- HPS_EST - Philosophy bulletin board

IVC Talk: Matteo Collodel (IVC Fellow) "Criticism, Misrepresentation, and Decline: Feyerabend and Logical Empiricism", November 21, 4.45pm

by Zarah Weiss

Dear all, our next speaker in the Philosophy of Science Colloquium organized by the Institute Vienna Circle is Matteo Collodel (IVC Fellow), who will give a talk on November 21, 4.45-6.15 pm. All are welcome! ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Philosophy of Science Colloquium TALK: Matteo Collodel (IVC Fellow) CRITICISM, MISREPRESENTATION, AND DECLINE: FEYERABEND AND LOGICAL EMPIRICISM Philosophy of Science Colloquium The Institute Vienna Circle holds a Philosophy of Science Colloquium with talks by our present fellows. Date: 21/11/2024 Time: 16h45 Venue: New Institute Building (NIG), Universitätsstraße 7, 1010 Wien, HS 2G ABSTRACT: Feyerabend became familiar with the Vienna Circle tradition and Logical Empiricism in his formative years in post-war Vienna. However, since his early intellectual trajectory, he made LE one of his favorite critical targets, articulating his criticism in personal dialogue with some of its most distinguished representatives. This paper focuses on the second stage of Feyerabend's sustained assault against LE, examining both Feyerabend's reception of LE and Hempel's response to Feyerabend's challenge. In a series of papers published between 1962 and 1966, Feyerabend relentlessly questioned the descriptive adequacy and the normative desirability of the 'orthodox', logical empiricist, accounts of reduction and explanation advanced by Hempel and Nagel. Feyerabend's persistent criticism shook North American philosophy of science and prompted Hempel's reaction, which appeared in print in the second half of the 1960s. Initially, Hempel retorted that Feyerabend's methodological analysis was 'completely mistaken' and Feyerabend could offer 'no support' for his allegations. This raises interesting historiographical questions about the later reception of LE as it seems that Feyerabend, driven by his anti-authoritarian stance, substantially misinterpreted the logical empiricist research programme, his vantage point notwithstanding. On the other hand, Hempel also recognised that the descriptive issues on which Feyerabend insisted, despite having been long acknowledged by LE, could have more far-reaching consequences than previously envisaged. In fact, by the end of the 1960s, Hempel came to make quite radical concessions, admitting that the standard logical empiricist model for explicating the structure of scientific theories was essentially 'misleading', that the logical empiricist account of reduction was 'an untenable oversimplification', and that the logical empiricist approach as to the meaning of scientific terms was actually 'misconceived'. In this respect, there are good reasons to consider the decline of the logical empiricist research programme in the 1970s at least partly as the result of Feyerabend's stimulating, however misrepresenting, insights.

5 months, 2 weeks

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New Reading Circle on Philosophy of Sex and Sexuality

by Kristina Bogdan

Dear All, *We are organizing a reading circle based on the topic “Philosophy of Sex and Sexuality”!* To start a conversation about /sex/, we need to be clear what is the scope of the phenomenon we are talking about. For that we need to start with /sexual desire/, which is closely linked to /sexual motivation, arousal, and activity/. That is already closely connected to issues within /politics of sex, sexual orientation, and sexual identity/. When we engage in sexual acts, we are living out our /sexual orientation/. Beyond our orientation, understanding our /sexual identity/ is equally important as part of our personal identity. On top of that, the cultural theory of queer sexual identity plays a crucial role in shaping how we understand and express ourselves in various contexts. An interesting aspect to discuss is /normativity and permissibility of sexual acts/ under the consideration of sexual orientation and non-heteronomous identities. When discussing /good or bad sex/, we usually assume that consent was given to start the encounter. Without consent, the focus shifts to the permissibility of the act itself, with the prevailing view being that consent is morally transformative from impermissible to permissible. Is having the right mental state enough, or can it be implied through certaincommunications? Additionally, to which acts are we consenting? Within the scope of the named phenomenon /objectification/ is a concept, which can be viewed from different angles. The concept of /mutual objectification/ refers to the notion when both partners may objectify each other, which may be seen as problematic because it reduces a person’s humanity to their body. On the other hand, objectification can also be viewed from a /social perspective/, as feminist philosophers argue. For instance, they claim that pornography negatively portrays women’s sexuality, reinforcing harmful stereotypes. In contrast to that, Thomas Nagel offers a different view on objectification as a complex, multi-leveled awareness between two people, where both are mutually aware of each other's desire. *If that sounds interesting to you, don’t hesitate to send me an email – I’d love to hear from you! We plan to start the reading circle next week.* Best, Kristina

