CFP: HOPOS 2016 (Minneapolis)

June 22-25, 2016, Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA
http://hopos2016.umn.edu/


Keynote Speakers

Karine Chemla, REHSEIS, CNRS, and Université Paris Diderot

Thomas Uebel, University of Manchester

HOPOS: The International Society for the History of Philosophy of Science will hold its eleventh international congress in Minneapolis, on June 22-25, 2016.  The Society hereby requests proposals for papers and for symposia to be presented at the meeting.  HOPOS is devoted to promoting research on the history of the philosophy of science. We construe this subject broadly, to include topics in the history of related disciplines and in all historical periods, studied through diverse methodologies. In order to encourage scholarly exchange across the temporal reach of HOPOS, the program committee especially encourages submissions that take up philosophical themes that cross time periods. If you have inquiries about the conference or about the submission process, please write to Maarten van Dyck: maarten.vandyck [at] ugent.be.

SUBMISSION DEADLINE: January 4, 2016

To submit a proposal for a paper or symposium, please visit the conference website: http://hopos2016.umn.edu/call-submissions

CFP: Values in Medicine, Science, and Technology 2015

Announcing the 5th Annual

Values in Medicine, Science, and Technology Conference

At the Center for Values in Medicine, Science, and Technology
The University of Texas at Dallas
May 19-22, 2015

Keynote Speaker:

• Sharyn Clough (Oregon State)
  • Author of Beyond Epistemology: A Pragmatist Approach to Feminist Science Studies

Science, technology, and medicine have a major impact on our lives. We live with constant technological innovation and scientific discovery, and this changes the conditions that we live in, as well as the way we understand ourselves and the world around us. Science, technology, and medicine are thus entangled with our values, our culture, and our politics, and they have an important impact on policymaking and action. Making value judgments is important to the way that we fund, conduct, evaluate, and apply scientific research.

We invite proposals for papers that engage with these issues from a variety of disciplinary and theoretical approaches, including philosophy of science, technology, & medicine, epistemology, ethics and political philosophy, history, science and technology studies, policy studies, and natural and social sciences.

This year's conference will have three target themes:

1. Gender, sex, and sexuality in science, technology, and medicine
2. Science and values in the work of Paul K. Feyerabend, on the occasion of the 40th anniversary of Against Method
3. Distinguishing legitimate from illegitimate roles for values in science

We welcome any paper and panel proposals in the broad area of values in medicine, science, and technology, but we will give priority to proposals on these target themes.

Suggested topics for papers and panels include:

• The value of diversity in epistemic communities
• Sexism, heterosexism, or transphobia in technology culture
• Sex and gender in medical research or practice
• Feminist critique of gender differences research
• Feyerbend's relationship to feminist philosophy of science
• Feyerabend on science, values, and democracy
• The indirect/direct role distinction
• The ideal of well-ordered science
• The cognitive status of values and value judgments

We will consider proposals for individual papers, but also thematic panel sessions and more informal formats. Please feel free to contact us early to discuss potential panel formats at values@utdallas.edu

For contributed papers, please submit a 250-500 word abstract. For symposia and other multi-participant panels, submit an abstract up to 250 words describing the topic of the panel and descriptions of up to 100 words describing each participant's contribution.

Submit your proposals here.

Please do not submit more than once for each presentation format (so you can submit as part of a group symposium as well as an individual paper, but not two papers). Participants will generally only be able to appear on the program once in any capacity. Papers that are not accepted for presentation will be automatically considered in our open roundtables session.

Deadline is 1st of February 2015.

The Center for Values in Medicine, Science, and Technology works to foster diversity and inclusiveness in our programming, events, and outreach efforts. Proposal authors and panel organizers will be asked to submit an optional 50-100 word diversity statement to explain their commitment and contributions to diversity in their proposal and in general. Conference proposals will be reviewed for quality, but final programming decisions will be made with diversity and inclusiveness in mind. Contributed paper proposals will be anonymously reviewed at all stages, whereas final decisions on organized panel proposals may consider identity of the panelists.

Conference facilities will be wheelchair accessible, and interpreters for the deaf and hard of hearing can be provided upon request. For any questions about the conference, please contact values@utdallas.edu

The Center for Values in Medicine, Science, and Technology is an institutional member of the Consortium for Socially Relevant Philosophy of/in Science and/or Engineering (SRPoiSE).

