Mittwoch, 02. Mai 2018, 16:45 - 18:15 iCal

Gastvortrag Prof. Hasok Chang

Pragmatism and Philosophy of Science

Hörsaal 2H im Neuen Institutsgebäude (NIG)
Universitätsstraße 7, 1010 Wien

Vortrag

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Philosophers of science wishing to pay serious attention to scientific practice have suffered from a lack of suitable frameworks of analysis. Mainstream analytical traditions of epistemology are dominated by the propositional conception of knowledge, which only deals with knowledge expressed in explicit statements and turns a blind eye to the activities through which we generate, improve and use knowledge. Other frameworks such as Kuhnian paradigms have been criticized as too vague and ill-defined to be useful. In this paper I argue that a suitably revitalized pragmatist philosophy can fill this gap. I build especially on Dewey’s views on inquiry and method in order to understand scientific practices as activities, and to understand knowledge as ability. Knowledge as the possession of information (propositional knowledge) will be seen as subordinate to knowledge as the ability to do things in life (“active knowledge”). In this way, pragmatism can provide a firm philosophical grounding to the notions of “epistemic activity” and “system of practice” that I have used in my previous works. Such an application of pragmatism will also thrown new light on the debate concerning scientific realism, providing operable meanings to the very notions of truth and reality.

Hasok Chang is Professor of History and Philosophy of Science at the University of Cambridge (UK).

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Veranstalter

Doktoratskolleg "Naturwissenschaften im historischen, philosophischen und kulturellen Kontext"

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Kontakt

Mag. Mag. Mag. Ramon Pils, DipTrans
DK Naturwissenschaften/Kontext
01 4277 40872
dksciences.geschichte@univie.ac.at

Erstellt am Dienstag, 24. April 2018, 11:38
Letzte Änderung am Mittwoch, 25. April 2018, 09:14