Max Planck Institute for the History of Science, Berlin
Workshop "Revisiting Discovery and Justification"
Organized by Jutta Schickore (Cambridge, UK) and Friedrich Steinle
(MPIWG Berlin)
28 February - 2 March 2002
For further information, please consult the website
www.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/EVENTS.HTM
For registration, please contact
Friedrich Steinle: [log in to unmask]
Jutta Schickore: [log in to unmask]
Topic
The distinction between the contexts of discovery and justification
has troubled the relation between history and philosophy of science.
Philosophers have utilized it to exclude historical as well as
sociological and psychological studies of science from philosophical
reflection. Historians have argued that the distinction produces a
distorted image of the scientific enterprise. Many of the
difficulties, however, result from a conflation of different versions
and aspects of the distinction or from misunderstandings of the work
it was intended to do. To prepare the ground for a productive
exchange between philosophers and historians of science, we re-open
the debate about the nature, development, and significance of the
context distinction. The contributions to the workshop reconstruct
the various versions of the distinction in their respective
historical and argumentative environment and consider their
functions, merits, and flaws. The workshop explores alternative
approaches and future perspectives of an historically informed
philosophy of science.
Preliminary Program
Thursday, 28 February
Morning session. Chair: Friedrich Steinle (Berlin)
9:00 Welcome and Introduction
9:30 Moritz Epple (Bonn):
Analytical Invention, Synthetic Proof: Some Remarks on
Newton's Version of an Ancient Topos
10:35 Coffee break
10:55 Jutta Schickore (Cambridge, UK):
The Context Distinction as a Focal Point for HPS? William
Whewell's Project of a History and Philosophy
of the Inductive Sciences
12:00 Lunch
Afternoon session. Chair: Lothar Schaefer (Hamburg)
13:30 Friedrich Stadler (Vienna, Austria)
Challenging the Dogma of the “Ahistorical Vienna Circle":
Some Lessons From the New Historiography
on Logical Empiricism
14:35 Coffee break
15:05 Don Howard (Notre Dame, IN):
Lost Wanderers in the Forest of Knowledge: Some Advice on How
to Think about the Relation between
Discovery and Justification
16:10 Alessandra Allegrini (Bologna, Italy):
The Feminist Question in Science: Reichenbach's Distinction
and Feminism.
17:15 Break
17:30 Comment: Thomas Nickles (Reno, NV)
Friday, 1 March
Morning session. Chair: Martin Kusch (Berlin / Cambridge, UK)
9:00 Paul Hoyningen-Huene (Hannover):
On the Varieties of the Distinction Between the Context of
Discovery and the Context of Justification
10:05 Gregor Schiemann (Tuebingen):
The Future of Refutation. On the Significance of
Reichenbach's Distinction
11:10 Coffee break
11:40 Davis Baird (Columbia, SC):
Detached Thing Knowledge
12:45 Comment: Hans Poser (Berlin)
Saturday, 2 March
Morning session. Chair: Giora Hon (Haifa, Israel)
9:00 Thomas Potthast (Madison, WI):
From "Mental Isolates" to "Self-Organization" and Back:
Justifying and Discovering the Nature of
Ecosystems
10:05 Lindley Darden (College Park, MD):
Discovering Mechanisms: Construction, Evaluation, and Revision
11:10 Coffee break
11:40 Jessica Carter (Odense, Denmark):
Questions in the Philosophy of Mathematics Illuminated by a
Historical Case
12:45 Lunch
Afternoon session. Chair: Jutta Schickore (Cambridge, UK)
14:15 Theodore Arabatzis (Athens, Greece):
On the Inextricability of the Context of Discovery and the
Context of Justification
15:20 Coffee break
15:50 Friedrich Steinle (Berlin):
Discovering? Justifying? Experiments in History and
Philosophy of Science
16:55 Comment: Richard Burian (Blacksburg, VA)
