2024
CPS Gen 2.0 Reopening Workshop
Join us to explore the diverse research strands within CPS and discuss our common denominator.
Time and place: Oct. 31, 2024 – Nov. 1, 2024, Stort møterom, Georg Sverdrups hus (day 1), dScience lounge, Kristine Bonnevies hus (day 2)
Please register here by October 14.
Click here to download the program.
***Please note that the workshop will take place at Stort møterom (rom 2531), Georg Sverdrups hus (day 1), The dScience Lounge, Kristine Bonnevies hus (day 2), and not as written in the program ***
Program day one
9.00 - 9.30 Coffee
9.30 - 9.45 Welcome
9.45 - 11.30 Science, Philosophy an Policy Making
9.45 - 10.30 Rose Trappes (University of Bergen), Dilemmas for Open Data
10.30 - 10.45 Break
10.45 - Panel discussion: Dilemmas for Open Science. Rose Trappes (University of Bergen), Carl Henrik Gørbitz (UiO:Life science, Jason Whittington (P1H, UiO), Rosemarie Bernabe (CME, UiO), Live Håndlykken Kvale (Section for open research, UiO). Chair: Cathrine Holst.
11.30 - 11.45 Break
11.45 - 12.30 Panel discussion: Vaccine Distrubution. Eli Feiring (Helsam, UiO) Aksel Braanen Sterri (Langsikt), Jacob Elster (NCHR, UiO), Gunnveig Grødeland (Department of Clinical Medicine, UiO). Chair: Anders Strand.
12.20 - 14.00 Lunch
14.00 - 16.00 Formal ontology and Applications
14.00 - 14.45 Aldo Gangemi (University of Bologna), Tacit Semantics
14.45 - 15.00 Break
15.00 - 15.45 Ana Ozaki (ASR, UiO), Knowledge Base Embeddings: Semantics and Theoretical Properties
15.45 - 16.00 Break
16.00 - 16.30 Closing discussion day 1
Program day 2
8.30 - 9.00 Coffee
9.00 - 10.50 Methodology in Philosophy and Metaphysics of Science
9.00 - 9.45 Emma Tobin (UCL), Naturalising and Metaphysics of Sciences by Doing Philosophy of Science in Practice
9.45 - 9.50 Break
9.50 - 10.35 Tuomas Tahko (Bristol University), Mapping the Space of Scientific Possibillities
10.35 - 10.50 Break
10.50 - 12.30 Communication and the Social World
10.50 - 11.10 Elin Mccready (Aoyama Gakuin University), Antipatisan Argument
11.10 - 11.30 Camillo Rodriguez Ronderos (IFIKK, UiO), The Social Dimension of Mindreading During Utterance Interpretation: Developmmental Evidence
11.30 - 11.50 Austin Baker (IFIKK, UiO), Non-verbal Communication Social Prejudice
11.50 - 12.00 Break
12.00 - 12.30 Panel discussion. Chair Ingrid Lossius Falkum
12.30 - 14.00 Lunch
14.00 - 17.00 Interdisciplinarity between Physics and Philosophy
14.00 - Christopher Fuchs (University of Massachusetts Boston): QBist Descending a Staircase, No. 2
14.45 - 15.00 Break
15.00 - 15.30 Anastasiia Lazutkina (University of Wuppertal): Explicating the Epistemology of Scientific Research: What Philosophy can do for physics
15.35 - 16.05 Anders Kvellestad (Department of Physics, UiO) Method, Metaphysics and Meaning: How Philosophy Impacts a Praticing Particle Physicist
16.05 - 16.20 Break
16.20 - 17.00 Panel discussion. Chairs: Jørn Kløvfjell Mjelva and Timo Christian Antero Airikka
17.00 - 17.30 Closing session.
Workshop: Polysemy, concepts and representation
We are delighted to announce the workshop Polysemi, concepts and representation by the Centre for Philosophy and the Sciences, University of Oslo.
