SCI PHI Podcast: Recent Episodes
Sci Phi
SCI PHI is a weekly philosophy of science podcast featuring interviews with prominent and up-and-coming philosophers of science who engage with scientists in interesting ways.
On Episode 101, Nick chats with David Thorstad, Assistant Professor of Philosophy at Vanderbilt University, about his research at the intersection between bounded rationality and inquiry that addresses what rationality requires of bounded agents with limited cognitive abilities, normative and descriptive challenges to longtermism, the ethical view that we should give significant moral weight to positively impacting the future, and his new book, Inquiry Under Bounds, which takes as its starting point a five-point bounded rationality program inspired by recent work in cognitive science.
In this special 100th episode, guest host Katie Plaisance interviews Nick Zautra, the host and producer of the SCI PHI Podcast, as he reflects on the journey of the podcast and insights gained from interviewing 99 philosophers of science. Nick shares his personal story—from his childhood interests to the spark that ignited his creativity and passion for combining both philosophy and science. Nick delves into what he’s learned about what it means to do good philosophy of science, exploring the methodologies and approaches that define the discipline today. Nick also reveals insightful patterns he's observed within the scientific community, personal and professional challenges faced by researchers, the human element of science, and what he envisions for the future.Timestamps:(0:00) - Introduction with Dr. Katie Plaisance (Guest Host)(1:18) - Nick’s early life and interest in science(3:39) - Educational background and career decisions: neuroscience, philosophy, and comedy writing(7:11) - Research with animal models and first experience with a philosopher of science(9:21) - Origin story of the SCI PHI Podcast(12:21) - Patterns and insights gathered after interviewing 99 philosophers of science(19:24) - Personal challenges and successes of philosophers of science(26:20) - The human element in science and why it’s so important(33:06) - Biggest surprises regarding the background and impact of philosophers of science(38:29) - Nick’s take on the two greatest challenges facing philosophy of science today(44:24) - Katie’s elevator pitch for “what is philosophy of science?”(47:18) - Are there certain types of scientists who seem to “get” philosophy of science?(51:23) - Missed opportunities for collaboration resulting from the “PR problem”(56:04) - How the podcast has shaped Nick’s research and collaborations(1:01:37) - Toward philosophy with science(1:03:34) - Looking back: what Nick would have done differently(1:06:24) - Looking back: what Nick envisions for the future
On Episode 99, Nick chats with Katie Plaisance, Professor in the Department of Knowledge Integration at the University of Waterloo, about her research understanding and developing best practices for collaborating and engaging with scientists, engineers, policy-makers, and a wide range of publics to foster epistemically and ethically responsible scientific research.
On Episode 98, Nick chats with Ali Mirza, Fellow and Visiting Lecturer at the Center of Humanistic Inquiry and Department of History at Amherst College, about his interdisciplinary work in the field of Ichnology, the study of how our actions (as animals) affect the future structure of the Earth, in which he challenges our standard accounts of how science functions.
On Episode 97, Nick chats with Mazviita Chirimuuta, Senior Lecturer in Philosophy at the University of Edinburgh, about her new book, The Brain Abstracted: Simplification in the History and Philosophy of Neuroscience, in which she argues that due to the brain's complexity, neuroscientific theories have only captured partial truths and that “neurophilosophy” is unlikely to be achieved. Rather than seeking to reform neuroscience or offer neuroscientists advice, Mazviita offers a new framework for interpreting the philosophical significance of present-day neuroscience research, and draws important lessons for debates over explanations of consciousness and the mind-body problem.
On Episode 96, Nick chats with Charles Pence, Chargé de cours at the Université catholique de Louvain in Brussels, about his work on the causal structure of natural selection, digital humanities and “taking the pulse” of what biologists are up to, and his book, The Rise of Chance in Evolutionary Theory, which takes a historical look at the development of evolutionary theory and its extensive reliance on a wide array of concepts of chance.Timestamps:(0:00) - Introduction(1:53) - Life in Brussels and at Université catholique de Louvain(8:51) - Charles’s life growing up and getting into philosophy(17:30) - The shift from the sciences to philosophy(21:01) - How Charles transitioned from philosophy of physics to philosophy of biology(25:27) - The importance of the history and philosophy of science(29:29) - What were the main projects driving Charles towards philosophy of biology(35:23) - What of Charles’s current works are best representative of him and his thinking(39:26) - Side projects including digital humanities and gene regulation(49:14) - The greatest challenge that philosophy of science faces today
On Episode 95, Nick chats with Sam Fellowes, Senior Lecturer at Lancaster University, about drawing on his own experience being diagnosed with autism at the age of 24 to motivate his research into methodological issues in psychiatric diagnoses. We discuss the challenge of establishing accuracy with self-diagnosis in psychiatry, psychiatric diagnoses as models, neurodiversity, and the importance of including what he terms “experts-by-experience” in psychiatric research.
