- Research Seminars
- Reading Groups
- Philosophy of Experimentation Reading Group
- History of Science in Latin America Reading Group
- Psy-Phi Reading Group
- History and Philosophy of Physics Reading Group
- Cambridge Reading Group on Reproduction
- Calculating People
- Atmospheric Humanities Reading Group
- HPSTM in East Asia
- Values in Science Reading Group
- HPS Workshop
- Language Groups
Departmental Seminars
Seminars take place on Thursdays from 3.30pm to 5pm in the Hopkinson Lecture Theatre (unless otherwise stated).
Organised by Ahmad Elabbar.
30 April
Arts School Lecture Theatre A
Greg Lusk (Durham University)
Social values in scientific information: value plurality and the democratic view
The value-laden nature of scientific information suggests that when such information influences democratic decision making, the embedded social values do as well. This creates a problem when deploying science within decision making in a democracy: the people or their representatives should determine which values guide decision making, not scientists. Value laden scientific information can therefore undermine the legitimacy of democratic decisions. Philosophers of science have only recently begun to take this problem of legitimacy seriously.
This talk will explore this emerging area of 'political philosophy of science' with a particular focus on the political legitimacy of value-laden scientific information within decision making. I will present the inaptly named 'democratic alignment view' and attempt to defend it against recent challenges. These challenges claim that the view does a poor job of accommodating value-plurality and would further marginalise minority views. I argue that the democratic alignment view has the resources to meet these challenges, and there are significant benefits to retaining it.
7 May
Patrick M. Duerr (University of Tübingen)
Scientific fruitfulness – the virtue of promising speculation
Practising scientists at the frontier of knowledge production face the challenge of having to decide which theories and models to adopt and work on. That is, they must identify auspicious novel hypotheses in order to further pursue, elaborate and refine them. But how to spot fruitful or fertile ideas – and conversely by what principles to weed out unpromising ones – especially when they are still in a more speculative or fledgling stage, with no conclusive evidence available yet? Notwithstanding its significance for scientific practice, fruitfulness has received less philosophical attention than it deserves. Building on seminal thoughts by Thomas Kuhn and Mary Hesse, I will advance the debate by developing what I will refer to as the EPTQ-model of fruitfulness. It moots an explication of the concept and function of fruitfulness in forward-looking phases inquiry – the 'context of pursuit' (Laudan) – rather than those in which one seeks to ascertain confirmation, empirical adequacy, or truth, on the basis of actual achievements. The EPTQ-model conceives of fruitfulness as the potential for scientific innovation, and distinguishes among four 'dimensions': prospects of expanding (E) an idea's domain, an idea's plasticity (P) and resources for natural evolution and adjustments, portable 'techniques' (T) and principles, and, finally, the questions (Q) that gave rise to an idea. The model aspires to both descriptive and normative adequacy, and I will make a case for this in part by drawing on several examples from past and present physics. The EPTQ-model is intended as a contribution within an integrated HPS. It will, I hope, provide useful tools for both historiographical analysis as well as for understanding controversies in current science.
14 May
Monica Garcia-Salmones Rovira (Maastricht University)
Nature and law
The paper engages initially with ideas about nature of three natural philosophers who were deeply impactful in the Early Scientific Revolution, Robert Boyle, the seventeenth-century inaugurator of the science of chemistry, Thomas Hobbes, and John Locke, authors well known both to an audience of lawyers and of scientists. The paper places emphasis in the fact that Hobbes, Boyle, and Locke were not merely natural lawyers, but natural philosophers. Natural philosophers were not either what today we call scientists. In his Introduction to the Philosophical Works by Isaac Newton, Andrew Janiak explains that the difference between the notions of 'natural philosophers' and 'scientists' is that the latter is a much more modern term, from around the mid-nineteenth century, apparently coined by William Whewell, for people practising science. Differently, natural philosophers studied nature, practised experiments, and discovered things like the laws of gravity, but also 'discussed many aspects of human beings, including the psyche and how nature reflects its divine creator'. Natural philosophers worked to develop a comprehensive view of nature. Therefore, the notion of natural philosophers already suggests 'interdisciplinarity' and a broader outlook, both empirical and existential in their analysis of problems. The paper investigates the impact that this modern notion of nature developed in the Scientific Revolution has had in the way we think today about law.
