Dear all,

our next speaker in the Philosophy of Science Colloquium organized by the Institute Vienna Circle is Alexander Murphy (IVC Fellow; Corvinus University, Budapest), who will give a talk on October 29th from 4.45-6.15 pm.

All are welcome!

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PHILOSOPHY OF SCIENCE COLLOQUIUM TALK:

Alexander Murphy (IVC Fellow; Corvinus University, Budapest):
"A Humanistic Approach to the Two Images"

Date: 29/10/2026

Time: 16:45-18:15

Venue: Lecture Hall 2, TP (Tiefparterre/lower ground floor), 
Staircase 5, Court 3, Main Building, Universitätsring 1, 1010 Vienna

Abstract:
Sometimes our scientific advances demonstrate that our ordinary ways of speaking about the world are wrong. Sometimes, however, they show exactly how our ordinary descriptions get things right.

In this paper, I give a framework for working out which of the two cases we are in. I suggest we think about how science can reveal the open texture in our ordinary language, in Friedrich Waismann’s sense. When it does so, we should respond by thinking about what we want our ordinary talk to do for us. This will guide us in how to “close” our ordinary concepts which will, in turn, help us shape the relationship between our scientific and ordinary pictures of reality. As a case study, I’ll examine the exchange between Arthur Eddington and Susan Stebbing regarding the significance of the Rutherford-Bohr model of the atom for our ordinary solidity judgements.

The major consequence of this proposal is that it requires us to reflect on ourselves and our lives as well as the world. To determine whether our ordinary talk is proven wrong by science we must think about what we want to do with our everyday speech. This requires taking a leaf out of Bernard Williams’ book. Namely, it requires doing philosophy as a humanistic discipline.