Time and place: May 22, 2024 10:00 AM – May 23, 2024 4:00 PM, Sophus Bugges hus, seminarrom 4
Workshop: Polysemy, concepts and representation
Word meaning is one of the least well-understood areas of language. There is general (but not universal) agreement that nearly every lexical/conceptual word is polysemous, that is, that words typically have multiple related senses.
This raises many difficult questions (Falkum & Vicente 2015). What is the lexical representation of a polysemous word? Does it encode all the different senses that it can be used to express? If so, how does this differ from homonymy (which is both intuitively and experimentally distinct)? Or are the different senses somehow created from an underlying lexical representation that does not correspond to any of the senses? If so more questions arise: what is the format of the lexical representation? Are there core semantic features that are deployed in all (or all literal) uses of a word? (Rey 2014; Allott & Textor 2017; Rey 2022; but see Allott & Textor 2022 for counter-arguments.) What is the role of context in enabling the speaker to express and the hearer to reconstruct a more specific sense (Falkum, 2015)?
There is some evidence from experimental data that the meanings stored in the mental lexicon are rather schematic: in particular, they seem to be neutral between the different senses of polysemous words (Frisson 2015). Anti-lexicalist views in morphology typically also postulate thin semantics: e.g. in Borer’s influential framework, the mental lexicon contains not words but roots, and these have no meaning and no syntactic category; the latter is instead a property of structures into which roots are inserted (Borer 2013; Alexiadou & Lohndal 2017; Lohndal 2020). In recent publications Carston has argued that this framework provides the right foundation for theories of lexical pragmatics and polysemy including cross-categorial cases (Carston 2019, 2021, 2023).
A related recent development is the systematic exploration of cases where two apparently incompatible senses are co-predicated, as in “Lunch was delicious, but lasted all afternoon” (Chomsky 2000; Collins 2017; Ortega-Andrés & Vicente, 2019). Theoretically-diverse attempts have been made to explain the data (e.g. Gotham 2022; Liu 2022; Ortega-Andrés 2022) or to explain them away (Brody & Feiman 2023; Collins, draft). Could polysemy be illusory?
Invited speakers
Professor Robyn Carston, University College London
Professor John Collins, University of East Anglia
Dr. Michelle Liu, lecturer, Monash University
Professor Georges Rey, University of Maryland, College Park
Abstracts and schedule
Please click here to download the abstracts for the workshop.
Please click here to download a detailed schedule.
Organiser
Dr. Nicholas Allott , Professor Terje Lohndal and Dr. Ingrid Lossius Falkum
Workshop: Perspectives on biases and knowledge gaps in medicine
Time and place: Feb. 1, 2024 9:00 AM – 1:00 PM, GMH 652
Program
09.00: Coffee
09.10: Welcome by Anders Strand
09.15-09.55: Jakob Elster, Gry Oftedal and/or Anders Strand, Ethical limitations on cluster randomized trials.
10.00-10:40: Anna Smajdor (University of Oslo), Machine learning techniques and bias in medicine.
10.45-11.25: Lara Keuck (Universität Bielefeld), Uncertainty in monitoring and treatment of complex chronic diseases.
11.25-11.35: Short break
11.35-12.15: Sean Valles (Michigan State University), How misunderstanding of race and racism affect medical research.
12.20-13.00: Cornelius Borck (Universität zu Lübeck), How knowledge making produces knowledge gaps.
Organiser
Centre for Philosophy and the Sciences (CPS)
2023
Mathematics in Physics
Establishing the Nordic Network for Philosophy of Physics
Time and place: June 1, 2023 9:30 AM – June 2, 2023 5:00 PM, Georg Morgenstiernes hus Seminarrom 152, University of Oslo
As part of Establishing the Nordic Network for Philosophy of Physics, a workshop on Mathematics in Physics will be hosted at The University of Oslo.