Tuesday 19 May, 5.00–6.30pm
Seminar Room 2, Department of History and Philosophy of Science
Adyeeri Kembabazi (University of Warwick)
'Reservoirs of venereal diseases': women and medico-moral discourses in Idi Amin's Uganda
For many Ugandans, Idi Amin's rule is an unfinished chapter that continues to shape political discourse about the way the state relates to its citizens. Despite being one of the most documented figures in history, sensationalized media portrayals and limited archival sources have obscured many facets of his rule. Scholarship has often focused on high-profile events like the expulsion of Asians but like many authoritarian leaders, Amin was deeply invested in imposing moral order, enacting a series of decrees between 1971 and 1977 which aimed to reform the behavior of Ugandans. This 'anti-immorality' campaign led to the arrest, imprisonment, and forced treatment of many Ugandans, predominantly women. The campaign garnered support from unexpected places, including medical professionals, religious leaders, and ordinary citizens. In this talk, I examine the anti-venereal disease decree, which Amin enacted in 1977 to address what he and medics believed was a venereal disease epidemic caused by immorality. I examine the campaign against venereal diseases as a political, medico-moral, and epidemiological project, socially constructed, but with real consequences for women. This campaign found support among medical and public health officials whose agendas intersected with moral reform efforts, framing venereal diseases through a gendered moral lens, echoing colonial precedents.
21 May
Rosanna Evans (Fitzwilliam Museum)
Policy vs. passion: British science teaching cultures and practical work, 1944–1988
The history of British school science has been long neglected. As compulsory state education expanded post-World War II, secondary school has become the only ubiquitous and formative science experience for British society. As individuals' science capital informs public understandings of science, including global pandemics and the climate crisis, inquiries into science classroom practices and experiences are much warranted.
So what evidence remains? Schools have never had the resources to keep records. Recent histories have investigated policy and curriculum change without assessing the implementation of these changes by teachers, or their interpretation by students, despite contemporary science education studies acknowledging dissonance between policy and curriculum and implementation.
Between a blend of object biography and oral history, this seminar will surface in-school experiences of science practical work from post-war Britain, illustrating how impactful teacher and student behaviours, classroom cultures, and teacher's identities are on students' learning as well as underlining why this close-up perspective should be an essential feature of histories of science education.
28 May
Issa Kohler-Hausmann (Yale University)
Defining and detecting discrimination: a new way forward
One of the predominate conceptions of discrimination in law and social science defines it causally. Something is discrimination on the basis of, e.g., race or sex only if the outcome would not have occurred had the person been, or been perceived to be, a different racial or sex category. This counterfactual definition has been embraced by the United States Supreme Court in interpreting federal anti-discrimination statutes and the Equal Protection Clause, and it structures much of the methodological work of social scientists, causal inference researchers, and computer scientists who design studies and make policy-relevant empirical claims.
But this definition is indeterminate and it suppresses assumptions that must ground any definition of discrimination. Using examples from law and social science, I show how the causal definition does not yield determinate designations of discrimination so much as it expresses the analyst's prior sociological and normative commitments.
I close by arguing that any account of discrimination must confront two foundational questions. The first is sociological: What is the category on the basis of which the conduct is said to be discriminatory? The second is normative: What constitutes fair or just treatment in light of the nature of that category? Disagreement over these questions is currently obscured by conclusory doctrinal labels or methodological terms. Because any definition of discrimination inevitably embeds answers to these questions, those answers must be made explicit.
4 June – Thirtieth Annual Hans Rausing Lecture
CANCELLED
Coffee with Scientists
The aim of this group is to explore and enhance the interface between HPS and science. Although many of us in HPS engage closely with scientists and their practices, we could benefit from more explicit discussions about the relationship between HPS and science itself, and from more opportunities for HPS-scholars and scientists to help each other's work.
