Abstract:

Empirical constraints are essential in scientific theory development and assessment, with experiment being the quintessential arbiter of science. However, in much of cutting-edge theoretical physics (especially high-energy physics, astrophysics and cosmology), conclusive experiments are hard to come by. The analysis of experimental results and the assessment of their epistemic significance has often come to rely on a multi-layered embedding in wider conceptual reasoning.  

Alongside traditional experiments in the laboratory setting, physics and cosmology also rely on astrophysical observations, which are essentially historical data, in constraining and testing their theories. More recently, analogue experiments—e.g., fluid models of `black holes’ built in the laboratory—have risen as possible means of confirming a theory. These bear an apparent similarity to simulation, and to material models.  

The workshop will aim at exploring different forms of experiment, empirical guides, and "quasi-empirical" guides in light of their relationship to theoretical virtues, non-empirical confirmation, and mathematical constraints (as developed in the previous two workshops in the series). 

Speakers:

Hugo Baeuchemin (CERN & Tufts University)                             

Florian Boge: (TU Dortmund)                      

Jamee Elder (Harvard University)                                     

Enno Fischer (Ruhr-University Bochum)                            

Till Grüne-Yanoff (KTH Stockholm)                                          

Giora Hon (University of Haifa)                                                             

Milena Ivanova (Cambridge University)                                

Dana Matthiessen (Minnesota Center for Philosophy of Science)                                       

James Mattingly (Georgetown University)                              

Slobodan Perovic (University of Belgrade)                                

Collin Rice (Colorado State University)                          

Ahmed Sarwar (Bergische Universität Wuppertal)                

Kent Staley (St Louis University)

Program (205 Kb)

Abstracts (280 Kb)

Organizers:

Richard Dawid (Stockholm University) and Harald Wiltsche (Linköping University).

This is a workshop with the framework of the Nordic Network for Philosophy of Physics, funded by NordForsk (grant no 123926).