On Episode 94, Nick chats with UCLA chemist and authority on the history and philosophy of the periodic table Eric Scerri, about the reduction of chemistry to quantum mechanics, the philosophical nature of the periodic table, and recent developments in quantum chemistry.Timestamps:(0:00) - Introduction(2:03) - Welcoming Eric and recent life at UCLA(4:33) - Eric’s life growing up and early interests(13:13) - Eric’s journey through school into philosophy of science(25:55) - Proudest works and moving into professional philosophy(30:05) - The journey into the chemistry department at UCLA, philosophy of chemistry as a discipline(38:18) - Eric’s involvement in film and TV(39:37) - Current projects(44:35) - Advice for people considering chemistry and philosophy(45:33) - The greatest challenge that philosophy of science faces today(49:59) - Recent developments in quantum chemistry
On Episode 93, Nick chats with Alan Love, Distinguished McKnight University Professor of Philosophy and Winton Chair in the Liberal Arts at the University of Minnesota, as well as Director of the Minnesota Center for Philosophy of Science, about assembling philosopher, theoretician, and experimentalist research teams for the $14M Templeton Foundation grant project, "Agency, Directionality, and Function,” his work in evolutionary developmental biology, the forthcoming release of new perspectives on the Human Genome Project, and organizing the upcoming conference, “Philosophy of Science: Past, Present, and Future.”Timestamps:(0:00) - Introduction(2:30) - Alan’s life in Minnesota and current projects(10:50) - Upcoming conference in October : Philosophy of Science: Past, Present, and Future(17:20) - Alan’s life growing up in San Diego(21:33) - Early philosophical questions(23:15) - University life(27:42) - Starting to consider philosophy as a profession(32:10) - Formal Master’s degree vs. lab time(34:20) - Favorite research projects over the years(37:55) - Side interests (philosophical methodology)(42:41) - The relationship between philosophical methodology and philosophy of science(45:20) - Upcoming projects that Alan is currently most excited about(47:00) - Collaborating with scientists(52:00) - Upcoming release of projects (Human genome project)(55:11) - The greatest challenge that philosophy of science faces today, and ways to move forward
On Episode 92, Nick chats with Prasanta Bandyopadhyay, Professor at Montana State University, about his work developing a Bayesian account of scientific methodology, in which he applies statistical/probabilistic notions to a long-standing conundrum of methodological issues in the sciences.Timestamps:(0:00) - Introduction(1:45) - Prasanta Bandyopadhyay and life in Montana(6:10) - Prasanta’s background, upbringing, and family(10:00) - Early interests and early school years(15:44) - Journeying into philosophy in India(23:57) - Getting into professional training in philosophy and moving to the UK(32:20) - The big questions that Prasanta is attempting to address/clarify/resolve(37:55) - Theory of acceptance in Prasanta’s dissertation(39:26) - Prasanta’s approach to collaboration with researchers and statisticians(44:07) - Prasanta’s main works and book(46:15) - Current projects(51:34) - Applying philosophy to the real world(55:18) - The greatest challenge that philosophy of science faces today
On Episode 91, Nick chats with Holly Andersen, Associate Professor at Simon Frasier University, about her cutting edge work on causation: including her research on causal explanations and causal modeling in the biomedical sciences, pattern recognition, causal questions in sports analysis, and problems related to mental causation and to the connections between action and causation.
Timestamps:
(0:00) - Introduction - We’re back!
(2:36) - Holly Andersen and life in Vancouver
(5:05) - Reflections on the 2022 PSA Meeting and upcoming 2024 meeting
(9:06) - Holly’s background and upbringing in Montana
(15:14) - Holly’s academic journey pre-philosophy of science
(23:26) - Challenges in graduate school at Pitt
(27:47) - The big questions that Holly is attempting to address/clarify/resolve
(33:16) - The work that Holly is proudest of
(39:04) - What is the future of causation in philosophy
(43:11) - Causation within Holly’s upcoming work
(48:45) - Link with causation and dynamical systems
(50:03) - Upcoming book on causation
(51:43) - Side interests (science fiction and history)
(57:25) - The greatest challenge that philosophy of science faces today
On Episode 90, Nick chats with Jonathan Fuller, Assistant Professor in History and Philosophy of Science at the University of Pittsburgh, about his experience as both a clinician and a philosopher in an MD/PhD training program, philosophy in medicine, and his upcoming book The New Modern Medicine that analyzes distinctive problems in scientific medicine around the turn of the twenty-first century.
On Episode 89, Nick chats with Jamee Elder, Postdoctoral Fellow at the Black Hole Initiative (BHI) at Harvard University, about the methodology and epistemology of large astrophysical experiments, especially those—including LIGO-Virgo and the EHT—that involve "observing" black holes.
On Episode 88, Nick chats with Eleanor Knox, Reader in Philosophy of Physics at King's College London, about her view she calls Spacetime Functionalism, which she thinks solves problems in classical theories as well as dealing with the challenges to standard accounts raised by emergent spacetime structure in theories of quantum gravity.
On Episode 87, Nick chats with Cameron Buckner, Associate Professor of Philosophy at the University of Houston, about his work in the philosophy of deep neural networks, a type of machine learning that is currently the most widespread and successful technology in artificial intelligence.
On Episode 86, Nick chats with Sarah Robins, Associate Professor of Philosophy at the University of Kansas, about her work on the concept of the memory trace, or engram, and the role it plays in both everyday and scientific thinking about remembering.
On Episode 85, Nick chats with Manuela Fernández Pinto, Associate Professor in the Department of Philosophy and the Center for Applied Ethics at Universidad de los Andes (Bogotá, Colombia), about her work in agnotology—the study of ignorance—and the epistemic and social consequences of commercially-driven scientific research.
On Episode 84 Nick chats with Adrian Currie, Senior Lecturer in the Department of Sociology, Philosophy, and Anthropology at Exeter, about his research on the 'historical' sciences: paleontology, archaeology, geology and so forth, and how both philosophers and methodologically reflective scientists have underestimated the epistemic resources available for uncovering the deep past.
On Episode 83, Nick chats with Sarah Arnaud, Postdoctoral Associate at the Rotman Institute of Philosophy at Western University, about how first person perspectives can provide important and necessary knowledge in psychiatry.
On Episode 82, Nick chats with Philip Kitcher, the John Dewey Professor Emeritus of philosophy at Columbia University, about the the ways in which science interfaces with the world, the new demarcation problem, and scientific progress.
On Episode 81, Nick chats with John Norton, Distinguished Professor in the History and Philosophy of Science at the University of Pittsburgh, about the story of his work on Einstein, how probabilistic inferences can lead to fallacies (e.g. thinking we’re living in a computer simulation), how not to do philosophy of science, and his latest book “The Material Theory of Induction” in the new, Open Access Series BSPS Open.
On Episode 80, Nick chats with Kevin Elliot, Professor of Philosophy at Michigan State University, about the role of values in science, starting with his own introduction to the field, a brief history of the values in science literature, the four general approaches to working on values in science, and the need for philosophers of science to do more ground work in values in science in socially engaged projects.
On Episode 79, Nick chats with Till Grüne-Yanoff, professor of philosophy at the Royal Institute of Technology (KTH) in Stockholm, Sweden, about his early career as a television reporter in Post-Soviet Moscow, preferences in decision theory, “boosting” versus “nudging,” teaching philosophy of science as method choice with exemplars, and making philosophy of science relevant to science.
On Episode 78, Nick chats with Catherine Kendig, Associate Professor of Philosophy at Michigan State University, about her path to studying classification in scientific practice, non-dichotomous ways of thinking, socially-engaged philosophy of agriculture, and dealing with “demarcationist” tendencies in philosophy of science.
