Académie internationale de philosophie des sciences

Epistemology and the Social

La Laguna, Tenerife, Canary Islands. September 22nd-25th, 2005

In collaboration with: Urrutia Elejalde Foundation | Universidad de La Laguna | Instituto de Filosofía del CSIC | Universidad Nacional de Educación a Distancia | Sociedad de Lógica, Metodología y Filosofía de la ciencia en España

Announcement

The line connecting the social sciences and the philosophy of science can be followed in two opposite directions, which correspond to the 'philosophy of the social sciences', and the 'social analysis of scientific knowledge'. Traditionally the former has taken the form, either of an application of 'general' epistemologies to the peculiarities of the social sciences, or of a marginal output of grand philosophical theories about man and society; perhaps less frequently, it has been the result of self-conscious reflections by practising social scientists. Under any of these forms, the epistemology or methodology of the social sciences has been a 'philosopher-friendly' area more often than not, due perhaps to the fact that sociology, anthropology and political science are (to use an evolutionary metaphor) amongst the disciplines which have a more recent 'common ancestor' with philosophy. In the case of the 'social analysis of scientific knowledge' however, the relationship has very often been one of hostility, for many authors devoted to it have conceived their research as an attempt to show that philosophical interpretations of science are radically delusory, if not that the content of 'scientific knowledge' is itself little more than a fictious social fabric, not determined at all by 'the state of nature', but by the force of social interests. This hostility reached its latest local maximum during the past decade, with the 'Science Wars' episode.

This colloquium of the AIPS will be directed towards the search for theories and approaches that could provide a rational assessment of the role that social factors play in the construction of scientific knowledge. After all, that modern science has produced a colossal amount of discoveries and practical achievements, is a social factum, of which we need both reasonable explanations -'how have modern societies been able of building such an impressive thing?'-, and instruments for rational evaluation and criticism -'how are we to govern such a creature?'-. In recent times, a growing number of authors have conjectured that, amongst the social sciences, it is economics -not necessarily understood as neo-classical economics- which provides the best tools for carrying out this project, not necessarily because of being 'more scientific' than its cousins -what may be doubtful-, but mainly because it allows to build clearer theoretical models, more suitable of being rationally assessed and criticised. Obviously, this criticism must begin by an analysis of the assumptions, either methodological or normative, on which the models are constructed, and this is why a philosophical understanding of this theoretical activity is needed in the first place. Considering the relevance of these questions, the next edition of the AIPS colloquium will take place at Universidad de La Laguna (Tenerife, Spain), under the general title 'Epistemology and the Social', from September 22nd to 25th, 2005.

A preliminary list of speakers include Evandro Agazzi, Mario Bunge, A. Cordero, Ian Hacking, Helen Longino, and Jesús Mosterín. Other members of the Academie have been invited to present shorter communications.

The organisation comittee is composed by: Inmaculada Perdomo (President, Universidad de La Laguna) Jesus Zamora Bonilla (Secretary, UNED, Madrid) Amparo Gómez (Universidad de La Laguna) Francisco Álvarez (UNED, Madrid) Javier Echerverría (CSIC, Madrid) Juan Urrutia (Fundacion Urrutia Elejalde)

For more information, please contact: Inmaculada Perdomo (mperdomo {at} ull.es or Jesús Zamora (jpzb {at} fsof.uned.es)