17 Jan
2025
17 Jan
'25
12:30 p.m.
Dear all,
we warmly invite you to the next APSE (Applied Philosophy of Science and
Epistemology) lecture and to the accompanying Reading Cycle. The talk
will be held by Stephan Hartmann (LMU Munich).
Title: Coherence and Truth
Date: Thursday, January 23rd 2025
Reading Circle: 1pm - 3pm
Talk: 3pm - 5 pm
Location: this APSE event will exceptionally NOT take place in room 3A
but in the "Konferenzzimmer" of the Department of Political Science
(Institut für Politikwissenschaften). This room is located in the NIG,
2nd floor, in hallway A (the one at staircase 1). You can find the room
on the floorplan here: Orientierung [1]
Abstract of the talk (3-5 PM):
One of the most important questions in epistemology is what our
knowledge of the world is ultimately based on. In this context, some
epistemologists argue that there are fundamental beliefs that do not
themselves require justification and on which all other beliefs depend.
Coherence theorists reject this answer and argue instead that our
knowledge is based on the mutual support of the propositions under
consideration: If our beliefs add up to a coherent whole, then we have a
reason for them to be true. It has also been argued that much of
scientific reasoning relies on coherence considerations. In this talk,
we will first outline the coherence theory of justification and discuss
some of the reasons for and against it. In doing so, we will also
address the central question of what coherence actually is. For this
purpose, a Bayesian framework proves particularly useful, as coherence
considerations are most effective in the domain of uncertainty. We will
then take a closer look at the relationship between coherence and truth.
To what extent is the coherence of a set of propositions an indicator of
its truth? Answering this question leads to some old and new challenges
for the coherence theorist. The talk concludes with a moderately
optimistic assessment of the role of coherence considerations in
everyday life and in science.
Reading Circle (1-3 PM):
We will focus our discussion on Chapter 2 of Stephan Hartmann's book:
Bovens, Luc, and Stephan Hartmann, '2 Coherence', Bayesian Epistemology
(Oxford, 2004; online edn, Oxford Academic, 20 Jan. 2005),
https://doi-org.uaccess.univie.ac.at/10.1093/0199269750.003.0003
(pdf in the attachment)
As introduction to the field, we suggest:
Olsson, Erik, "Coherentist Theories of Epistemic Justification", The
Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Winter 2023 Edition), Edward N.
Zalta & Uri Nodelman (eds.), URL =
<https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/win2023/entries/justep-coherence/>.
For further reading regarding the topic:
Especially Chapter 1 in:
Bovens, Luc, and Stephan Hartmann, Bayesian Epistemology (Oxford, 2004;
online edn, Oxford Academic, 20 Jan. 2005),
https://doi-org.uaccess.univie.ac.at/10.1093/0199269750.001.0001 Titel
anhand dieser DOI in Citavi-Projekt übernehmen, accessed 17 Jan. 2025.
Hartmann, Stephan and Trpin, Borut (2023) Why Coherence Matters.
Why_Coherence_Matters_preprint.pdf [2]
Hartmann, S., & Trpin, B. (2024). A New Posterior Probability-Based
Measure of Coherence. Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the Cognitive
Science Society, 46. Retrieved from
https://escholarship.org/uc/item/30p8x5xh
Please send a quick message to vinzenz.fischer(a)univie.ac.at if you are
planning to attend the Reading Cycle!
Feel free to bring your lunch!
Feel free to share this invitation with anyone who might be interested!
Best wishes,
Ella Berger (on behalf of the APSE unit)
Links:
------
[1] https://politikwissenschaft.univie.ac.at/ueber-uns/orientierung/
[2]
https://philsci-archive.pitt.edu/22792/1/Why_Coherence_Matters_preprint.pdf