On Episode 77, Nick chats with Deepanwita Dasgupta, Associate Professor of Philosophy at the University of Texas at El Paso about why there is no philosophy of science in India, non-Western contexts of scientific practice, and her vision for 21st-century science both as a cognitively diverse and wisdom-producing practice.
On Episode 76, Nick chats with Miriam Solomon, Professor of Philosophy at Temple University, about succeeding in philosophy despite an abusive PhD advisor at Harvard, cognitive biases in scientists thinking and what they mean for the rationality of science, scientific consensus conferences or GOBSATs (Good Old Boys Sitting Around Tables), and her recent Guggenheim fellowship on science and values in the DSM.
On Episode 75, Nick chats with Sarah Richardson, Professor of the History of Science and of Studies of Women, Gender, and Sexuality at Harvard University about her interdisciplinary work at Stanford on race and genomics, her approach to studying the social dimensions of science, her current work with Harvard’s GenderSci Lab generating feminist concepts, methods and theories for scientific research on sex and gender, and the importance for philosophers of science to better represent the world.
On Episode 74, Nick chats with Emily Parke, Senior Lecturer in Philosophy at the University of Auckland, about her first job creating life from the bottom-up at the academic-run synthetic biology company Protolife, challenging the idea that there’s some epistemic privilege experiments have over models, the trade-offs and causual issues of using microbiome-based explanations to explain every element of human health, and how philosophical debates on the origin of life might actually matter to science.
On Episode 73, Nick chats with Dan Hicks, philosopher at University of California Merced about Dan’s science and values research on the aims of science, working in science policy at the AAAS and NSF, and learning to incorporate methods from statistics and data science with a conceptual philosophy of science framework to understand how science operates.
On Episode 72, Nick chats with Karen Kovaka, assistant professor in philosophy at Virginia Tech about the upcoming Philosophy of Science Association conference, philosophical implications of meta-analysis, the presumption against intervention in restoration ecology, and how to advise philosophy of science students to achieve success outside of academia.
On Episode 71, Nick chats with Jennifer Jhun, Assistant Professor of Philosophy at Duke University, as well as a fellow at the Center for the History of Political Economy, about her historically-informed philosophy of science research on the role idealizations play in science, both in economics and in physics.
On Episode 70, Nick chats with historian of medicine and science, sex researcher, mainstream writer, and (im)patient advocate, Dr. Alice Dreger about her early investigations into the broken medical care system and the intersex rights movement, the story behind her book, Galileo’s Middle Finger: Heretics, Activists, and One Scholar’s Search for Justice and the relationship between science and social justice, approaching present-day cancel culture from a nuanced perspective, and her current efforts as founder of the local news organization East Lansing Info to rescue local news in her city and in America more generally.
On Episode 69, Nick chats with Dr. Maya Goldenberg, Associate Professor of Philosophy at the University of Guelph author of the new book, Vaccine Hesitancy: Public Trust, Expertise, and the War on Science, about how we frame and might reframe public debate about vaccines and vaccination. Maya’s argument—that at the foundation of today’s vaccine controversies is a public mistrust of science, not a public misunderstanding of science—offers an important point of view in the larger contemporary debate about vaccine hesitancy.
On Episode 68, Nick chats with Dr. Sean Valles, Associate Professor of Philosophy at Michigan State University and author of the book, Philosophy of Population Health: Philosophy for a New Public Health Era, about problematic discourse surrounding COVID-19, the need for promoting a “culture of health,” the dangers of COVID-19 hobbyism, addressing COVID-19 mental health concerns, advice for professors planning to add COVID-19 material to their classes, and looking toward a a future ethics of health resilience post-COVID-19.
On Episode 67, Nick chats with Dr. Thomas Pradeu, CNRS Senior investigator (DR2), and Head of the group “Conceptual and theoretical analysis of immune activation and biological boundaries at the University of Bordeaux, about Philosophy in biology—an innovative way to combine the contributions of philosophy of biology, experimental biology, and medical biology—and how this approach enriches the conceptualization, explanation, and modeling of biological processes.
On Episode 66, Nick chats with Dr. Caterina Marchionni, University Lecturer in Practical Philosophy and member of TINT, Centre for Philosophy of the Social Sciences, at the University of Helsinki, about her work in the philosophy and methodology of economics.
On Episode 65, Nick chats with Dr. Remco Heesen, faculty member in philosophy at the University of Western Australia, about his research concerning what happens after scientific evidence is collected, such as the scientist’s choice of when to share her findings, and how peer review may affect what gets reported.
On Episode 64, Nick chats with Dr. Matt Brown, Associate Professor of Philosophy and History of Ideas, and Director of the Center for Values in Medicine, Science, and Technology at University of Texas at Dallas, about the ways in which science is a value-laden enterprise, the impact of the value-ladenness of science on our conception of the role of science in policy, and the parallels between scientific and technological, ethical and political inquiries.
On Episode 63, Nick chats with Dr. Hannah Rubin, Assistant Professor at Notre Dame University about her growing research on the evolution of cooperative and altruistic behavior, genetics in evolutionary game theory, experimental economics in philosophy, and her experience serving as Managing Editor for the journal, Philosophy of Science.
On Episode 62, Nick chats with Dr. Denny Borsboom, Professor of Psychology and program leader of the Psychological Methods Group at the University of Amsterdam, about how he applies philosophy of science to to his research in psychological methods, conceptual issues in contemporary psychometrics, and his influential work on network approaches to psychopathology.
On Episode 61, Nick chats with Dr. David Papineau, Professor of Philosophy of Science at King's College London and the City University of New York Graduate Center, about stories from his early days studying the logic of statistical inference under Ian Hacking, his work on philosophical naturalism, teleosemantics, and consciousness, and how he came to write his most recent book, “Knowing the Score: How Sport teaches us about Philosophy (and Philosophy about Sport).”
On Episode 60, Nick chats with Dr. James “Jack” Justus, Associate Professor of Philosophy at Floria State University, about how his early interest in the outdoors led to his work in the philosophy of conservation ecology, his heroic attempt to integrate decision theory and environmental ethics, and his upcoming book on the philosophy of ecology.
