Talk: No-Alternative Arguments, by Stephan Hartmann (12 April 2011)

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Philosophy Seminar Series: 12 April 2011, 2-3:45pm, Philosophy Resource Room; Speaker: Stephen Hartmann, Chair in Epistemology and Philosophy of Science, Director of the Tilburg Center for Logic and Philosophy of Science, Tilburg University, The Netherlands; Moderator: Dr. Tang Weng Hong

Abstract: We construct a Bayesian model to show that the observation that no one has yet found an alternative to a proposed hypothesis supports the hypothesis in question. Our model has various applications in epistemology and philosophy of science (such as the realism debate and IBE) which we also discuss. The talk is based on joint work with Richard Dawid (Vienna).

HartmannAbout the Speaker: Stephan Hartmann is Chair in Epistemology and Philosophy of Science in the Department of Philosophy at Tilburg University and Director of the Tilburg Center for Logic and Philosophy of Science. He was formerly Professor of Philosophy in the Department of Philosophy, Logic and Scientific Method at the London School of Economics and Director of LSE’s Centre for Philosophy of Natural and Social Science. From 2002-2005, he directed the research group Philosophy, Probability and Modeling at the University of Konstanz. His primary research and teaching areas are general philosophy of science, formal epistemology, philosophy of physics, and political philosophy. Hartmann published numerous articles and the book Bayesian Epistemology (with Luc Bovens) that appeared in 2003 with Oxford University Press. His current research interests include formal social epistemology, modeling deliberation, the philosophy and psychology of reasoning, methodological questions regarding the use of mathematics and statistics in the social sciences, intertheoretic relations, and probabilities in physics.

More information on the Philosophy Seminar Series can be found here. A list of past talks in the series can be found here.

Stephen Hartmann

Chair in Epistemology and Philosophy of Science, Director of the Tilburg Center for Logic and Philosophy of Science

Tilburg University, The Netherlands

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