Mathematical and formal properties are used heavily as guides to theory development, and means of theory confirmation in current physics. That a theory-in-development satisfies particular mathematical constraints or principles is standardly taken as necessary in order that the theory be accepted (or deemed worthy of pursuit), and an established theory’s failure to exemplify particular mathematical features can motivate the search for a new theory. For instance, the search for a theory of quantum gravity can be seen as motivated by the desire for a singularity-free, unified, and mathematically consistent theory that applies in the regimes where we expect a quantum theory of gravity to be necessary.
What is the connection between these features and truth, or acceptability? Why are they taken as necessary, or even useful in particular theoretical contexts? A promising and novel approach towards answering this question lies in these features’ connections to theoretical virtues. Theoretical virtues in physics often take the form of specific mathematical features. The virtue of simplicity, for example, is embodied in symmetry constraints, including more specific principles such as background independence, which feature prominently as guides, and means of confirmation in current theories. Recently, current physics’ use of particular mathematical or formal features falling under the category of “beauty principles” has been challenged, several of which (e.g., naturalness, unification) are already recognised as of philosophical interest. Yet, this area of research has not gone deep enough to consider the more widespread and basic mathematical features taken as constraints in current physics, e.g., symmetries, singularity resolution, correspondence/reduction, and mathematical consistency.
This workshop will explore the use of particular mathematical or formal features—construed as theoretical virtues—as non-empirical guides and means of theory confirmation in physics. In particular, we are interested in exploring whether, or how, the use of these features in theory-assessment is related to mathematical explanation and indispensability arguments. The workshop’s aim is novel and exploratory in tying together these debates in the philosophy of mathematics with those regarding theoretical virtues in the philosophy of science, and non-empirical confirmation in the philosophy of physics.
Speakers
- Sorin Bangu
- Neil Barton
- Katharine Brading
- Otavio Bueno
- Hans Halvorson
- Saakshi Dulani
- Pablo Ruiz de Olano
- James Fraser
- Radin Dardashti
- Sam Fletcher
- Keizo Matsubara
Organizer
Karen Crowther and Øystein Linnebo
Meeting Point Seminar
CPS is launching a new meeting place for researchers in the humanities/social sciences and natural sciences/medicine who would like to explore the possibility of collaborations across disciplinary boundaries.
Time and place: Apr. 18, 2023 3:15 PM – 5:00 PM, Georg Morgenstiernes hus, Arne Næss Auditorium 103
Are you a humanities or social science researcher who would like to explore possibilities for collaborations with researchers in the natural sciences?
Are you a natural science or medical researcher who are curious about including social science and/or humanities perspectives in your work?
Then this is the place to be inspired, to find out how, and to meet potential collaborators. Everyone is welcome!
Program
- 15:15 Welcome and introduction, Gry Oftedal, Head of Centre for Philosophy and the Sciences, UiO
- 15:20 Humanities and Social Sciences as Life Science, Carl Henrik Gørbitz, Director of UiO:Life Science
- 15:35 Experiences and advice from a humanities/life science collaboration, Alexander Refsum Jensenius, Head of RITMO and professor at the Department of Musicology, UiO
- 15:55 Questions/discussion
- 16:15 – 17:00 Meet and mingle (food/drinks are served)
2022
Theoretical Virtues and Non-Empirical Guides in Scientific Theory Development
Establishing the Nordic Network for Philosophy of Physics
Time and place: Nov. 23, 2022 – Nov. 24, 2022, Aarhus University, Denmark
As part of Establishing the Nordic Network for Philosophy of Physics, a workshop will be hosted at Aarhus University: Theoretical Virtues and Non-Empirical Guides in Scientific Theory-Development.
Theoretical virtues are desirable features of scientific theories, and may include principles such as consistency, simplicity, unification, and consilience/coherence---not all of which are directly related to empirical evidence. These principles play various roles in scientific theory development, including as heuristic, exploratory guides in scientific discovery, as indicators of pursuit-worthiness, or means of confirmation. But there are also other non-empirical features used in these roles that are not typically classified as theoretical virtues, such as analogy and thought experiment.
