Events
Filter
Filter Brown Bag Lectures
from
to

Brown Bag Lectures are informal, public talks that are followed by extensive dissussions. Speakers are KLI fellows or visiting researchers who are interested in presenting their work to an interdisciplinary audience and discussing it in a wider research context. The Brown Bag Lecture series was discontinued in 2014 with the KLI moving to its new premises in Klosterneuburg. In 2014 the KLI Colloquia were established as the new lecture series.

Event Details

KLI Brown Bag
Assessments of Underdetermination as an Element of Scientific Reasoning
Richard DAWID (University of Vienna)
2010-05-18 13:15 - 2010-05-18 13:15
KLI for Evolution and Cognition Research, Altenberg, Austria
Organized by KLI

Topic description:
The classical paradigm of scientific reasoning, which has mostly been modeled after physics, is based on the idea that a theory\'s viability must be established by empirical tests of its predictions. In contemporary high energy physics, this canonical picture is being transformed into a more complex and multifaceted understanding of theory evaluation. Theoretical reasoning based on assessments of the underdetermination of theory building becomes increasingly important and may be taken to establish theories as scientific knowledge about the world in the absence of empirical confirmation. While the described development looks surprising in the context of physics, similar kinds of scientific reasoning have always constituted normal scientific praxis in other fields of science. A look at the case of paleontology can provide a more general perspective on the status of theoretical theory assessment in science.

 

Biographical note:
Richard Dawid is a philosopher of science at the University of Vienna and the Institute Vienna Circle. He worked as a theoretical particle physicist in Munich, Vienna, and Berkeley before turning to philosophy. His work focuses on philosophy of physics and on wider philosophical analysis of topics like underdetermination and scientific realism.