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--></style></head><body lang=EN-US link=blue vlink="#954F72" style='word-wrap:break-word'><div class=WordSection1><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><div><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:black'>The Center for Philosophy of Science invites you to join us for our Lunch Time Talks. Attend in person, Room 1117 on the 11th floor of the Cathedral of Learning at the University of Pittsburgh or visit our live stream on YouTube at </span><u><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:blue;border:none windowtext 1.0pt;padding:0in'><a href="https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCrRp47ZMXD7NXO3a9Gyh2sg" title="https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCrRp47ZMXD7NXO3a9Gyh2sg">https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCrRp47ZMXD7NXO3a9Gyh2sg</a></span></u><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:black'>. </span><o:p></o:p></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal style='line-height:115%;vertical-align:baseline'><span style='font-size:12.0pt;line-height:115%;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:black'> </span><o:p></o:p></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal style='line-height:115%;vertical-align:baseline'><span style='font-size:12.0pt;line-height:115%;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:black'>The upcoming talks are presented by The Center for Philosophy of Science's Visiting Fellows, Eric Snyder and Tushar Menon and Senior Visiting Fellow, Carl Hoefer. If you would like information about these positions for the 2025-2026 academic year, please see the bottom of this notice.</span><o:p></o:p></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal style='line-height:115%;vertical-align:baseline'><span style='font-size:12.0pt;line-height:115%;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:black'> </span><o:p></o:p></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal style='line-height:115%;vertical-align:baseline'><span style='font-size:12.0pt;line-height:115%;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:black'> </span><o:p></o:p></p></div><p class=MsoNormal style='line-height:115%;vertical-align:baseline'><span style='font-size:14.0pt;line-height:115%;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:black;border:none windowtext 1.0pt;padding:0in'>LTT: <b>Eric Snyder</b></span><o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal style='line-height:115%;vertical-align:baseline'><span style='font-size:12.0pt;line-height:115%;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:black'>Tuesday, October 1 @ 12:00 pm - 1:30 pm EDT</span><o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal style='line-height:115%;vertical-align:baseline'><b><span style='font-size:12.0pt;line-height:115%;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:black'> </span></b><o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal style='line-height:115%;vertical-align:baseline'><b><span style='font-size:12.0pt;line-height:115%;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:black'>Title: Is Knowledge of Successor Due to Knowledge of Morphosyntax?</span></b><o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal style='line-height:115%;vertical-align:baseline'><b><span style='font-size:12.0pt;line-height:115%;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:black'>Abstract:</span></b><o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal style='line-height:115%;vertical-align:baseline'><span style='font-size:12.0pt;line-height:115%;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:black'>Over the past few decades, number cognition researchers have paid extensive attention to how children acquire tacit knowledge of the notion of successor. Though different proposals exist, one widespread hypothesis is that such knowledge may be explained in terms of our linguistic capacities. In particular, many maintain what I call the Knowledge Thesis: Knowledge of successor is due to knowledge of natural language morphosyntax. The basic idea appears is that if one aims to explain knowledge of successor in terms of known cognitive resources, natural language morphosyntax is an especially plausible candidate since it, like the successor function, is recursive. This talk has a pair of aims. First, I critically assess two influential versions of KT: i) the Merge Model, defended by e.g. Noam Chomsky, and ii) the Complex Cardinal Model, assumed or defended by Susan Carey, David Barner, and many others. I argue that as formulated, neither model provides an adequate explanation for how knowledge of successor is acquired. Specifically, while the Merge Model faces a version of Benacerraf (1965)’s Identification Problem, the Complex Cardinal Model requires the adoption of certain empirically untenable assumptions. The second aim of the talk is more constructive: appropriately formulated, a version of the Complex Cardinal Model can account for knowledge of successor, provided that children first acquiring the concept of number are folk Aristotelians in the following sense: the concept of number they acquire is both cardinal and potentialist in nature. </span><o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal style='line-height:115%;vertical-align:baseline'><span