International Conference: Modeling epistemic and scientific groups: interdisciplinary perspectives
- place: Nancy, France, MSH Lorraine
- date: November 25-26th 2013
- organizers: Thomas Boyer-Kassem (University Lille 3, STL & AHP), Henri Galinon (University Blaise Pascal, Clermont-Ferrand), Cyrille Imbert (CNRS, Archives Henri Poincaré, Nancy)
- workshop funded by MSH-Lorraine, axe 6 and Archives Poincaré, organized in the framework of the MSH research project COLEXIA
Presentation of the conference
In the last couple of years, investigations about epistemic and scientific groups have been pursued using a variety of formal methods and tools, such as epistemic logic, Bayesian approaches, multi-agent models, complex system studies or scientometrics, to quote just a few. In the same time, the analysis of groups, coalitions or networks is a field that is also being studied formally by disciplines like economics or computer science.The purpose of this workshop is to carry on these investigations in a friendly interdisciplinary spirit and to analyze how results may cross-fertilize researches in close fields.
There is no registration fee. People who would like to attend the workshop should send an email to thomas.boyer AROBASE univ-lille3.fr. Also, any other question should be sent to this address.
Speakers
- Francis Bloch (Ecole Polytechnique, France)
- Thomas Boyer-Kassem (University Lille 3, STL and AHP, France)
- David Chavalarias (CAMS/ISC-PIF, CNRS – EHESS, France)
- Hans van Ditmarsch (CNRS, LORIA, France)
- Igor Douven (University of Groningen, The Netherlands)
- Rainer Hegselmann (University of Bayreuth, Germany)
- Cyrille Imbert (CNRS, Archives Henri Poincaré, France)
- Jason McKenzie Alexander (LSE, UK)
- Cédric Patternotte (LMU, Munich Center for Mathematical Philosophy, Germany)
- Carlo Proietti (Lund University, Sweden)
- Andrea Scharnhorst (DANS, Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (KNAW), The Hague, The Netherlands)
- Krist Vaesen (Eindhoven University of Technology, The Netherlands)
Program.
Abstracts can be found here.
Monday 25 November
9h15-9h30: welcome
9h30-10h25: Jason McKenzie Alexander (LSE, UK): “Epistemic Landscapes and Optimal Search”
10h25-11h20 Rainer Hegselmann (University of Bayreuth, Germany): “Understanding epistemic grouping, networking and division of labour. What can simple macroscopic models do?”
11h20-11h40: coffee break
11h40-12h35 Igor Douven (University of Groningen, The Netherlands): “Inference to the Best Explanation versus Bayes' rule in a social setting”
12h35-14h00: lunch
14h00-14h55: Francis Bloch (Ecole Polytechnique, France): “Coalitions and networks in economics”
14h55-15h50: Thomas Boyer-Kassem (University Lille 3, STL and AHP, France) & Cyrille Imbert (CNRS, Archives Henri Poincaré, France): “Modeling scientific collaboration from the micro”
15h50-16h10: coffee break
16H10: 17h05. Krist Vaesen (Eindhoven University of Technology, The Netherlands): “Cultural evolutionary theory and the collective dimensions of science”
Tuesday 26 November
9h00-9h55: David Chavalarias (CAMS/ISC-PIF, CNRS – EHESS, France): “Science Phylomemies: automatic sketches of science evolution”
9h55-10h40: Andrea Scharnhorst (DANS, Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (KNAW), The Hague, The Netherlands): "Maps and instruments for the navigation on the ocean of scientific knowledge"
10h40-11h10: coffee break
11h10-12h05 Cédric Patternotte (LMU, Munich Center for Mathematical Philosophy, Germany): “Scientific virtues as catalysts”
12h05-14h00: lunch
14h00-14h55 Carlo Proietti (Lund University, Sweden): “Herd behavior and reasoning about other minds”
14H55-15H15: coffe break
15h15-16h10: Hans van Ditmarsch (CNRS, LORIA, France): Lying in dynamic epistemic logic
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International Conference: Epistemic groups and collaborative research in science
More details about the conference can be found here.