CFP: Philosophy of the Social Sciences (Venice, September 2013)

THE EUROPEAN NETWORK FOR THE PHILOSOPHY OF THE SOCIAL SCIENCES & THE PHILOSOPHY OF SOCIAL SCIENCE ROUNDTABLE

Call for Papers:

First joint European/American Conference University of Venice Ca' Foscari
3-4 September, 2013

The European Network for the Philosophy of the Social Sciences and the Phil= osophy of Social Science Roundtable invite contributions to their first joi= nt conference. Contributions from all areas within the philosophy of the so= cial sciences, from both philosophers and social scientists, are encouraged= .

Keynote speakers:

  *   Cristina Bicchieri (University of Pennsylvania)
  *   Nancy Cartwright (University of Durham/ University of California San =
Diego)

Submissions:

  *   An abstract of no more than 1000 words suitably prepared for blind re=
viewing should be submitted electronically through the Easychair system at =
  https://www.easychair.org/conferences/?conf=3Denpossrt2013. Only one abst= ract per person may be submitted.
  *   Deadline for submission: 27 January, 2013
  *   Date of notification of acceptance: 15 March, 2013

Local organizers:

  *   Eleonora Montuschi, Luigi Perissinotto (University of Venice Ca' Fosc=
ari, Dept. of Philosophy and Cultural Heritage, Philosophy Section).

Conference homepage:
For more information about the conference see www.enposs.eu<http://www.enpo= ss.eu>

Publication:

  *   Selected papers from the Conference will be published in an annual sp=
ecial issue of the journal Philosophy of the Social Sciences

ENPOSS:
The purpose of the European Network of Philosophy of the Social Sciences is=  to promote, encourage and facilitate academic discussion and research in t= he philosophy of the social sciences broadly conceived.
Steering Committee: Alban Bouvier (Paris), Byron Kaldis (Athens), Thomas Ue= bel (Manchester), Julie Zahle (Copenhagen), and Jes=FAs Zamora-Bonilla (Mad= rid).

PSSRT:

The Philosophy of Social Science Roundtable serves as a forum for communica= tion among philosophers and social scientists who share an interest in disc= ussion of epistemology, explanatory paradigms, and methodologies of the soc= ial sciences.

Programme Committee: James Bohman (St. Louis), Mark Risjord (Atlanta), Paul=  Roth (Santa Cruz), Stephen Turner (Tampa), Alison Wylie (Seattle)

CFP: Models and Decisions (Munich, April 2013)

***************************************

6th Munich-Sydney-Tilburg conference on

MODELS AND DECISIONS

Munich Center for Mathematical Philosophy

10-12 April 2013

http://www.lmu.de/ModelsAndDecisions2013

****************************************
Mathematical and computational models are central to decision-making in a wide-variety of contexts in science and policy: They are used to assess the risk of large investments, to evaluate the merits of alternative medical therapies, and are often key in decisions on international policies – climate policy being one of the most prominent examples. In many of these cases, they assist in drawing conclusions
from complex assumptions. While the value of these models is undisputed, their increasingly widespread use raises several philosophical questions: What makes scientific models so important? In which way do they describe, or even explain their target systems? What makes models so reliable? And: What are the imports, and the limits, of using models in policy making? This conference will bring together philosophers of science, economists, statisticians and policy makers to discuss these
and related questions. Experts from a variety of field will exchange first-hand experience and insights in order to identify the assets and the pitfalls of model-based decision-making. The conference will also address and evaluate the increasing role of model-based research in scientific practice, both from a practical and from a philosophical point of view.

We invite submissions of extended abstracts of 1000 words by 15 December 2012. Decisions will be made by 15 January 2013.

KEYNOTE SPEAKERS: Luc Bovens (LSE), Itzhak Gilboa (Paris and Tel Aviv),
Ulrike Hahn (Birkbeck), Michael Strevens (NYU), and Claudia Tebaldi (UBC)

ORGANIZERS: Mark Colyvan, Paul Griffiths, Stephan Hartmann, Kaerin
Nickelsen, Roland Poellinger, Olivier Roy, and Jan Sprenger

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 2013. The maximal paper length is 7000 words.

GRADUATE FELLOWSHIPS: A few travel bursaries for graduate students are
available (up to 500 Euro). See the website for details.