5 months, 3 weeks

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Vienna STS Talks - STS Talk by Louise Whiteley

by Katrin Hackl

We are happy to invite you to our 5th talk of the Vienna STS Talk Series in 2024W [cid:image001.jpg@01DB3684.5BAE8AB0] STS Talk by Louise Whiteley Medical Museion & CBMR, University of Copenhagen December 02, 2024 05:00 PM-06:30 PM Attempting the Impossible: Communicating Microbe-Human Relations in a Research Museum. Abstract The idea that the microbes in our guts can affect our mental wellbeing has moved from niche interest to mainstream discourse over the last decade. Based on early-stage laboratory research with non-human animals, the proposition has nonetheless spread rapidly into popular media, commercial products, and alternative medical practices. The Microbes on the Mind project started from a curiosity about what this means for thinking about the human as an everyday, experiencing self in constant negotiation with concepts, practices, and systems of health. We investigated how microbe-mind relations are communicated, felt, and experienced, and asked whether this communication helps activate the potentially positive consequences of thinking about human wellbeing as partly-microbial. Throughout we experimented with offering new forms of communication and experience within a university museum, addressing the difficulties of communicating about relations between invisible multitudes and human subjectivity. In my talk I will share examples of our research and public engagement - from a podcast to an art-science exhibition. I will also discuss how this hybrid project was informed by an STS lens on what microbiome research means and does, and reflect on how we applied STS principles of mirroring the complexity of the world in research to our curatorial practice in the museum. Biography Louise Whiteley is an associate professor and curator at Medical Museion and CBMR, at the University of Copenhagen. Louise researches how biomedicine moves and shapes everyday ideas about what is to be human, through popular culture and public engagement. Within this frame, they have looked at neuroimaging, microbiome research, metabolic science, and most recently translational stem cell research. Louise also curates exhibitions, art-science collaborations, and public engagement events, in dialogue with research, and is passionate about the importance of communicating values within interdisciplinary collaboration. Organiser Department of Science and Technology Studies Location STS Seminar Room, NIG, St. II. 6th floor, Universitätsstraße 7, 1010 Vienna & online via zoom<https://univienna.zoom.us/j/63251489007?pwd=FBTgiIoQbHPTvmHhnjFwObba9mAGqZ.6> [cid:image004.png@01DB3684.F2CBD830] Best wishes, Katrin Hackl __________ Mag. Katrin Hackl Research Support & Communication Department of Science and Technology Studies University of Vienna Universitätsstraße 7 /II/ 6th floor (NIG) 1010 Vienna / Austria Tel.: 0043-1-4277-496007 [cid:image002.jpg@01DB3684.5BAE8AB0]<https://sts.univie.ac.at/>

5 months, 3 weeks

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Date for Studi Meet-Up secured!

by Vinzenz Fischer

Dear all, by now I'm so confused if we communicate in English or German. We have a date! Our Meet-Up will be on Tuesday, the 26.11.2024 at 19:00 h. There is no fixed location yet. I propose the Spielebar as a possible location. If you have any other suggestions please let me know. Remember (students) to join the student signal group: https://signal.group/#CjQKII9CIPWOjPBrfU1RkePZsdPqez-misg9E3-DGxZJbVPSEhDEu… See you then! Vinzenz

6 months

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POSTPONEMENT Vienna STS Talks - FutureSpace Talk by Eleanor S Armstrong & Réka P Gál

