[PhilPhys] Featured Former Fellow -Armond Duwell 2/20 and Annual Lecture Series - Maya J. Goldenberg 2/23

[Center for Phil Sci]

The Center for Philosophy of Science at the University of Pittsburgh invites you to join us for our upcoming lectures. All lectures will be live streamed on YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCrRp47ZMXD7NXO3a9Gyh2sg.
Featured Former Fellow – Armond Duwell<https://www.umt.edu/philosophy/people/?ID=681>
Tuesday, February 20 @ 12:00 pm - 1:30 pm EST

This talk is online-only. Follow along via Zoom: https://pitt.zoom.us/j/95989267952


Title: Problems and Possibilities: A Theory of Scientific Understanding


Abstract: In this talk I will discuss joint work with Soazig Le Bihan on a novel theory of scientific understanding.   Extant theories of scientific understanding fail to be suitably comprehensive. Either they fail to countenance relevant kinds of scientific understanding, e.g.~non-explanatory understanding or practical understanding, or they fail to accommodate relevant targets of understanding, e.g.~scientific theories or how to generate data about a phenomenon.  Our “problems and possibilities ” (P&P) view surmounts these problems by providing a unifying analysis of different kinds of understanding.  Our view is that scientific understanding is fundamentally pragmatic. Scientific practice consists in scientific activities that are pursued to solve various problems.  The very same problem can be solved in a variety of ways.  Taking the actions required to solve our problems is constitutive of some understanding.  Comparing the various possibly ways of solving our problems to themselves or other things can afford inferences about the target of understanding, which, when made, also constitute understanding of the target.  The variety of possible means for solving our problems often support incompatible inferences about a target of understanding, hence our P&P view of understanding.


This talk is online-only. Follow along via Zoom: https://pitt.zoom.us/j/95989267952

Annual Lecture Series – Maya J. Goldenberg<https://www.uoguelph.ca/arts/philosophy/people/maya-j-goldenberg>
Friday, February 23 @ 3:30 pm - 6:00 pm EST
Join us in person in room 1008 on the 10th floor of the Cathedral of Learning at the University of Pittsburgh
This talk will be streamed through Zoom, found here: https://pitt.zoom.us/j/99073578350


Title: Myth-Busting or Meaning-Making? Public Science Communications and the Infodemic


Abstract: A growth area of public-facing science communications during the COVID years has been the counter-offence against misinformation, that is, fighting the “infodemic.” Since the start of the pandemic, legions of well-intended healthcare practitioners, scientists, and concerned citizens have taken to social media platforms to debunk myths and provide corrective facts. These efforts were buoyed by emerging cognitive and social psychology research into strategies for addressing misinformation, such as debunking, pre-emptive inoculation, and nudging. Yet this concentrated focus on the epistemic status of propositional claims (i.e., separating “facts” from “myths”) has serious limits. The field of communications research offers important insights that undermine the soundness of “myth-versus-fact” message frames as public communications practice. Serious consideration of communication as meaning-making, especially in the fraught social context in which the infodemic has flourished, points to difficulties with the interpretive story line that the myth-busting message frame conveys. These considerations support an alternative focus on trust-building for science communications to the publics.



Light refreshments will follow the lecture in CL 1008.


-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://listbox.elte.hu/pipermail/philphys/attachments/20240215/c2c8184a/attachment.html>