CFP: Ontology and Methodology (May 2013, Virginia Tech)

FIRST CALL FOR CONTRIBUTED PAPERS FOR CONFERENCE:

Ontology and Methodology

http://www.ratiocination.org/OM2013/

Dates: May 4-5, 2013

Special invited speakers:

David Danks (CMU), Peter Godfrey-Smith (CUNY), Kevin Hoover (Duke),

Laura Ruetsche (U. Mich.), James Woodward (Pitt)

Virginia Tech speakers:

Benjamin Jantzen, Deborah Mayo, Lydia Patton, Aris Spanos

•  How do scientists’ initial conjectures about the entities and processes under their scrutiny influence the choice of variables, the structure of mature scientific theories, and methods of interpretation of those theories? 
•  How do methods of data generation, statistical modeling, and analysis influence the construction and appraisal of theories at multiple levels?
• How does historical analysis of the development of scientific theories illuminate the interplay between scientific methodology, theory building, and the interpretation of scientific theories?

This conference brings together prominent philosophers of biology, computational cognitive science, causation, economics, and physics engaged in research into these interconnected methodological and ontological questions.

We invite contributed papers that illuminate these issues as they arise in general philosophy of science, in causal explanation and modeling, in the philosophy of experiment and statistics, and in the history and philosophy of science. We anticipate covering accommodation costs for accepted contributed papers.

Deadline for submissions: January 15, 2013

For further information on submitting a paper or extended abstract, please visit the conference website: http://www.ratiocination.org/OM2013/.

Organizers:    Benjamin Jantzen, Deborah Mayo, Lydia Patton

Sponsors:       The Virginia Tech Department of Philosophy and the Fund for Experimental Reasoning, Reliability, and the Objectivity and Rationality of Science (E.R.R.O.R.)

CFP: Dimensions of Measurement (Bielefeld, March 2013)

A philosophical and historical conference on "Dimensions of Measurement" will take place March 14 to 16, 2013, in Bielefeld, Germany.

Plenary speakers are Marcel Boumans, Hasok Chang, Nadine de Courtenay, Laura Dassow Walls, Michael Heidelberger, Martin Kusch, Luca Mari, Joel Michell, Mary Morgan, Simon Schaffer, and Eran Tal.

The conference will explore aspects of measurement in the natural, engineering, social, and human sciences and from a variety of philosophical perspectives with Weberian, Foucauldian, logical empiricist, phenomenological, social constructivist and other traditions converging on questions of method, of standardization, of world-making in measurement.

Submissions for individual contributions or symposia (three or four papers) are invited - see www.bicoda.info for a more detailed call for papers. Submit abstracts for individual contributions (400-500 words) or symposia (1000-1200 words) at
https://www.easychair.org/conferences/?conf=dom2013  

Deadline: October 30, 2012 (notifications will be sent December 1).

For further information and suggestions, contact the conference organizers Alfred Nordmann (nordmann@phil.tu-darmstadt.de) and Oliver Schlaudt (oliver.schlaudt@urz.uni-heidelberg.de).

---

CFP: Science-Policy Interactions and Social Values

UPDATE: The deadline is extended to February 15, 2012!

Center for Values in Medicine, Science, and Technology conference on

Science-Policy Interactions and Social Values

at the University of Texas at Dallas
April 13-14th, 2012


Keynote Speaker: Kevin Elliott, University of South Carolina


The Center for Values in Medicine, Science, and Technology seeks proposals for papers and symposia for a conference to wrap up our 2011-2012 public lecture series on "Funded and Forbidden Knowledge: Science, Politics, and Cultural Values." The conference will be interdisciplinary, engaging the areas of science and technology studies, history and philosophy of science, science and technology policy studies, ethics and political philosophy, and science policy in exploring the interactions between science and policy-making, with special attention to the role of values in those interactions.

In these areas of scholarship, several categories of discussion concerning science and policy have emerged. Some focus on the role of science in the policy process, while others look at the inverse relationship of how politics influence scientific research. Some approach the topic in a very empirically grounded and particularistic fashion, while others take a normative approach and aim for general accounts. While there have been important interdisciplinary conferences in this area, the scholarship remains somewhat disjointed and piecemeal, whereas tackling the major issues in this area requires thinking across such boundaries. This conference will emphasize that the relationship between science and politics is mutually influential rather than unidirectional; it will emphasize the importance of normative or critical approaches that are also empirically grounded in the practice of science and realities of political institutions. We seek submissions that bring to the forefront issues of values in science-policy interactions.

