Passing silently over JLS's post...
From: "dmarc-noreply@xxxxxxxxxxxxx" <dmarc-noreply@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Sent: Wednesday, 14 December 2016, 20:46
Subject: [lit-ideas] The H. P. Grice Prize
We've been talking about the Nobel Prize -- but there's also the Grice Prize
(which, like some think, like 'Santa Claus' does not _really_ exist). And then
there's the Popper Prize.
As every Griceian knows, the decision of the Co-Chief-Editors of the British
Journal for the Philosophy of Science is that the Sir Karl Popper Prize should
be awarded jointly to Elizabeth Irvine for her essay
‘Model-Based Theorizing in Cognitive Neuroscience’ (Br J Philos Sci, 2016, 67,
pp. 143–68) and Eran Tal for his essay
‘Making Time: A Study in the Epistemology of Measurement’ (Br J Philos Sci,
2016, 67, pp. 297–335).
The Sir Karl Popper Essay Prize (unlike the H. P. Grice Prize, which does not
exist) is awarded for the best of those essays appearing in the British Journal
for the Philosophy of Science.
The Prize is awarded on the basis of the judgement of the Editors of the
Journal (in liaison with the BSPS Committee, as the Editors see fit) from
essays appearing in that year’s volume of the Journal.
In her essay ‘Model-Based Theorizing in Cognitive Neuroscience’, Elizabeth
Irvine draws on the example of computational templates in cognitive
neuroscience to take the debate over the role of models in science in a new
direction.
Specifically, Irvine argues that via such templates, models in cognitive
neuroscience are able to incorporate often meager background empirical and
theoretical knowledge about a given target system into the relevant theoretical
structure, with ‘top-down’ and ‘bottom-up’ plausibility constraints invoked to
ensure representational adequacy.
These models then enable theoretical inferences to be made about the target
system and, Irvine maintains, represent this system directly, even if only
partially.
As the models are iteratively refined, they gain representational capacity,
becoming less generic and more detailed in relevant respects and with regard to
relevant purposes.
Representation, in this context, is partial, purpose-relative, and tentative,
and Irvine concludes by suggesting how her core idea could be extended to other
examples of scientific practice.
Irvine's esssay thus further advances the debate over models and representation
in science by offering a novel philosophical framework while also being rooted
firmly in the details of scientific practice.
Eran Tal’s ‘Making Time: A Study in the Epistemology of Measurement’ is a
timely and important contribution to the burgeoning field of history and
philosophy of metrology.
By looking in detail at the scientific practice behind the standard measurement
of time (coordinated universal time or UTC), the article provides an insightful
analysis of how standardization produces reliable knowledge.
Tal offers a novel model-based account of the practice of standardization.
This account promises to overcome the shortcomings of two well-entrenched
epistemological views on measurement: conventionalism and constructivism.
Tal’s model-based account provides a novel explanation of the stability of
measurement standards, a stability which—he argues—is ultimately down to
modelling assumptions, not to conventions or social-historical factors.
As such, the model-based account is capable of delivering genuine and reliable
empirical knowledge.
Tal’s contribution shows the good that comes from bringing scientific practice
to bear on central questions in philosophy of science.
Even more so, it shows how philosophy of science informed by scientific
practice feeds into wider debates about the nature of scientific knowledge.
Thus, Tal’s article demonstrates how history and philosophy of science can
contribute to theories of knowledge in important and often unexpected ways.
In the view of the Co-Chief-Editors, both these essays are worthy co-recipients
of the Popper Prize (not the Grice Prize, which, incidentally, does not exist)
by bringing scientific practice to bear on major issues in the field and
thereby advancing the relevant debates in novel and important ways.
Cheers,
Speranza
