Mathematical Collaboration 4 Autumn 2021 Online Seminar series
ISHPSS
From: Fenner Tanswell <F.Tan...@LBORO.AC.UK>
Organisers: Fenner Tanswell (link) and Joshua Habgood-Coote (link).
Website: https://mathscollaboration.wordpress.com/mathematical-collaboration-4-autumn-2021-online-seminar/
We are excited to announce the Mathematical Collaboration 4 Autumn 2021 Online Seminar series.
The aim of the Mathematical Collaboration series is to bring together researchers on the social aspects of mathematics, from across disciplines. Within philosophy, our focus is on combining mathematical practice and social epistemology. We have also invited contributions from historians, sociologists, mathematicians, and researchers from other relevant disciplines.
Speakers for the seminar will include:
- Haixin Dang (home)
- Andrew Aberdein (home)
- Karen Francois (home)
- Michael Barany (home)
- Isobel Falconer (home)
- Alma Steingart (home)
- Kevin J. S. Zollman (home)
- Stephen Crowley (home)
- K. Brad Wray (home)
- Helena Mihaljević (home)
- Brigitte Stenhouse (home)
- Silvia De Toffoli (home)
- Sanford Goldberg (home)
- Jody Azzouni (home)
The time of the seminar will be tied to European time (CEST/CET) and will run 5-7pm. A provisional schedule can be found below.
To join us for these seminars, please email F.Tan...@lboro.ac.uk to register. We will provide a Zoom link and password which can be used for the entire seminar series, and send reminders before the seminar.
The first seminar will take place on the 5th of October with talks from Haixin Dang and Andrew Aberdein.
Haixin Dang “Group Belief Revision and Scientific Change”
Abstract: Group beliefs are not static. While there have been many different proposals about what group beliefs are (or are not) and how they are formed, group belief revision has surprisingly received little philosophical attention. In this talk, I am particularly interested in epistemic groups, which are primarily formed in pursuit of epistemic goals. Scientific communities and research teams are paradigmatic epistemic groups. In order to understand group belief change, we must examine how previous groups belief constrain and guide the acquisition of new beliefs. Gilbert (2000) and Weatherall and Gilbert (2016) propose that joint commitment underlies how group members can respond to new evidence. Gilbert argues that how groups are jointly committed to previous belief can explain scientific change: why old paradigms may take a long time to be replaced. In this talk, I present a new framework for thinking about group belief change. Under my view, well-functioning epistemic groups are epistemically prudent, but not dogmatic. Groups have to settle disagreement among its members over what constitutes evidence for a belief, what are the standards for evaluation of that evidence, and to what extent other beliefs must be revised. Scientific groups are resistant to certain kinds of new evidence, but I argue that this resistance is not necessarily irrational.
Andrew Aberdein: “Mathematics and Epistemic Trespassing”
Abstract: “Epistemic trespassing” has recently been proposed by Nathan Ballantyne as a characterization of the behaviour of experts who make pronouncements outside the domain of their expertise. Such trespassing can often be a productive exercise, but caution is required: Ballantyne warns trespassers that they should substantially reduce the confidence of their assertions in the new domain unless they have acquired cross-field expertise, whether directly by training or vicariously through collaboration. How does epistemic trespassing apply to mathematics? I distinguish three cases: internal (or intramathematical) trespassing between subfields of mathematics; inbound extramathematical trespassing from other disciplines into mathematics; and outbound extramathematical trespassing from mathematics into other disciplines. In each case, I identify both benign and malign examples of trespassing. These examples help to qualify some features of Ballantyne's more general picture.
This series is supported by the GROUNDS project at the University of Leeds, which has received funding from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme (grant agreement no. 818633).
This series is also supported by project "The Epistemology of Data Science: Mathematics and the Critical Research Agenda on Data Practices" at the Centre for Logic and Philosophy of Science at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel (link) funded by the Research Foundation- Flanders (FWO).
We are grateful for the ongoing support of Ursula Martin and her project "The Social Machines of Mathematics" (link).
Provisional Schedule:
|
5th October |
Haixin Dang |
Andrew Aberdein |
|
19th October |
Michael Barany |
Karen Francois |
|
2nd November |
Isobel Falconer |
Alma Steingart |
|
16th November |
Kevin J. S. Zollman |
Stephen Crowley |
|
30th November |
K. Brad Wray |
Helena Mihaljević |
|
7th December |
Brigitte Stenhouse |
Silvia De Toffoli |
|
14th December |
Sanford Goldberg |
Jody Azzouni |