Suggested topics (not an exhaustive list):

 * Democratization of science
 * Evidence-based policy
 * Policy and the value-free ideal of science
 * Forms of scientific and political representation
 * Theories of scientific expertise
 * Models of science advising
 * History of science policy
 * Lessons from environmental policy-making
 * Scientific expertise and political advocacy
 * Commercialization of science and the public good
 * The aims of science and choice of research priorities
 * Science and justice in political institutions
 * Science, non-scientific views, and public reason
 * Expertise and elitism in democratic deliberation
 * Science and democracy in comparative and international contexts
 * The influence of science on ethical values, and political ideals
 * Obstacles to socially or politically responsible science

We're especially interested in proposals that cross the boundaries between already-established research programs.


Submissions

You should submit your proposal to

http://tinyurl.com/ScienceValues2012

We welcome submissions of both individual paper proposals and proposals for symposia and other multi-participant panel formats. For contributed papers, please submit a 250-500 word abstract. For symposia and other multi-participant panels, submit an abstract up to 250 words describing the panel and descriptions of up to 100 words describing each participant's contribution.

Submissions are due February 15 January 5, and decisions will be announced by early February.

Send any questions to centerforvaluesutdallas@gmail.com


Organizing Committee

Matthew J. Brown, UT Dallas - Philosophy of Science
Richard Scotch, UT Dallas - Economic, Political, and Policy Sciences
Magdalena Grohman, UT-Dallas - Psychology
Sabrina Starnaman, UT-Dallas - Literary Studies

Program Committee

Heather Douglas, University of Waterloo - Philosophy of Science, Science Policy
Kevin Elliott, University of South Carolina - Philosophy of Science, Applied Ethics
Mark B. Brown, CSU Sacremento - Political Science
Jeremy Farris, Harvard Law School - Political Philosophy

CfP: Workshop on Theoretical Virtues in Theory-Choice

CALL FOR PAPERS: WORKSHOP ON THEORETICAL VIRTUES IN THEORY-CHOICE

University of Konstanz, 12th– 14th July 2012


SPEAKERS:
Elena Castellani (Florence), Malcolm Forster (Madison), Stephan Hartmann
(Tilburg), Giora Hon (Haifa), James McAllister (Leiden), John Norton
(Pittsburgh), Samuel Schindler (Aarhus), Elliott Sober (Madison), Dana
Tulodziecki (Missouri), and Jereon van Dongen (Utrecht).


We invite submissions of abstracts (500 words) of papers of
approximately 30 minutes presentation time. The deadline for submissions
is March 15, 2012. Please upload your submissions at
https://www.easychair.org/conferences/?conf=tvtc2012. Preference will be
given to graduate students and/or female speakers. The decisions will be
announced by April 1, 2012.

Travel and accommodation costs will be (partially) defrayed by the
organizers.


It is a well-known fact that theoretical virtues such as consistency,
unifying power, simplicity, coherence, fertility, and even elegance and
beauty play an important role in scientific theory-choice. Philosophers
are divided over how to interpret this. Early scientific realists held
that some theoretical virtues are epistemic virtues, but this view never
gained wide acceptance among philosophers. Instead, theoretical virtues
have long been treated as pragmatic virtues. Recent developments,
however, warrant renewed attention to theoretical virtues. In the model
selection literature, for instance, it has been argued that the
theoretical virtue of simplicity grounds the predictive power of models.
It is furthermore claimed that simplicity needs to be traded-off against
descriptive ‘fit’. That different theoretical virtues need to be
traded-off against each other is course also a claim made by T.S. Kuhn.
Kuhn furthermore held that the weight assigned to each virtue in
theory-choice very much depends on personal preferences, rendering
theory-choice a highly subjective matter. A recent application of
Arrow’s impossibility theorem to the problem of theory-choice has
invited even less optimistic conclusions than these. But is
theory-choice in science really as irrational as these considerations
seem to imply? Might the traditional realist view about theoretical
virtues being truth-conducive be resurrected in any way? Should our
theories of confirmation not reflect the import of theoretical virtues
in the practice of science? How can notoriously vague virtues such as
simplicity, coherence, and fertility be made more precise? These are
just some of the questions this workshop will try to elucidate.

