Location






The seminar is held online. Join Zoom Meeting:

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/889933315?pwd=Q3U3V3VQdXpXckhJYWRrcWRiMUhhQT09



4 December (Friday) 4:15 PM  ONLINE
Jean Eid
Logic and Theory of Science MA Program, Eötvös University, Budapest
 
On The Constitutive Role Of Mathematics In Physical Theories - Poincaré’s Conventionalist Thesis
Poincaré conventionalist thesis appears in many accounts in philosophy of science. He presented a famous example of a 2-D disc, taken to be the typical illustration of conventionalism, specifically that we have no empirical way of distinguishing between a Euclidean and a Bolyai--Lobachevsky geometry of the 2-D disc as described. I will argue that Poincaré’s conventionalist thesis has major flaws. My main conclusion will be that the mere question “what is the geometry of space?” is meaningless until we operationally define distance, and once we do that, the question will have a definite empirical answer, leaving no room left for any kind of conventionalism.



11 December (Friday) 4:15 PM  ONLINE
Marc Artiga
Department of Philosophy,  University of Valencia
 
Structural Representations in Cognitive Science
Many philosophers have recently put forward the notion of ‘Structural Representation’ as a key concept that might capture a set of distinctive and paradigmatically representational mental states. Cognitive maps provide the clearest example: they are cognitive mechanisms that bear some sort of structural correspondence with the environment and which organism exploit to navigate successfully. The main goal of this paper is to clarify this notion and assess whether it can play the explanatory role that many attribute to it. First, I will argue that the notion of Structural Representation can be understood (and has actually been understood) in different ways. Secondly, and more importantly, I will defend that that none of the possible interpretations of this concept captures a kind of mental state that is distinctive and paradigmatically representational in virtue of exploiting a structural correspondence.