In philosophy of physics, interest in non-empirical guides to theory development and assessment is growing, given the prominent status of these guides in the search for new theories of fundamental physics. These features---such as naturalness, symmetry principles, and singularity-resolution---are more specific than the traditional theoretical virtues, but nevertheless appear to bear interesting relations to the broader theoretical virtues.
This workshop aims to connect discussions on theory development and assessment in the philosophy of physics with that in general philosophy of science, and other specific sciences. The topic is conceived of broadly, as including any theoretical virtues, heuristic guides, and principles that are not directly related to experiment and observation.
Keynote speakers
- Elena Castellani (Florence)
- Karen Crowther (Oslo)
- Richard Dawid (Stockholm)
- Rune Nyrup (Cambridge)
- Samuel Schindler (Aarhus)
- Mike Stuart (National Yang Ming Chiao Tung)
Guest lecture: Cornelius Borck
Medicine torn apart? Medical practice between EBM, PM, IT companies and consumer agency.
Time and place: Mar. 30, 2022 1:30 PM – 2:30 PM, Frederik Holsts hus, room 218
There is probably little dispute that evidence-based medicine (EBM) is the reigning paradigm of medical practice in Western biomedicine today. Fairly recently, however, precision medicine (PM) has been announced as a new framework for delivering tailor-made medical solutions, addressing the specific circumstances of a disease rather than applying standardized practices. At the same time, IT companies like Google and Apple diverted into the health sector for harvesting personalized data as the new gold of the information age.
This talk will take a historical perspective for characterizing these initiatives as fundamentally different approaches to medical practice. Such a sketch of opposing ideal types in the Weberian sense certainly over-emphasizes nuances in the spectrum of current medical research, but shall be used here for situating medical practice vis-à-vis the needs and agency of patients and consumers.
Prof. Dr. med. Cornelius Borck is Director of the Institute for History of Medicine and Science Studies at the University of Lübeck.
Organizer
Centre for Medical Ethics and Centre for Philosophy and the Sciences
2020
WEBINAR: First CPS Covid-19 Crisis Seminar
We are in the midst of a world-wide crisis. The Covid-19 pandemic affects us, our societies, and the world in many different ways. As we move forward, we need the clear-headed integration of a variety of perspectives. This Seminar is our small contribution and starting point.
Time and place: Apr. 15, 2020 4:15 PM–6:00 PM, Zoom
We are in the midst of a world-wide crisis. The Covid-19 pandemic affects us, our societies, and the world in many different ways.
The crisis intertwines – with extreme complexity – issues that range from, of course, epidemiology and virology, to ethics, health care allocation, economics, science communication, the use of expertise in policy making, legal issues of various kinds, and many more: how, if at all. to make scientifically based policy (in a case like this)?
How are different values to be balanced? How to make (political) decisions under (extremely) high uncertainty? How do facts and values interact? What legal and economic measures mechanisms are appropriate? How can scientists of various stripes cooperate to solve such pressing issues?
In a situation that is constantly evolving there are – at each time – many pressing issues that need to be solved right here and now, both within our local communities and in our countries. And much of what we each contribute and have to deal with falls outside the academic domain. Yet, as we move forward, there will also be a need for clear-headed and forward-looking thinking about all the relevant issues, and for exchange and integration of different perspectives. We at the Centre for Philosophy and the Sciences (CPS) in Oslo thus have put together a 2 hour long, “Covid-19 Crisis Seminar”, to be held on Zoom, to which we have invited academics from a variety of disciplines, from epidemiology, statistics, law, evolutionary biology, to ethics, and democratic theory. If the seminar goes well it could be the start of a series of events like it where we continue to together think about issues about science, society and values, as they arise in our present context.