On Episode 59, Nick chats with Dr. Branden Fitelson, Distinguished Professor of Philosophy at Northeastern University, about his early days working in mathematics and physics as a research scientist at Argonne National Laboratory and a NASA contractor, his highly-social approach to doing and learning philosophy, his work on probability in scientific inference, the story of the Formal Epistemology Workgroup, using computational techniques to solve problems in philosophy, and the importance of slowing down our thinking.
On Episode 58, Nick chats with Deborah Mayo, Professor Emerita in the Department of Philosophy at Virginia Tech, about how she learned to apply statistics to key problems in the philosophy of science, how to think about replication and other pressing statistical issues in the social and biological sciences, and her new book, Statistical Inference as Severe Testing: How to Get Beyond the Statistics Wars.
On Episode 57, Nick chats with Julia Bursten, Assistant Professor in the Department of Philosophy at the University of Kentucky, about how her interactions with philosophers, physicists, and chemists led her toward a research career in the philosophy of nanoscience, doing socially-engaged philosophy of science with a regional focus, and her involvement as co-chair in the Philosophy of Science Association Women’s Caucus.
On Episode 56, Nick chats with Kevin Zollman, Associate Professor in the Department of Philosophy at Carnegie Mellon University, how his early interests in the mathematics of poker informed his approach to doing philosophy of science, understanding social behavior through game theory and mathematical modeling, and his co-authored book, "The Game Theorist’s Guide to Parenting.”
On Episode 55, Nick chats with Helen Longino, the Clarence Irving Lewis Professor of Philosophy at Stanford University, about her early upbringing and bohemian mindset, learning how to bridge methods in analytic philosophy with history and contextual factors, her activity in anti-war and women's liberation movements in the late 1960s and 1970s, early feminist scholarship, the resistance she and others faced in establishing Women’s Studies programs, and her most influential works on the social dimensions of scientific knowledge.
On Episode 54, Nick chats with Cailin O’Connor, Associate Professor in the Department of Logic and Philosophy of Science at the University of California, Irvine, about transitioning from studying Film and Environmental Studies at Harvard and a career in the arts to studying philosophy of science, the relevance of game theory to biology, the sciences, and to resolving old philosophical problems, and her new book, “The Misinformation Age” and how social factors, not individual psychology, are what’s essential to understanding the persistence of false belief.
On Episode 53, Nick chats with Stathis Psillos, Professor of Philosophy of Science and Metaphysics in the Department of Philosophy & History of Science in the University of Athens, about writing his first thesis on Aristotle and quantum mechanics, developing and defending “selective realism,” creating a dictionary of philosophy of science, “Philosophy of Science A-Z,” what it’s like to do philosophy of science in Greece, and why General Philosophy of Science is due for a comeback.
On Episode 52, Nick chats with Federica Russo, Assistant Professor in Philosophy at the University of Amsterdam, about the relationship between probability and causality, the role of philosophy of science in science, how the Russo-Williamson Thesis sparked a lively debate on causation in medicine, and the role technology plays on knowledge itself.
FULL EPISODE TRANSCRIPT
On Episode 51, Nick chats with Hasok Chang, the Hans Rausing Professor of History and Philosophy of Science at the University of Cambridge, about deciding to leave Seoul, South Korea at the age of sixteen to study physics in the U.S., running up against physicists at Caltech who discouraged philosophical thinking, finding encouragement and a home in HPS within the Stanford School of Philosophy of Science, “complimentary science” and the three aspects of how historical and philosophical work can improve scientific knowledge, and his new ambitious project challenging the analytic philosopher’s habit of thinking of knowledge in terms of propositions.
FULL EPISODE TRANSCRIPT
On Episode 50, Nick chats with Justin Garson, Associate Professor of Philosophy at Hunter College-CUNY, about chairing a session with Daniel Dennett on memetics at the 2018 Philosophy of Science Association meeting, his work on biological functions in psychiatry and how symptoms of mental disorders like anxiety and schizophrenia might be useful to us, taking part in a summer meeting that brought six philosophers and six geneticists to work on transposable elements and the human genome, and his new book, “What Biological Functions Are and Why They Matter."
FULL EPISODE TRANSCRIPT
On Episode 49, Nick chats with Vincent Hendricks, Professor of Formal Philosophy and Director of the Center for Information and Bubble Studies at the University of Copenhagen, about the importance of reasoning through illustrations, applying ideas from finance and economics to questions in philosophy of science, the ways in which our children influence our philosophical thinking, and his latest book, Reality Lost: Markets of Attention, Misinformation and Manipulation.
FULL EPISODE TRANSCRIPT
On Episode 48, Nick chats with Ann-Sophie Barwich, Visiting Professor in the Cognitive Science Program at Indiana University Bloomington, about growing up studying literature in East Germany, finding her voice as a researcher, and the importance of thinking about the sense of smell as a model for neuroscience and the senses.
FULL EPISODE TRANSCRIPT
Timestamps:
0:15 Hello and welcome / 2:07 Ann on being recruited to the Cog-Sci program at Indiana / 4:41 Growing up in East Germany and being obsessed with literature / 11:26 How Ann found her way into philosophy, and other undergraduate adventures / 17:38 Ann’s introduction to the philosophy of science, and a Monty Python quote / 20:00 How Ann switched dissertation topics mid-course and came to study smell / 32:37 Important moments in Vienna and finding her voice as a researcher / 39:27 How philosophy of science failed her / 48:48 Ann’s Twitter presence as the “smellosopher” and her approach to public engagement as a philosopher of science / 54:15 Ann’s future plans learning EEG and working as a scientific philosopher / 01:05:00 The greatest challenge facing philosophy of science today
On Episode 47, Nick chats with Angela Potochnik, Associate Professor of Philosophy and the Director of the Center for Public Engagement with Science at the University of Cincinnati, about her time studying in Vienna and how she came to love the history of logical empiricism, her co-written work, “Recipes for Science” on scientific methods and reasoning from a philosophical perspective, and her new book, “Idealization and the Aims of Science” on the centrality of idealization in science.
