First CFP: "The History of Science and Contemporary Scientific Realism" Conference, Indianapolis, USA (19-21 Feb 2016)

The History of Science and Contemporary Scientific Realism – Call for Papers

 19th-21st February 2016

Indiana University–Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI)


This is a call for papers for a 3-day conference on the theme of the history of science and contemporary scientific realism. The meeting will bring together a balance of historians of science and philosophers of science, aiming for genuine interaction and cross-fertilisation of research between the disciplines.

Themes of the conference include:

· Shedding light on episodes in the history of science (both distant and recent) which currently have received little attention in the scientific realism debate. Especially cases where historical actors had significant explanatory/predictive successes with a theory now rejected.

· Bringing historical case studies from the history of science to bear on philosophical positions, especially those coming under the broad heading of ‘scientific realism’. We especially welcome papers that engage with ‘selective’ or ‘divide et impera’ realism.


Keynote speakers:

·      Jed Buchwald

·      Anjan Chakravartty

·      Helge Kragh

·      Stathis Psillos

·      P. Kyle Stanford

·      Jutta Schickore

·      Betty Smocovitis

Abstracts of no more than 500 words should be emailed to peter.vickers@durham.ac.uk, by November 20th 2015 at the latest. Decisions will be made very soon thereafter. Submissions from historians of science are especially encouraged. We aim for a 50:50 balance of history of science and philosophy of science talks.


Yafeng Shan
Research Assistant
Department of Philosophy
Durham University