[PHILOS-L] CFA - Symposium on Understanding, Models, and Explanation at CASIP

[João Pinheiro]

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The 2026 CASIP Symposium on Philosophy of Science

Understanding, Models, and Explanation

10-12/August

The Institute of Philosophy at the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CASIP) is pleased to announce an upcoming symposium focused on the interconnected philosophical issues surrounding understanding, models, and explanation in the sciences.

Understanding is increasingly recognized as a distinct epistemic goal of science, rather than a mere psychological by-product of explanation. Models, which are often highly idealized and abstract, raise essential questions about how, if at all, they objectively represent the world. The nature of explanation has been a dynamic and debated topic, evolving from traditional covering-law models to more contemporary mechanistic and causal frameworks, as well as emerging non-mechanistic and non-causal perspectives.

This symposium promises to bring together scholars engaging with any of these issues and their cross-overs. We are particularly interested in exploring the diversity of explanatory and modeling practices across various scientific disciplines. For this purpose, we invite submissions on a variety of topics related to explanation, models, and understanding, including but not limited to:

• The nature of mechanistic and non-mechanistic explanations (e.g., dynamical, mathematical, topological, and minimal model explanations), and how they relate to one another;
• What is the nature of scientific understanding? How should we characterise the epistemic role of understanding in science?;
• Do scientific models aim at truth?;
• How do models represent? How should we understand idealisation in modelling, and does it pose a challenge to scientific realism?;
• What are the cognitive and social dimensions of explanation and understanding?;
• Explanation and understanding in AI and machine learning, including Explainable AI (XAI).

We accept presentations on any of these topics, broadly understood, but we are particularly interested in submissions that integrate substantive scientific case studies from disciplines such as physics, biology, cognitive science, and artificial intelligence. We are firm believers that attention to scientific practice is crucial for illuminating issues concerning understanding, modelling, and explanation.

We aim to foster dialogue and strengthen connections within the growing philosophy of science community in Asia, facilitating the exchange of ideas and promoting the development of our field.

Speakers will have their lunch and dinner covered by CASIP.

 

Submission Guidelines

If you are interested in registering, submitting your proposal, or have any other inquiries, you should reach out to joaopinheiro at hotmail.com with the subject line “CASIP 2026 Symposium”, followed by “registration”, “submission”, and/or “inquiry”, depending on your purpose.

Submission emails should include an anonymised doc. containing the title of your talk and a clear abstract of a maximum of 500 words (excluding references) corresponding to a 40min. talk, which shall be followed by a 20min. Q&A. Additionally, in the body of your email, you should repeat the title of your paper, include your name, institutional affiliation, and email.

You may feature in more than one submission as a co-author, but you may only present once.

 

Important Dates

• Abstract Submission Deadline: May 15th
• Notification of Acceptance: June 12th
• Workshop Dates: August 10th to 12th

 

Confirmed Speakers

• Daniel Kostic (Polish Academy of Sciences)
• Darrell Rowbottom (Hong Kong Lingnan University)
• Majid Beni (Middle East Technical University)
• Mingjun Zhang (Fudan University)
• Siyu Yao (Shanghai Jiaotong University)
• Wei Fang (Sun Yat-sen University)
• Yichen Luo (Nanyang Technological University)
• Yihan Jiang (CASIP)

 

We look forward to your contributions and to a stimulating workshop.

The Co-organisers at CASIP

Jiang Yihan

Wang Jing

João Pinheiro

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