style='font-size:12.0pt;line-height:115%;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:black;border:none windowtext 1.0pt;padding:0in'> </span><o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal style='line-height:115%;vertical-align:baseline'><span style='font-size:12.0pt;line-height:115%;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:black;border:none windowtext 1.0pt;padding:0in'>This talk will also be available live streamed on: Zoom: </span><span style='font-size:12.0pt;line-height:115%;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:#0056AC;border:none windowtext 1.0pt;padding:0in'><a href="https://pitt.zoom.us/s/94263420343"><span style='color:#0056AC'>https://pitt.zoom.us/s/94263420343</span></a> </span><span style='font-size:12.0pt;line-height:115%;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:black;border:none windowtext 1.0pt;padding:0in'>and</span><o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal style='line-height:115%;vertical-align:baseline'><span style='font-size:12.0pt;line-height:115%;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:black;border:none windowtext 1.0pt;padding:0in'> </span><o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal style='line-height:115%;vertical-align:baseline'><span style='font-size:12.0pt;line-height:115%;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:black;border:none windowtext 1.0pt;padding:0in'>YouTube at </span><span style='font-size:12.0pt;line-height:115%;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:#0056AC;border:none windowtext 1.0pt;padding:0in'><a href="https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCrRp47ZMXD7NXO3a9Gyh2sg"><span style='color:#0056AC'>https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCrRp47ZMXD7NXO3a9Gyh2sg</span></a></span><span style='font-size:12.0pt;line-height:115%;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:black;border:none windowtext 1.0pt;padding:0in'>.</span><o:p></o:p></p><div><p class=MsoNormal style='line-height:115%;vertical-align:baseline'><span style='font-size:12.0pt;line-height:115%;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:black'> </span><o:p></o:p></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal style='line-height:115%;vertical-align:baseline'><span style='font-size:12.0pt;line-height:115%;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:black'> </span><o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal style='line-height:115%;vertical-align:baseline'><span style='font-size:12.0pt;line-height:115%;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:black'> </span><o:p></o:p></p></div><p class=MsoNormal style='line-height:115%;vertical-align:baseline'><b><span style='font-size:14.0pt;line-height:115%;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:black;border:none windowtext 1.0pt;padding:0in'>LTT: Tushar Menon</span></b><o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal style='line-height:115%;vertical-align:baseline'><span style='font-size:12.0pt;line-height:115%;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:black'>Friday, October 4 @ 12:00 pm - 1:30 pm EDT</span><o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal style='line-height:115%;vertical-align:baseline'><b><span style='font-size:12.0pt;line-height:115%;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:black'> </span></b><o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal style='line-height:115%;vertical-align:baseline'><b><span style='font-size:12.0pt;line-height:115%;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:black'>Title: Scientific realism as a normative notion (twice over)</span></b><o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal style='line-height:115%;vertical-align:baseline'><b><span style='font-size:12.0pt;line-height:115%;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:black'>Abstract:</span></b><span style='font-size:12.0pt;line-height:115%;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:black'> </span><o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal style='line-height:115%;vertical-align:baseline'><span style='font-size:12.0pt;line-height:115%;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:black'>The semantic component of standard scientific realism—sometimes called semantic realism—is the view that the semantic treatment of scientific-theoretical terms should be the same as that of observational terms. This is to be understood, roughly, as the claim that theoretical claims are descriptive just as observational claims are. But standard semantic realism does not say anything about why we are right to treat observational claims as descriptive in the first place. In this talk, I argue that the justification of the descriptive deployment of observational terms is best understood from a normative pragmatist perspective, in terms of what we can use such discourse to do. I thus construe semantic realism as the claim that this is also the way to assess the correctness of the descriptive deployment of scientific-theoretical terms. I then argue that descriptive deployment is itself to be understood normatively, in terms of a Sellars-Brandom-style inferentialism. The upshot is (i) that we can do much more justice to the impulses that motivate scientific realism, and (ii) assess the relative merits of scientific realism across a wider domain of scientific theories (in particular mathematised physics) if we understand it in this doubly normative sense.