Speaker: Milena Ivanova (MCMP) Date: Wed., April 22 Location: Ludwigstr. 31, ground floor, room 021 Time: 16:15 - 17:45 Title: Poincaré on Beauty in Science Abstract: This paper offers a systematic analysis of Poincaré’s understanding of beauty in science. In particular, the paper examines the epistemic significance Poincaré attributes to aesthetic judgments by reconstructing his arguments on simplicity and unity in science. I offer a consistent reconstruction of Poincaré’s account and show that while Poincaré treats simplicity as a heuristic aid, which leads to more unified theories, he takes unity to be a regulative ideal and the ultimate goal of science which gives us understanding. In conclusion I explore the link between aesthetic judgments and utility and how Poincaré’s account on scientific aesthetics fits with his overall epistemology ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Speaker: Erik Curiel (MCMP) Date: Thu., April 23 Location: Ludwigstr. 31, ground floor, room 021 Time: 12:15 - 13:45 Title: If Metrical Structure Were Not Dynamical, Counterfactuals in General Relativity Would Be Easy (WIP Talk) Abstract: General relativity poses serious problems for counterfactual propositions peculiar to it as a physical theory, problems that have gone unremarked on in the physics and in the philosophy literature. Because these problems arise solely from the dynamical nature of spacetime geometry, they are shared by all schools of thought on how counterfactuals should be interpreted and understood. Given the role of counterfactuals in the characterization of, inter alia, many accounts of scientific laws, theory-confirmation and causation, general relativity once again presents us with idiosyncratic puzzles any attempt to analyze and understand the nature of scientific knowledge must face.