We meet on Fridays in the Board Room. Further information, any reading materials, and links for online meetings will be distributed through the email list of the group. Please contact Hasok Chang or Marta Halina if you would like to be included on the list.
8 May, 11.00am–12.30pm
Peter Ulric Tse (Professor of Cognitive Neuroscience, Dartmouth College)
The history and philosophy of Gestalt psychology
Cabinet of Natural History
This research seminar is concerned with all aspects of the history of natural history and the field and environmental sciences. The regular programme of papers and discussions takes place over lunch on Mondays. In addition, the Cabinet organises a beginning-of-year fungus hunt and occasional expeditions to sites of historical and natural historical interest, and holds an end-of-year garden party.
Unless stated otherwise, all presentations take place on Mondays at 1pm in Seminar Room 1. To join virtually, please email Melissa Altinsoy or John Schaeffer.
Please note that there will be no Cabinet sessions on 4 May and 25 May due to the bank holidays.
Thursday 7 May
Natural History Humanities Showcase at Cambridge University Library
Join us for a special showcase of Natural History Humanities material from the University Library collections. The session will begin with several short lightning talks from affiliates of the Collections Connections Communities Strategic Research Initiative, followed by an opportunity to ask questions and explore the diverse items on display at your own pace.
Please note that this event will take place on a Thursday, from 1pm to 2pm in the Old Manuscripts Room (UL).
11 May
Richard Luke Fallon (Department of Earth Sciences, Cambridge)
Collotypes of graptolites: women, objectivity and judgement in Edwardian palaeontology
A Monograph of British Graptolites (1901–1918), written by Gertrude Elles and illustrated by Ethel Wood under the editorship of Charles Lapworth, was a landmark in biostratigraphy. Wood's camera lucida illustrations of the tiny titular fossil invertebrates, reproduced by the photomechanical collotype process, were key to the book's utility and the product of much experimentation, strain, and expense. Speaking to scholarship on women in geology and on scientific illustration, especially contested work on 'mechanical objectivity' and 'trained judgement', this paper will argue that Elles and Wood's Monograph was an opportunity for early professional women to harness and promulgate what were seen as newly exacting methods and tools in palaeontology. Their highly specialised work would have a global – and very practical – influence on emergent ideas about deep time and palaeontology's role in resource extraction.
18 May
Anna Bruins (University of Warwick)
Plant, planter, planted: new perspectives on bioprospecting under the Dutch East India Company (1600–1700)
Among historians of science, the instrumentalisation of natural knowledge under colonial trading companies such as the Dutch East India Company (VOC) has recently come under increased scrutiny. In these studies, humans are usually taken to be the planters, and crops the things that are being planted. This presentation reconsiders this conventional narrative. It will be argued that the dichotomy between planter and planted appears to have been experienced with much more ambiguity by those who travelled and produced natural knowledge under the VOC. Drawing from travel accounts from around the Company's network, including the Cape of Good Hope, Mauritius, and the Banda Islands, this presentation foregrounds the marks left on Dutch colonial plantation efforts by an eclectic range of nonhumans – from deviant baboons, to defiant pigeons, to divine planters.
1 June
Anaïs Walsdorf (University of Warwick)
Ancient slags and steel needles: metallurgy and colonial archaeology in the nineteenth century
As European archaeologists excavated ancient sites in the nineteenth century, they uncovered histories of metallurgical practice. This paper examines the relationship between the development of the metallurgical and archaeological sciences in the nineteenth century. John Percy, known as 'the father of English metallurgy' worked closely with archaeologists to chemically analyse the properties of ancient metals. In some cases, this led to the reopening of ancient mines to exploit them with newer, more efficient technologies. Ideas of ancient materials and technological progress tangled with ideas of race and civilisation as Percy himself participated in discussions regarding the periodization of the Three Age System. Archaeologists and metallurgists debated which metals and technological processes formed the line between savagery and civilisation. This paper problematizes the history of the metallurgical sciences, revealing deep ties with racial sciences and technological measures of man which persist in the historical crease.