- place: Nancy, France, MSH Lorraine
- date: December 17-19th 2012
- extended deadline: July 5 2012
Presentation of the conference
A large part of scientific research is now done in a collaborative way or within groups, from small local collaborations to international teams (like the CERN or the genome project). More generally, many epistemic activities need to be analyzed in the context of the group or community in which they take place. The conference is devoted to a philosophical analysis of this type of collaborative research and group epistemic life in general. It is open to various approaches, in particular philosophical and epistemological ones. Case-studies as well as formal studies are welcomed, insofar as they serve a philosophical thesis. You can also see below the suggested list of research questions.
Invited speakers
- Denis Bonnay (University Paris Ouest Nanterre, France)
- Rebecca Kukla (Georgetown University, Washington, DC, USA)
- Christian List (London School of Economics, UK)
- Erik J. Olsson (Lund University, Sweden)
- Jan Sprenger (Tilburg University, the Netherlands)
- K. Brad Wray (State University of New York, Oswego, NY, USA)
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International Conference: The Collective Dimension of Science
Nancy, France
date: December 8-10th 2011
The conference will begin on Thursday morning at 9 am and will end on Saturday around noon.
Presentation of the conference
The goal of the conference is to discuss philosophical issues related to the collective aspects of science, especially within computational science and "big science". While studies within social epistemology already investigate the social dimension of the production and validation of beliefs and knowledge, science is not their core object of study. This conference will be devoted to examining to what extent a too individualistic and resource-insensitive philosophical perspective about scientific practices and the making of scientific knowledge is insufficient and conversely to what extent a focus upon extended and/or social agents is needed. We wish to create fruitful interactions between researchers from different fields or subfields such as philosophy of science, (social) epistemology, epistemic logic, formal epistemology, philosophy of economics, philosophy of logic but also mathematics, computer science or cognitive science (especially distributed cognition).
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One-day workshop: The epistemic life of resource-limited agents
Date: Tuesday, December 6, July
Place:
- in the morning: Ecole Normale Supérieure, 45 rue d'Ulm. 75005 Paris, salle Info 1, immeuble NIR (underground in the building of the new entrance of the humanities library). RER Luxembourg ou metro Monge.
- in the afternoon: IHPST, Paris, 13 rue du Four, 2nd floor. Metro Mabillon, Odéon ou Saint Germain des Prés
Program:
- 9h50-10h: introduction and welcome
- 10h-10h50: Henri Galinon (IHPST, Paris 1) "Rational consensus in truth-seeking groups of agents"
- 10h50-11h50: John Woods (University of British Columbia): "The advantage of not knowing: Remarks on Peircean abduction"
- 11h50-12h10: lunch break
- 14h00-14h50 : Rogier De Langhe (Tilburg University)): "An agent-based model of the distribution of cognitive labor"
- 14h50-15h40 : Anouk Barberousse (Lille 1, CHSE) & Cyrille Imbert (Archives Poincaré, CNRS, University Nancy 2) : "Complexity, efficient strategies and conservatism in the physical sciences"
- break
- 16h00-16h40 : Denis Bonnay (Nanterre University, IHPST, DEC) & Mikael Cozic (University Paris 12, IHPST, DEC): "Consensus and High-order beliefs in groups of agents
This workshop is organized by the research project Compuphys (ANR, IHPST) and the research project COLEXIA (MSH-Lorraine, Nancy) in collaboration with the DEC department at ENS.
This workshop is organized by the research project Compuphys (ANR, IHPST) and the research project COLEXIA (MSH-Lorraine, Nancy) in collaboration with the DEC department at ENS.
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One-day interdisciplinary workshop: "Computational architecture: why does it matter?"
Date: Wednesday, November 2nd 2011
Place: IHPST, 13 rue du Four, 75006 Paris
(Cette journée sera suivie les jeudi 3 et vendredi 4 novembre d'un colloque sur un thème similaire "The plurality of numerical methods in computer simulations and their philosophical analysis").
