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@duhe.bsky.socialSep 9, 2026, 2:05 PM

Regardless, #histsci and #philsci folks should find this interesting. Beyond the obvious, this is related to the current fad of "pursuitworthiness" and scientific imagination and cognitive studies of science.

@alejandrofabregastejeda.comSep 9, 2026, 12:51 PM

Deciding when a new experimental system is worth developing is costly & challenging. Vallejos-Baccelliere offers a framework grounded in 3 exp. virtues: opening data domains, enabling fine-grained interventions & reducing theoretical dependence 👇 link.springer.com/article/10.1... #philsci #histsci

First page of the EJPS article titled "Material networks, experimental virtues, and the pursuitworthiness of scientific experimentation" by Gabriel Vallejos-Baccelliere. Abstract Experimentation plays a central role in most contemporary science, but it is also a complex and resource-intensive activity. Hence, deciding when the development of an experimental system (ES) is worthy of pursuit is a non-trivial epistemic and practical challenge. This paper offers a framework for understanding both the enabling conditions and criteria for the pursuitworthiness of ESs in experiment-intensive sciences. First, it analyzes how ESs are embedded within historically evolving material networks of experimentation, whose viability depends on the availability of standardized components, auxiliary procedures, generic instruments, and well-characterized specimens. Second, it examines the internal causal architecture of experimental systems by distinguishing between technical objects, reliable and stable elements used to manipulate phenomena, and epistemic objects, whose partially unknown properties motivate experimental inquiry. In this context, establishing the feasibility of a new ES typically requires proofs-of-concept using well-characterized specimens that act as generic carriers of epistemic objects. Third, the paper explores the role of theory in shaping experimental practice, determining relevance criteria, and enabling the extrapolation of knowledge from laboratory to broader theoretical domains. Finally, it argues that the pursuitworthiness of developing a new ES requires developing a framework in terms of experimental virtues. Three such virtues will be analyzed: the potential of an experimental system to open or expand data domains, to enable fine-grained causal interventions, and to reduce theoretical dependence in epistemic access to phenomena.
@alisabokulich.bsky.socialSep 9, 2026, 12:10 PM

On Peirce, abduction, & early seismology you might be interested in this recent OA paper of mine in Philosophy of Science (based on a PSA'24 symposium) #philsci:
www.cambridge.org/core/journal...

@thebjps.bsky.socialSep 9, 2026, 9:15 AM

From the new issue:

Pain: Modularity and Cognitive Constitution
– Błażej Skrzypulec

Abstract in alt text or read it here:
www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/10.1086/...

#philsci #philsky

ABSTRACT. Discussions concerning the modularity of the pain system have been focused on questions regarding the cognitive penetrability of pain mechanisms. It has been claimed that phenomena such as placebo analgesia demonstrate that the pain system is cognitively penetrated; therefore, it is not encapsulated from central cognition. However, important arguments have been formulated that aim to show that cognitive penetrability does not in fact entail a lack of modularity of the pain system. This article offers an alternative way to reject the modularity of the pain system, which is independent from, but consistent with, the presence of cognitive penetration. I propose that given current knowledge regarding the functioning and the structure of the pain system, there are good reasons to accept that certain central cognitive mechanisms are part of the pain system. I argue that such a ‘cognitive constitution’ of the pain system entails that the pain system is not modular.
@beckettws.bsky.socialSep 9, 2026, 12:25 AM

#philsci

@markrubin.bsky.socialSep 8, 2026, 10:14 PM

"By stripping away many of the elements of Popper’s philosophy of critical rationalism that make his falsificationist theory of science a rich account of scientific inquiry, the authors are left with an impoverished and rather unsophisticated account of the hypothetico-deductive method."

#PhilSci

@isis-radboud.bsky.socialSep 8, 2026, 2:23 PM

Why do so many processes in nature run in only one direction?

Our colleagues will find out! @rcnp-nijmegen.bsky.social #philsci #philphy

www.ru.nl/en/about-us/...

@thebjps.bsky.socialSep 8, 2026, 9:16 AM

From the latest issue:

Fixing Stochastic Dominance
– Jeffrey Sanford Russell

Abstract in alt text or read it here:
www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/10.1086/...

