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STS Haldane Lecture
16 March 2016, at 6pm
Professor Helen Longino (Clarence Irving Lewis Professor of Philosophy, Stanford University), ‘Underdetermination in science: a dirty little secret?’
Location: UCL Roberts Lecture Theatre
http://www.ucl.ac.uk/maps/roberts-building
Booking
This event is free but please book a place via EventBrite
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/sts-haldane-lecture-tickets-21717943955
Abstract
There have been two interpretations of the underdetermination of theory by evidence: one unthreatening and the other threatening to claims of objectivity. Philosophers have often minimized the challenge of underdetermination by focusing on the unthreatening interpretation. After clarifying the difference between these interpretations, I describe three features of contemporary science in which threatening underdetermination is a significant factor. If proposed solutions, such as taking the social turn, do not restore traditional objectivity, what are the consequences for the cognitive authority of the sciences?
About the speaker
Professor Helen Longino is one of the leading philosophers of science in the world. Works such as Science as Social Knowledge: Values and Objectivity in Scientific Inquiry (Princeton 1990), The Fate of Knowledge (Princeton 2002), and her paper ‘Can there be a feminist science?’ Hypatia (1987), have proved of deep influence in the field, as well as for STS more broadly. She has taught at UCSD, Mills College, Rice University, the University of Minnesota, before arriving at Stanford University in 2005. She completed her PhD at Johns Hopkins University in 1973, and a MA in Philosophy at the University of Sussex in 1967. Her most recent book is Studying Human Behavior: How Scientists Investigate Aggression and Sexuality (Chicago 2013).
What are the Haldane Lectures?
STS launched the Haldane Lectures in 2014 in honour of UCL Professor JBS Haldane, a polymath not only in the life sciences but also in science communication and science policy. We aim to hold two Haldane Lectures each year, one in History and Philosophy of Science; another, in Science and Society.
All welcome