Second Call: First Principles in Science, June 10-11, 2016 at LMU Munich
The Munich
Center for Mathematical Philosophy invites papers for the
following event:
FIRST PRINCIPLES IN
SCIENCE: THEIR EPISTEMIC STATUS AND JUSTIFICATION
MCMP, LMU Munich
10-11 June 2016
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What is the
epistemic status of first principles in science and how do
scientists justify them accordingly? These are the central
questions that will be discussed at this workshop. So far,
discussions about first principles and their justification in
science have focused largely on the natural sciences. For
example, philosophical debates around Poincaré’s conventionalism
or the relativized a priori are usually grounded in
concrete case studies from physics. Yet, first principles occupy
an equally important, yet controversial, role in other natural
and as well in the social sciences, where their status and
epistemic role raise similar concerns, economics and psychology
being only two cases in point. For example, it has been widely
discussed that economic theories rest upon first principles of
human behavior that have long been fiercely defended by
economists and justified in various different ways. Yet, at the
same time, they have been attacked and in some cases even
replaced by behavioral economists. The workshop aims at renewing
the existing discussions on the status and justification of
first principles in sciences by expanding them to cases beyond
physics into economics, psychology, biology and chemistry. This
will help us to better understand the way in which first
principles are used and justified in the natural and the social
sciences alike, and thereby address more general questions
concerning the way in which knowledge is produced in these
disciplines.
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CALL FOR ABSTRACTS:
We welcome papers within the aims of the workshop,
both from a historical and contemporary perspective, from a wide
range of disciplines. We will select up to 4 contributed talks.
Abstracts of no more than 500 words should be submitted
to firstprinciples@lrz.uni-
DEADLINE FOR SUBMISSION:
31 January 2016
DATE OF NOTIFICATION: 07
February 2016
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INVITED SPEAKERS:
· Robin Hendry (Durham)
· Catherine Herfeld (MCMP, LMU)
· Kevin Hoover (Duke)
· Liz Irvine (Cardiff)
· Milena Ivanova (MCMP, LMU)
· Samir Okasha (Bristol)
· Michael Stöltzner (South Carolina)
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For further information please contact Catherine
Herfeld or Milena Ivanova under: firstprinciples@lrz.