There are two ways of viewing theory confirmation. At a formal level, a theory is taken to be confirmed when collected data agrees with the theory’s predictions. At a pragmatic level, confirmation provides the basis for scientists’ confidence that the confirmed theory provides a viable representation of a set of phenomena and its so far untested predictions in the given context are true.  Though the two roles of confirmation are of course related, the precise connection between them is non-trivial. The workshop focuses on the trust-generating role of confirmation with the aim of shedding light on the stated connection. Specific questions to be addressed will include: what are the criteria that turn evidence into empirical confirmation? In which way and to what extent do non-empirical considerations play a role in assessing a theory? What is the role of non-epistemic considerations in theory assessment? To what extent and in which ways does the notion of theory confirmation depend on the research field? The workshop aims to compare perspectives from various scientific disciplines.

Program (72 Kb)

Abstracts (100 Kb)

Zoom link

Confirmed speakers
Adrian Currie (University of Exeter)
Siska De Baerdemaeker (Stockholm University)                                                                                   Genco Guralp (San Diego State University)                                                                                            Karen Kovaka (Virginia Tech)                                                                                                                    Conor Mayo-Wilson (University of Washington)
Casey McCoy (Yonsei University)                                                                                                         Johannes Nyström (Stockholm University)
Hiranya Peiris (University College London/Oskar Klein Center)                                                              Johanna Sarisoy (Unversity of Edinburgh)                                                                                                 Samuel Schindler (Aarhus University)
Chris Smeenk (Western University)                                                                                                               Beñat Monfort Urkizu (University of Basque Country
James D. Wells (University of Michigan)

Program Committee
Richard Dawid (Stockholm University)
Siska De Baerdemaeker (Stockholm University)
Sören Häggqvist (Stockholm University)
Casey McCoy (Yonsei University)

Questions? Please contact Richard Dawid (richard.dawid@philosophy.su.se) or Siska De Baerdemaeker (siska.debaerdemaeker@philosophy.su.se)
This event is made possible thanks to a grant on “Non-empirical Theory Confirmation in Fundamental Physics” provided by the Swedish Research Council (project number 1598801).