</span><o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal style='line-height:115%;vertical-align:baseline'><span style='font-size:12.0pt;line-height:115%;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:black;border:none windowtext 1.0pt;padding:0in'> </span><o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal style='line-height:115%;vertical-align:baseline'><span style='font-size:12.0pt;line-height:115%;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:black;border:none windowtext 1.0pt;padding:0in'>This talk will also be available live streamed on: Zoom: </span><span style='font-size:12.0pt;line-height:115%;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:#0056AC;border:none windowtext 1.0pt;padding:0in'><a href="https://pitt.zoom.us/s/93846460443"><span style='color:#0056AC'>https://pitt.zoom.us/s/93846460443</span></a> </span><span style='font-size:12.0pt;line-height:115%;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:black;border:none windowtext 1.0pt;padding:0in'>and</span><o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal style='line-height:115%;vertical-align:baseline'><span style='font-size:12.0pt;line-height:115%;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:black;border:none windowtext 1.0pt;padding:0in'> </span><o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal style='line-height:115%;vertical-align:baseline'><span style='font-size:12.0pt;line-height:115%;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:black;border:none windowtext 1.0pt;padding:0in'>YouTube at </span><span style='font-size:12.0pt;line-height:115%;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:#0056AC;border:none windowtext 1.0pt;padding:0in'><a href="https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCrRp47ZMXD7NXO3a9Gyh2sg"><span style='color:#0056AC'>https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCrRp47ZMXD7NXO3a9Gyh2sg</span></a></span><span style='font-size:12.0pt;line-height:115%;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:black;border:none windowtext 1.0pt;padding:0in'>.</span><o:p></o:p></p><div><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:12.0pt;line-height:115%;vertical-align:baseline'><o:p> </o:p></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:12.0pt;line-height:115%;vertical-align:baseline'><o:p> </o:p></p></div><p class=MsoNormal style='line-height:115%;vertical-align:baseline'><b><span style='font-size:14.0pt;line-height:115%;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:black;border:none windowtext 1.0pt;padding:0in'>LTT: Carl Hoefer</span></b><o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal style='line-height:115%;vertical-align:baseline'><span style='font-size:12.0pt;line-height:115%;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:black'>Tuesday, October 8 @ 12:00 pm - 1:30 pm EDT</span><o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal style='line-height:115%;vertical-align:baseline'><b><span style='font-size:12.0pt;line-height:115%;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:black'> </span></b><o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal style='line-height:115%;vertical-align:baseline'><b><span style='font-size:12.0pt;line-height:115%;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:black'>Title: Generic causation in complex, mind-dependent systems </span></b><o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal style='line-height:115%;vertical-align:baseline'><b><span style='font-size:12.0pt;line-height:115%;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:black'>Abstract: </span></b><o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal style='line-height:115%;vertical-align:baseline'><span style='font-size:12.0pt;line-height:115%;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:black'>Often, in medicine and social sciences, we are interested finding generic causal facts: facts of the form <i>X causes Y</i>, where X and Y are event types rather than specific individual (“token”) events. In these sciences, often we are interested because X is something that is at least partially under our control: e.g., an educational policy that can be implemented, or a public health intervention that can be made. </span><o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal style='line-height:115%;vertical-align:baseline'><span style='font-size:12.0pt;line-height:115%;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:black'>The evidence-based medicine and evidence-based policy movements urge that we base medical and socio-political decisions on high-quality evidence that, ideally, strongly supports statements of this form, <i>X causes (or X prevents) Y</i>. It is a presupposition of these movements, and the forms of research they wish to rely on (including RCTs) that such facts about generic causation <i>exist</i>; our job is just to uncover them. But might this presupposition be mistaken, in some areas of human endeavor and inquiry?