Can Science Provide Knowledge of Reality?

Can Science provide us with knowledge of the world? A sceptic might answer “We don’t know”. Even worse, most contemporary historians of science might say “probably not”. In fact, history of science has largely given up the idea of science as a steady progress towards ever better knowledge, instead suggesting shifts between scientific paradigms or a plurality of in principle equally valid epistemic approaches or simply historically and socially contingent pragmatic devices for handling the world. Philosophers of science have mixed views on the matter. Many reject a naïve view of scientific progress, yet recognize that contemporary science has a better grasp on reality than past science. But can philosophy of science hold onto the idea that science affords knowledge of reality? And if the answer is positive, then what sort of knowledge might that be? Conversely, can history of science explain the undeniable fact that contemporary science has a better grasp on reality than past science?

The workshop will include both invited and submitted peer reviewed contributions. The majority of invited papers will be by philosophers who have hitherto had a primary research focus in philosophy of science and epistemology from a range of diverse perspectives and by historians of science who have had a primary research focus on the external aspects of scientific research. A small number of talks will be contributed by scientists with experience in the history of science and a specific expertise in physics and the search for a theory of everything and in complex adaptive systems.