Category: Talks SOPhiA

Leon Isenmann University of Potsdam  Within analytic metaphysics, a growing number of authors state that they are engaged in modeling the fundamental structure of reality. My paper has two objectives: (1) to examine in virtue of which theoretical presuppositions this notion of modeling arises, and (2) to explain two major conceptional problems regarding metaphysical model-building.…

Georgios Kalaitzidis Charles University in Prague-Faculty of Humanities This paper explores the nature of AI systems, specifically Large Language Models (LLMs), as distinct agents and the human tendency to anthropomorphize them. It addresses the application of concepts like ‘intentional action’ and ‘intentions’ to AI, exploring the philosophical, cognitive, and technical aspects that define agency and…

Karla Weingarten LMU Munich Feynman diagrams are a method prominent in quantum field theory and, more specifically, effective field theories, where individual or subgroups of diagrams are frequently used to depict intricate particle interactions. Notably, the CMS Collaboration employed Feynman diagrams to illustrate Higgs particle decay channels [4]. Similarly, in quantum many-body physics, subgroups of…

Maria Jankowska Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg Mansplaining, a term coined by Rebecca Solnit in her essay “Men explain things to me,” is a prevalent yet underestimated gendered phenomenon with serious implications and pernicious harms. Surprisingly, despite the systematic societal impact and recognition that it has, its philosophical analyses are scarce. The ones that do exist fail to…

Dominik Boll Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam What is it for an agent to take responsibility? Call this the constituent question. My aim in this essay is to provide a novel answer to this question. While taking responsibility is not a new topic, it has attracted a flurry of recent interest. Why do we take responsibility for…

Emanuele Martinelli University of Zurich Mises (1963) and Hayek (1945) have crafted compelling arguments against central economic planning. For some time, these have been taken as definitive proof that a centrally plan economy managed by the government could not be possible (Polanyi 2013). As a result, the market order has been declared the superior form…

Antoni Antoszek Jagiellonian University The Thin Red Line semantics is one of the two main approaches to solvingthe problem of future contingents in an indeterministic manner. The theoryclaims that there is an actual future, but it is not determined. Despite thedevelopment of the TRL semantics in recent years, the theory seems to fail torepresent any…

Emily Goldbeck Universität Hildesheim If members of oppressed social groups are denied credibility due to prejudices against these groups, they are subjects to testimonial injustice (Fricker 2007). Prejudices are attributions of certain predicates to certain social groups. I argue that not all biased judgements of credibility involve prejudices. For instance, our avowals of gender identity…

Faeze Fafa Fazeli University of Notre Dame, USA In this paper, I first analyze the complex scene of scientific views on sex and gender. I show that there are two main research camps in biology and neuroscience: (I) binarists who seek for the fixed and essential differences between males and females that are rooted in…

Dominik Bonhöfer KU Leuven Recently epistemology has been influenced by a disrupting and fascinating idea. What if, when forming a belief, we are ill advised to only pursue the truth? What else is there to pursue, the traditional epistemologist might ask? Defenders of this new idea would claim that believing is not just about believing…