Philosophers Speak: Professor Strevens on Science

On Wednesday, October 29, from 5 to 6:30 p.m., in the Nursing Amphitheater (Schwartz 113), the Department of Philosophy and the Dean’s Office of the College of Arts and Sciences will host the next speaker in the Philosophers Speak lecture series. This lecture brings to campus Michael Strevens, professor of philosophy at New York University.

Professor Strevens’ talk is titled “The Highly Effective Irrationality of Science.” In it, he will consider what makes science so good at understanding nature compared to approaches by those like philosophers and others. He will suggest that part of this comes from science’s ability to draw on elements of human rationality: logical reasoning, reason giving, attempts to overcome cultural biases and personal interests. But another part derives from an unreasonable close-mindedness that focuses on observation and experimentation.

Professor Strevens works on the philosophy of science, including such areas as explanation, complex systems, the social structure of science and the philosophical applications of cognitive science. He has published a number of important works, including The Knowledge Machine: How Irrationality Created Modern Science (Liveright 2020), Thinking Off Your Feet: How Empirical Psychology Vindicates Armchair Philosophy (Harvard 2019), Depth: An Account of Scientific Explanation (Harvard 2008), and others. He was also a recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship in 2017.

Categories: Science and Technology