Dear all Today’s CamPoS seminar is given by Dr Agnes Bolinska <https://sites.google.com/site/agnesbolinska/ <https://sites.google.com/site/agnesbolinska/>> and Dr Joseph D. Martin <https://www.jdmartin.org/ <https://www.jdmartin.org/>> both teaching associates at the Department of History and Philosophy of Science, University of Cambridge. Details as follows:
Time: Wednesday 30 January, 1-2:30pm Place: Seminar Room 2, Department of History and Philosophy of Science (Free School Lane, CB2 3RH) Title: Negotiating history: contingency, canonicity and case studies Abstract: Objections to the use of historical case studies for philosophical ends fall into two categories. Methodological objections claim that historical accounts and their uses by philosophers are subject to various biases. We argue that these challenges are not special; they also apply to other forms of philosophical reasoning. Metaphysical objections, on the other hand, claim that historical case studies are intrinsically unsuited to serve as evidence for philosophical claims, even when carefully constructed and used, and so constitute a distinct class of challenge. We show that attention to what makes for a canonical case can address these problems. A case study is canonical with respect to a particular philosophical aim when the features relevant to that aim provide a reasonably complete causal account of the results of the historical process under investigation. We show how to establish canonicity by evaluating relevant contingencies using two prominent examples from the history of science: Eddington's confirmation of Einstein's theory of general relativity using his data from the 1919 eclipse and Watson and Crick's determination of the structure of DNA. Full information about the talk is here: https://talks.cam.ac.uk/talk/index/118318 <https://talks.cam.ac.uk/talk/index/118318> The term card for Lent 2019 is available at https://www.hps.cam.ac.uk/news-events/seminars-reading-groups/campos <https://www.hps.cam.ac.uk/news-events/seminars-reading-groups/campos> You can also follow us at https://twitter.com/CamPhilSci <https://twitter.com/CamPhilSci> All are welcome. All the best Matt Dr Matt Farr • Teaching Associate in Philosophy of Science University of Cambridge • Department of History & Philosophy of Science Free School Lane | Cambridge | CB2 3RH w mattfarr.co.uk <http://www.mattfarr.co.uk/> | e [email protected] <mailto:[email protected]> | t 01223334559 _____________________________________________________ To unsubscribe from the CamPhilEvents mailing list, or change your membership options, please visit the list information page: http://bit.ly/CamPhilEvents List archive: http://bit.ly/CamPhilEventsArchive Please note that CamPhilEvents doesn't accept email attachments. See the list information page for further details and suggested alternatives.