Timestamps:
0:15 Hello and welcome / 2:07 Angela on her current teaching of a graduate seminar on complexity / 5:43 Her work as Director at the new Center for Public Engagement with Science / 9:32 Angela’s early life growing up as a runner in Arkansas / 14:12 How Angela transitioned from her med-school track to graduate school in philosophy / 24:17 How Angela fell in love with the Vienna Circle / 28:40 Aufbau/Bauhaus / 34:04 Why philosophy students should study the history of logical empiricism / 39:00 Getting the first job / 45:06 Angela’s new book, “Idealization and the Aims of Science / 1:04:54 Angela new co-written book, “Recipes for Science” / 1:10:51 The greatest challenge facing philosophy of science today
On Episode 46, Nick chats with Francesco Guala, Professor of Political Economy in the Department of Philosophy at the University of Milan, about how he came to study the philosophy of experimental economics, how philosophers of science can open the door to successful collaborations with scientists (hint: don’t preach), his latest book, “Understanding Institutions: The Science and Philosophy of Living Together,” and the question, “why should there be philosophy today?”
Timestamps:
0:15 Hello and welcome / 1:36 Francesco on his summer travels and preparing for the fall term / 4:06 Francesco’s early life growing up in Alessandria, Italy / 11:30 How a non-standard philosophy of science course on the political implications of science captured Francesco’s attention / 14:40 Francesco’s transition to studying philosophy of economics at Kings College, and the London School of Economics / 24:24 Early questions in the philosophy of economics / 28:20 Francesco’s dissertation and his early approach to doing philosophy of science / 37:57 The job search / 42:00 Designing a new philosophy program at the University of Exeter / 46:08 Writing “The Methodology of Experimental Economics” / 50:08 How Francesco opens the door to successful collaborations with scientists (Hint: don’t preach) / 53:57 Francesco finds his way back to Italy / 56:27 Interesting disagreements / 1:02:00 Francesco’s recent work, “Understanding Institutions: The Science and Philosophy of Living Together” / 1:14:28 Francesco’s upcoming projects in social ontology/ 1:17:04 The greatest challenge facing philosophy of science today
On Episode 45, Nick chats with Anna Alexandrova, Senior Lecturer in Philosophy of Science at Cambridge, about coming of age in Russia during the collapse of the USSR, succeeding in philosophy when she had “no other options,” and her book, “A Philosophy for the Science of Well-being.”
Timestamps:
0:15 Hello and welcome / 1:50 Anna fills us in on her summer aka the Cambridge “research term” / 4:22 Anna’s early life and the challenges she faced growing up in Russia during the collapse of the USSR / 13:15 Anna’s first encounter with philosophy as a 16-year-old exchange student in France / 17:51 Anna’s introduction to the philosophy of social science / 20:46 The intellectual life of London, and sexual objectification in Russia / 25:00 How Anna succeeded in philosophy when she had “no other options” / 35:05 The rise of the sciences of well-being / 38:26 What is the science of well-being? / 44:07 The top three philosophy of science issues in the science of well-being / 52:34 Is there a single concept or theory of well-being? / 58:35 What future contributions can (and should) philosophers of the science of well-being make? / 01:04:58 Constructive criticism of Anna’s book “A Philosophy for the Science of Well-being” / 01:07:30 Is well-being a number? / 01:11:30 Anna’s upcoming projects / 01:15:24 The greatest challenge facing philosophy of science today
On Episode 44, Nick chats with Kareem Khalifa, Professor at Middlebury College in Vermont (USA), about what it's like to teach and do philosophy of science at a liberal arts college, transitioning from applied mathematics to hermeneutics to philosophy of science, his impressive musical career as a bass guitarist, his new book, 'Understanding, Explanation, and Scientific Knowledge," his current work developing a new account of explanation, and the problem of science journalism.
Timestamps:
0:15 Hello and welcome / 2:30 Kareem on his summer conferences and current writing collaborations / 10:37 Key differences between teaching philosophy of science at a university and a liberal arts college / 16:45 Kareem's early life, and his foray into the philosophy of science from applied mathematics to hermeneutics / 30:42 Kareem's music-making on the bass (and his first band's names) / 35:00 Kareem's approach to philosophy of science / 38:35 Kareem's latest book 'Understanding, Explanation, and Scientific Knowledge' / 51:30 Kareem's current projects on building a new account of explanation / 59:33 The problem of science journalism
On Episode 43, Nick chats with Janet Stemwedel, Professor and Chair in Philosophy at San Jose State University, about how within two weeks of defending her dissertation in physical chemistry at Stanford she realized that the questions that really kept her up at night were philosophical questions about science rather than scientific questions, why scientific knowledge-building needs ethics, the transmission of "best practices" in the community of science, how engaging in several online academic communities through blog writing and Twitter has helped her philosophical work, and her decision to speak out about sexual assault within the #MeToo Movement.
Timestamps: 0:15 Hello and welcome 2:30
On Episode 42, Nick chats with Sabina Leonelli, Professor of Philosophy and History of Science at the University of Exeter, about how her desire not to choose between her various research interests led her to study philosophy of science, her early career projects "Understanding Scientific Understanding" and "How well do 'facts' travel?", the epistemic, social, and ethical dimensions of data-intensive science, how data practices differ between biological and biomedical sciences, her role in science policy and governance with the European Commission on open science and open data, why identifying the "so what?" of your research requires interacting with others, and what she does to make sure philosophy of science remains a source of inspiration to the rest of academia and beyond.
Timestamps: 0:15 Hello and welcome 1:50 Sabina
On Episode 41, Nick chats with Michael Strevens, professor in the Philosophy Department at New York University, about growing up in Auckland, New Zealand during the 1970s, how his mutual interests in computer science and how thought works lead to undergraduate work in formal logic and graduate study at Rutgers, how he transitioned after being denied tenure at Stanford, philosophy of probabilities in statistical mechanics, the social structure of science, and his new book, "Thinking Off Your Feet: How Empirical Psychology Vindicates Armchair Philosophy."
Timestamps: 0:15 Hello and welcome 2:22 Michael
On Episode 40, Nick chats with Michael Weisberg, Professor and Chair of Philosophy at the University of Pennsylvania, about how a Creationism incident in his own backyard led to the development of the Laboratory for Understanding Science, "finding your thing" in graduate school, his book "Simulation and Similarity: Using Models to Understand the World," debates surrounding 19th century physician Samuel Morton on biology and race, his various science documentary projects, and his current work promoting ecological and scientific understanding in the Galápagos community.