The Seminar will take place on Zoom this Wednesday, April 15th, from 16:15-18:00 (CEST). The speakers and panel discussants are (some confirmation regarding the date missing from some)
- Cathrine Holst (sociology, democracy research)
- Arnoldo Frigessi (statistics, stochastic modeling)
- Hans Petter Graver (law)
- Gunnveig Grødeland (immunology, vaccines)
- Kalle Moene (economics)
- Katerini Storeng (global health)
- Henrik Syse (ethics, political philosophy)
- David Sloan Wilson (evolutionary biology) (tbc)
- Åsa Wikforrs (epistemology)
A brief introduction will be provided by Sebastian Watzl (philosophy). He will also moderate the discussion. For the first hour all speakers will provide a 5-7 min perspective. The second hour will feature a panel discussion.
We know that this is very short notice (much shorter than usual for an academic event). But given the dynamics of the situation, we thought we should get started quickly.
We would like to run this like an open academic workshop. Others than the speaker are welcome to join and listen, and there will also be time for questions from audience. Due to the technical and security limitations of Zoom, we ask everyone who would like join to send an email to sebaswat [at sign] ifikk.uio.no. An email with the Zoom link will then be send out to everyone who signed up by Wednesday at 15:00. Participants other than the speakers won’t be able to use video or audio, but will be able to listen and watch the discussion and will be able ask questions through Zoom’s the chat function.
The processing of verb-object metaphors: a test between competing theories of comprehension
Talk at MultiLing
Time and place: Jan. 21, 2020 10:15 AM–11:15 AM, Henrik Wergelands Hus, Rom 421
Camilo Rodriguez Ronderos (PhD Fellow at the Humboldt University of Berlin) will give a talk at MultiLing on the topic of metaphor comprehension, reporting the results from two eye-tracking visual world studies.
Abstract
Are metaphors processed as category statements or as indirect comparisons? The current work addresses this fundamental question of metaphor comprehension by investigating how metaphors that appear in object positions of German transitive verbs are processed differentially as a function of verb tense. Results of two Eye-Tracking Visual World study are discussed in light of competing psycholinguistic and pragmatic theories.
2019
How can there be extra-mathematical explanations
Talk by Sorin Bangu (University of Bergen)
Time and place: Nov. 6, 2019 2:15 PM–4:00 PM, GM652
The paper proposes a strategy to reconstruct the typical examples of what is currently called ‘extra-mathematical’ explanations, or mathematical explanations of physical phenomena. These reconstructions show that they all fit a common model, in which the role of mathematics is explicatory. Isolating this role may help re-focusing the current debate on the more specific question as to whether this explicatory role is (as I suggest here) also an explanatory one.
PhiLabo: Why science needs philosophy and vice versa
Talk by Lucie Laplane (CNRS, Panthéon-Sorbonne University, Paris)
Time and place: Oct. 23, 2019 12:15 PM–2:00 PM, GM 452
ABSTRACT:
Science was formerly an integral part of philosophy, but these two broad disciplines have gradually grown apart and are now typically viewed as completely different endeavors. In this talk, I will argue in favor of a renaissance in the integration of science and philosophy.
First, I will argue that philosophy can fruitfully contribute to science. This argument is the output of a collaborative work with a group of scientists and philosophers, recently published in a generalist scientific journal (Laplane, Mantovani et al., PNAS 2019). We used three examples of significant philosophical contributions to current biology to illustrate that “science needs philosophy,” and discussed way to facilitate cooperation between these two disciplines.
Second, I will argue that conversely, experimental biology can fruitfully contribute to philosophy. Present-day philosophers often perceive experimental biology as completely different from, and even antagonistic to philosophy, as much as scientists perceive philosophy as completely different from, and antagonistic to, science. Drawing on concrete personal examples of introducing experimental work in my practice of philosophy of stem cell and cancer, I will show how getting involved with experimentation can help philosophy to fruitfully contribute to science.
(PhiLabo = Philosophy in Laboratory)
Dr Lucie Laplane is a philosopher of science working at the interface of philosophy and cancer biology. She has published the book "Cancer Stem Cells: Philosophy and Therapies" at Harvard University Press and many philosophy papers engaging with topics within biology and medicine.