8 June
Beth Kidd (University College London)
Misreading species: botanical identification and literary interpretation (1660–1749)
15 June
Katherine Arnold (University of Liverpool)
Friedrich Welwitsch's Angolan botanical collection: ownership and the law in nineteenth-century natural history
In 1872, Austrian collector Friedrich Welwitsch died in London, leaving behind a will which aimed to distribute his widely respected collection of plants. Though the will stated that the study set of his collections be left to the British Museum (Natural History), the expedition had been formally sponsored by the Portuguese government to investigate their colony of Angola. Upon realizing their scientific value, the King of Portugal brought a lawsuit against the British Museum, with Kew Gardens entering in support of the Portuguese. But what was the study set and why was it so valuable that it drew the most powerful botanical institutions in Britain into a prolonged legal battle? This paper will firstly investigate the concept of a study set and will argue that it is more than just a collection of plant specimens. Instead, it is a collection ecology: an ecosystem of biological material, correspondence, diaries, labels, scientific instruments, and much more. The value of the study set was not simply in the number of rare and unique plant specimens it contained; those specimens would be rendered valueless without the attendant paper data that botanists found essential to support taxonomic claims. Secondly, it will examine in detail the differing claims to the study set by the British Museum, the Portuguese government, and Kew Gardens, revealing Welwitsch's deeply strained relationships with all three interest groups over the perceived importance of his Angolan botanical collection. When we look at collections through this lens, we can begin to unravel the social, political, and environmental entanglements that defined collections, collectors, institutions, and even nations in nineteenth-century science.
CamPoS (Philosophy of Science)
CamPoS (Cambridge Philosophy of Science) is a network of academics and students working in the philosophy of science in various parts of the University of Cambridge, including the Department of History and Philosophy of Science and the Faculty of Philosophy. The Wednesday afternoon seminar series features current research by CamPoS members as well as visitors to Cambridge and scholars based in nearby institutions.
Seminars are held on Wednesdays, 1.00–2.30pm in Seminar Room 2. Organised by Matt Farr.
20 May
Svit Komel (Ljubljana) and Staffan Müller-Wille (HPS, Cambridge)
Let a hundred flowers blossom: philosophies and histories of science in continental Europe
The talk will present divergent ways of conceptualizing and institutionalizing the philosophy and history of science in continental Europe by looking at two examples: Germany and former Yugoslavia. In Germany, Begriffsgeschichte played a particularly prominent role, which among left-leaning reading groups at universities also was receptive to French epistemology and a re-reading of Hegel on history of philosophy and philosophy of natural sciences, as well as Marx on the science as generalized labour. The Max Planck Institute for the History of Science in Berlin, with its early emphasis on historical epistemology, was a curious outcome of this amalgam. On the other hand, in socialist Yugoslavia, epistemology was not predominantly institutionalized in specialized departments but in large interdisciplinary research centres. Considering epistemological debates in the 1980s on the relationship between philosophy – particularly Marxist philosophy – and science shows that within this context epistemology came to be understood primarily as a philosophical critique of historical scientific notions and rationalities. This led to a particular interpretation of historical epistemology and Anglo-American writings on the Scientific Revolution, viewing them as tools of radical critique rather than as opposing Marxist approaches to science.
10 June
Ovidiu Babeș (Free University Brussels)
Early moderns against mathematical sciences of nature
This is a talk about how several early modern philosophers argued against mathematizing natural philosophy. We all know that heroes of modern science – like Galileo, Huygens, or Newton – made natural philosophy mathematical. Yet recent literature increasingly points out that some disagreed: they believed that mathematics is not a proper part of natural knowledge. I reconstruct a specific strand of 18th-century British anti-mathematical philosophy. John Sergeant, Robert Greene, George Berkeley, and Thomas Reid resisted the mathematization of natural science. I claim that they did so for a similar reason: a shared philosophy of perception. They all held that the complexity of nature is a perceptual primitive, to the effect that mathematization necessarily involves ideas disconnected from nature. By articulating this philosophy, I also readdress the label of 'anti-mathematicism', thus gaining an analytical tool for understanding more critiques of early science.
