Monday, September 24, 2012

Ontology and Methodology (Virginia Tech)


FIRST CALL FOR CONTRIBUTED PAPERS FOR CONFERENCE:
Ontology and Methodology

Dates: May 4-5, 2013

Special invited speakers:
David Danks (CMU), Peter Godfrey-Smith (CUNY), Kevin Hoover (Duke),
Laura Ruetsche (U. Mich.), James Woodward (Pitt)


Virginia Tech speakers:
Benjamin Jantzen, Deborah Mayo, Lydia Patton, Aris Spanos


o   How do scientists’ initial conjectures about the entities and processes under their scrutiny influence the choice of variables, the structure of mature scientific theories, and methods of interpretation of those theories? 

o   How do methods of data generation, statistical modeling, and analysis influence the construction and appraisal of theories at multiple levels?

o   How does historical analysis of the development of scientific theories illuminate the interplay between scientific methodology, theory building, and the interpretation of scientific theories?

This conference brings together prominent philosophers of biology, computational cognitive science, causation, economics, and physics engaged in research into these interconnected methodological and ontological questions.

We invite contributed papers that illuminate these issues as they arise in general philosophy of science, in causal explanation and modeling, in the philosophy of experiment and statistics, and in the history and philosophy of science. We anticipate covering accommodation costs for accepted contributed papers.

Deadline for submissions: January 15, 2013

For further information on submitting a paper or extended abstract, please visit the conference website: http://www.ratiocination.org/OM2013/.

Organizers:    Benjamin Jantzen, Deborah Mayo, Lydia Patton

Sponsors:       The Virginia Tech Department of Philosophy and the Fund for Experimental Reasoning, Reliability, and the Objectivity and Rationality of Science (E.R.R.O.R.)