[FOM] FotFS VII "Bringing together Philosophy and Sociology of Science", Brussels (Belgium), 21-24 October 2008

[Bart Van Kerkhove]

FotFS VII
FOUNDATIONS OF THE FORMAL SCIENCES VII
Bringing together Philosophy and Sociology of Science
Vrije Universiteit Brussel
October 21-24, 2008

http://www.math.uni-bonn.de/people/fotfs/VII/
Submission Deadline: 15 July 2008

The conference is part of the Foundations of the Formal Sciences
conference series and is organized by the Centre for Logic and  
Philosophy
of Science jointly with the Wissenschaftliches Netzwerk PhiMSAMP. The
conference is co-located with the workshop PhiMSAMP-4 (25-26 October
2008).

Scientific & Organizing Committee: Benedikt Löwe (Amsterdam), Thomas
Müller (Utrecht), Jean Paul Van Bendegem (Brussels), Bart Van Kerkhove
(Brussels); Coordinating e-mail Address: fotfs at math.uni-bonn.de

INVITED SPEAKERS.

* Steve Fuller (Warwick)
* Christian Greiffenhagen (Manchester)
* Herbert Kalthoff (Friedrichshafen)
* James McAllister (Leiden)
* Renate Tobies (Braunschweig)

AIMS & SCOPE. Both philosophy and sociology of science aim at
understanding the workings of scientific endeavour. Despite their
different emphasis and possibly methodology, they deal with the same
subject matter. And yet, they seem to be worlds apart.

The 20th century has seen Western philosophy being divided in two big
currents: a newly arising Anglo-Saxon or analytic one, and a traditional
European or continental one. There is very little communication between
these two strands of philosophy. A precise meta-philosophical definition
of these two currents is difficult, if not impossible, and yet the
differences in approach are striking. This seems to suggest that what
unites or divorces philosophers in and across both traditions be better
thought of in terms of family-resemblances instead of radical opposites.
The study of sociology of science is strongly influenced by the
continental tradition, whereas the philosophy of science has been the  
near
exclusive playground for analytic approaches.

Second, there is the central issue of the so-called "science wars": the
question of the the proper relationship between humanities and natural
sciences. To wit, philosophy of science has been (and is) predominantly
the philosophy of natural science, while the sociology of science is
almost exclusively conducted from within humanities and social sciences
faculties that are fairly remote to the actual practices of the exact
sciences they purport to describe.

In the early days, the sociology of science explicitly set its task as
being complementary to that of philosophy, but current sociology of
science focuses on social organization, epistemic content and cultural
aspects of science, breaking down the barrier respected by their
ancestors, resulting in an approach seemingly incompatible and openly at
odds with that of philosophy of science.

The good news is that, in the course of the last few decades, steps have
been taken towards a (partial) reconciliation. We see our conference  
FotFS
VII as part of this process, bringing sociological aspects into  
philosophy
of science and philosophical aspects into sociology of science, by
bringing together researchers from both areas.

Given that the conference series is concerned with the "formal  
sciences",
we have a certain, but non-exclusive focus on the role of mathematics as
one of the sciences covered by philosophy and sociology. It is therefore
fitting that the network PhiMSAMP ("Philosophy of Mathematics:
Sociological Aspects and Mathematical Practice") is supporting our
conference.

SUBMISSION INFORMATION. Please submit abstracts and extended  
abstracts of papers in PDF format (at most four pages) via the  
EasyChair submission page at

    http://www.easychair.org/conferences?conf=fotfs7

by 15 July 2008.

IMPORTANT DATES.

Submission Deadline:	15 July 2008
Notification:		15 August 2008
Conference:		21-24 October 2008