by Katrin Hackl

We are happy to invite you to our 6th talk of the Vienna STS Talk Series in 2024W [cid:image001.jpg@01DB311F.4E1BE600] FutureSpace Talk by Eleanor Armstrong & Réka Gál Department of Physics & Astronomy, University of Leicester & STS, TU Munich December 11, 2024 04:00 PM-05:00 PM The Playboy Bunny and the Astronaut Wife: Constructing Femininities and the United States Space Program. You can register for the talk here<https://futurespace-project.eu/futurespace-talk-registration/> Abstract Inspired by Ahmed (2010), we follow the figures of the 'playboy bunny' and the 'astronaut wife' through the cultural legacies of (north american) space flight. Following from our work on what feminist interventions can offer to social studies of outer space (2023), in this talk we work through how femininities of the Other of the hegemonic masculinities of outer space are constructed. Our work asks how these figures reverberate in popular cultures to shape present and futures conceptions of femininity in outer space, and offer pathways that intervene in normative gendered futurities. In following these figures, we think about what illuminating them might do also for directing pathways of feminist scholarship on outer space in the future. We consider the Playboy Bunny: a construct of the pornotopic 1950s, and the discursive counterpoint to the womanizing young man. Appearing off-handedly in archival interviews about life at Johnson Space Center during the early space programmes of the 1950s and 60s, making her way secretly into lunar checklists worn by astronauts on the Moon, and continuing to draw media attention into the 2000s, we draw on Preciado's biopolitical theorising (2019) to think through the sexual relations and gender politics of the space programme. Contrastingly on the mother-whore axis, stands the media construct of the "astronaut wife." Using perspectives from Feminist Communication Studies, we explore how the assigned duties of the astronaut wife upheld the figure of the hypermasculine astronaut. We argue that the caretaking duties assigned to the figure of the "astronaut wife" extended beyond the confines of her homeboundness and homemaking into outer space: she was rendered part of the communication technologies available to take care of the hypermasculine astronaut's mental health. We conclude by considering how these examples help us pluralise and (re)make future femininities in relation to outer space. Biography Eleanor S Armstrong is a Space Research Fellow at the University of Leicester, UK, where she leads the Constellations Lab (on Outer Space & Feminism). She was awarded her PhD at University College London, UK, in 2020; and since then has held positions at the University of Delaware and Stockholm University, and visiting positions at, among others, the University of Cambridge, Ingenium Canada's Museums of Science and Innovation, New York University, and University of Vienna. Réka P Gál is a Postdoctoral Researcher at the Department of Science, Technology and Society at Technische Universität München. She completed her doctorate at University of Toronto's Faculty of Information. She is the co-editor of Earth and Beyond in Tumultuous Times: A Critical Atlas of the Anthropocene, published by meson press. Organiser Nina Klimburg-Witjes, Assist. Prof. STS Dep Vienna / PI "FutureSpace" & Joseph Popper (Postdoc Researcher, STS Dep Vienna / FutureSpace) FutureSpace (ERC Starting Grant Project), Department of Science and Technology Studies Location online via zoom<https://univienna.zoom.us/j/63251489007?pwd=FBTgiIoQbHPTvmHhnjFwObba9mAGqZ.7> [cid:image006.png@01DB3120.3735F880] Best wishes, Katrin Hackl __________ Mag. Katrin Hackl Research Support & Communication Department of Science and Technology Studies University of Vienna Universitätsstraße 7 /II/ 6th floor (NIG) 1010 Vienna / Austria Tel.: 0043-1-4277-496007 [cid:image002.jpg@01DB311F.4E1BE600]<https://sts.univie.ac.at/>

6 months

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IVC Talk: Georg Schiemer "On two types of instrumental devices", November 14, 4.45pm

by Zarah Weiss

Dear all, our next speaker in the Philosophy of Science Colloquium organized by the Institute Vienna Circle is Georg Schiemer, who will give a talk on November 14, 4.45-6.15 pm. All are welcome! ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Philosophy of Science Colloquium TALK: Georg Schiemer On two types of instrumental devices Philosophy of Science Colloquium The Institute Vienna Circle holds a Philosophy of Science Colloquium with talks by our present fellows. Date: 14/11/2024 Time: 16h45 Venue: New Institute Building (NIG), Universitätsstraße 7, 1010 Wien, HS 2G Abstract: Instrumental devices are linguistic expressions that are formal or non-representational but nevertheless indispensable or at least instrumentally useful for certain theoretical purposes. We give a systematic study of such expressions and their roles in theorizing, thus offering a unified treatment of instrumental devices across different philosophical areas. Specifically, we present an explication of two general types of such devices, namely merely expressive devices and merely inferential devices and discuss their respective theoretical roles based on a number of philosophical examples. Joint work with Hannes Leitgeb (LMU Munich).