Discover the space where science meets philosophy at Forskningstorget
We explore the field between philosophy and the sciences with rubber hands and games with Moebius strips at Forskningstorget science fair.
Time and place: Sep. 20, 2019 9:00 AM–Sep. 21, 2019 5:00 PM, Universitetsplassen, Karl Johans gate 47
Take a journey into the wonderland between philosophy and science. Find out about the Moebius strip that connects back and front and where you can walk on a straight line and come back to where you came from. Make Moebius strips yourself, and discover the odd things that happen when you cut them and glue them together.
And feel how a rubber hand seems to become yours. Does it feel as real as the other parts of your body? What does is it feel like to be you? And what would it feel like to be an octopus or a bat? Can science find out?
Most of the event will take place in Norwegian, but we are happy to welcome also English speaking visitors.
About "Forskningstorget"
Forskningstorget is a science fair in the middle of Oslo and a part of the national Science Days, where hundreds of events take place all over the country between September 18-29. The science fair is free for everyone, requires no registration, and has something for inquisitive minds of all ages. The science fair expects about 10000-15000 visitors.
Talk by Richard Holton: Self-deception and the moral self
Richard Holton is coming to Oslo from Cambridge University.
Time and place: Sep. 4, 2019 2:30 PM–4:30 PM, GM452
Abstract:
Much recent empricial work on moral motivation suggests that some of it comes from self-signalling: people want to prove to themselves that they are moral. Whether or not this undermines the moral value of their actions is a moot point that will not be evaluated here. What will be evaluated is the extent to which this kind of moral self-signalling involves self-deception. On the basis of various emprical studies I argue that self-deception cannot in general be understood as action that is guided by a pre-existing bias; it requires a greater responsiveness to the topic about which the agent is decided. Plausibly this is true of moral self-signalling too.
Talk co-organized by the Oslo Mind Group and the Thought and Sense Project.
Centre for Philosophy and the Sciences Start Up Seminar
CPS celebrates its beginning
Time and place: Aug. 28, 2019 2:15 PM – 4:00 PM, GM 652, University of Oslo
- Welcome from Sebastian Watzl (Head of Center)
- Opening Words from Beate Elvebakk (Head of Hosting Department, IFIKK)
- Initiatives, Plans, Events, and Announcements (Sebastian Watzl
- Hires
- Website
- Annual Lecture by Prof. Nancy Cartwright (2. December)
- Collaboration with Science Study Colloquium (Forum for Vitenskapsteori)
- New Course "Vitenskap og Demokrati" (Science and Democracy)
- At Forskningsdagene
- Other things
- The Three Research Themes
- Mathematics (Øystein Linnebo, IFIKK)
- Life (Sebastian Watzl & Gry Oftedal, IFIKK)
- Language (Nick Allot, ILOS & Ingrid Lossius Falkum, IFIKK)
- Talk by Karen Crowther "Philosophy of Science meets the Frontiers of Physics"
There will be coffee and fruit and time to get to know each other and talk informally.
Talk by Agustín Rayo at ConceptLab
Agustín Rayo will hold a talk on the philosophical issues regarding the fragmentation of the mind. The talk is organized by ConceptLab (IFIKK).
Time and place: Aug. 27, 2019 10:15 AM–12:00 PM, GM 652, University of Oslo
Agustín Rayo works in the intersection of philosophy of logic and philosophy of language. His talk will be concerned with philosophical issues regarding the fragmentation of the mind.
Workshop on “Second-order logic and the question of (im)predicativity”
Organized by ConceptLab (IFIKK).
Time: Aug. 20, 2019 9:00 AM–Aug. 21, 2019 6:00 PM
Speakers include Laura Crosilla, Peter Fritz, Øystein Linnebo, Agustin Rayo, Sam Roberts, Chris Scambler, Stewart Shapiro, Crispin Wright.