Dear all,
this is to remind you of the talk being held Kelli Barr entitled "The 
Material Theory of Values in Science" this week.
When? Tuesday, 19.08.2025, 4:45pm - 6:15pm
Where? Room 3C, NIG Universitätsstaße 7, 1010 Wien
Zoom Link: 
https://univienna.zoom.us/j/68261699318?pwd=GNjaMAgSHyFxLpbRHNfmeZ5DFme6aw.1
Meeting ID: 682 6169 9318
Passcode: 976552
Abstract
How are we to understand situations where science fails on its own 
terms? For example, Scientists have blamed perverse incentives for 
systematic epistemic failures like non-replicability and publication 
bias, but the exact relationship remains an open question. Let's assume 
they are right to blame the (social) system. This paper presents a novel 
framework for understanding how features of the social organization of 
science are implicated in collective epistemic failures: the material 
theory of values in science (MTV). This project is inspired by and 
follows in the tradition of feminist philosophers of science who have 
called attention to the need for explanations of systemic, specifically 
antifeminist, biases in science and for embodied models of scientists as 
epistemic agents. In the first part, I discuss the replication crisis as 
involving a particular type of collective action problem: a no-win 
standoff. The next part introduces the MTV and the explanation it 
supplies for this phenomenon. In the third section, the MTV is compared 
to several alternative explanatory strategies, including from the 
contemporary literature values in science and social epistemology, 
specifically agent-based computational models. I argue for why my 
approach is preferable and describe an important revision it entails for 
the general Mertonian sociological picture invoked in discussions of 
incentives in science.
Kind regards,
Veronika Lassl
Chairperson - Vienna Forum for Analytic Philosophy
wfap.philo.at