BEGIN:VCALENDAR PRODID:-//Grails iCalendar plugin//NONSGML Grails iCalendar plugin//EN VERSION:2.0 CALSCALE:GREGORIAN METHOD:PUBLISH BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTAMP:20260406T110631Z DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20260411T090000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20260412T170000 SUMMARY:Social Ontology and Empirical Inquiry: Conflicts and Connections - University of Pittsburgh UID:20260406T150150Z-iCalPlugin-Grails@philevents-web-f5d4878dd-r5qzs TZID:America/New_York LOCATION: University of Pittsburgh\, 4200 Fifth Avenue\, Pittsburgh\, United States\, 15260 DESCRIPTION:

Social Ontology and Empirical Inquiry: Conflicts and Connections

\nSaturday\, April 11\, 2026 \; - \; Sunday\, April 12\, 2026\n\n\n

Venue and Date: Center for Philosophy of Science\, University of Pittsburgh - \;April 11&ndash\;12\, 2026

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Program Schedule - click here for link

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Organizing Committee

Kareem Khalifa\, UCLA
Edouard Machery\, University of Pittsburgh
Mark Risjord\, Emory
David Thorstad\, Vanderbilt

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Confirmed Keynotes

The program will include keynote talks and panels by both \;philosophers \;and \;social scientists\, including scholars such as:

Petri Ylikoski \;(University of Helsinki)
Brian Epstein \;(Tufts University)
Aliya Saperstein \;(Stanford University)
Issa Kohler-Hausmann \;(Yale Law School)

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We are pleased to announce a two-day interdisciplinary workshop hosted by the \;Center for Philosophy of Science \;at the \;University of Pittsburgh\, focusing on the intersection of \;social metaphysics \;and \;empirical research in the social sciences.

The workshop aims to foster dialogue between philosophers and social scientists who are interested in the nature of social reality and in how conceptual and empirical approaches to understanding it can be fruitfully integrated.

Social scientists and philosophers have long sought to clarify what it means for entities such as \;races\, genders\, institutions\, and social structures \;to exist and to act. Meanwhile\, empirically-oriented social scientists have developed increasingly sophisticated methods for \;measuring\, modeling\, and explaining \;such phenomena. This workshop will bring these conversations together to explore the \;conflicts and connections \;between \;conceptual&ndash\;theoretical frameworks \;and \;empirical&ndash\;methodological practices \;in the study of the social world.

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Guiding Questions

What kinds of things are social entities&mdash\;individuals\, groups\, institutions\, norms\, and categories such as race and gender?
How can such entities be both \;socially constructed \;and \;real?
What is the relationship between \;social ontology \;and \;social measurement?
How should metaphysical theories about the nature of the social world inform\, or be informed by\, \;empirical research designs?
Do social explanations involve forms of \;causation\, \;mechanism\, or \;structure \;that differ from those in the natural sciences?
How can philosophical analysis of social kinds enrich empirical debates about \;classification\, comparability\, and operationalization?

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Format

The workshop will include:

30-minute contributed presentations \;(20 minutes presentation + 10 minutes Q&\;A)
Keynote lectures \;by invited speakers
A roundtable discussion \;on future directions in social ontology and empirical research

\n\n\n ORGANIZER;CN=Kareem Khalifa;CN=Edouard Machery;CN=Mark Risjord;CN=David Thorstad: METHOD:PUBLISH END:VEVENT END:VCALENDAR