Invitation
Society for Philosophy of Science in Practice (SPSP)
Lunch meeting at PSA
November 3, 2006
Dear Colleague,
We have begun organizing a
network of scholars under the working name of "Society for Philosophy of
Science in Practice" (SPSP). We aim to promote a philosophy of science
that engages more closely with scientific practice, and with the
practical uses of scientific knowledge.
The idea for this group
arose at the conference “Philosophical Perspectives on Scientific
Understanding” last year in Amsterdam. This stimulating conference
gathered philosophers with shared interests in philosophy of science as
well as scholars from other disciplines who might not typically attend a
philosophy conference. Organizing biennial conferences will therefore
be one of the key activities of the SPSP. But we hope it will also be a
network for collaborative projects, including special sessions at other
professional meetings. Initially this group will be fairly informal, and
there will not be any membership fees.
We are planning an organizational meeting at
the PSA/HSS/4S conference in Vancouver at lunchtime on Friday November
3, 2006. For the exact time and location, please consult the PSA
programme at http://philsci.org/news/PSA06 or the HSS programme at http://www.hssonline.org
. If you will be in Vancouver, we would like to invite you cordially to
participate in this meeting, where we will be presenting our basic aims
and inviting input on future activities. We plan to discuss:
(1) The philosophical orientation of SPSP
(2) The goals of SPSP and its relation to other professional organizations
(3) The SPSP website and the possibility of running an e-mail list for discussion and information
(4) Electing an organizing committee
(5) Any other topics
The first biennial SPSP conference is planned to take place in Twente (The Netherlands) on August 23-25, 2007.
Additional information about the aims of SPSP can also be found on our website:
http://www.gw.utwente.nl/spsp/
We hope to meet you in our future activities!
With kind regards,
Rachel Ankeny
Mieke Boon
Marcel Boumans
Hasok Chang
Henk de Regt