Marching for Science with John Wilkins – a perspective from Philosophy of Science

Recent video interview with John Wilkins!

• What should marchers for science advocate for (if anything)? Which way would you try to bias the economy of attention to science?
• Should scientists (as individuals) be advocates for particular causes – and should the scientific enterprise advocate for particular causes?
• The popular hashtag #AlternativeFacts and Epistemic Relativism – How about an #AlternativeHypotheses hashtag (#AltHype for short 😀 ?)
• Some scientists have concerns for being involved directly – other scientists say they should have a voice and be heard on issues that matter and stand up and complain when public policy is based on erroneous logic and/or faulty assumptions, bad science. What’s your view? What are the risks?

John Wilkins is a historian and philosopher of science, especially biology. Apple tragic. Pratchett fan. Curmudgeon.

We will cover scientific realism vs structuralism in another video in the near future!
Topics will include:

• Scientific Realism vs Scientific Structuralism (or Structuralism for short)
• Ontic (OSR) vs Epistemic (ESR)
• Does the claim that one can know only the abstract structure of the world trivialize scientific knowledge? (Epistemic Structural Realism and Ontic Structural Realism)
• If we are in principle happy to accept scientific models (especially those that have graduated form hypothesis to theory) as structurally real – then does this give us reasons never to be overconfident about our assumptions?

Come to the Science March in Melbourne on April 22nd 2017 – bring your friends too 😀