The workshop is organized by Samuel Schindler (Aarhus), Giora Hon
(Haifa/Konstanz), and James McAllister (Leiden). The workshop has been
kindly sponsored by the Zukunftskolleg at the University of Konstanz.

The conference website can be found at: http://tinyurl.com/TVTC2012.

Please send any queries to samuel.schindler@ivs.au.dk.

CFP: MODELS AND SIMULATIONS 5 (Helsinki)

Helsinki, 14-16 June 2012

The Finnish Centre of Excellence in the Philosophy of the Social Sciences is delighted to host the 5th Models and Simulations (MS5) conference in Helsinki.

Conference website: http://www.helsinki.fi/ms5

The previous MS meetings have taken place in Paris, Tilburg, Charlottesville, and Toronto. As before, the overall theme of the conference will be the philosophical and methodological issues of simulations and models, broadly construed.

Papers on any aspect of this theme are welcome from both philosophers and practicing scientists. One focus of the 5th meeting will be on models and simulations within and across the social sciences. Of course, submissions of papers related to the natural sciences in particular and modeling and simulating in general are also welcome. Possible topics include the following: Models, simulations, and scientific representation. Models, simulations, and scientific explanation. Fictions vs. idealizations. The role of simplicity, generality, robustness, unifying power, and other non-empirical epistemic virtues in modeling. Styles and conventions of modeling in different disciplines. Transfer of model templates and modelling methods across disciplinary boundaries. What kinds of inherent biases do model-based research heuristics involve? What standards should be used in assessing model-based expertise in policy applications? How to combine different sources of evidence within a model? How to render model-based evidence commensurable with other evidence?

Keynote speakers

•       Rosaria Conte (ISTC-CNR, Rome)
•       Mary Morgan (LSE)
•       Tim Benton (Leeds)


SUBMISSION OF ABSTRACTS

Abstracts of 100 words and extended abstracts of 800-1000 words

The deadline for submission is 5 February 2012

Abstract submission is electronic. To submit, please prepare a PDF file of your extended abstract. Make sure that the extended abstract is prepared for blind review. Then follow this link:

https://www.easychair.org/account/signin.cgi?conf=ms5

If you do not already have an EasyChair account, you first need to create one when you enter the site. When logged in, click on the new submission link. Include your 100 words abstract and upload the PDF file of your extended abstract. You will be able to revise your submission any number of times before the deadline.

For further information and inquiries, please contact jaakko.kuorikoski@helsinki.fi

CFP: 9th Annual Formal Epistemology Workshop

We are happy to announce that the Ninth Annual Formal Epistemology Workshop (FEW 2012) will be held in Munich, May 29 - June 1, 2012. This year's meeting is sponsored by the Munich Center for Mathematical Philosophy. The meeting will take place at the (stunningly beautiful) Nymphenburg Palace (compliments of the Carl Friedrich von Siemens Foundation).
Confirmed invited speakers include: Cristina Bicchieri, David Christensen, Igor Douven, Sarah Moss, Eric Pacuit, Rohit Parikh, Jeff Paris, Paul Pedersen, Wlodek Rabinowicz, Charlotte Werndl, and Robbie Williams.
We are accepting submissions for contributed papers. The deadline for submissions is January 15, 2012. Notifications will be sent out by March 15, 2012. Please send submissions to Branden Fitelson. A selection of papers presented at FEW 2012 will be published in a special issue of Erkenntnis.
Some funding will be available for graduate student participation. Please contact Hannes Leitgeb for more information.
There will be two special (afternoon) sessions at this year's FEW. The first will be a special session on Logic & Rationality, which will include talks by David Christensen and Robbie Williams, and the second will be a memorial session for Horacio Arló-Costa, which will include talks (pertaining to Horacio's various seminal philosophical contributions) by Cristina Bicchieri, Eric Pacuit, Rohit Parikh, and Paul Pedersen.
We will also have two (two part) tutorials, presented by Jeff Paris (inductive probability), and Charlotte Werndl (determinism, indeterminism, and underdetermination).
This year's local organizers are Hannes Leitgeb, Florian Steinberger, Vincenzo Crupi, and Ole Hjortland.
FEW 2012 is being funded by the Munich Center for Mathematical Philosophy.

