Metaphysics from a Human Point of View

26th-28th April 2021, online ZOOM, Edinburgh local time

The goal of this third and final international conference is to explore the metaphysical implications of perspectivism for contemporary philosophy of science.

From scientific understanding to Kuhnian legacies, from semantic issues about natural kind terms to feminist, pluralist and pragmatist approaches to questions about reality, this final conference brings together a vast array of themes at the intersection of metaphysics of science and scientific practice.

The event is free and open to everyone but registration is required.

Speakers:

Programme

Conference Abstracts

 

Monday 26th April
14.00-14.10 Welcome by Michela Massimi
14.10-15.00 Helen Beebee Knowledge and Understanding in Metaphysics
15.00-15.50 Catherine Z. Elgin Models in Understanding
15.50-16.10 virtual coffee break
16.10-17.00 Orly Shenker The Human Vantage Point in Physics and in the Special Sciences
17.00-17.50 Paul Teller How to Think About the World
17.50-18.10 virtual coffee break
18.10-19.00 Steven French Phenomenology, Perspectivalism and (Quantum) Physics
Tuesday 27th April 
14.00-14.50  Mieke Boon How do Scientific Models Represent? The Role of Disciplinary Perspectives
14.50-15.40 Genoveva Marti & Carl Hoefer Realism, Reference and Perspective
15.40-16.00 virtual coffee break
16.00-16.50 Sören Haggqvist Cluster kinds, reference, and scientific realism
16.50-17.40 Paul Hoyningen-Huene The Genealogy of Kuhn-type Antirealism
17.40-18.00 virtual coffee break
18.00-18.50 Stathis Psillos The Law Wars: the Relations Between Science and Metaphysics

 

Wednesday 28th April 
14.00-14.50 Jan-Willem Romeijn Perspectival Realism about Mental Disorders
14.50-15.10 virtual coffee break
15.10-16.00 Miriam Solomon On Pluralism in Psychiatry
16.10-17.00 Sandra Mitchell Experimental Evidence for the Reality of Emergent Entities
17.00-17.20 virtual coffee break
17.20-18.10 Helen Longino Objects and Interactions: A Plea for a Pluralist Ontology
18.10-19.00 Final Round Table, chaired by Michela Massimi

 

 

Image: Wassily Kandinsky’s ‘In Blue’, https://www.wikiart.org/en/wassily-kandinsky/not_detected_189364