17 June
CANCELLED
Philosophy of Experimentation Reading Group
This reading group explores philosophical topics related to scientific experimentation. We meet on Thursdays from 10am to 11am in the Board Room. All welcome!
Organised by Cameron Dashwood, Niall Roe and Marta Halina.
This term we will be looking at idealization and experimentation. We hope to offer a slightly different perspective on idealization than that offered in the standard literature on representation/modelling. Our first three papers provide a quick historical sketch, looking at idealization in Aristotle, Galileo and Newton. The remaining papers survey the contemporary debate.
7 May
Byrne, Christopher. 2020. 'Aristotle and Scientific Experiments'. Dialogue 59 (4): 527–37.
14 May
McMullin, Ernan. 1985. 'Galilean Idealization'. Studies in History and Philosophy of Science 16 (3): 247–73.
21 May
Smith, George E. 2012. 'How Newton's Principia Changed Physics', in Interpreting Newton, 1st ed., edited by Andrew Janiak and Eric Schliesser. Cambridge University Press.
28 May
This meeting will be in Seminar Room 1.
Cartwright, Nancy. 2002. 'Essay 7: Fitting Facts to Equations', in How the Laws of Physics Lie. Reprinted. Clarendon Paperbacks. Clarendon Press.
4 June
Laymon, Ronald. 1995. 'Experimentation and the Legitimacy of Idealization'. Philosophical Studies 77 (2–3): 353–75.
11 June
Carrillo, Natalia, and Tarja Knuuttila. 2022. 'Holistic Idealization: An Artifactual Standpoint'. Studies in History and Philosophy of Science 91 (February): 49–59.
18 June
Buzzoni, Marco. 2025. 'Idealizations, Scientific Models and Fictions', in Arfini, Selene, ed., Scientific Cognition, Semiotics, and Computational Agents: Essays in Honor of Lorenzo Magnani – Volume 2. Vol. 506. Synthese Library. Springer Nature Switzerland.
History of Science in Latin America Reading Group
In Easter we will be reading and hearing about works-in-progress from our own members. Manuscripts-in-progress will be circulated on the HISSLA listserv, or please contact the organisers.
Thursday 30 April, 2–3pm
[Please note special time]
Esteban Londoño
Navigating intercultural knowledge: criminal evidence standards and relational ethics in Colombia's post-conflict justice
Thursday 14 May, 1–2pm
Mika Hyman
Cultivating control: labour and knowledge in Trinidad's early 20th-century cocoa plantations
Thursday 21 May, 1-2pm
Emiliano Cabrera Rocha
'Amazonian bioeconomy' in Brazil: a lifepaths approach to emerging sociotechnical visions
Thursday 11 June, 1–2pm
Juan Pablo Angarita Bernal
Hybrid mediation processes in public libraries: the case of 'notable Colombians' and the Central Bank of Colombia's cultural network (2018–2025)
Tuesday 16 June, 1–2pm
[Please note special day]
We will be joined by two doctoral students from the Universidad Autónoma de México (UNAM) who will offer oral presentations in Spanish on their ongoing work.
Yasser Martínez
Educación higiénica en México (ca. 1833–1936)
Mariana Gerardo
Historia de la alimentación en espacios educativos de la Ciudad de México (1920–1950)
Please stay afterwards for coffee and cake at a nearby café.
Psy-Phi Reading Group
This reading group discusses current topics in philosophy of psychology and psychiatry.
Meetings: Thursdays, 2–3pm in the Board Room
Organisers: Scott Partington, Johanna Silva-Stüger and Robert Taylor
30 April
Plutynski, Anya (2024). 'How is a Therapist like a Modeler?' Philosophy, Psychiatry and Psychology 31(2), 151–161.
7 May
Ratnayake, Sahanika (2025). 'The Decline of Psychoanalysis and the Rise of Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy: Part I: Dismantling the Legend of CBT.' Philosophy, Psychiatry and Psychology 32(1), 81–92. AND
Ratnayake, Sahanika (2025). 'The Decline of Psychoanalysis and the Rise of Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy: Part II: The Challenge of Psychopharmaceuticals.' Philosophy, Psychiatry and Psychology 32(1), 93–104.
