- Research Seminars
- Reading Groups
- HPS Workshop
- Postgraduate Seminars
Departmental Seminars
Seminars take place on Thursdays from 3.30pm to 5pm in the Hopkinson Lecture Theatre, unless otherwise stated.
Organised by Rosanna Dent.
24 October – Mary Hesse Lecture
Old Divinity School, St John's College, 3.00–4.30pm
Nancy Cartwright (Durham University and University of California, San Diego)
In praise of the inexact, the inelegant and the unassuming
31 October
Agnes Bolinska (University of South Carolina)
Models of information in structural biology
On the hierarchical picture of models, theoretical models are constructed on the basis of theory and assessed by comparison to distinct models constructed from empirical data. Using the determination of the structure of the folded polypeptide chain as a case study, I instead argue that information from theory and data alike can be interpreted as constraints in the construction of models of information. On this view, more reliable information ought to be prioritized, sometimes forcing reinterpretations of less reliable information; information from theory and data is thus interdependent. I show how the reliability of information can be assessed, arguing that the evidence for a planar peptide bond was stronger and more secure than the evidence for a repeating subunit every 5.1 Å. I further show how models are assessed alongside interpretations of information in a coherentist manner: a better model accommodates more information, particularly reliable information; a model's inability to accommodate some information necessitates reinterpreting that information.
7 November
Fiona Macpherson (University of Glasgow)
A problem for determining the structural features of experience: a pessimistic meta-induction
A dominant thought in consciousness studies is that we should investigate consciousness (either wholly, or at least in part) by studying the structural features of consciousness. Structural features of experience are necessary (or invariant) features of experience. Examples include the Kantian claim that all perceptual experiences must be experiences of space and time, and the claim that experience of red are more similar to experiences of blue than they are to experiences of green. Ontic structuralists believe that all there is to consciousness is its structure. Methodological structuralists think that scientific investigation of consciousness can only reveal structural features of consciousness. Many, not committed to either of those claims, nevertheless think that a fruitful approach to understanding consciousness will lie in understanding its structure. In contrast to all of these positions, I argue that we ought to be pessimistic about our ability to determine the structural features of experience – if indeed there are any. The argument takes the form of a pessimistic meta-induction: many claims as to what are structural features of experience have turned out to be false. My diagnosis of why people have made claims about what the structure of experience is – claims that have turned out to be false – is that people are consistently fooled by the limitations of their own sensory imagination and they consistently underestimate the range of sensory experiences they – and other people – have not had. So, in fact, we should not be confident that we can determine the structural features of experience – if indeed there are any.
14 November – Anita McConnell Lecture
Michael Korey (Mathematisch-Physikalischer Salon of the Dresden State Art Collections)
What does 'achromatic' mean? Refractions on the construction of early achromatic telescope lenses
Drawing on the work of telescope collector and optical engineer Rolf Willach, this richly illustrated presentation looks at central, yet previously unexamined aspects of the transition from single-lens telescope objectives to doublet and triplet lenses made by John and Peter Dollond.
Whereas the thorough, detailed investigation by Brian Gee (completed by Anita McConnell and Alison Morrison-Low) of the Dollond patent dispute focused on archival and printed sources about the innovation, studies by Willach and Duane Jaecks have concentrated on the subtle optical physics that distinguishes the new compound lenses from their predecessors. Still other work by Roger Ceragioli, and more recently by Huib Zuidervaart and Tiemen Cocquyt, has brought together archival and optical research, to generate even deeper insights into this episode.
At the heart of the transition is the problem of chromatic aberration, which can be stated rather simply: when white light encounters a lens, different colours come to focus at different points, causing images with coloured fringes and annoying prismatic bands. By the 1650s, the problem was widely lamented, and a solution was desired. In fact, many solutions were developed (both in theory and practice), were used, and were even advertised.
But what was the actual problem? And what did it mean to solve the problem? That is, what did it mean to be achromatic? To our surprise, the answers in the 1750s and following decades were surprisingly vague; rather curiously, recent scholarship has not discussed this at length either. And looking through old telescopes, as the lecturer has done for decades with his collaborator Marvin Bolt, raises serious questions about the accuracy of traditional tales. We need to broaden our analyses, especially to avoid anachromisms from colouring our historiography.
