[PhilPhys] CFP - Deadline January 15, 2026 - Social Ontology and Empirical Inquiry: Conflicts and Connections

[Center for Phil Sci]

*Social Ontology and Empirical Inquiry: Conflicts and Connections*
https://www.centerphilsci.pitt.edu/event/social-ontology-and-empirical-inquiry-conflicts-and-connections/
April 11, 2026 - April 12, 2026
Center for Philosophy of Science, University of Pittsburgh
We are pleased to announce a two-day interdisciplinary workshop hosted by
the Center for Philosophy of Science at the University of Pittsburgh,
focusing on the intersection of social metaphysics and empirical research
in the social sciences.
The workshop aims to foster dialogue between philosophers and social
scientists who are interested in the nature of social reality and in how
conceptual and empirical approaches to understanding it can be fruitfully
integrated.
Social scientists and philosophers have long sought to clarify what it
means for entities such as races, genders, institutions, and social
structures to exist and to act. Meanwhile, empirically-oriented social
scientists have developed increasingly sophisticated methods for measuring,
modeling, and explaining such phenomena. This workshop will bring these
conversations together to explore the conflicts and
connections between conceptual–theoretical
frameworks and empirical–methodological practices in the study of the
social world.
Organizing Committee
Kareem Khalifa, UCLA
Edouard Machery, University of Pittsburgh
Mark Risjord, Emory
David Thorstad, Vanderbilt

Guiding Questions
What kinds of things are social entities—individuals, groups, institutions,
norms, and categories such as race and gender?
How can such entities be both socially constructed and real?
What is the relationship between social ontology and social measurement?
How should metaphysical theories about the nature of the social world
inform, or be informed by, empirical research designs?
Do social explanations involve forms of causation, mechanism,
or structure that differ from those in the natural sciences?
How can philosophical analysis of social kinds enrich empirical debates
about classification, comparability, and operationalization?

Confirmed Keynotes
The program will include keynote talks and panels by
both philosophers and social scientists, including scholars such as:
Petri Ylikoski (University of Helsinki)
Brian Epstein (Tufts University)
Aliya Saperstein (Stanford University)

Format
The workshop will include:
30-minute contributed presentations (20 minutes presentation + 10 minutes
Q&A)
Keynote lectures by invited speakers
A roundtable discussion on future directions in social ontology and
empirical research
------------------------------
Call For Abstracts
Submission Instructions
Please submit an anonymized abstract of no more than 500 words (excluding
references) to
empirical.social.ontology at gmail.com.
by January 15, 2026 (midnight anywhere on earth).
Notifications of acceptance will be sent by February 15, 2026.
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