[SydPhil] Reminder: Emanuele Serrelli @ Mon 3 Sep 13:00 - 14:30 (Current Projects)

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Title: Emanuele Serrelli
What's wrong with the semantic view of scientific theories?

My critique of the semantic view of scientific theories wants to help my  
quest for a discriminatory account of scientific models, particularly in  
philosophy of biology. The semantic view of scientific theories was the  
adaptation of an approach to mathematical theories (i.e., the semantic  
approach) to account for scientific theorizing. At least in philosophy of  
biology, the semantic view enjoyed many followers, was never declared a  
failure, and is still with us through the dignity and centrality of models  
in (philosophy of) science it promoted, but also through widespread slogans  
about models forming “families” and theories being “families of models”,  
and under the guise of a reluctancy to draw clear-cut lines between models  
and theories. I argue that uncertainties that are sometimes experienced in  
today’s philosophy of biology about the nature of theory, how to deal with  
syntactic elements, and the very meaning of “semantic”, were developed  
along the road by the semantic view: terminological and conceptual  
confusion is thus another guise under which the view is with us. I propose  
that these uncertainties stemmed from an unrecognized fatal failure of the  
core of the semantic view (i.e., the modeltheoretic commitment) caused very  
early by the legitimate attempt of extending the view to non-mathematical  
models. I will mainly comment on the proposal of a “deflationary semantic  
view” put forth in an excellent 1992 paper by Steve Downes, and argue  
against it that the semantic view should have been buried. Its less  
acknowledged but crucial innovations like model stipulativity and autonomy  
should be (and are being) brought forth by other, more promising views.
When: Mon 3 Sep 13:00 – 14:30 Eastern Time - Melbourne, Sydney
Where: Philosophy Common Room
Calendar: Current Projects
Who:
     * kristiemiller4 at gmail.com- creator

Event details:  
https://www.google.com/calendar/event?action=VIEW&eid=XzZnbzNhaGhtOGQwajBiYTM4OHJqMmI5azZvcmppYjlvNmdyamNiYTQ2b3JrY2hhMzc0b2o2ZDluOGMgZmV2MWxkcjRsa2h2MDM2b2U0aW4yanR0ZGdAZw

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