CFP: P3: Pluralism, Pragmatism, Perspectivism

In the intellectual climate following the decline of post-positivist philosophy of science, scientific pluralism emerged as a direct critical response to the perceived failure of post-positivism to offer a unified view of science. Scientific practices began to be understood in a pluralistic, piecemeal fashion, shifting the focus from a monolithic conception of science to a multiplicity of approaches (cf. Galison & Stump 1996). Pluralism has since evolved into an active and explicit research program within the philosophy of science (cf. Ludwig & Ruby 2021). Very recently, the pluralist stance has materialized in forms like scientific perspectivism (cf. Giere 2006; Teller 2019; Massimi 2022; Kendig 2024) and pragmatist philosophy of science (cf. Price 2011; Andersen & Mitchell 2023; Chang 2022).

At the HHU Summer School, we aim to foster a rich dialogue between pluralism, pragmatism, and perspectivism, anchored in their shared pluralistic foundations (see Price 2011 for a non-representational understanding that underlies both pragmatism and causal perspectivalism). In this context of P3, the role of scientific models as vehicles of representation (cf. Frigg & Nguyen 2021; 2022) and traditional conceptions of truth (cf. Andersen 2023) are reinterpreted through new philosophical lenses. By the same token, the representational means by which the representational function of models is achieved are irreducibly pluralistic. (See Suárez 2024’s proposal for representational pluralism). Questions about the role of scientific instruments and the extent to which instruments are ‘perspectival’ and reflect a ‘point of view’ are becoming increasingly relevant (cf. Giere 2006; Crețu 2022 for a recent reappraisal).

Instructors:

• Roman Frigg (LSE)
• Catherine Kendig (Michigan State University)
• Martin Kusch (Vienna)
• Mauricio Suárez (Complutense University of Madrid & Clare Hall Cambridge)
• Fenner Stanley Tanswell (TU Berlin)

Lecturers:

• Holly Andersen (Simon Fraser University)
• Anjan Chakravartty (Miami)
• Catarina Dutilh Novaes (VU Amsterdam & St. Andrews)
• Huw Price (Cambridge & Bonn)

The summer school will be held in person from 15/09/2025 to 19/09/2025, at Heinrich Heine University’s Haus der Universität. We welcome applications from current graduate students (MA and PhD) through our website: https://p3-summerschool.netlify.app/call-for-applications. The application deadline is 15/06/2025. There is no participation fee, but participants must cover their travel and accommodation expenses. We especially encourage applications from members of underrepresented groups.

The event is organised by Daian Bica, Paul Hasselkuß, and Alexander Christian (Düsseldorf). It is hosted and supported by Heinrich Heine University, and endorsed by the German Society for Analytic Philosophy as an asteroid event to GAP.12.