This reading group explores philosophical topics related to scientific experimentation. We meet on Thursdays from 11am to 12noon in the Board Room. All welcome!
Organised by Cameron Dashwood (cdd39) and Niall Roe (nrr32).
Michaelmas Term 2025
We will be kicking things off this term with Ian Hacking's 1983 classic Representing and Intervening – or at least the second half of it, Part B: Intervening. The plan is to read one chapter per week. As some of these chapters are quite short, we can supplement them with responses and critiques from other philosophers, based on the interests of the group (these additional readings will be circulated on the group mailing list).
16 October
Chapter 9, 'Experiment'
23 October
Chapter 10, 'Observation'
30 October
Chapter 11, 'Microscopes'
6 November
Chapter 12, 'Speculation, calculation, models, approximations'
13 November
Chapter 13, 'The creation of phenomena'
20 November
Chapter 14, 'Measurement'
27 November
Chapter 15, 'Baconian topics'
4 December
Chapter 16, 'Experimentation and scientific realism'