Willach's latest research explores, for the first time ever, a plausible method by which Dollond could have produced achromatic lenses using resources available to him, including simple algebra, well-known experimental methods, and (most significantly) carefully made prisms. Our efforts to clarify his analysis also highlight the need to address a seemingly simple question: what does 'achromatic' mean?
21 November
Nick Hopwood (HPS, University of Cambridge)
The many births of the test-tube baby: proof and publicity in claims to a breakthrough
How have discoveries or breakthroughs been announced and recognized or rejected? Though articles in scientific journals have played major parts, these have not topped a stable hierarchy but been nodes in webs that have varied by time and place. This talk is about how the operation of that web changed in the 1960s and 1970s, when interactions intensified between journals and newspapers, TV and press conferences, symposia and magazines. The focus is claims to human in vitro fertilization from 1944, when a two-cell embryo was reported from Harvard Medical School, to the aftermath of the birth of Louise Brown in Oldham, near Manchester in 1978. This perspective on the making of IVF, the founding innovation of reproductive biomedicine, will explain why Baby Louise counts as the first 'test-tube baby' although she was not the first to be declared. It will illustrate the interplay, in an intermittently high-profile field, of changing and contested standards of evidence, on the one hand, and norms of communication, on the other. This is relevant to claims-making today, when discoveries are announced on preprint servers and social media.
28 November, 2.00–5.30pm – The history and future of the Hawking effect
Stephen Hawking's key result, the evaporation of black holes, celebrates its 50th anniversary this year. This year his Archive has also become available to the scholarly community, transferred to the Cambridge University Archives. Hawking and the effect named after him, as key figure and result of twentieth century physics, have now become the subject of historical study. At the same time, the effect's notorious corollary, known as the information paradox, has become a focal point in philosophical debate on modern physics, and has remained a key element in studies of quantum gravity by today's physicists. Finally, astronomers are now ever more concretely imagining ways to actually observe the notoriously elusive effect named after Stephen Hawking, and first proposed in Cambridge fifty years ago. This workshop draws together archivists, historians, physicists and astrophysicists to consider the history and future of the Hawking effect.
Katrina Dean (University of Cambridge)
The Stephen Hawking Papers at the Cambridge University Library Archives
Jeroen van Dongen (University of Amsterdam) and Klaas Landsman (Radboud University)
Hawking and the history of black hole evaporation
Aron Wall (University of Cambridge)
Some like it hot, some like it cold: why the Hawking info puzzle still isn't old
Ziri Younsi (University College London)
Prospects for detecting Hawking radiation through astrophysical observations
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, 3.30–5.00pm in Seminar Room 2. Further information, any reading materials, and links for online meetings will be distributed through the email list of the group. Please contact Hasok Chang (hc372) or Marta Halina (mh801) if you would like to be included on the list.
8 November
Ronald Jenner (Natural History Museum, London)
Ancestors in evolutionary biology: linear thinking about branching trees
29 November
Bénédicte Sanson (Department of Physiology, Development and Neuroscience, University of Cambridge)
Developmental morphogenesis and research cultures
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.
Seminars are held on Mondays at 1pm in Seminar Room 2 unless otherwise stated.
For further details about upcoming events, or to be added to the mailing list for the Cabinet of Natural History, please contact Mika Hyman.
14 October
Tom Banbury (HPS, University of Cambridge)
A plague from on high? Comets, disease and meteorology in late medieval England
The appearance of comets was often considered to presage momentous events on Earth, such as the deaths of kings, defeat in battle, and oncoming natural disasters. With the arrival of the Black Death in the 14th century, comets and other fiery phenomena were co-opted as one of many ways of predicting the spread of the disease. However, there is more to the association between shooting stars and pestilence than simply ominous signs.
Building on the work of Sara Schechner, I explore the relationship between cometary appearances and medicine in the late medieval period, analysing what learned authorities and popular culture considered comets to be formed from, and how this related to the spread of disease. While the intersections between health and astronomy have mostly been examined from the perspective of astrological medicine and iatromathematics, this episode in the history of the Plague suggests strong links between the material elements of meteorology, and of the human body.
