Shows
MCMPNon-empirical ConfirmationRichard Dawid (MCMP/LMU) gives a talk at the Workshop on "Why trust a Theory?" (7-9 December, 2015) titled "Non-empirical Confirmation". Abstract: The talk will analyse reasons for the high degree of trust many physicists have developed in empirically unconfirmed theories. An extension of the concept of theory confirmation (to be called “non-empirical confirmation”) will be suggested that allows for confirmation by observations that are not predicted by the theory in question. The last part of the talk will address a number of worries that have been raised with respect to this approach.2018-03-1300 minMCMPPhysics without Experiments?Radin Dardashti (MCMP/LMU) gives a talk at the Workshop on "Why trust a Theory?" (7-9 December, 2015) titled "Physics without Experiments?". Abstract: Most of the fundamental theories in modern physics are relevant at energy scales or length scales where empirical access is currently hard to obtain. Accounts of theory assessment within the philosophy of science literature are, however, usually concerned with the relation between the theory and the empirical data they predict. So these “traditional” approaches seem not to allow for theory assessment in these cases. Recently, Richard Dawid has developed an account of non-empirical theory assessment, which uses evidence not...2018-03-1300 minMCMPOpening WordsOpening Words by Richard Dawid (MCMP/LMU), Stephan Hartmann (MCMP/LMU) and Dieter Lüst (LMU) at the Workshop on "Why trust a Theory?" (7-9 December, 2015).2018-03-1300 minMCMP – Philosophy of PhysicsBayesian Perspectives on the Higgs SearchRichard Dawid (MCMP) gives a talk at the MCMP Colloquium (29 April, 2015) titled "Bayesian Perspectives on the Higgs Search". Abstract: The history of the Higgs discovery is characterized by a specific constellation: trust in the existence of a Higgs particle was very strong already before the particle's discovery. This raises the issue of a Bayesian perspective on data analysis in high energy physics in an interesting way that differs from other contexts in the field where the deployment of Bayesian strategies was proposed.2015-05-1100 minMCMP – Philosophy of ScienceString Theory and the Scientific MethodRichard Dawid (Vienna) gives a talk at the CAS Research Focus Series „Reduction and Emergence“ (13 November, 2013) titled "String Theory and the Scientific Method" (host: Stephan Hartmann (MCMP/LMU)). Abstract: For the last thirty years, string theory has played a highly influential role in fundamental physics without having found empirical confirmation. The presentation will analyze reasons for the high degree of trust many physicists have developed in a theory that, according to classical standards of theory assessment, would have to be called an unconfirmed speculation. It will be argued that the case of string theory suggests a new perspective on our unde...2014-02-2154 minMCMP – Philosophy of PhysicsComment on Richard Dawid's "String Theory and Scientific Realism"Radin Dardashti (MCMP/LMU) comments on Richard Dawid's "String Theory and Scientific Realism" at the MCMP workshop "Quantum Gravity in Perspective" (31 May-1 June, 2013).2013-10-0900 minMCMP – Philosophy of PhysicsString Theory and Scientific RealismRichard Dawid (Vienna) gives a talk at the MCMP workshop "Quantum Gravity in Perspective" (31 May-1 June, 2013) titled "String Theory and Scientific Realism". Abstract: T-duality, which is an important feature of string theory, implies that the string scale constitutes a minimal length scale: within the conceptual framework of the theory, no higher energy scale can provide new information. This in turn may be taken to suggest that, if ST is valid at its own characteristic scale, no new theories which become empirically distinguishable from string theory at higher energy scales should be expected to be found. The problem with this final...2013-10-0900 min
MCMP – Mathematical Philosophy (Archive 2011/12)Comments on "The No Alternatives Argument" (Dawid, Hartmann, Sprenger)Frederik Herzberg (Bielefeld, MCMP/LMU) comments on "The No Alternatives Argument" (by Richard Dawid, Stephan Hartmann, and Jan Sprenger) at the 9th Formal Epistemology Workshop (Munich, May 29–June 2, 2012).2012-09-1615 minMCMP – Mathematical Philosophy (Archive 2011/12)The No Alternatives ArgumentJan Sprenger (Tilburg) gives a talk at the 9th Formal Epistemology Workshop (Munich, May 29–June 2, 2012) titled "The No Alternatives Argument" (joint work with Richard Dawid and Stephan Hartmann). Abstract: Scientific theories are hard to find, and once scientists have found a theory H, they often believe that there cannot be many distinct alternatives to H. But is this belief justied? What should scientists believe about the number of alternatives to H, and how should they change these beliefs in the light of new evidence? These are some of the questions that we will address in this paper. We also ask un...2012-09-1639 min