Dear all, The HPS Philosophy Workshop provides a friendly and supportive setting for graduate students and postdocs to get feedback on their work-in-progress from their peers. Texts are circulated in advance and discussed over tea and biscuits in HPS Seminar Room 1 on alternate Wednesdays, 5-6pm.
We continue this Wednesday with Katherina Kinzel on "Narrative, Pluralism, and Theory-Ladennes in Historiography: How Can Historical Case-Studies Support Philosophical Arguments?". The abstract is below; please contact me if you'd like a PDF of the paper. --- A common method for warranting the historical adequacy of the philosophy of science is by relying on historical case studies. In doing so, it is often assumed that the historiography of science provides historical facts that are neutral, unambiguous and clearly distinct from the philosophical claims they are supposed to support. This assumption, I argue, rests on an underestimation of the methodological efforts historiographical practice necessitates, and on a naïve picture of the relations between the history and philosophy of science. In my paper I seek to provide an alternative “narratological” account of the historiography of science that illuminates the selective, constructive, explanatory and interpretative character of narrative representation in historiography. On the basis of this account I reevaluate the question as to how historical reconstructions can provide evidential warrant for philosophical doctrines. My discussion culminates in the claim that historical case studies can provide evidential support for philosophical claims, but fall short of constituting neutral arbiters in philosophical conflicts. _____________________________________________________ Sent by the CamPhilEvents mailing list. To unsubscribe or change your membership options, please visit the list information page: http://bit.ly/CamPhilEvents Posts are archived here: http://bit.ly/CamPhilEventsArchive