21 October
Hasok Chang (HPS, University of Cambridge)
Re-enacting past experiments: how and why
In the second part of the joint event with AD HOC (the history of chemistry reading group) Hasok Chang will perform some experiments (Sulzer's experiment, the making of the Voltaic pile, and the silver tree experiment) with a small group of participants.
28 October
Anna Simon-Stickley (Max Planck Institute)
'Where stones remained silent, plants spoke': practising historical biogeography in 19th-century Egypt
How do you write history using plants? And why? This talk will look at how scholars in 19th-century Egypt collected, explored, and understood the various traces that plants had left in Egypt's history. Egyptologists such as Ahmed Kamal and Flinders Petrie plucked ancient plants from tombs and collected plant names, while botanists traced the geographic origins of various Egyptian plants and scoured ancient gardens for remnant vegetation. Taking into consideration Egypt's changing agriculture, this talk will also explore how exploring the links between agriculture and civilization did not remain between book covers and inside lecture halls.
4 November
Cabinet Fungus Hunt
11 November
Grace Exley (University of Leeds and Oxford Natural History Museum)
'Indeed it is the thing itself': women and visual culture in the Earth Sciences, 1813–1850
The Earth Sciences are visual sciences. To reconstruct the prehistoric Earth, capture phenomena, and represent the creatures whose remains they unearthed, geologists relied on images – which were often created by women. There exists little scholarly work on this crucial aspect of 19th-century geology, and even less on women's contributions. Yet many women were accomplished scientific illustrators, who even experimented with cutting-edge techniques like lithography. This paper addresses the lack of historical recognition of women's artistic roles. It recovers these women's labour, arguing that their illustrative work not only required skill and scientific knowledge, but shaped the visual communication of geology.
18 November
William McMahon (Earth Sciences, University of Cambridge)
The first plants changed the planet and they used mud to do it
25 November
Jens Amborg (Uppsala University)
The voyage of the sheep from Tibet: animal breeding in the 18th-century French Empire
In 1766, the naturalist Louis Jean-Marie Daubenton was commissioned by the French state to conduct breeding experiments to improve the French sheep population. With his country's colonial network put at his disposal, he received live sheep from England, Spain, Morocco and, most spectacularly, Tibet. While colonial botany has received much well-deserved attention in recent scholarship, we know considerably less about the role of animal breeding in colonial natural history. By focusing on the voyage of the sheep brought from Tibet to France, this paper explores the animal side of science and empire.
2 December
Fiona Roberts (Cardiff University and Amgueddfa Cymru-National Museum Wales)
Ginger as storied matter: decolonisation and display in Amgueddfa Cymru's Economic Botany collection
Exploring the life story of a ginger specimen within Amgueddfa Cymru's Economic Botany collection, this talk will trace an individual plant's journey through varied natural history display spaces.
Originally from India, the ginger specimen travelled to Wales in 1939 from London's Imperial Institute, becoming part of an exhibition, 'Plants in the Service of Man'. This exhibition aimed to 'relay the importance of botany to the everyday lives of the Welsh public' (Hyde 1939), and represented ginger and the world using particular practices and narratives. This talk explores the relationship between botanical forms used to display ginger – whether wax models, herbarium sheets, dioramas or living plants – and the situated narratives emerging from this – representations of species, biogeography and cultures.
Finally, this talk explores how taking a naturecultural (Haraway 2003) approach to display reveals how plants like ginger can both resist and become collaborators in curation. Looking forwards, it considers how this relates to decolonising museum practice, providing clues to move past enduring imperial logics in evolving naturecultural worlds.
AD HOC (History of Chemistry)
AD HOC (Association for the Discussion of the History of Chemistry) is a group dedicated to the history of chemistry. While our main focus is historical, we also consider the philosophical, sociological, public and educational dimensions of chemistry.
AD HOC has been meeting in various configurations since the summer of 2004, first at UCL and then also in Cambridge since 2010. Since 2008 our activities have been generously supported by the Society for the History of Alchemy and Chemistry (SHAC).