</span><o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal style='line-height:115%;vertical-align:baseline'><span style='font-size:12.0pt;line-height:115%;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:black'>In recent years I have become convinced that this presupposition is indeed mistaken, in at least some contexts that share these characteristics: complexity, strong dependence on initial conditions, and dependence on human behavior. Using examples from the recent covid19 pandemic, I will illustrate the possibility that certain generic causal facts may fail to exist: it is neither correct to assert that <i>X causes Y, </i>nor correct to assert <i>X does not cause Y</i>. The discussion will bring together ideas from several of my earlier works on causation and on objective chance.</span><o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal style='line-height:115%;vertical-align:baseline'><span style='font-size:12.0pt;line-height:115%;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:black;border:none windowtext 1.0pt;padding:0in'> </span><o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal style='line-height:115%;vertical-align:baseline'><span style='font-size:12.0pt;line-height:115%;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:black;border:none windowtext 1.0pt;padding:0in'>This talk will also be available live streamed on: Zoom </span><span style='font-size:12.0pt;line-height:115%;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:#0056AC;border:none windowtext 1.0pt;padding:0in'><a href="https://pitt.zoom.us/s/94175053924"><span style='color:#0056AC'>https://pitt.zoom.us/s/94175053924</span></a></span><span style='font-size:12.0pt;line-height:115%;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:black;border:none windowtext 1.0pt;padding:0in'> and </span><o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal style='line-height:115%;vertical-align:baseline'><span style='font-size:12.0pt;line-height:115%;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:black;border:none windowtext 1.0pt;padding:0in'> </span><o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal style='line-height:115%;vertical-align:baseline'><span style='font-size:12.0pt;line-height:115%;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:black;border:none windowtext 1.0pt;padding:0in'>YouTube at </span><span style='font-size:12.0pt;line-height:115%;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:#0056AC;border:none windowtext 1.0pt;padding:0in'><a href="https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCrRp47ZMXD7NXO3a9Gyh2sg"><span style='color:#0056AC'>https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCrRp47ZMXD7NXO3a9Gyh2sg</span></a></span><o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal style='line-height:115%;vertical-align:baseline'><span style='font-size:12.0pt;line-height:115%;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:black'> </span><o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal style='line-height:115%;vertical-align:baseline'><b><span style='font-size:12.0pt;line-height:115%;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:black'> </span></b><o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal style='line-height:115%;vertical-align:baseline'><b><span style='font-size:12.0pt;line-height:115%;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:black'>Information about 2025 - 2026 Fellowships</span></b><o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal style='line-height:115%;vertical-align:baseline'><span style='font-size:12.0pt;line-height:115%;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:black'> If you would like information about our Fellowships please visit our websites. We will be accepting applications soon.</span><o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal style='line-height:115%;vertical-align:baseline'><span style='font-size:12.0pt;line-height:115%;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:black'> </span><o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal style='line-height:115%;vertical-align:baseline'><b><span style='font-size:12.0pt;line-height:115%;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:black'>Postdoctoral Fellowships: </span></b><span style='font-size:12.0pt;line-height:115%;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:black'><a href="https://www.centerphilsci.pitt.edu/programs/postdoc-fellowships/program-overview/"><span style='border:none windowtext 1.0pt;padding:0in'>https://www.centerphilsci.pitt.edu/programs/postdoc-fellowships/program-overview/</span></a></span><o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal style='line-height:115%;vertical-align:baseline'><span style='font-size:12.0pt;line-height:115%;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:black'> </span><o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal style='line-height:115%;vertical-align:baseline'><b><span style='font-size:12.0pt;line-height:115%;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:black'>Visiting Fellows Program:</span></b><span style='font-size:12.0pt;line-height:115%;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:black'> <a href="https://www.centerphilsci.pitt.edu/programs/visiting-fellows/program-overview/"><span style='border:none windowtext 1.0pt;padding:0in'>https://www.centerphilsci.pitt.edu/programs/visiting-fellows/program-overview/</span></a></span><o:p></o:p></p><div><p class=MsoNormal style='line-height:115%;vertical-align:baseline'><span style='font-size:12.0pt;line-height:115%;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:black'> </span><o:p></o:p></p></div><p class=MsoNormal> <o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p></div></body></html>