Timestamps: 0:15 Hello and welcome 2:33 Michael
On Episode 39, Nick chats with Rachel Ankeny, Professor at the University of Adelaide in South Australia, about her experience with the Great Books Program at St. John's College in Santa Fe, the formation of the Society for Philosophy of Science in Practice (SPSP), the roles of models and cased-based reasoning in science, the importance of studying non-model organisms, her integrated work on "Hostel Stories," a research project aimed at finding out more about migrant hostels, reception centers, and camps in South Australia, and the greatest challenge facing philosophy of science today.
Timestamps: :15 Introduction 2:06: Rachel
On Episode 38, Nick chats with Alison Wylie, Professor of Philosophy at the University of British Columbia and future President of the Philosophy of Science Association, about her formative experiences working as an advocationalist archaeologist throughout Saskatchewan, Canada, her turn toward exploring the philosophical issues being hotly debated in archaeology, when and how contextual factors contribute to epistemic goals in science and why this does not entail corrosive relativism, her current work on the project, "Indigenous/Science: Partnerships in the Exploration of History and Environments," and the future of the Philosophy of Science Association.
Timestamps: :15 Introduction 1:44: Alison
On Episode 37, Nick chats with Quayshawn Spencer, Assistant Professor of Philosophy at the University of Pennsylvania, about growing up with the unspoken norms of social segregation in Nashville, Tennessee, the philosophical question that compelled a change in his career ambitions from biochemist to philosopher of biology, how he set out to write a book on the non-biological reality of race but then came across data that shifted his research trajectory, why he's not a biological racial antirealist nor a biological racial realist, and why philosophy of science faces an even greater challenge to diversify than STEM fields.
Timestamps: 0:15 Hello and welcome 1:37 Quayshawn
On Episode 36, Nick chats with Armin Schulz, Associate Professor of Philosophy at the University of Kansas and Visiting Fellow at the Center for Philosophy of Science at the University of Pittsburgh, about leaving Germany at fifteen to study abroad in the United States Pacific Northwest, studying (and returning to teach) at the London School of Economics, how helping behavior is adaptive, his new book "Efficient Cognition: The Evolution of Representational Decision-Making," and how we can learn from how animals make economic decisions.
Timestamps: 0:15 Hello and welcome 2:35 Armin
On Episode 35, Nick chats with Steven French, Professor of Philosophy of Science at the University of Leeds, about his early interests in "geeky" hobbies, new music, and a motorcycle sport called "Speedway," his intense graduate school days under Heinz Post that ended at 4am in a pitch-black room debating Popper, taking his first permanent academic job at the University of Campinas in Brazil, teaching English to Vietnamese refugees, working with a number of incredible PhD students, identity and individuality in physics, structural realism, the similarities and differences between scientific theories and artworks, his upcoming book on Husserl and the phenomenological approach to quantum mechanics, and why we should see philosophy of science as a part of mainstream philosophy.
Timestamps: 0:15 Hello and welcome 1:53 Steven
On Episode 34, Nick chats with Jackie Sullivan, Associate Professor in the Department of Philosophy, a member of the Rotman Institute of Philosophy, and an associate member of the Brain and Mind Institute at the University of Western Ontario, about how a challenging early home life pushed her to study existentialism and philosophy, finding a supportive environment in the History and Philosophy of Science (HPS) graduate community at Pitt, putting her PhD on pause to do a Master's in Neuroscience, how scientists exert control in experimental contexts (and how they extrapolate back to the phenomena), why neuroscience is not reductive in practice, the nature of the self in Alzheimer's disease, problems in integrative research, and how we coordinate practices to achieve certain goals in science.
Timestamps: 0:15 Hello and welcome 2:24 Jackie
On Episode 33, Nick chats with Zoe Drayson, Assistant Professor in Philosophy at the University of California, Davis, about leaving high school at seventeen to work full-time as a horoscope writer at a teenage magazine, returning to study under Tim Williamson at the University of Edinburgh, spending several years in academic publishing at Routledge on the philosophy list, going from fearing her social skills would be "absolutely wasted on philosophy" to finding philosophers who were a blast hang out with, briefly becoming a public intellectual while a graduate student at the University of Bristol, the importance of visiting other philosophy departments for achieving success in the field, the challenge of being a moderate naturalist, and why philosophers of science are the worst culprits in thinking their discipline is the only bit of philosophy worth doing.
Timestamps: 0:15 Hello and welcome 2:09 Zoe
On Episode 32, Nick chats with Tim Maudlin, Professor of Philosophy at New York University, about being advised by his Yale undergraduate professor, "not even if you were Immanuel Kant would I suggest you go to graduate school in philosophy," how he "accidentally" wrote several books including Quantum Non-Locality and Relativity, Truth and Paradox, The Metaphysic Within Physics, and Philosophy of Physics: Space and Time, the importance of working outside of the literature, how metaphysics is informed by physics, his latest project on new foundations for physical geometry, and the challenge of bringing foundational issues in physics to the forefront of practicing physicists.
Timestamps: 0:15 Hello and welcome 02:00 Tim
On Episode 31, Nick chats with Robyn Bluhm, Associate Professor at the Department of Philosophy and Lyman Briggs College at Michigan State University, about her transition from doing a Bachelors in Translation, to studying behavioral neuroscience, to gradate work in the philosophy of science, spending three years doing functional neuroimaging in psychiatry, becoming a leading expert in the philosophy of evidence-based medicine, taking an integrated approach that combines philosophy of science with bioethics, and why this is a great time to be doing philosophy of science.
Timestamps: 0:15 Hello and welcome 01:18 Robyn
On Episode 30, Nick chats with Elisabeth Lloyd, the Arnold and Maxine Tanis Chair of History and Philosophy of Science at Indiana University, about developing resilience from growing up in adverse circumstances, returning to college after spending a year in a hippie commune to write her own major on Science and Political Theory, getting through a difficult and discouraging environment as a female graduate student who experienced recurring sexual harassment at Princeton, worrying about how knowledge gets made in the sciences as opposed to worrying about securing the possibility of knowledge, evaluating the science as a whole utilizing a "Logic of Research Questions," her recent work with key players in climate science, and the importance for young philosophers and scientists to not pay too much attention to those who put you down.
