfrey-Smith and David J. Chalmers, discussants

No advance registration is required. All talks will take place at the Centre for European Studies, 1 Liversidge Street in Canberra.

Surrogate Reasoning in Philosophy and Science

brendan — Thu, 01 Apr 2010 04:40:24 +0000

Workshop at the Australian National University

August 16-17, 2010

co-organized with Michael Weisberg (Pennsylvania)

and Daniel Stoljar (ANU)

Preparations are underway for a workshop to take place at the Philosophy Program RSSS, Australian National University, co-organized with Daniel Stoljar and Michael Weisberg. The workshop will bring together philosophers of science and researchers in metaphysics and epistemology to discuss “surrogate reasoning devices” such as mathematical models, imaginary scenarios, hypothetical cases and fictions. Some of the questions to be considered:

What is the relationship between surrogate reasoning devices and the subject matters they are used to represent and investigate?
E.g. by virtue of what do abstract mathematical models represent real-world systems?
How can reflection on imaginary scenarios help us evaluate claims about e.g. perpetual motion, or the relationship between the mind and body?
Is there a role for models in articulating and testing philosophical theories, as there is in the empirical sciences?
If possible worlds (numbers, universals, etc.) are merely useful fictions, in what sense do they help explain the phenomena they are intended to account for?
Do surrogate reasoning devices play an indispensable role in scientific and philosophical investigation and theorizing, or are they ultimately eliminable?
What are the relationships among different sorts of surrogate reasoning devices?
E.g. should we think of models, thought experiments, fictions etc. as epistemically on par?

The confirmed participants include:

Magdalena Balcerak Jackson (Cologne)
David J. Chalmers (ANU)
Mark Colyvan (Sydney)
Kit Fine (New York University)
Peter Godfrey-Smith (Harvard)
John Matthewson (ANU)
Daniel Nolan (Nottingham)
Christopher Pincock (Purdue)
Daniel Stoljar (ANU)
Michael Weisberg (Pennsylvania)

The workshop is open to the public (location and schedule TBA). If you’re in the Canberra area, please come!

Workshop on the A Priori (UPDATED)

brendan — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 10:15:23 +0000

New Research on the A Priori (14-15 May)

We’re very pleased to announce that we’ve just finalized the dates for an intensive research workshop focusing on new work on the a priori. The workshop will feature presentations by:

Magdalena Balcerak Jackson (Cologne)

Yuri Cath (Arché, St. Andrews)

Daniel Cohnitz (Tartu)

Jonathan Ichikawa (Arché, St. Andrews)

Carrie Jenkins (Nottingham)

Thomas Krödel (Konstanz)

This is the first of a series of events and activities planned as part of an informal network bringing together young researchers working on the a priori and philosophical methodology from across Europe and the United Kingdom. If you’re interested in finding out more, get in touch: contact@fromthearmchair.net.

Symposium with Scott Soames

brendan — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 10:13:39 +0000

Symposium with Scott Soames (17-20 May)

We are very pleased that Scott Soames (University of Southern California) has agreed to come to Cologne to participate in a symposium on “Meaning, Modality and Apriority” on 17-20 May, 2010. The symposium will comprise a graduate conference (17-18 May) with Soames as the keynote speaker, followed by a research workshop (19-20 May) involving discussion sessions with Soames about his current research as well as paper presentations by researchers engaging with topics from Soames’ work.

We invite submissions for both the graduate conference (deadline 1 February) and for the research workshop (deadline 15 March). For more information please see the symposium webpage.

Emmy Noether Armchair Lab: Issues in Philosophical Methodology

admin — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 12:24:59 +0000

Armchair Lab: Issues in Philosophical Methodology

28-29 July 2009

University of Cologne

The first in our series of Emmy Noether Armchair Labs will be a workshop on issues in philosophical methodology, with featured speakers Tamar Szabó Gendler and Zoltán Gendler Szabó of the Yale University philosophy department. Here is the schedule:

Tuesday, 28 July: Meta-Ontology

13:00-15:00 Zoltán Gendler Szabó (Yale)

The Ontological Attitude

15:30-16:30 Benjamin Schnieder (Humboldt Uni Berlin)

The Logic of ‘Because’

16:45-17:45 Brendan Balcerak Jackson (Köln)

Are Ontological Debates Merely Verbal Disputes?

19:00 Workshop Dinner

Wednesday, 29 July: Thought Experiments

10:00-12:00 Tamar Szabó Gendler (Yale)

Philosophical Methodology from an Empirical Point of View

12:00-13:30 Lunch

13:30-14:30 Magdalena Balcerak Jackson (Köln)

Thought Experiments and Model-Based Philosophy

14:45-15:45 Christian Nimtz (Erlangen)

Thought Experiments, Counterfactual Thinking, and the Limits of Empiricism

Information and Registration

The workshop is open to everyone, but advanced registration is required. If you are interested in participating, please contact us by email to register; the deadline for registration is July 10. There will be a registration fee of €15, €10 for PhD students, which includes lunch on Wednesday. Participants will receive instructions for finding our building, signing up for the workshop dinner, etc. upon registration.