CFP: PSX2—2nd International Workshop on the Philosophy of Scientific Experimentation (Konstanz, October 2011)

***********
PSX2—2nd International Workshop on the Philosophy of Scientific Experimentation

University of Konstanz, 21 – 22 October 2011
http://tinyurl.com/philexp2

**********

Experiments play an essential part in science. Not only are they used to test theories but they are also key to exploring new phenomenological realms, discovering new effects and phenomena. Nevertheless, experiments are still an underrepresented topic in main stream philosophy of science. The PSX workshop series therefore wants to give a home to philosophical interests in and concerns about experiment. Among the questions we want to discuss are the following: How is experimental practice organized, around theories or around something else? How independent is experimentation from theories? Does it have a life of its own? Can experiments undermine the threat posed to the objectivity of science by the thesis of theory-ladenness, underdetermination, or the Duhem-Quine thesis? What are the important similarities and differences between experiments in different sciences? What are the experimental strategies scientists use for making sure that their experiments work correctly? How are phenomena discovered or created in the laboratory? Is experimental knowledge epistemically more secure than observational knowledge? Can experiments give us good reasons for belief in theoretical entities? What role do computer simulations play in the assessment of experimental background noise? How trustworthy are they? Do they warrant the same kind of inferences as experimental knowledge?

Keynote speakers:
Deborah Mayo, Virginia Tech
Wendy Parker, Ohio University

We invite submissions of extended abstracts (1000 words) of papers of approximately 30 minutes presentation time. Please include your name, the title of the paper, your academic affiliation and your e-mail address in the submission. The deadline for submissions is June 1, 2011. Please direct your submissions to http://www.easychair.org/conferences/?conf=psx2. The decisions will be announced by July 15, 2011.

Organizing Committee: Samuel Schindler (chair), Allan Franklin, Deborah Mayo, John D. Norton, Wendy Parker, Slobodan Perovic, Marcel Weber.

Questions can be directed to samuel.schindler@uni-konstanz.de.

CfP: Philosophy and Theory in Biology

Philosophy & Theory in Biology, an online open access journal devoted to bringing together the philosophy of science and theoretical biology communities, seeks submissions for two special ongoing features: Trends and Crosstalk. "Trends" are in depth review (as opposed to original scholarship) papers on topics of current interest within the areas covered by the journal, while "Crosstalk" entries provide technical yet accessible articles written by biologists on topics of interest to philosophers, or by philosophers on topics of interest to biologists.

Submissions for ideas for Trends or Crosstalk papers can be sent to editors@philosophyandtheoryinbiology.org, and more information about the journal (including how to submit regular papers and book essays) can be found at philosophyandtheoryinbiology.org

Structure and Identity

The Arts and Humanities Research Council funded Foundations of Structuralism Project will host a major international conference this Summer that may be of interest to many subscribers to this blog (and please forward and post elsewhere as appropriate).

Structure and Identity

July 23rd-25th 2010, University of Bristol
Confirmed speakers include:
John Burgess
Katherine Hawley
Fraser MacBride
Charles Parsons
Simon Saunders
Stewart Shapiro

There will also be a programme of contributed papers. If you are interested in giving a paper please send a title and abstract of 500 words by 10th April 2010 to James Ladyman (james.ladyman@bristol.ac.uk)

To book your place please email Jess Dunton (j.dunton@bristol.ac.uk)

Questions to be addressed include:

• How is structuralism best characterised?:
  
• In terms of incompleteness (objects lack certain kinds of properties)?
  
• In terms of dependence (objects depend on each other or their structure for their existence and/or identity)?
• In terms of contextual individuation (objects are individuated relationally rather than intrinsically)?
• How are these characterizations related?
• Are structuralist views in metaphysics, for example, concerning properties and dispositions, justified?
• Does a structuralist view of mathematics provide the best account of mathematical practice and the ontology and epistemology of mathematics?
• Are elementary particles individuals? Do they satisfy the principle of the identity of indiscernibles?
• What are criteria of identity, and what adequacy conditions are appropriate for them?
• Should we be committed to some form of predicativity requirement and/or some form of identity of indiscernibles? What is individuation?
• Do we need a substantive account of how objects are individuated?
• How should the various metaphysical notions of dependence be analysed? What role will the notions of individuation and criteria of identity play in this analysis?
• What are the relations between notions of entity, object, individual, and substance? What implications would structuralism have for these notions?
• How does structuralism relate to ontological holism and to the thesis that there is no fundamental level to reality?
• What is the relationship between primitive identity or haecceity and haecceitism about worlds?