Timestamps: 0:15 Hello and welcome 02:40 Lisa
On Episode 29, Nick chats with Eric Winsberg, Professor of Philosophy at the University of South Florida, about the "unbelievably permissive" schooling he had growing up in Montreal in the 70's, transitioning from Physics to History and Philosophy of Science at the University of Chicago, exploring the quirky, non-traditional menu of philosophy of science at Indiana University, the relation between theory and phenomena in computer simulations, the importance of playing the contrarian, and philosophy of science in practice.
Timestamps: 0:15 Hello and welcome 01:45 Eric
On Episode 28, Nick chats with Bas van Fraassen, Distinguished Professor of Philosophy at San Francisco State University and the McCosh Professor of Philosophy Emeritus at Princeton University, about growing up working in a library in a small town in the Netherlands, early influences in philosophy of science, how he developed his major works, including 'The Scientific Image' and 'Laws and Symmetry,' personal stories from Indiana University, his 10-year passion for trapeze, and the major challenge facing philosophers of science today.
Timestamps: 0:15 Hello and welcome 02:31 Bas
On Episode 27, Nick chats with Serife Tekin, Assistant Professor of Philosophy at Daemen College in Buffalo, New York, about her childhood and adolescent years spent on the Aegean coast in Denizli, Turkey, her transition at Middle East Technical University from studying economics and mathematics to philosophy, her work in the philosophy of psychiatry that incorporates first-person accounts of mental illness, extraordinary science and origins of the current crisis in psychiatric research, and her new manuscript, 'Reclaiming the Self in Psychopathology: Science, Narratives, and Persons' that develops an account of the self that will enrich psychiatric science.
Timestamps: 0:15 Hello and welcome 1:25 Serife
On Episode 26, Nick chats with Tony Chemero, Professor of Philosophy and Psychology at the University of Cincinnati and author of the book, 'Radical Embodied Cognitive Science,' about taking trips to the East Village as a kid to see punk rock shows, early interactions with Dan Dennett and Newton scholar George Smith, hanging out with computer scientists and psychologists during graduate study at Indiana, the stresses of serving on a college tenure committee, how to do cognitive science without invoking mental representations, why we should avoid making pronouncements of "how science works," and his upcoming book on interaction-dominant systems in social cognition.
Timestamps: 0:15 - Hello and welcome 01:36 - Tony
On Episode 25, Nick talks with Adina Roskies, the Helman Family Distinguished Professor of Philosophy and Chair of the Cognitive Science Program at Dartmouth College, about her life-changing undergraduate experience (filled with pedagogical nightmares) at Yale, graduate study and postdoctoral work in neuroscience and cognitive science, returning to complete a PhD in philosophy at MIT, philosophy of neuroimaging, and the political and policy implications of not understanding how science works
Timestamps: 0:15 - Hello and welcome 01:59 - Adina
On Episode 24, Nick chats with David Baker, Associate Professor of Philosophy at the University of Michigan, about the importance of having an intellectual peer group across one's life and career, studying philosophy of physics at Princeton, the Many-Worlds Interpretation of quantum mechanics, his work on supersymmetry, disagreements among philosophers of science concerning metaphysics, and how philosophy also informs his work as a science fiction writer.
Timestamps: 0:15 - Hello and welcome 01:33 - David
On Episode 22, Nick chats with Heather Douglas, the Waterloo Chair in Science and Society at the University of Waterloo, about her early work on Millikan's famous oil drop experiment and how he cheated his graduate student out of a Nobel prize, idiosyncrasies in academic culture, differences in Canadian and US science policy, how democratic societies, scientists, and philosophers of science can foster science, and when and why science should be censored.
Timestamps: 0:15 - Hello and welcome 01:49 - Heather
On Episode 22, Nick chats with Colin Klein, Australian Research Council Future Fellow and a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Philosophy at Macquarie University in Sydney, about engaging in pre-Reddit philosophical debates over the early internet, his humbling experience going from from a small liberal arts college to graduate study at Princeton, idealizing explanations in science, and why insects at least have a form of subjective experience.
Timestamps: 0:15 - Hello and welcome 01:49 - Colin
On Episode 21, Nick chats with Roman Frigg, Professor of Philosophy in the Department of Philosophy, Logic, and Scientific Method at the London School of Economics and Political Science, about growing up in Basel, Switzerland playing in the youth symphony orchestra, studying quantum and statistical mechanics to understand "what makes physics tick," working with his PhD advisor Nancy Cartwright on models in science, current challenges for climate scientists and policy makers, and protecting science against its celebrity scientists and other scientism advocates.
Timestamps: 0:15 - Hello and welcome 03:08 - Roman
On Episode 20, Nick chats with Dominic Murphy, Associate Professor & Director of the Unit for History and Philosophy of Science at the University of Sydney, about his early days as a naturalistic philosopher of mind, his pioneering work in the philosophy of psychiatry, his new work on self-representation in the cognitive neurosciences, the problem of cultural variation in psychiatry, and issues with the National Institute of Mental Health's new framework for studying mental disorders, the Research Domain Criteria (RDoC).
Timestamps: 0:15 - Hello and welcome 03:51 - Dominic
On Episode 19, Nick chats with Jason Robert, the Lincoln Chair in Ethics and Dean's Distinguished Professor in the Life Sciences at Arizona State University, about his early work on the "selling" of the Human Genome Project, philosophical issues in human genetics, doing philosophy of biology in order to do better bioethics, and his ongoing ambition to contribute to debates about the ethics of scientific research and medical practice.
Timestamps: 0:15 - Hello and welcome 03:22 - Jason
On Episode 18, Nick chats with Richard Dawid, Professor of Philosophy at Stockholm University in Sweden, about his research connecting general philosophy of science and the philosophy of physics, theories of high energy physics and cosmology, and his book, 'String Theory and the Scientific Method', which aims to understand 'the trust physicists have in contemporary theories despite the absence of empirical confirmation.'
