Category: Talks SOPhiA

Tamaki Komada Hokkaido University This paper addresses the mixed inference problem within correspondence pluralism, which holds that the nature of truth is always correspondence, but that the way propositions correspond to reality varies across domains (Sher, 2013, 2015, 2023; Barnard & Horgan, 2006, 2013; Horgan & Potrč, 2008). For example, “”Snow is white”” may correspond…

Liliana Bokros Comenius University Bratislava Since Van Fraassen’s argument in 1980, there has been a lively debate regarding the compatibility of Bayesianism and Inference to the Best Explanation with respect to the hypotheses assessment. In response, various authors have challenged Van Fraassen’s position. Some, e. g.  Weisberg (2009) and Psillos (2004), have stated that reconciling…

Fernando Campos Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München H.L.A. Hart’s contribution to legal theory centers on a social-practice conception of law, structured through the interplay of primary and secondary rules. A legal system governed solely by primary rules suffers from uncertainty and rigidity, necessitating secondary rules that confer powers to legislate, adjudicate, and recognize valid law. Hart’s rule of…

Sofia Sgarbi IUSS My contribution aims to address a puzzle raised by Roy Sorensen, namely assessing whether it is possible to reconcile perceivable absences – such as the disappearance of an object from a scene – with a standard framework of perception, i.e. by providing an argument in which perceivable absences can comply at the…

Evelina Lissoni IUSS Pavia Pluralism – the view that there are at least two correct logics – and anti-exceptionalism – the idea that one or more of the properties that set logic apart from other sciences should be rejected – are the focus of many recent contributions in the philosophy of logic. However, their relation…

Anni Bukowski Leibniz University Hannover In this text, I examine the implications of anthropomorphic rhetoric regarding AI. I provide examples of anthropomorphism in AI rhetoric and I argue that anthropomorphizing AI in public discourse is neither fundamentally negative nor intrinsically positive, but it is inappropriate in some cases and constructive in others. I introduce some…

Byron Hyde University of Bristol & Bangor University I argue from feminist philosophy of science that diverse science is more objective and extend this argument to make the metaphilosophic point that diverse philosophy is better too.I begin by arguing that objectivity is a feature of scientific communities rather than individual scientists. While individuals may inevitably…

Veronika Lassl University of Vienna In her seminal 1993 paper “Speech Acts and Unspeakable Acts”, Rae Langton uses John L. Austin’s speech act theory to defend the view that pornography constitutes (rather than merely causes) subordination of women. She proposes thinking of pornography as an illocution of subordination. Illocutions of subordination come with certain success…

Piet Fritz Pankratz University of Vienna Philosophers of science currently debate whether truth is a necessary condition for scientific understanding, with factivists insisting it is and non-factivists denying this. Factivists argue that scientific explanations must accurately represent reality, non-factivists claim that understanding can be achieved through idealized (and thus false) representations. A scientific discipline that…

Alex McQuibban University of St Andrews & University of Stirling This paper interrogates the metaphysical foundations of David Lewis’ system, arguing that the contingency of both Humean Supervenience (HS) and the nature of properties on which the facts of our actual world supervene undermine the applicability and very foundations of his wider metaphysical project. For…