This term we will hold hybrid meetings, on Mondays, 5.00–6.30pm in the Board Room and online. The links for joining the online meetings, the exact specification or copies of the readings, and all updates on future activities will be circulated to the mailing list of the group. If you would like to be on the list please email Hasok Chang (hc372), Mika Hyman (mjh291) or Monte Cairns (mlc92).
14 October
Hasok Chang (HPS, University of Cambridge)
Re-enacting past experiments: how and why (part 1)
21 October at 12.30pm in the Whipple Museum Learning Gallery
Hasok Chang (HPS, University of Cambridge)
Re-enacting past experiments: how and why (part 2: hands-on re-enactment session)
4 November
Pieter Beck (Ghent University)
Replicating the Fontana Ingenhousz Eudiometer: historical experiments for chemistry teaching and HPS
18 November
Alchemical replications: readings of Principe, Newman, Rampling, etc
2 December
Marabel Riesmeier (HPS, University of Cambridge)
Aromaticity and the problem of chemical structure
History of Medicine
Seminars are on Tuesdays from 5.00 to 6.30pm in Seminar Room 1 unless otherwise stated. All welcome!
Early Science and Medicine
Organised by Philippa Carter and Emma Perkins.
22 October
Kenneth Zysk (University of Copenhagen)
Garga's knowledge of the crow (vāyasavidyā) and the beginnings of South Asian ornithology
12 November
Fabrizio Bigotti (University of Würzburg)
Degree and dosage: rationalising therapy in the Long Renaissance (1300–1550)
3 December
CANCELLED
History of Modern Medicine and Biology
Organised by Salim Al-Gailani, Rosanna Dent, Nick Hopwood, Staffan Müller-Wille and Dmitriy Myelnikov.
15 October
Somak Biswas (University of Cambridge)
AIDS and the Naz Project: British Asian AIDS activism in the nineties
29 October
Anna Toropova (University of Warwick)
Early Soviet cinema, trauma and the psychoneuroses of revolution
26 November
Neil Pemberton (University of Manchester)
Swinging into crip time: teenage limb loss and art making in 1960s London
Generation to Reproduction
Organised by Salim Al-Gailani, Philippa Carter, Rosanna Dent, Nick Hopwood, Staffan Müller-Wille and Dmitriy Myelnikov.
5 November
CANCELLED
19 November
Maximilian Schuh (Freie Universität Berlin)
Scientific perception, interpretation and prediction of the weather in late medieval England
CamPoS
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. In the 2024–25 year, CamPoS is being organised by Miguel Ohnesorge (mo459).
Seminars are held on Wednesdays, 1.00–2.30pm in Seminar Room 2, unless otherwise stated.
16 October, 1–3pm
Jonathan Birch (LSE)
Book symposium: The Edge of Sentience
Comments by Tim Lewens, Marta Halina, Mona-Marie Wandrey
23 October
Shaul Katzir (Tel Aviv University)
Establishing a scientific fact from complex evidence: the earth's variable rotation
30 October
Ben Henke (Institute of Philosophy, London)
Examining the possibility of AI Affect in reinforcement learning systems
6 November
Paul Hoyningen-Huene (Leibniz University)
Is science 'Western' science?
13 November
Clemency Montelle (University of Canterbury, New Zealand)
Models, mathematics and methodology: an exploration of epistemological aspects underlying medieval Indian astronomy
Friday 22 November, 1–3pm
Leah McClimans (University of South Carolina)
Symposium (held jointly with the Measurement Reading Group): Patient-Centered Measurement (2024)
Comments by Anna Alexandrova, Stephen John, Femke Truijens
27 November
Harriet Fagerberg (HPS, University of Cambridge)
A domino theory of disease
4 December, 9am–12noon and 2–3pm
Paul Hoyningen-Huene, Hasok Chang, Alexander Bird, Brad Wray
Interpreting (Kuhn's) Structure
Purpose and Progress in Science
Thursdays at 10am in the Board Room
Organisers: Niall Roe (nrr32) and Nikki Levesley (nml46)
This group meets weekly and discusses questions related to purpose and progress in science. E.g.,
- What is a purpose?