Programme de la journée du 2 novembre
- 9h20-9h30: introduction
- 9h30-10h20: Edouard Audit (CEA): <titre à venir>:
- 10h20-11h10: Marie-Alice Foujols (IPSL, Institut Pierre Simon Laplace): “Modèles climatiques et calculateurs : une histoire récente parsemée de progrès conjoints.”
- 1h10-11h30: pause
- 1h30-12h20: Towards a Culture of Prediction: Computational Modeling in the Era of Desktop Computing Johannes Lenhard (Bielefeld University, Germany) (travail en collaboration avec Ann Johnson, University of South Carolina, Columbia, USA)
- 12h20-14h10: pause
- 14h10-15h00: Cyrille Imbert (CNRS, Nancy 2, Archives Poincaré): “How to characterize inherently sequential physical processes »
- 15h00-15h50: Hervé Zwirn (Paris VII, ENS Cachan et IHPST): “Complexité et irréductibilité computationnelle"
- 15h50-16h10: pause
- 16h10-17h00: Jean-Paul Delahaye (Université Lille 1) & Hector Zenil (IHPST/Lille 1): “Les différentes distributions de Levin selon le modèle de machines et les théorèmes d'invariance »
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Invited professor: Johannes Lenhard (university of Bielefeld)
Nancy (France), April 8th 2pm-7pm
Johannes Lenhard (university of Bielefeld) will spend two months in Nancy (November and December) as an invited professor. Among other things, he will makes presentations at the workshop "Computational Architecture: Why Does it Matter" (IHPST, Paris, November 2nd) and at the conference “The plurality of numerical methods in computer simulations and their philosophical analysis” (IHPST, Paris, November 3-4th), both organized by the projects Compuphys and Colexia; he shall also give a conference at Archives Poincaré (November, 16th, Grande Conférence des Archives Poincaré) and a presentation at the conference "The Collective Dimension of Science" (Nancy, December 8-10th).
Johannes is invited by University Nancy 2 and the University de Lorraine.
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One-day session: "Climate science and climate change: epistemological and methodological issues"
The purpose of this symposium is to have a pluridisciplinary dialogue about questions related to the collective science of climate and how it tackles the question of climate change. We first intend to discuss epistemological and methodological issues related to the epistemology of groups, the use of complex models and simulations in climate science such as the evaluation of uncertainty in the results obtained from the simulations or the way evidence is assessed. We also wish to address social, economical and political issues related to the previous, epistemological questions. The symposium may favor constructive dialogue about the meaning of the precaution principle and about the way it can be implemented; about the way the interest of future generations can be taken into account, the costs of climate change are estimated, and rational decisions can be taken in this context of partial uncertainty within a scientific group.
This symposium is co-organized within the framework of the research project COLEXIA (MSH), the CEPERC, the IHPST (program Compuphys) and the SPS (Société de Philosophie des Sciences). It is an affiliated symposium of the CLMPS conference.
Date: Thursday, July 21
Place: Nancy, faculté de droit, see the CLMPS program for more details.
Program
- 10h10-10h30 : introduction: Anouk Barberousse, Cyrille Imbert, Stéphanie Ruphy, organizers
- 10h30-11h20 : Franck Lecocq, economist (INRA)
- 11h30-12h20 : Lenny Smith, Professor in Statistics (Research). Director of the Centre for the Analysis of Time Series
- 12h20-14h15 : lunch
- 14h15-15h05 : Wendy Parker, philosopher (Ohio State University)
- 15h15-16h05 : Minh Ha-Duong, economist (CIRED)
- 16h05-16h35 : break
- 16h35-17h25 : Roman Frigg, philosopher (London School of Economics).
- 17h25-18h00 : discussion
Each talk will be devoted roughly 30/35 min ; 15/20 minutes will be kept for discussion.
Organizers
- Anouk Barberousse chargée de recherches HDR, Institut d'Histoire et de Philosophie des Sciences et des Techniques UMR 8590 CNRS - Université Paris 1 – ENS, project Compuphys
- Cyrille Imbert, chargé de recherches aux Archives Poincaré, UMR 7117 CNRS, Université Nancy 2, project COLEXIA
- Stéphanie Ruphy, maître de conferences HDR, université de Provence, CEPERC
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One-day workshop: "The collective pursuit of epistemic goals: how?"
