Feb
19
Larry Laudan Discussion
February 19, 2012 | by Kyle | | 2 Comments
Hello friends,
A couple of weeks ago, we read Larry Laudan’s influential work, “The Demise of the Demarcation Problem”, which discusses the problem of demarcating science from non-science. After experiencing that fruitful discussion firsthand, we’re very excited to announce that Larry Laudan himself will be coming to U.T. on Friday to discuss this and other issues in the philosophy of science!
Professor Laudan has asked us to prepare for the meeting by reading two other papers. The first, “Science at the Bar – Causes for Concern”, is a short piece discussing Judge Overton’s Opinion regarding McLean v. Arkansas, in which he ruled that creation science could not be taught in classrooms because it was not “science”. Professor Laudan argues that there are issues with Judge Overton’s definition of what constitutes science. For those who read “The Demise of the Demarcation Problem”, this will be a familiar theme as applied to a particular case. The second paper is another seminal work by Professor Laudan, entitled “A Confutation of Convergent Realism”. This longer work deals with the topic of scientific realism, and presents Professor Laudan’s argument of pessimistic meta-induction, which gives good reasons to doubt the realist project. Here are the links to the readings, please make sure to read them before coming to the discussion:
https://webspace.utexas.edu/kal698/A%20CONFUTATION%20OF%20CONVERGENT%20REALISM%20laudan_PS1981.pdf
https://webspace.utexas.edu/kal698/science%20at%20the%20bar.pdf
The UPA will be hosting Professor Laudan in SAC 1.106 on Friday the 24th, from 3-5. Please come by for what promises to be an insightful discussion of the deepest questions in philosophy of science!
Best,
Armando and Kyle, co-presidents
Comments
2 Comments so far
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