2nd CFP: Reduction and the Special Sciences (Tilburg, NL, 10-12 April 2008)

Sydney-Tilburg conference on

REDUCTION AND THE SPECIAL SCIENCES

Center for Logic and Philosophy of Science
Tilburg University, The Netherlands
10-12 April 2008

http://www.tilburguniversity.nl/faculties/humanities/tilps/RSS2008/

Submission deadline: 15 November 2007

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KEYNOTE SPEAKERS: William Bechtel (UCSD), Craig Callender (UCSD),
Paul Griffiths (Sydney), Kevin Hoover (Duke), Philip Pettit
(Princeton)

ORGANISERS: Mark Colyvan (Sydney), Stephan Hartmann (Tilburg),
Maurice Schouten (Tilburg) and Katie Steele (Sydney)


Science presents us with a variety of accounts of the world. While
some of these accounts posit a deeper theoretical structure and
fundamental entities, others do not. But which of these accounts is
the right one? How should science conceptualize the world? And what
is the relation between the various accounts? Opinions on these
issues diverge wildly in philosophy of science. At one extreme are
reductionists who argue that higher-level theories should, in
principle, be incorporated in or eliminated by the basic level
theory. Higher-level theories do not ultimately exhibit conceptual
integrity or provide genuine explanations. At the other extreme are
pluralists who take higher levels of description and explanation
seriously and argue for their independence and indispensability. Our
goal in this conference is to bring together representatives from as
many viewpoints as possible in order to advance our understanding of
this problem. We invite case studies from the natural, social and
behavioural sciences as well as discussions of philosophical models
of intertheoretic relations.


We invite submissions of papers of up to 3000 words by 15 November
2007. Decisions will be made by 15 January 2008.

GRADUATE FELLOWSHIPS: A few travel bursaries for graduate students
are available; if you wish to be considered please submit a short
(tentative) travel budget and a CV together with your paper by 15
November 2007. Decisions will be made by 15 January 2008.

BEST GRADUATE PAPER AWARD: We offer an award of 500 Euro for the best
submitted paper by a graduate student. The winner will be announced
on 15 January 2008.

PUBLICATION: Revised versions of selected papers will be published in
a special issue of Erkenntnis. The deadline for submission of the
final version of the paper is 1 June 2008.

The conference language is English.