- Is purpose different from function, goal, telos?
- What is the relationship between purpose and intentionality?
- How are purposes used to explain in the sciences?
- How has this changed through science’s history?
- Does science progress?
- How has the notion of progress changed?
- Does science have a purpose?
- Does it need one?
Our aim is to have a focused question for each term and approach it from many angles, philosophical and historical.
Teleology in 20th-Century Philosophy of Biology
This term we will look at how teleology was treated in 20th-century philosophy of biology. These discussions focused around:
- a kind of phenomenon (goal-directed behaviour – influenced by the burgeoning impacts of cybernetics and behavioural psychology), and
- a kind of explanation (influenced by the success of Darwinian natural selection and cybernetic mechanisms, but aiming to keep to a Newtonian, physicalist metaphysics, avoiding spooky metaphysical ideas from previous teleologists).
We will read a core selection from the history of this discussion, starting in the 1940s.
As always, we are happy to amend the reading list to accommodate emerging interests of the group.
17 October
Rosenblueth, Arturo, Norbert Wiener, and Julian Bigelow. 1943. 'Behavior, Purpose and Teleology.' Philosophy of Science, 18–24.
Taylor, Richard. 1950. 'Purposeful and Non-Purposeful Behavior: A Rejoinder.' Philosophy of Science 17 (4): 327–32.
24 October
Braithwaite, Richard Bevan. 1946. 'Teleological Explanation: The Presidential Address.' Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society 47:i–xx.
31 October
Scheffler, Israel. 1959. 'Thoughts on Teleology.' The British Journal for the Philosophy of Science 9 (36): 265–84.
7 November
Ayala, Francisco J. 1970. 'Teleological Explanations in Evolutionary Biology.' Philosophy of Science 37 (1): 1–15.
14 November
Wright, Larry. 1972. 'Explanation and Teleology.' Philosophy of Science 39 (2): 204–18.
21 November
Nagel, Ernest. 1977. 'Goal-Directed Processes in Biology.' The Journal of Philosophy 74 (5): 261.
28 November
Mayr, Ernst. 1998. 'The Multiple Meanings of Teleological.' In Ernst Mayr, Towards a New Philosophy of Biology: Observations of an Evolutionist (Essay 3, pp. 38–66). Belknap Press.
The Anthropocene
The Anthropocene (Climate Histories) offers alternating sessions in the related fields of climate history and Anthropocene studies. Meetings will involve a mix of invited speakers and reading group sessions, generally held on Thursdays at 1pm–2pm in Seminar Room 2. All are welcome!
Organised by Fiona Amery, Alexis Rider and Richard Staley.
17 October
Nigel Clark (Lancaster University)
Explosive modernity: on split-second combustion and Western violence
Humans have a special ability to work and play with fire. A key to both our traversal and transmutation of the Earth, fire has often featured in the negotiation of thresholds – and continues to do so in the context of climate change and the Anthropocene. This talk focuses on gunpowder: the advent of split-second combustion and the implications of its arrival in Europe from China. Flailing in the shadow of Gaza, I approach explosive firepower as a kind of negative or anti-miracle, as a metamorphosis that only undoes, brutally and suddenly. As well as being bound up in epistemic and material-symbolic ruptures, I suggest, the explosion can be viewed as an event in Earth history. What might this mean, I ask, for confronting the seemingly incessant infliction of violence on both our fellow humans and the physical world?
31 October
Jamie Allen (Critical Media Lab, Basel)
Cycles of circulation: the perpetual perpetuation of circularity
In light of intertwined downward spirals of linear exploitation – extractive material accumulation, unchecked economic growth, and relentless territorial expansion – we explore the transhistorical relevance of cycles, circulation, and circularity in shaping ecological and economic imaginaries. Drawing on interdisciplinary perspectives from ecological governance, the history of science, and critical theory, we examine how the perpetual perpetuation of cyclical systems and metaphors influence our perception of human interventions into planetary processes.