6 months

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Call for Applications - Summer School on History and Epistemology of Econometrics - Vienna July 2025

by Zarah Weiss

Summer School Call for Applications (Deadline: February 15, 2025) 23rd univie: summer school Scientific World Conceptions (USS-SWC) The History and Epistemology of Econometrics Vienna, July 7-11, 2025 https://summerschool-ivc.univie.ac.at/ Course Description Models and their econometric estimation play an increasingly important role in modern economic and political life. From macroeconomic policy and financial regulation to public health and climate policy, models contribute to shaping policies. The generation of ever more data is likely to support the proliferation of models and econometrics. Research resources in academia focus on the theoretical foundations of the underlying model and on the statistical methods of econometrics; much less attention is devoted to the epistemological challenges of the underlying concepts, the normative challenges of the everyday work with econometrics, and the application of its results in policy decisions and evaluation. The objective of this program is to increase attention amongst philosophers of science, academic economists, and empirical economists in policy institutions (eg, central banks) to these issues. The course is also structured around a particular point of view namely, that economics is a science of models and that most of the main features of econometrics relate generally to the role of models in science. Topics will be selected reflecting participants interests and may include: * History of econometrics to frame the philosophical issues to be discussed in the course * The Vienna Circle and econometrics * Values and Ethical Pitfalls in econometric research * Key philosophical issues of how models relate to the world and how they relate to each other * Data: observation, classification, and measurement of economic variables from a modeling point of view * Conceptual issues related to modeling randomness * The identification problem: how possibly, if at all possible, to map descriptive relations onto theoretical variables? * Issues related to optional stopping, search methodologies, and the proper interpretation of results obtained through search * Different approaches to the nature of causation and different strategies of causal inference * The conceptual basis of graphical causal modeling and controlled, natural, and field experiments * The conceptual issues surrounding the problem of model uncertainty, as well as some of the strategies economists use to address it Main Lecturers: Kevin D. Hoover (Duke University) Kevin D. Hoover is Professor of Economics and Philosophy and Senior Fellow of the Center for the History of Political Economy at Duke University. He is the editor of the journal History of Political Economy and a past editor of the Journal of Economic Methodology. His current research addresses causality, causal inference in economics, the history of macroeconomics, philosophical issues related to the microfoundations of macroeconomics, and the engagement with economics of the American pragmatist philosopher Charles. S. Peirce. He is the author of The New Classical Macroeconomics, the Methodology of Empirical Macroeconomics, Causality in Macroeconomics, Applied Intermediate Macroeconomics, as well as many articles in monetary and macroeconomics, the history of economics, the philosophy of economics, and applied econometrics. Jennifer Jhun (Duke University) Jennifer Jhun is an Assistant Professor in the Philosophy Department at Duke University, as well as a Senior Fellow of the Center for the History of Political Economy. She holds a PhD in Philosophy from the University of Pittsburgh. Her main research interests are in the philosophy of science, especially philosophy of economics, but also in issues in other areas, such as psychology and physics. She is currently engaged on a project that investigates antitrust from a historical and philosophy-of-science perspective: Whats the Point of ceteris Paribus? or, How to Understand Supply and Demand Curves. Philosophy of Science 85, no. 2 (2018): 271-292; Economics, Equilibrium Methods, and Multi-scale Modeling. Erkenntnis 86, no. 2 (2021): 457-472; Multi-Model Reasoning in Economics: The Case of COMPASS. Philosophy of Science 90, no. 4 (2023): 836-854; Implied Market Shares and Antitrust Markets as Fuzzy Sets. Forthcoming at The Antitrust Bulletin. (Joint with Matthew Panhans, Federal Trade Commission) Guest Lecturer: Marcel Boumans (University of Utrecht) Marcel Boumans is historian and philosopher of science at Utrecht University. His main research focus is on understanding empirical research practices in science outside the lab from a philosophy of science-in-practice perspective. He is particularly interested in the practices of measurement and modelling and the role of mathematics in social science. The first step in these practices is to make sense of the available data. Visualisations play an important role in this. His current research project Vision and Visualisation is nearing completion with a book manuscript Shaping the Phenomena. The program is primarily directed at graduate students and junior researchers in philosophy of science and economics as well as empirical economists at policy institutions (eg, central banks) but the organizers also encourage applications from people in all stages of their career and from fields other than economics that apply advanced econometrics. Application form and further information: <https://summerschool-ivc.univie.ac.at/application/> https://summerschool-ivc.univie.ac.at/application/ USS-SWC operates under the academic supervision of an International Program Committee of distinguished philosophers, historians, and scientists. Its members represent the scientific fields in the scope of USS-SWC, make contact to their home universities and will also support acknowledgement of courses taken by the students. The annual summer school is organised by the Institute Vienna Circle of the University of Vienna. <https://wienerkreis.univie.ac.at/> https://wienerkreis.univie.ac.at/ Find information about our exchange programme with Duke University (North Carolina) here: <https://international.univie.ac.at/en/international-cooperation/university- wide-partnership-agreements/north-america/> https://international.univie.ac.at/en/international-cooperation/university-w ide-partnership-agreements/north-america/ Inquiries: Administrator: Zarah Weiss Institute Vienna Circle Alser Straße 23/32 1080 Wien <mailto:summerschool.ivc@univie.ac.at> summerschool.ivc(a)univie.ac.at Scientific director: Georg Schiemer Institute Vienna Circle Alser Straße 23/32 1080 Wien <mailto:georg.schiemer@univie.ac.at> georg.schiemer(a)univie.ac.at

