With the exception of the Mary Hesse Lecture, seminars take place on Thursdays from 3.30pm to 5pm in the Hopkinson Lecture Theatre.
Organised by Rosanna Dent and Ahmad Elabbar.
Michaelmas Term 2025
23 October – Mary Hesse Lecture
3.30–5pm in the Babbage Lecture Theatre
Helen Longino (Stanford University)
How scientific plurality and sociality enhance scientific objectivity
We are urged to trust science because it is objective. Efforts to support the objectivity of scientific inquiry, however, often make assumptions that ultimately fuel skepticism about the very possibility of such objectivity. One is a commitment to scientific monism: the idea that scientific inquiry, properly pursued, should result in a single, comprehensive, account of a given domain or even of the natural world, tout court. A second is commitment to any of a variety of Individualist epistemologies, all informed by the principle that scientific knowledge is the outcome of cognitive processes realized by single individuals. Abandoning monism and individualism may complicate our conception of objectivity. Nevertheless, embracing pluralism and the sociality of knowledge in their stead enables a more robust account of the trustworthiness of science.
30 October
Simon Schaffer (University of Cambridge), Richard Dunn (Science Museum, London), Alexi Baker (Yale Peabody Museum), Rebekah Higgitt (National Museums Scotland), Sophie Waring (Old Operating Theatre Museum and Herb Garret, London)
The Board of Longitude: Science, Innovation and Empire – book launch event
The Board of Longitude was one of Georgian Britain's most important scientific institutions. The Board developed in the eighteenth century after legislation that offered major rewards for methods to determine longitude at sea: the enterprise came to support the work of navigators, instrument-makers, clockmakers and surveyors, as well as a host of other artisans and schemers. Its activities also included computation and publication of the Nautical Almanac and establishment of the astronomical observatory at the Cape of Good Hope. This new book, published by Cambridge University Press, uses the rich archives of the Board, now available online, to shed new light on colonial and exploratory projects in the Pacific and the Arctic, as well as tracing the projects of practitioners often lost to history. A round-table discussion involves the authors of the book and offers the opportunity for discussion of the significance of these histories during a period of major industrial, imperial and technological development.
6 November
Eran Tal (McGill University)
When is measurement good? Evidence, validity, and values
The quality of a measurement procedure may be evaluated, among other criteria, by (i) the quality of knowledge it produces about the measurand, (ii) the relevance of its results for guiding human decision making and action, and (iii) the desirability of its impacts on individuals, society, and nature. These criteria are compatible in principle, but their application involves conflicting commitments regarding the aims and methods of measurement. I call these distinct sets of commitments 'modes of measurement quality evaluation', and show that value trade-offs are insufficient to reconcile them. I illustrate these claims using examples from the contemporary measurement of time and mental health.
13 November
Doreen Kembabazi (Adyeeri) (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.
20 November
Kevin C. Elliott (Michigan State University)
Institutionalizing values and science: the strengths of standardization in troubled times
There has been increasing interest in the 'values and science' literature on the ways that organizations and institutions mediate and promote the influences of values in scientific research. The present paper builds on this recent focus by exploring the value-laden nature of the standards (e.g., rules, norms, guidelines) used to guide research. The paper examines previous scholarship on the epistemic and ethical benefits and disadvantages associated with standardization, thereby highlighting the importance of analyzing the conditions under which specific kinds of standardization are most likely to be justifiable. It argues that the benefits of standardization are particularly salient during 'troubled times' like the present, when there are significant political and economic forces promoting the manipulation of science for desired ends. Finally, drawing on examples from the field of toxicology, the paper suggests a set of principles for pursuing standardization in ways that take advantage of its epistemic and ethical benefits while lessening its weaknesses.
27 November – Anita McConnell Lecture
Paola Bertucci (Yale University)
Navigating origin stories: the mariner's compass as a narrative instrument
This lecture traces the afterlife of a man who never lived: Flavio Gioia, the supposed inventor of the mariner's compass. Born from a sixteenth-century translation error, Gioia lived for centuries on the printed page as a mythical figure representing European ingenuity. His fabricated existence reveals how print culture produced what might be called predigital hallucinations – errors that circulated so widely as to harden into truth. By following Gioia's existence through encyclopedias, treatises, and national rivalries from the sixteenth century into the early twentieth, the lecture examines how origin stories about navigation turned invention narratives into moral geographies of civilization.