(followed by a conference by Alvin Goldman, in the framework of the Grandes Conférences of Archives Poincaré)
Nancy (France), April 8th 2pm-7pm
organized by Cyrille Imbert (CNRS, Archives Poincaré, Université Nancy 2)
Program
- 14h00-14h45: Gloria Origgi (CNRS, Institut Nicod): “Epistemic Vigilance and Epistemic Responsibility”
- 14H45-15h30: Cyrille Imbert (CNRS, Archives Poincaré, Université Nancy 2): “Collective science and understanding: the role and logic of scientific sketches”
- 15h30-15h45: coffee break
- 15h45-16h30: Anouk Barberousse (CNRS, IHPST), Henri Galinon (IHPST, ENS) & Marion Vorms (IHPST): “Collaborative computer simulations in climate science”
Attendance is free but those wishing to attend should register by sending an email to Cyrille.Imbert<arobase>univ-nancy2.fr.
The workshop will be followed by a conference by Alvin Goldman (Grande Conférence des Archives Poincaré):
17h-19h: Grande Conférence des Archives Poincaré: Alvin Goldman (Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey): “How should group pursue the truth?”
The workshop is organized by the research program Colexia and the Grande Conférence with Alvin Goldman by the Archives Poincaré.
Venue: salle de conférence de la MSH, 3ème étage, 91 avenue de la Libération, Nancy. More details can be found here.
Please note that Nancy can be easily accessed by TGV trains. There are two stations, Nancy station and Lorraine TGV station, which is connected to Nancy by shuttle.
Abstracts
- Gloria Origgi (CNRS, Institut Nicod): “Epistemic Vigilance and Epistemic Responsibility”
I would like to argue that the burden of epistemic responsibility to obtain “vigilant trust in others” is equally distributed among sources and receivers of information. If we depend on testimonial information, we should be spontaneously vigilant towards it. The responsibility of testimonial knowledge is not only to be attributed to the sources and the way they attach a special knowledge-value to a piece of information. A responsible use of testimonial knowledge is to be vigilant about the cues we use to accept testimonial information. Both hearers and speakers should be responsible in this process. For example, accepting as a truth-bearing knowledge item a research paper just because it has been peer-reviewed, is a way of trusting a filtering procedure that may not be justified in each case. In this paper I will articulate the relationship between epistemic vigilance and epistemic responsibility and provide concrete examples of “bad” uses of criteria of quality of information provided by credible informants.
- Cyrille Imbert (CNRS, Archives Poincaré, Université Nancy 2): “Collective science and understanding: the role and logic of scientific sketches”
An important part of social epistemology has been focused upon the evaluation of social and scientific practices in terms of their truth-conduciveness. I first argue in this presentation in favour of the need for studying how practices can promote understanding within scientific and non-scientific communities, and emphasize that the possession of understanding, since it cannot be reduced to the possession of (justified) truth, is a goal that requires the development of specific practices. I present in a second step hints about how to evaluate the degree of understanding possessed by individual or groups in terms of their ability to answer relevant questions. I describe further different objects of study for a social epistemology focused upon understanding such as the organization of groups or of knowledge storage devices. The last part of the talk focuses upon the different means to present and transmit knowledge in ways that afford the possession of understanding and, for this purpose, I analyze the role and logic of (scientific) sketches. After discussing what sketches are and what their relation to understanding is, I describe different types of procedures for generating valuable sketches and explain how these different procedures are understanding-productive.
- Anouk Barberousse (CNRS, IHPST), Henri Galinon (IHPST, ENS) & Marion Vorms (IHPST): “Collaborative computer simulations in climate science”
TBA
Grande Conférence des Archives Poincaré: Alvin I. Goldman (Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey): “How should groups pursue the truth?”
When groups pursue the truth, what mix of attention and emphasis should be paid to expertise versus inclusiveness? Is the "crowd" always wise? If not always, under what conditions? When (if ever) should deference be given to experts in determining a group's opinion? Which experts should be selected to receive such deference, and by what methods and criteria should suitable experts be selected?