14 May
Fellowes, Sam (2025). 'Establishing the accuracy of self-diagnosis in psychiatry.' Philosophical Psychology 38(6), 2542–2569.
21 May
Golova, Anna, Dings, Roy (2025). 'Explicating the complexity of self-illness ambiguity.' Synthese 206, 210.
28 May
Pickard, Hanna (2026). 'The Puzzle of Addiction' and 'Diagnosing Disagreement' In: What Would You Do Alone in a Cage with Nothing but Cocaine? A Philosophy of Addiction, 23–42.
4 June
Holton, Eleanor; Holton, Richard (2026). 'When do we experience effort?' Synthese 207, 30.
11 June
Plutynski, Anya. (2023). 'Four Ways of Going "Right": Functions in Mental Disorder.' Philosophy, Psychiatry and Psychology 30(2), 181–191.
18 June
Zinck, Alexandra, Newen, Albert (2008). 'Classifying emotion: a developmental account.' Synthese 161, 1–25.
History and Philosophy of Physics Reading Group
We meet fortnightly on Mondays at 10am in the Board Room.
Organised by Hasok Chang, Neil Dewar and Richard Staley.
This term we continue discussions of current work by group members. All are welcome! Papers will be distributed one week before the first meeting and two weeks before each subsequent meeting.
4 May
Cameron Dashwood, 'Quantising Sound: The Conceptualisation of Phonons, 1907–32'
18 May
Patrick Dürr and Brian Pitts, 'From Mass to Energy-Momentum: The Field-Theoretic Perspective on the Energy-Mass Relation'
8 June
Seminar Room 1
Neil Dewar, 'Symmetries in Physics'
Cambridge Reading Group on Reproduction
Cambridge Reproduction invites all Cambridge researchers to attend a termly reading group to engage with classics and new work across disciplines – all with a central theme of reproduction.
See the Cambridge Reading Group on Reproduction page for more information and to sign up.
Tuesday 28 April, 12.30 to 2.30pm
Meeting Room 1, 17 Mill Lane
Led by Professor Sara Brill, Professor of Philosophy at Fairfield University
Tuesday 19 May, 12.30 to 2.00pm
Room 78, Anatomy Building, Downing Site
Led by Professor Rebecca Kilner of the Department of Zoology
Calculating People
Calculating People is a reading group that examines contemporary social sciences with a special focus on their methodological controversies. All postgraduate researchers are welcome to join. Participants endeavour to read the articles ahead of time. The format is in-person.
This term we will be holding joint sessions with the Values in Science Reading Group.
Atmospheric Humanities Reading Group
The Atmospheric Humanities Reading Group meets online, fortnightly on Tuesdays at 3.00–4.00pm.
We explore aspects of the air, climate, and atmosphere in a variety of disciplinary contexts. Scholars working in HPS, history, philosophy, English, geography, and atmospheric and allied sciences are very welcome to join us to discuss a set of pre-circulated readings. To be added to the mailing list to receive readings and Teams links, please contact Thomas Banbury.
Meetings this term are on 5 May, 19 May, 2 June and 16 June.
HPSTM in East Asia
We meet fortnightly on Wednesdays, 11am–12noon in the Board Room of the Needham Research Institute (8 Sylvester Road, Cambridge, CB3 9AF). Please see below for the date, time and details of each event.
We will also send out a reminder and the online joining link to our mailing list every Friday before the session.
Enquiries about the group and the mailing list should be directed to Zhi-Yu Chen, Zhilin Chu or Fu Ge Yang.
6 May
Talk by Dr Gao Shanshan (D. Kim Foundation Postdoctoral Fellow, HPS, University of Cambridge)
Tracing the origins of qigong fever: Mao Zedong, quiet sitting, and the jingluo system (1914–1958)
This paper traces the origins of qigong fever by locating Mao Zedong's early practice of quiet sitting in 1916 within an intellectual lineage linking Jiang Weiqiao, Yang Changji, and Mao's classmates. Deeply rooted in the Neo-Confucian tradition of self-cultivation and the circulation of jingluo, Jiang's quiet sitting method was reinterpreted through Japanese hygienic languages during the Republican period, and later reframed in terms of Pavlovian neurophysiology in Maoist China. In 1954, Jiang's claim that his long-term qigong practice had verified the existence of jingluo coincided with Mao's renewed support for Chinese medicine. By legitimising the existence of jingluo through qigong practice, the circulatory jingluo system was codified into national Chinese medicine textbooks as the discipline's core theoretical foundation, thereby laying the institutional and epistemic groundwork for the post-Mao qigong fever.