#philsci #philsky

ABSTRACT. Decision theorists widely accept a stochastic dominance principle: roughly, if a risky prospect, A, is at least as probable as another prospect, B, to result in something at least as good, then A is at least as good as B. Recently, philosophers have applied this principle even in contexts where the values of possible outcomes do not have the structure of the real numbers: this includes cases of incommensurable values and cases of infinite values. But in these contexts the usual formulation of stochastic dominance is wrong. We show this with several counterexamples. Still, the motivating idea behind stochastic dominance is a good one: it is supposed to provide a way of applying dominance reasoning in the stochastic context of probability distributions. We give two new formulations of stochastic dominance that are more faithful to this guiding idea, and prove that they are equivalent.
@isis-radboud.bsky.socialSep 8, 2026, 8:33 AM

Why eat alone? 🥪 Come join us for our lunch colloquium series instead! #STS #philsci #ecology

Poster announcing ISiS` autumn colloquium series.
@luciacneco.bsky.socialSep 7, 2026, 10:07 PM

First day of the 8th European Advanced School in the Philosophy of the Life Sciences (EASPLS) organized by @sabinaleonelli.bsky.social and @thomasreydon.bsky.social!

Topic: “Philosophy of Biology for a Healthy Planet”

#philsci #philsky

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@center4philsci.bsky.socialSep 7, 2026, 4:00 PM

Resister now: Workshop on the Naturalized Metaphysics of Physics on October 24th. More information and the registration link can be found on our website #philsci

https://www.centerphilsci.pitt.edu/event/workshop-on-the-naturalized-metaphysics-of-physics/

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@luciacneco.bsky.socialSep 7, 2026, 1:43 PM

Hello #philsky / #philsci friends, I was wondering if you have suggestions of short very introductory texts on #STS for scientists/engineers! Thank you :)

@alejandrofabregastejeda.comSep 7, 2026, 1:13 PM

#philsci #HPbio #cogsci #evosky #philjobs

@springer.springernature.comSep 7, 2026, 12:32 PM

#PhilSci #AI #STS

@alasdaircraig.bsky.socialSep 7, 2026, 11:51 AM

The universe seems fine-tuned for life, leading to arguments for an infinite multiverse. But physicist Jeff Shainline argues today that the universe also seems fine-tuned for technology, & this points towards a radically different sort of explanation for fine-tuning #philsci iai.tv/articles/the...

@kenaizawa.bsky.socialSep 7, 2026, 9:48 AM

onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/1468...

Coincidentally, a book symposium on Egan’s DMR. Adam Toon, Angela Mendelovici, and myself.

#philsci

@kenaizawa.bsky.socialSep 7, 2026, 9:38 AM

France’s Egan’s Deflating Mental Representations on the list.

#philsci

royalinstitutephilosophy.org/news/announc...

@thebjps.bsky.socialSep 7, 2026, 9:15 AM

More new stuff!

Infinite Scale Scepticism: Probing the Epistemology of the Limit of Infinite Degrees of Freedom and Hilbert Space Non-uniqueness
– James D Fraser

Abstract in alt text or read it here:
www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/10.1086/...

#philsci #philsky

ABSTRACT. I consider two types of argument for thinking we have strong grounds to believe that the actual world is an infinite quantum system: indispensability arguments, appealing to the role unitarily inequivalent Hilbert space representations play in accounting for physical phenomena like spontaneous symmetry breaking; and extrapolation arguments, which support the physical significance of the limit of infinite degrees of freedom by pointing to infinite volume cosmological models. Neither strategy is conclusive, leaving the relevance of novel features of infinite quantum systems to real-world physics murky. I then discuss how to motivate foundational work on infinite quantum systems that don’t turn on the representational veracity of these features, noting that for the question of the epistemological status of unitarily inequivalent Hilbert space representations, sources of non-uniqueness besides the limit of infinite degrees of freedom must be considered.
@embiophysics.bsky.socialSep 6, 2026, 2:02 PM

3/3 If THz light can alter gene expression, what does that mean for 6G safety — or for using THz as a gentle biological switch? How should we weigh effects that aren't simply heating? Your take? #philsci

@embiophysics.bsky.socialSep 6, 2026, 2:02 PM

1/3 Terahertz waves — the quiet frontier of 6G — pass right through living tissue. But could they nudge how a cell reads its own genes? Researchers watched E. coli's stress networks respond to THz light in real time. #academicsky #biophysics #philsci