This Wednesday, October 17th and at 7 pm, we will be hosting Dr. Matt Burch on the topic of Objectivity in Science. Matt is a Lecturer in the School of Philosophy and amongst other things, he is particularly interested in the ideal of objectivity. As per usual, the event will be followed by a social at Top Bar.
The room that the seminar will take place in is 5S.3.8. To find the room, please enter the Human Rights Centre, next to Buffalo Joe's, and go two flights of stairs down.
An introduction (with contribution from Dr. Burch):
Read the news and you’ll find plenty of stories that bemoan or celebrate the fact that ordinary folks and powerful politicians alike no longer trust scientific experts. Whether these stories reflect an actual signal or mere noise that the media amplifies to get our attention is not my quarry. (We should ask some social scientists that question!) What interests me is a philosophical question in the background of these stories, namely, what makes scientific experts an appropriate object of trust in the first place? One long-standing answer to this question traces back to the Enlightenment: we can put our trust in science because it’s governed by the ideal of objectivity. That is, science isn’t a political discourse shot-through with self-interest, motivated reasoning, and bias but rather a resolute and methodologically exacting endeavour to tell it like is. Though compelling and successful in many respects, few ideals have suffered more scorn and criticism than the ideal of objectivity. My talk will discuss the origins of the ideal, some major criticisms of it, and some recent attempts to rehabilitate it. I will be fair and even-handed. Trust me.
Matt Burch’s research and teaching interests lie at the intersection of phenomenology and the cognitive and social sciences. His current projects focus on failures of agency (e.g., akrasia and addiction), the phenomenology of risk, and the ideal of objectivity in science and law. He has worked on several projects with the Essex Autonomy Project (EAP), including an AHRC-funded project on the compliance of the Mental Capacity Act (2005) and the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, and the Wellcome Trust-funded Mental Health and Justice project. In September 2018 he will embark on his own Early Career Research Fellowship awarded by the Independent Social Research Foundation. That project – ‘The Theory of Risk and the Practice of Care: Bridging the Gap” – is also associated with the EAP.