It is anticipated that a volume of papers from the conference will be published.


http://www.bristol.ac.uk/structuralism/conference-july10.html

CfP: The Architecture of Reality

CALL FOR PAPERS

The Architecture of Reality

Deadline for submissions: April 30, 2010

Advisory Editor: Matthew H. Slater (Bucknell University)

Humans are dividers and systematizers, confidently wielding the classificatory knife in the natural sciences and in metaphysics alike. But are we carving nature at its joints? We can identify distinct ‘horizontal’ and ‘vertical’ components to this basic question. Horizontal: Is the world ‘intrinsically jointed’? Are there natural properties or natural kinds? Are there natural units which instantiate these properties and kinds? Vertical: Is reality divided into levels? If so, is there a fundamental level comprising reality’s ultimate furniture? If not, what? Presumably, these two sets of questions intersect. But how, precisely? What, in short, is the architecture of reality? Might we require multiple ‘architectural plans’ to describe nature correctly, or would just one do? We invite contributions on both the ground- level metaphysical issues (proposals for particular architectures or particular approaches to plan-drawing) and to methodological issues concerning these efforts.

http://monist.buffalo.edu/callsforpapers.html#Architecture

CFP: European Complex Systems Society

As the deadline draws near for submission to the European Complex Systems Society meeting in September, interested philosophers should know that selected papers from the Philosophy of Science section will be included in a special issue of Foundations of Science on philosophy and complexity. You can send a six page paper by the Feb 15 deadline and then revise your paper for the special issue. More details here:
http://johnsymons.wordpress.com/2010/01/19/philosophy-and-complexity/

CFP: Special Issue of The Monist on Powers

The Monist

Powers

Deadline for Submissions: January 31, 2010
Advisory Editor: Neil Williams, University at Buffalo (new [at] buffalo.edu)

A sewing needle is swiped across a bar magnet, then pushed through a piece of cork and dropped into a glass of water. The needle will point immediately to the nearest pole. A female moth releases a small trace of sex pheromone; immediately males of the species up to two miles away will be attracted to her. The evidence for such causal powers is all around us. And as is shown in the response to the work of authors such as George Molnar and C. B. Martin, the thought that objects might be inherently powerful is on the rise. What is the nature of such causal powers? How are they to be characterised? What place do non-powers have within power-based ontologies? To what extent can powers be explanatory? Can powers exist entirely ungrounded? Contributions are invited addressing these and connected issues about the role and nature of powers.

CFP: Models and Simulations 4 (University of Toronto, May, 7-9 2010)

MODELS AND SIMULATIONS 4
University of Toronto
7-9 May 2010

The University of Toronto is delighted to be hosting Models and Simulations
4, the fourth in a series international conferences examining the nature and
use of scientific models and simulations across the natural and social
sciences.

Scientific models and computer simulations play numerous roles in the
sciences, but as a class of tools for use in the articulation of theory,
experiment, technological design and application, and prognostication for
purposes of public policy, they have only relatively recently come under
systematic scrutiny by the community of scholars in history and philosophy
of science. The conference aims to raise and investigate important questions
about the methodology of practices of modelling and computer simulation,
providing a forum for ongoing debates and new angles of approach, on such
topics as: how models and simulations are constructed; how they are
confirmed; how they may be understood to represent and explain worldly
phenomena; how they function in cutting-edge research; and how they
influence decision making in the arena of public policy.

Proposals for papers (in the form an extended abstract) are welcome from
both philosophers and scientists. For instructions regarding submission and
information on registration, travel, and accommodation, please visit the
conference website at http://www.hps.utoronto.ca/ms4/index.htm. The
conference language is English, and all submissions will be refereed. The
submission deadline is 20 November 2009.

