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5th Sydney-Tilburg conference on
5th Sydney-Tilburg conference on
THE
PROGRESS OF SCIENCE
Tilburg
Center for Logic and Philosophy of Science
25-27
April 2012
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This
year is the 50th anniversary of Thomas S. Kuhn’s seminal book The Structure of
Scientific Revolutions, which forcefully questioned the idea that science makes
steady, rational progress towards truth. After half a century his challenge is
everything but outdated. Look at the failure of economic science in the
financial crisis, or the fierce debate about whether string theory is just a
mathematical gimmick, unable to connect to empirical data. At the same time,
however, the scientific enterprise appears to be more dynamic than ever, with an
explosion of publications and new subdisciplines emerging by almost the hour.
Philosophy of science has changed too. The abstract account of ‘method’ which
Kuhn criticized have been replaced by efforts to model how science proceeds,
exploring, for example the epistemic benefits and drawbacks of division of
scientific labor. What is more, scientometric data and a wealth of case studies
are readily available to empirically test theses about what progress in science
means today. In this conference, will revisit this classical question in the
philosophy of science in the light of current developments and invite
contributions on both historical and systematic aspects of the progress of
science. We particularly encourage work on progress in the special sciences, the
emergence of new disciplines, and empirically informed reassessments of
classical positions.
We
invite submissions of extended abstracts of 1000 to 1500 words by 15 November
2011. Decisions will be made by 15 December 2011.
KEYNOTE
SPEAKERS: Heather Douglas (Waterloo), Paul Hoyningen-Huene (Hannover), Theo
Kuipers (Groningen), and Michael Weisberg (Philadelphia)
ORGANIZERS: Mark Colyvan (Sydney), Paul Griffiths (Sydney), Stephan
Hartmann (Tilburg), and Jan Sprenger (Tilburg)
PUBLICATION: We plan to publish selected papers presented at the
conference in a special issue of a journal or with a major a book publisher
(subject to the usual refereeing process). The submission deadline is 1 July
2012. The maximal paper length is 7000 words.
GRADUATE
FELLOWSHIPS: A few travel bursaries for graduate students are available (up to
200 Euro). If you wish to be considered please submit a CV and a travel budget
in addition to your extended abstract.
The
conference language is English.
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