Taking place on 31 October, All Hallows' Eve, our discussion of scholarly and popular cyclicality through art, science and media is poignantly timed. We will connect with cyclical interpretations of life and death and other uncanny symbols of returns – ghosts, harvest, and endings that feed beginnings. Modernist projections of ecological and economic cycles haunt and inspire human ecological aspirations and economic fallacies, more often than not creating circulations that neither reach resolution nor allow for true renewal. How do we confront historical harnessings and manipulations of natural cycles in ways that might allow for more upward, flourishing spirals in human exchanges with natural systems?
14 November
Ecophilology and climates of history in the Romanthropocene
In this seminar, we will read Thomas Ford's 'The Romanthropocene' and the introductory chapter, 'Climates of History, Cultures of Climate', by Tom Bristow and Thomas Ford. We will explore Ford's 'ecophilology', which examines the role of textual environments for the environmental humanities. Further, we will discuss the 'romanthropocene' as a conceptual framework, which seeks to capture a series of lexical and semantic intersections and exchanges between the Romantic period and the Anthropocene. Ford argues that romantic modes of thinking about language, nature and human agency are reinvigorated by Anthropocene discourse and that the Anthropocene is interwoven with romantic conceptions of time and romantic geology. The introductory chapter examines how climate change has influenced not only the material environment but also the ways we construct and understand history, culture, and human identity. The authors urge us to think of climate change as a discursive event and argue for a reassessment of the role of the humanities in addressing climate change. We look forward to discussing intersections between literary studies and the Anthropocene with you.
- Thomas H. Ford, 'The Romanthropocene', Literature Compass 15, no. 5 (2018): e12464.
- Bristow, Tom and Thomas H. Ford, 'Climates of History, Cultures of Climate', in Tom Bristow and Thomas H. Ford, eds. A Cultural History of Climate Change (Abingdon, Oxon/New York: Routledge/Earthscan, 2016), 1–14.
28 November
Anna Simon-Stickley (Freie Universität Berlin)
The climate of ancient history: historicizing the Nile in nineteenth-century Egypt
This talk centers on various attempts to write the history of the Nile. Throughout the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, it was commonly held that Egypt – its civilization, environment, and climate – had declined. When this gradual natural-cultural ruination was thought to have began – variously since prehistory, since the time of the pharaohs, or since the Muslim golden ages – and whose fault that was – human profligacy or environmental catastrophes – was a source of considerable debate though. Travelling naturalists, irrigation engineers, colonial geologists, and Egyptologists examined rock strata, raised beaches, fossils, as well as ancient texts, plant remains from pyramids, ancient irrigation technology and ancient monuments to infer such climatic and environmental changes. Had the Nile flowed higher, was there more rainfall, or were humans just more ingenious? The narratives they thus created – structured by models such as stasis, decline, revival, progress – reveal an environmental orientalism in geo-history that was shaped by and in turn reified colonial extractivism and occupation. Past and and future were intimately bound up for both Arab intellectuals and colonial Europeans and both sought to revive various, different Egyptian pasts – some fantasized about reviving ancient climates, other about resurrecting cataracts, canals, and ancient irrigation systems. As such, this episode sheds light on the curious entanglement of deep time and techno-modernity characteristic of the Anthropocene but so far little explored beyond the West.
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, but participants undertake to do the readings ahead of time and endeavour to attend all meetings. The format is in-person.
The meetings take place fortnightly on Thursdays, 1–2pm in the Board Room. Organised by Anna Alexandrova.
10 October
Reiss, J. (2020). 'Why Do Experts Disagree?' Critical Review, 32(1–3): 218–241.
24 October
Flake JK, Fried EI. (2020). 'Measurement Schmeasurement: Questionable Measurement Practices and How to Avoid Them'. Advances in Methods and Practices in Psychological Science, 3(4): 456-465.
7 November
Rich, Patricia. (2024). 'The Whys and Hows of Theory – Comparing Cognitive Science and Economics'. Computational Brain & Behavior.
21 November
Bennett, Andrew, and Benjamin Mishkin, 'Nineteen Kinds of Theories about Mechanisms that Every Social Science Graduate Student Should Know', in Harold Kincaid, and Jeroen Van Bouwel (eds), The Oxford Handbook of Philosophy of Political Science (2023; online edn, Oxford Academic, 23 Feb. 2023).