Organizers

Anjan Chakravartty, University of Toronto
Margaret Morrison, University of Toronto

Program Committee

Anouk Barberousse, University of Paris
Robert Batterman, University of Western Ontario
Roman Frigg, London School of Economics
Stephan Hartmann, Tilburg University
Paul Humphreys, University of West Virginia
Philippe Huneman, University of Paris
Tarja Knuuttila, University of Helsinki
Ulrich Krohs, University of Hamburg
Uskali Mäki, University of Helsinki
Wendy Parker, Ohio University
Eric Winsberg, University of South Florida
Andrea Woody, University of Washington

CfP: Objectivity in Science (UBC, June 17-20, 2010)

Objectivity in Science

June 17-20, 2010

University of British Columbia

Over the past two decades questions have arisen regarding the objectivity of specific projects in or fields of science: for example, can we trust medical research when it is funded by pharmaceutical companies? Or, whose research in climate science meets the standards of scientific objectivity? Such questions have become important in framing public debate about science and science policy. At the same time, the objectivity of science has become an increasingly important topic among historians and philosophers of science as well as researchers in other fields in science and technology studies (STS) such as sociology of science, rhetoric of science, and cultural studies of science. This conference seeks to advance scholarly perspectives on the objectivity of science by bringing them into conversation with one another. The conference also asks whether and how such scholarly perspectives on objectivity might or should inform public debate. The conference will investigate, moreover, how the specific concerns of scientists, science policy experts, science journalists, and other groups might be made more salient in the research of the STS community.

The goal of this conference, thus, is to provide a forum for STS researchers of diverse disciplinary backgrounds, practicing scientists, and other researchers to discuss and debate issues concerning the nature of objectivity in science. A particular concern will be to discuss how, when, and why questions of objectivity arise within science, in science policy debates, and in public engagement with science. In addition to conference sessions held during the day, this conference will feature two evening panel discussions, open to the public and focused on particular areas of research wherein the issue of scientific objectivity is particularly salient. The public panel discussions will focus on questions of objectivity in collaborative aboriginal research and in research on harm reduction.

Confirmed keynote speakers include Professor Ian Hacking (University of Toronto and the Collège de France) and Professor Naomi Oreskes (University of California at San Diego).

CALL FOR PROPOSALS

We welcome individual paper and panel submissions related to the theme of scientific objectivity.

Proposals for papers should include author information (including email address), paper title, and an abstract of no more than 500 words. Speakers will have 30 minutes to present and discuss their work.

Proposals for panel sessions should include the name of the panel organizer (including email), a brief description of the panel, author information, paper titles, and abstracts for each paper. Panel sessions will be ninety minutes in duration, including discussion time.

Program Committee: Alan Richardson (UBC), Robert Brain (UBC), Candis Callison (UBC), Lesley Cormack (Simon Fraser University), Flavia Padovani (UBC), and Jonathan Tsou (Iowa State University).

The deadline for paper and panel submissions is December 1, 2009. Please email submissions to Dani Hallet at: objectivity2010@gmail.com

The Objectivity in Science Conference is sponsored by the Situating Science Cluster Grant:www.situsci.ca

CFP: HOPOS 2010, Budapest, June 24-27

HOPOS 2010, Budapest, Hungary, June 24-27

Call for Submissions
Deadline for Submissions: December 15, 2009.
Notification Date: February 28, 2010.

The conference is open to scholarly work on the history of philosophy of science from any disciplinary perspective. Submissions of abstracts of papers of approximately 25-30 minutes' reading length, and of symposia of three to four thematically related papers will be considered for the program. The members of the Program Committee are listed below.
Submissions should be sent as an email attachment directly to the appropriate Program Sub-Committee chair, either as a Word document or PDF file.
The conference language is English.

Proposals for papers should include:
• title and abstract of the paper (maximum 500 words)
• address of the participant, including e-mail, phone, and institution

Proposals for symposia should include:
• title of symposium
• symposium summary statement (maximum 500 words)
• titles and abstracts of papers (maximum 500 words for each paper)
• address of each participant, including e-mail, phone, and institution
• identification of symposium organizer, who will serve as contact person

Program Committee:
James Lennox (Pittsburgh), Chair ‘Kant and Before’ Sub-Committee
jglennox@pitt.edu
István Bodnar ( ELTE, Budapest)
George Gale (UMKC)
Helen Hattab (Houston)
Don Morrison (Rice, Houston)
Erik Watkins (UCSD)

Martin Carrier (Bielefeld), Chair ‘Post-Kant’ Sub-Committee
martin.carrier@uni-bielefeld.de
Jean Gayon (Paris)
Don Howard (Notre Dame)
David Hyder (Ottawa)
Jutta Schickore (Indiana)
Friedrich Stadler (Vienna)