20 May
Reading session: Contested medicines in modern China, 1920s–1940s
This reading group aims to explore the contested terrain of medicine in modern China through a close reading of both classic and more recent scholarship. In addition to revisiting some of the major and influential works in the field, we will also look at studies with more specific and localised points of entry. Together, these readings will help us think through how tensions between policy-making at higher levels and local medical practice were articulated, negotiated, and made visible in concrete historical settings.
Tuesday 2 or Wednesday 3 June
Cross-regional dissertation symposium in collaboration with Southeast Asia HPSTM Reading Group
A collaborative symposium hosted by the EA and SEA HPSTM Reading Groups. We welcome speakers to submit their title and abstract for the session. Look out for more details to come.
Values in Science Reading Group
We meet on Wednesdays at 11am to 12noon in Seminar Room 1 (except for the first two meetings, which will be in Seminar Room 2). Organised by Monte Cairns.
This term we will be holding joint sessions with Calculating People.
29 April
This meeting will be in Seminar Room 2.
Steel, D (2026). 'Tragedy or Transition? How Values Matter for Climate Change Frames'. The Routledge Handbook of Values in Science.
6 May
This meeting will be in Seminar Room 2.
Varga, S, Steglich-Petersen, A, & Kappel, K (2025). 'Justifying the Epistemic Authority of Science in Liberal Democracy'. European Journal for Philosophy of Science 15: 75.
13 May
Mittiga, R (2022). 'Political Legitimacy, Authoritarianism, and Climate Change'. American Political Science Review 116(3): 998–1011.
20 May
Rose, E (2023). 'A Constructivist Perspective on Empirical Discrimination Research'. Journal of Economic Literature 61(3): 906–923.
27 May
Adams, F, & Kohler-Hausmann, I. 'Response to Systemic Discrimination: Theory and Measurement'. Draft session with authors in attendance; paper to be circulated.
3 June
Alexandrova, A, & Fabian, M (2022). 'Democratising Measurement: or Why Thick Concepts Call for Coproduction'. European Journal for Philosophy of Science 12: 7.
10 June
Hilligardt, H. (2024). 'Science as Public Service'. European Journal for Philosophy of Science 14: 45.
17 June
Schroeder, A. 'Science and Democracy: A Qualified Defense of the Old Guard over the New Pluralists'. Draft session; paper to be circulated.
HPS Workshop
Fridays, 5–6pm in the Board Room
Organised by Solomon Hajramezan
The HPS Workshop seeks to break the isolation of postgraduate research and encourage collaborative thinking by allowing students to present works-in-progress in a supportive seminar environment. The workshops will have alternate sessions focusing on Philosophy and History, but interdisciplinary presentations are always welcome.
Students are invited to present on any aspect of their research that they are grappling with or desire feedback on, including:
- Unpacking complicated sources, concepts, or archives
- Presenting drafts of chapters, conference papers, or publications
- Proposing new ideas or strategies towards HPS research
The session is composed of two parts: ~30 minutes where the speaker outlines their work (indicating areas that they would like feedback on) and ~30 minutes of discussion.
Language Groups
Latin Therapy
Latin Therapy is an informal reading group. All levels of Latin are very welcome. We meet to translate and discuss a text from the history of science, technology or medicine. This is an opportunity to brush up your Latin by regular practice, and if a primary source is giving you grief, we'd love to help you make sense of it over tea and biscuits!
To be added to the mailing list, or to suggest a text, please contact Thomas Banbury or Debby Banham.
We meet weekly on Fridays, 4–5pm in the Board Room.