Pragmatism Reading Group
The Pragmatism Reading Group is held on Mondays at 12noon–1pm, weekly from 14 October, in the Board Room and online.
Organisers: Damon Kutzin (dtk23) and Niall Roe (nrr32)
Pragmatism and Evolution
This term we will be exploring the connection between pragmatism and evolution. The early pragmatists were writing in the wake of Darwin's Origin of Species, and are among the first philosophers to grow up under its influence. They took such ideas seriously. Chauncey Wright, for example, was one of Darwin's philosophical mercenaries, and an important influence on Peirce and James, each of whom incorporated evolutionary ideas into their philosophical approaches. Our hope is to explore how evolutionary ideas influenced various flavours of pragmatism.
Our guiding text will be Trevor Pearce's Pragmatism's Evolution but our hope is that we will leave this text to explore issues of interest to group members, shifting our readings to accommodate interests as they emerge. Such supplementary readings might include papers from the pragmatists related to evolution, or commentaries on evolutionary epistemology and pragmatism more generally.
Readings:
- Pearce, Trevor. Pragmatism's Evolution: Organism and Environment in American Philosophy, Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2020.
Measurement Reading Group
Organised by Cristian Larroulet Philippi (cl792) and Miguel Ohnesorge (mo459).
In Michaelmas 2024, we will be reading Leah McClimans's new book Patient-Centered Measurement: Ethics, Epistemology, and Dialogue in Contemporary Medicine. The term will end with a symposium featuring Leah McClimans, three invited commentators, and an open discussion. Some hard copies of the book will be available for reading group attendees free of charge.
We meet on Mondays from 12noon to 1pm in Seminar Room 1. The book symposium takes place from 1–3pm on Friday 22 November in Seminar Room 2.
14 October: 'The Puzzle' & Chapter 1
21 October: Chapter 2
28 October: Chapter 3
4 November: Chapter 4
11 November: Chapter 5
Friday 22 November, 1–3pm, Seminar Room 2
Symposium with Leah McClimans; comments by Anna Alexandrova, Stephen John and Femke Truijens; open discussion. [Read chapter 6 and conclusion.]
History and Philosophy of Physics Reading Group
Tuesdays, 2–3pm in the Board Room
Organised by Hasok Chang (hc372), Richard Staley (raws1), and Neil Dewar (Faculty of Philosophy, nad42)
15 October
Discussion of Shaul Katzir, 'The Establishment of the Variability of the Earth's Rotation' (manuscript)
22 October, 5 November, 19 November, 3 December
Discussion of Joseph D. Martin, Solid State Insurrection: How the Science of Substance Made American Physics Matter (University of Pittsburgh Press, 2018)
Foundations of Physics Reading Group
This entirely online reading group is held on Tuesdays, 3–4pm UK time (unless otherwise stated). Organisers: Dominic Ryder (LSE), Aditya Jha (Cambridge) and Bryan Roberts (LSE). Our theme this term is Statistical Mechanics of Self-Gravitating Systems.
8 October
Craig Callender. 2011. 'Hot and heavy matters in the foundations of statistical mechanics'. Foundations of Physics, 41(6), 960–981.
15 October
Katie Robertson. 2019. 'Stars and steam engines: To what extent do thermodynamics and statistical mechanics apply to self-gravitating systems?', Synthese, 196:1783–1808, S.I.: Infinite Idealizations in Science.
22 October, 4–5pm
Craig Callender. 2010. 'The past hypothesis meets gravity'. In Gerhard Ernst & Andreas Hüttemann (eds.), Time, Chance and Reduction: Philosophical Aspects of Statistical Mechanics. New York: Cambridge University Press. pp. 34–58.
29 October
David Wallace. 2011. 'Gravity, entropy, and cosmology: In search of clarity'. British Journal for the Philosophy of Science, 61(3), 513–540.
5 November
John Earman. 2006. 'The past hypothesis: not even false'. Studies in History and Philosophy of Modern Physics 37(3), 399–430.
