On May 6th, 2022 (10:30 Lisbon/London Time), Fabrizio Macagno (IFILNOVA) will deliver a paper on Arguments from analogy. Aristotelian’s Approach and Hesse’s Legacy.
Argument from analogy is a fundamental type of explicit reasoning, whose uses and applications are deeply investigated in argumentation theory, law, education, and artificial intelligence. Its structure is commonly analyzed as a combination of an inductive and a deductive process – leading from the observation of some common features to a generalization, from which a particular conclusion is drawn. The claim that this presentation intends to defend is that analogical arguments can be analyzed as meta-arguments, or rather as the expression of different types of argument. In this perspective, analogy is regarded as a strategy for supporting a conclusion through different types of argumentative (inferential) relations.
The session can be attended online by registering at this link.
It is now open the tender for the award of 1 Scholarship for MA students. The succesful candidate will join the team of the research project ‘Mary B. Hesse’s ‘New Epistemology’. Principles and Legacy’ financed by the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology, and hosted by IFILNOVA.
The fellow researcher will work on issues related to the problem of scientific knowledge, with a focus on scientific modelling. Also, s/he will translate into Portuguese a selection of texts by Mary B. Hesse and other authors of the post-empiricist tradition that will be published by a national publisher. Finally, the fellow researcher is expected to help in the organization of talks, conferences and seminars, participate in the project meetings and in related events organized by IFILNOVA’s Laboratory of Culture and Values, which hosts the project.
The fellow will work under the scientific orientation of Pietro Gori.
The paper explores how Mach conceived of the relationship between facts and theories, and approaches this issue in light of Mary B. Hesse’s view of a postempiricist account of natural science. As show by Gori, this view is characterized by a constructivist conception of the relationship between theory and facts that seems to be consistent with Mach’s observations on scientific knowledge.
The paper first explores Hesse’s account of postempiricism and her project of a new epistemology. It then considers Ernst Mach’s conception of facts as the middle term of a triad of concepts that includes thoughts and elements as extreme terms. Finally, the paper will offer concluding remarks on Mach’s contribution to the debate on scientific realism and his attempt to redefine the notions of correspondence and objectivity in science.
The opening event of our project will take place on the 4th of march, 2022. Pietro Gori (PI of the project) will deliver a paper on Mary B. Hesse’s Postempiricist Epistemology.
The paper will deal with Mary Hesse’s attempt to outline a postempiricist epistemology which might criticize and eventually overcome the traditional (positivist) conception of the relationship between facts and theories.
The session can be attended online by registering at this link.
