ELFT HÍRADÓ

["Laszlo E. Szabo" <leszabo AT hps.elte.hu>]

Department of HISTORY AND PHILOSOPHY OF SCIENCE
Eotvos University, Budapest
Pazmany P. setany 1/A Budapest
Phone/Fax: (36-1) 372 2924
Department's Home Page:http://hps.elte.hu

Philosophy of Science Colloquium
Room 6.54 (6th floor) Monday 4:00 PM
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June Program

3 June  4:00 PM   6th floor 6.54

László E. Szabó
Theoretical Physics Research Group of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences
Department of History and Philosophy of Science
Eötvös University, Budapest

A kauzalitás ontológiai felfogása
(Ontological theory of causality)

Az okság Hume-i analíziséből kiindulva kritikailag áttekintjük a 
kauzalitás episztemikus, modális és valószínűségi felfogását. Kicsit 
bővebben időzünk Lewis kontrafaktuális analízisénél és  a "véletlen 
együttjárás" -ra vonatkozó ismert Sober-példánál. Ezt követően 
argumentumokat  hangoztatunk az okság ontológiai felfogása mellett 
(Salmon és Russell nyomdokain haladva). Vegül megbeszéljük a kauzalitás 
és a korreláció viszonyát.


10 June   4:00 PM   6th floor 6.54
Language of presentation: English
Friedrich Steinle
Institute for Philosophy, Bern University
Max-Planck-Institute for the History of Science, Berlin

Discovering? Justifying?
Experiments in History and Philosophy of Science

The philosophical 'standard view' on experiment - finding the only 
epistemic function of experiment in the tests of well-formulated 
hypotheses - is closely connected to an implicit or explicit distinction 
of the contexts of discovery and justification. Recent studies, however, 
have opened more differentiated perspectives. In particular, there is a 
specific type of experiments discernible which I call "exploratory." 
Typically, it occurs in situations in which there is not only no theory 
available, but even the very concepts and categories of a subject field 
are opened to revision. Periods of exploratory experimentation often end 
up with a new conceptualization of the field, providing new outlooks 
and, at the same time, rendering other ones literally unspeakable.
Exploratory experimentation can be contrasted to a more theory-driven 
type in many respects epistemic, procedural, instrumental, situative. 
Though it might be tempting to attribute those two types again to a 
dichotomy between discovery and justification, a closer look makes clear 
that such a view is inappropriate. At the same time, fundamental 
shortcomings of that distinction itself become visible. In my talk, I 
shall both explicate those claims in general terms and substantiate them 
by cases of experimental research in the history of electricity. 
Moreover, I shall propose a more promising perspective onto research 
practice and discuss where and why some type of discovery-justification 
distinction might well be appropriate.



___________________________________

The 60-minute lecture is followed by a 5-minute break. Then
we held a 30-60-minute discussion.The participants may comment the talks and
initiate discussion on the Internet. The comments should be written in the
language of the presentation.

The organizer of the colloquium:
Laszlo E. Szabo (email: 
leszabo AT hps.elte.hu)

--
Laszlo E. Szabo
Department of Theoretical Physics
Department of History and Philosophy of Science
Eotvos University, Budapest
H-1518 Budapest, Pf. 32, Hungary
Phone/Fax: (36-1)372-2924
Home: (36-1) 200-7318
Mobil/SMS: (36) 20-366-1172
http://hps.elte.hu/~leszabo