Timestamps: 0:15 - Hello and welcome 04:19 - Richard
On Episode 17, Nick talks with Alex Rosenberg, the R. Taylor Cole Professor of Philosophy at Duke University, about his pioneering work in the philosophy of economics, reconciling molecular biology with evolutionary theory, and examining philosophical questions by means of historical fiction in his best-selling novel, "The Girl From Krakow", a thriller that explores how a young woman and her lover navigate the dangerous thirties, the firestorm of war in Europe, and how they make sense of their survival.
Timestamps: 0:15 - Hello and welcome 02:16 - Alex
On Episode 16, Nick chats with Lindley Darden, Professor of Philosophy at University of Maryland College Park, about her early days in the Conceptual Foundations of Science program at U Chicago, pressing Thomas Kuhn at dinner on progress in science, the importance of getting the history right, and doing philosophy that can be useful to scientists.
Timestamps: 0:15 - Hello and welcome 03:03 - Lindley
On Episode 15, Nick chats with Anya Plutynski, Associate Professor of Philosophy at Washington University in St. Louis, about her undergraduate days at U Chicago and their Great Books Program, reconciling freedom and necessity in Spinoza's ethics, how her personal experience with cancer led to scientifically-engaged philosophical work on causation and explanation in cancer research, and the three biggest challenges facing philosophy of science today.
Timestamps: 0:15 - Hello and welcome 07:51 - Anya
On Episode 14, chats with Tom Polger, Professor of Philosophy and Head of the Department of Philosophy at the University of Cincinnati, about growing up programming games on his family's Commodore 64 computer, working for the tech-focused MITRE Corporation, teaching 20 different courses while coming up for tenure, how this thing called philosophy can be a legitimate form of inquiry, and how to support scientists and philosophers working together.
Timestamps: 0:15 - Hello and welcome 02:54 - Tom
On Episode 13, Nick talks with Colin Allen, Provost Professor of Cognitive Science and of History & Philosophy of Science & Medicine at Indiana University Bloomington, about playing the role of Bassanio in The Merchant of Venice, major differences between English and U.S. degree programs, going beyond the walls of the UCLA Department of Philosophy to study linguistics, neuroscience, and computer science, connecting his interests in the philosophy of language with cognitive ethology, and his past, present, and future projects as a scientifically-engaged philosopher.
Timestamps: 0:15 - Hello and welcome 03:23 - Colin
On Episode 12, Nick chats with Michael Ruse, the Lucyle T. Werkmeister Professor and Director of the History and Philosophy of Science Program at Florida State University, about growing up in England as a Quaker, his transition from analytic philosophy to philosophy of science, those in the philosophy of science he admires, and how to succeed as an academic.
Timestamps: 0:15 - Hello and welcome 02:28 - Michael
On Episode 11, Nick chats with Anjan Chakravartty, Professor of Philosophy, and Director of the John H. Reilly Center for Science, Technology, and Values at the University of Notre Dame, about growing up in Peterborough, Canada as the son of immigrant parents from India, his early work on an international development project in Calcutta and a United Nationals World Congress on Environment and Development, his research on scientific realism beginning at Cambridge, how specialized philosophy of science informs general philosophy of science, and his upcoming book on naturalized metaphysics.
Timestamps: 0:15 - Hello and welcome 10:42 - Anjan
On Episode 10, Nick talks with Elliott Sober, the Hans Reichenbach Professor and William F. Vilas Research Professor in Philosophy at University of Wisconsin-Madison, about doing his PhD backwards (dissertation first, coursework second), his move from more traditional philosophy into the philosophy of biology, and the hard problem of why the simplicity of a scientific theory should be relevant to saying what the world is like.
On Episode 9, Nick chats with Jane Maienschein, American Professor and Director for the Center for Biology and Society at Arizona State University, about her wandering (and wondering) road beginning in astrophysics at MIT to studying history and philosophy of science at Indiana, research opportunities for students at the Marine Biological Laboratory at Woods Hole, MA, and insightful career advice for students in the history and philosophy of science.
On Episode 8, Nick talks with Edouard Machery, Distinguished Professor in the Department of History and Philosophy of Science at the University of Pittsburgh, about his early upbringing in the French tradition of philosophy of science, his search for new ways of doing philosophy while studying at MIT and Harvard, his work in the philosophy of cognitive science, and how philosophers (and scientists) can apply to study at the Center for Philosophy of Science.
On Episode 7, Nick talks with Sandra Mitchell, Professor and Chair of the Department of History and Philosophy of Science at the University of Pittsburgh, about her early days studying with Imre Lakatos at the London School of Economics, how her social and political concerns have informed her research, psychiatric genetics, how science can inform policy, and her new role as President of the Philosophy of Science Association.
On Episode 6, Nick chats with Rick Grush, Professor of Philosophy at UC San Diego, about his experience as a first-generation student, his early days studying philosophy of cognitive science under Paul Churchland, diversity in philosophy, and why he very recently nearly resigned from academia all together.
On Episode 5, Nick chats with Kyle Stanford, an internationally born-and-raised Professor of Logic and Philosophy of Science at UC Irvine. They discuss Kyle's initial realization that our best scientific theories weren't just telling us what things were like, the problem of unconceived alternatives in science and why it may be getting worse, and his most recent research in moral psychology.
On Episode 4, Nick chats with Roberta Millstein, Professor of Philosophy at the University of California at Davis, about her early days working as an "east coast" computer programmer, her novel path to obtaining a tenure-track job in philosophy, and the Philosophy of Science Association's Women's Caucus.
On Episode 3, Nick sits down with David Danks, Professor of Philosophy at Carnegie Mellon, to talk about graduating with a philosophy degree from Princeton without ever reading a word of Kant, his work at the Florida Institute for Human and Machine Cognition, and his unique approach to interdisciplinary puzzle solving.
On Episode 2 of the SCI PHI Podcast, Nick talks with Carol Cleland, Professor of Philosophy at UC Boulder, about her early days working for a top-secret computer science startup paid for by the Navy, her current work in astrobiology, and the geosciences, and her struggles as a woman in the male-dominated areas of physics, computer science, and philosophy.
On the very first episode of the SCI PHI Podcast, Nick sits down with Massimo Pigliucci to talk about applied stoicism, evolutionary genetics, enrolling in a philosophy PhD program as a tenured professor in biology, and what it's like to be a guest on the Colbert Report.