Historiography and the Philosophy of the Sciences

June 25, 2012
Department of Philosophy, Durham University

Seminar Room, Institute of Advanced Study, Cosin’s Hall
Durham
United Kingdom

Sponsor(s):

  • British Society for the Philosophy of Science

Organisers:

Robin Hendry
Durham University
Ian James Kidd
Durham University

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Details

The complexity of the relationships between the historiography of science and the philosophy of science has been long established. On the one hand, philosophical reflection on science can be guided, shaped, and, sometimes, problematized by the results of historical enquiry – an insight captured by Kuhn and subsequently explored at length by two generations of ‘post-positivist’ historians and philosophers of science. On the other hand, the activity of writing history of science raises methodological and philosophical questions, for instance, concerning progress in science, realism and antirealism, and the semantics of scientific theories. Many contemporary debates – about the contingency and inevitability of science, or the nature of biographical historiography of science – reflect the convergence of historiographical and philosophical concerns. This workshop will explore the relationship between the historiography and the philosophy of the sciences with a focus on how state-of-the-art tends in both disciplines might relate to one another.

Speakers

Robin Hendry (Durham) -– ‘Immanent Philosophy of X’

Pete Vickers (Durham) –- ‘Philosophy of Non-existent Science’

James McAllister (Leiden) -– (title TBC)

Alan Chalmers (Flinders) –- ‘Can the Scientific Revolution Be Seen as the Beginnings of Modern Science without being Whiggish or Presentist?’

Tom Bunce (Durham) –- ‘Newton and his (Ir)rational Reconstructions: Biography and the Philosophy of Science’

Ian James Kidd (Durham) - ‘We Should Reject Inevitabilism’

Registration

There will be a ten pounds registration fee, which covers teas and coffees and lunch. For a registration form, please contact Ian Kidd ([email protected]).

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Registration

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June 25, 2012, 10:00am BST

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