12 November
Carlo Rovelli. 2018. 'Where was past low-entropy?'. Entropy 21(5), 466.
19 November
Feraz Azhar. 2017. 'Three aspects of typicality in multiverse cosmology'. In: Massimi, M., Romeijn, JW., Schurz, G. (eds.), EPSA15 Selected Papers. European Studies in Philosophy of Science, vol 5. Springer, Cham.
26 November
Øyvind Grøn. 2012. 'Entropy and gravity', Entropy 14, 2456–2477; Special Issue Modified Gravity: From Black Holes Entropy to Current Cosmology, edited by Kazuharu Bamba and Sergei D. Odintsov.
Atmospheric Humanities Reading Group
The Atmospheric Humanities Reading Group meets once a fortnight, on Tuesdays at 3pm in the Board Room, to 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. For further information (including readings), or to be added to the mailing list, please contact the co-conveners Dr Fiona Amery and Thomas Banbury.
15 October
'Situating the Atmospheric Humanities' – An introductory session, focusing on approaches to the atmosphere in history of science, philosophy, geography, earth sciences, and other allied disciplines.
29 October
'Photographing the Atmosphere' – A discussion on the uses of photography and other forms of image-making in the history of atmospheric sciences, art, and media theory.
12 November
'Light' – Following on from the previous session, we discuss the role of light (and dark) in approaches to the atmosphere, including aurorae, cometary appearances, and light pollution and artificial illumination.
26 November
'Chromatic Atmospheres' – Our final session looks at the role of colour in the atmospheric humanities, including the development of optics and colour theory, scientific treatments of atmospheric phenomena such as rainbows and sunsets, and the cultural creation of 'sky-colour'.
Cambridge Reading Group on Reproduction
Cambridge Reproduction invites all Cambridge researchers to attend a twice-termly reading group to engage with classics and new work across disciplines – all with a central theme of reproduction.
Both meetings this term are held at 12.30pm in Room CG09, Student Services Centre, New Museums Site.
Tuesday 29 October
Led by Samita Sen (Faculty of History)
Tuesday 26 November
Led by Catherine Aiken (Honorary Consultant in Maternal and Fetal Medicine)
HPS Workshop
Fridays, 5–6pm in the Board Room
Organised by by Niall Roe (nrr32) and Mallory Hrehor (mh2217)
The HPS Workshop seeks to break the isolation of postgraduate research and encourage collaborative thinking by allowing students to present work 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.
Postgraduate Seminars
Aims and Methods of Histories of the Sciences
Michaelmas Term 2024: Thu 12noon, weeks 1–4 (4 one-hour seminars) in Seminar Room 2
Nick Jardine (leader)
These postgraduate seminars will consider aspects of the history, aims, methods and current problems of the history of science. The opening session will give an overview of the formation of history of science as a discipline and of the range of recent approaches. Subsequent sessions will discuss uses of histories of the sciences by scientists, the pioneering work of Hélène Metzger on the purposes of history of science, and the relations between history and philosophy of science.
10 October
Nick Jardine: Formation and transformations of history of science
This opening session will sketch the ways in which history of science became established as a discipline. There will then be an overview of some of the main approaches that have dominated the field over the past century: positivist narratives of scientific progress, social histories of the sciences, cultural histories, and global histories.
17 October
Jeff Skopek and Nick Jardine: Scientists' uses of history
This session will consider the ways in which scientists have used the histories of their sciences for purposes of teaching, promotion of their disciplines, and defense of their views.
24 October
Hasok Chang and Nick Jardine: Philosophers' uses of history of science
This session will consider ways in which philosophers of science can profit from close study of historical episodes and developments in the sciences.
31 October
Cristina Chimisso and Nick Jardine: Hélène Metzger on the methods and aims of history of science
Can the historian understand past texts just as readers who lived at the time when the texts were written did? Should this be the historian's aim? Is history of science relevant to current philosophy and science? These are some of the questions that the historian of chemistry Hélène Metzger (Chatou, France, 1889 – Auschwitz, 1944) aimed to answer. This session will discuss her innovative historiography of science.