Karl Popper (1902-1994) is one of the most influential philosophers of science of the 20th century. He famously proposed that falsifiability is the genuine virtue of science and the criterion of the scientific status of a theory. Based on this, he developed a systematic account of scientific method and scientific development, namely, falsificationism. In addition, Popper played an important role in promoting the historical turn in 20th century philosophy of science. The debate over the nature and development of science between him and Thomas Kuhn dominated and sparked many discussions in the late 1960s philosophy of science. Moreover, Popper wrote on a variety of topics, including evolutionary biology, methodological individualism, and probability. However, Popper’s legacy on contemporary philosophy of science is surprisingly thin. Although his writings are still a must-read in any introductory philosophy of science course, there is no lively Popperian philosophy of science. His falsificationism is not viewed as a plausible account of scientific development. Nor is his solution to the problem of induction regarded as a successful or promising move. This conference conference aims to revisit and explore Popper’s legacy for 21st century philosophy of science. more info...
The SPP sponsors an annual meeting, usually held in June. Meetings consist of invited lectures and symposia, contributed papers, and a Presidential address. Social events include a reception and lunch meetings. SPP encourages suggestions for the invited portion of the program for upcoming meetings. These should be directed to this year's Program Chairs. We encourage philosophers, psychologists, and cognitive scientists more broadly to submit contributed papers to the meeting.
Diversity Initiatives
The SPP Diversity Committee holds sessions at the annual meeting. In addition, in 2011 there was a meeting, chaired by Valerie Tiberius and Carrie Figdor, regarding the APA-funded project to use SPP expertise to begin experimentally Studying the Gender Gap in Philosophy. The resulting report is was published in Hypatia in 2012, Volume 27 (4):949-957. SPP is also now offering a number of travel awards for graduate students to encourage diversity.
There has been an engulfing gap between philosophy of science and epistemology. It is not unusual for an epistemologist to get lost in a philosophy of science conference. Nor is it surprising for a philosopher of science to get bored, or even confused, with a discussion full of Gettierian examples. That being said, this is very unfortunate. Good philosophy of science will ultimately contribute to answering general epistemological questions, while good epistemology will shed light on how science is and should be practised. Philosophy of science and epistemology should have been much closer to each other than actually are. This conference aims to explore fruitful ways of integrating philosophy of science and epistemology by promoting dialogues between philosophers of science and epistemologists. more info...