6 months

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Workshop und Wiener Kreis Vorlesung über Moritz Schlick

by Vienna Circle Society

Das Institut Wiener Kreis und die Wiener Kreis Gesellschaft laden sehr herzlich ein zur 32. Wiener Kreis Vorlesung Massimo Ferrari (University of Turin) Moritz Schlick und sein Zirkel. Nach 100 Jahren Donnerstag, 28. November 2024 17 Uhr Aula am Campus Universität Wien Hof 1, Eingang 1.11 Spitalgasse 2-4 1090 Wien Wir laden außerdem sehr herzlich zu einem Workshop am Vormittag: Neue Forschung über Moritz Schlick - Zwei Buchprojekte: Julia Franke-Reddig (Universität Siegen) Zur Kontinuität und Eigenständigkeit der Wissenschaftsphilosophie von Moritz Schlick (2025) Friedrich Stadler (Universität Wien) Moritz Schlick, Philosophie der Natur, Kultur und Geschichte. Ausgewählte Schriften aus dem Nachlass (2025) 28. November 2024, 10-12 Uhr Aula am Campus Vorträge in deutscher Sprache Eintritt frei, um Anmeldung wird gebeten: vcs(a)univie.ac.at <mailto:vcs@univie.ac.at> Weitere Informationen entnehmen Sie bitte dem Anhang

6 months

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IVC Talk: Lorenzo Sartori on "Scientific Pictures, Models, and their Justification", November 7, 4.45pm

by Zarah Weiss

Dear all, our next speaker in the Philosophy of Science Colloquium organized by the Institute Vienna Circle is Lorenzo Sartori (IVC Fellow), who will give a talk on November 7, 4.45-6.15 pm. All are welcome! ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Philosophy of Science Colloquium TALK: Lorenzo Sartori SCIENTIFIC PICTURES, MODELS, AND THEIR JUSTIFICATION Philosophy of Science Colloquium The Institute Vienna Circle holds a Philosophy of Science Colloquium with talks by our present fellows. Date: 07/11/2024 Time: 16h45 Venue: New Institute Building (NIG), Universitätsstraße 7, 1010 Wien, HS 2G ABSTRACT: In this paper, I first show that similarity accounts of scientific pictures fail with more realistic cases of scientific pictures. My primary case study is the picture of a black hole, from which I develop an interpretation-based account of picture representation analogous to how models represent: a picture represents a designated target system iff, once interpreted, it exemplifies properties that are then imputed to the target via a de-idealising function. Then, I show that justification of the inferences from pictures crucially depends on their causal mechanisms of production, in contrast with the standard justificatory strategies we employ for model inferences.

6 months

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Termino für nächstes EST Studi Meet-Up

by Vinzenz Fischer

Hey alle! Ich finde Ende November ist die perfekte Zeit für ein nächstes EST Studi Meet-Up. Ich hab dafür ein Termino erstellt. Bitte gibt an, wann für euch am besten passt! https://www.termino.gv.at/meet/p/910f5194d33e724d8f5c98d9dd2c30e2-383433 Für alle Studierenden, die es noch nicht wissen: Es gibt eine Signal-Gruppe für uns zum Vernetzen untereinander. (Die Gruppe ist nur für Studierende) Hier der Invite: https://signal.group/#CjQKII9CIPWOjPBrfU1RkePZsdPqez-misg9E3-DGxZJbVPSEhDEu… Freu mich auf euch! Vinzenz

6 months

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2025

2024

2023

HPS_EST ----- 2025 ----- May 2025 April 2025 March 2025 February 2025 January 2025 ----- 2024 ----- December 2024 November 2024 October 2024 September 2024 August 2024 July 2024 June 2024 May 2024 April 2024 March 2024 February 2024 January 2024 ----- 2023 ----- December 2023 November 2023

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