Workshop: Operationalizing Epistemic Concepts


Operationalizing Epistemic Concepts

10-13 September, 2012

Aachen, Germany

(within the DFG Priority Program New Frameworks of Rationality)

Philosophical explications of central epistemic concepts such as inductive support, explanation, coherence or conditional reasoning can often be effectively guided by experimentation. However, due to their disciplinary background, most philosophers do not have the in-house competence to effectively design such experiments, and to operationalize and measure theoretical concepts. Vice versa, experimental psychologists interested in how people reason are often not aware that longstanding or cutting-edge research in philosophy can have implications for their own research targets, or find it difficult to connect philosophical theories to their own research questions. On the other hand, psychologists are usually equipped with strong theoretical, but also practical knowledge about important strategies and pitfalls when it comes to designing and implementing an experiment. Therefore we organize this workshop where both fields are brought together, and where the methodology of operationalizing epistemic concepts is investigated both from a theoretical and an empirical point of view. How should we devise elicitation procedures for complex and potentially ambiguous epistemic notions? How should we work out predictions that are precise enough to be put to empirical test? Which experimental paradigms should be adopted in research on human reasoning? How can we connect the philosophical interpretation of epistemic concepts to the long-lasting empirical tradition in psychology?

Organized by
Vincenzo Crupi, MCMP and University of Turin
Henrik Singmann, University of Freiburg
Jan Sprenger, Tilburg University
 

Speakers
Vincenzo Crupi, MCMP and University of Turin
Igor Douven, University of Groningen
Björn Meder, MPI Berlin
David Kellen and Henrik Singmann, University of Freiburg

Go here, here and here for the organization, abstracts and venue, respectively. 

Anyone interested in attending can register by email to: tilps@uvt.nl.
 
 
The Priority Program New Frameworks of Rationality (SPP 1516) has been launched in 2010 by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinshaft (DFG) and is designed to run for six years. The goal of the program is to overcome a long lasting lack of collaboration between psychologists, philosophers and other research communities (such as AI) in order to develop new theoretical frameworks for the study of human rationality. Go here for further details and here for an overview of the research projects funded within the Program.


  

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