EUROPEAN PHILOSOPHY OF SCIENCE ASSOCIATION
Dear Members of the European Philosophy of Science Association,
It is a great pleasure to announce that Phyllis Illari and Federica Russo have been appointed as the new Co-Editors-in-Chief of the European Journal for Philosophy of Science (EJPS). Their 3-years term starts in July 2017.
Phyllis Illari received her PhD from King’s College London and is currently Senior Lecturer in Philosophy of Science in the Science and Technology Studies Department at University College London. Before UCL, she completed two postdoctoral projects at the University of Kent and at the University of Hertfordshire. Her current work is on mechanisms, causality, and information, and how they impact on evidence assessment in biomedical sciences.
Federica Russo received her PhD from the Université catholique de Louvain and is currently Assistant Professor in Philosophy of Science at the University of Amsterdam. Before that she held research, teaching, and visiting positions at several institutions, including the University of Kent and the University of Pittsburgh. Her current research has two main strands: causality and evidence in the social, biomedical, policy sciences, and the relations between science and technology.
Phyllis and Federica are already very experienced in the publishing business. They have worked together on several projects, including their co-authored volume Causality: Philosophical Theory Meets Scientific Practice (OUP, 2014) and co-edited (together with Jon Williamson) Causality in the Sciences (OUP, 2011). Federica is also an Associate Editor of the journals Philosophy and Technology and Topoi and serves on the editorial board of The Reasoner. In 2016, Federica was also an Associate Editor of the European Journal for Philosophy of Science, hence she knows our journal first hand. Phyllis is currently Associate Editor of the Springer journal Philosophy & Technology and Editor-in-Chief of The Philosophy of Information: A Simple Introduction (2012, 2013).
The European Journal for Philosophy of Science was founded in 2010 and the first issue appeared in 2011. The founding editors of the journal were Mauro Dorato and Carl Hoefer, and we cannot be thankful enough to Mauro and Carl for the truly excellent job they have done over the years. It is not easy to start a journal from scratch and to position it on a competitive market with several highly regarded journals. Federica and Phyllis will take over a well-regarded and established journal. Many thanks, Mauro and Carl!
I would also like to thank the other teams who applied for the Editorship-in-Chief. We received indeed several very strong applications, and the Steering Committee is very happy that there is so much support for EPSA and interest in running the journal in the EPSA community. Finally, I would like to thank Federica and Phyllis and wish them all the best for their term as Co-Editors-in-Chief of EJPS.
With best wishes, on behalf of the EPSA Steering Committee,
Stephan Hartmann
President, European Philosophy of Science Association
Alexander von Humboldt Professor, LMU Munich
In June 2017, the members of EPSA will elect a new President and four new regular members of the Steering Committee. The current Vice President and four other members of the Steering Committee will remain in office to guarantee continuity. For the first time in the history of EPSA, these elections will be conducted electronically.
To prepare for the elections, we are seeking nominations for the various offices. All EPSA members are invited to propose candidates for President and for regular Steering Committee members. Note that the research institute of the President hosts the EPSA office and takes care of the EPSA webpage. EPSA has only very limited (if any) resources to contribute to this. Before proposing candidates, make sure that the candidates are willing to run and that they are EPSA members. As EPSA would like to involve more women philosophers of science, the nomination of female candidates is especially encouraged. Nominations should be sent to the EPSA email-address: epsa@lrz.uni-muenchen.de. The deadline for nominations is 1 March 2017. The Nomination Committee will then come up with a list of up to three candidates for President and up to eight candidates for regular members of the Steering Committee. Members of previous Steering Committees (but not of the present one) can run again if they wish.
EPSA is a thriving learned society with the goal of promoting philosophy of science in Europe. To keep it thriving, it is important to have active and committed officers. We therefore urge all EPSA members to nominate suitable candidates.
The members of the Nomination Committee are Jeanne Peijnenburg (chair), Helen Beebee, Phyllis Illari, Theo Kuipers, and Marcel Weber.
The European Philosophy of Science Association (EPSA) calls for proposals for the venue of EPSA19, its seventh conference, to be held in the autumn of 2019. The biennial conference is the main scientific event of EPSA, typically attracting 300-400 philosophers of science from across the world. It usually comprises 180 contributed and symposia talks, organized in as many as eight different sections, and taking place in five or six parallel sessions. A selection of the best talks is published as a volume in the new Springer series European Studies in Philosophy of Science (EJPS).
The conference is typically hosted by a philosophy of science unit, and its venue must be a recognized European academic or research institution. The event takes place in the autumn over a period of 3-4 days (which must include a Saturday) in alternating years to the conferences of the Philosophy of Science Association (PSA). Past conferences have taken place at Madrid (2007), Amsterdam (2009), Athens (2011), Helsinki (2013), and Düsseldorf (2015). EPSA17 will take place in Exeter, UK.
A Local Organizing Committee (LOC, typically comprising 5-6 people) is set up at the host institution – with a remit to organize the event itself. About one year in advance the Steering Committee (SC) of EPSA puts out a call for papers and selects a Program Committee (PC) comprising distinguished philosophers of science. The LOC, SC and PC are non-overlapping sets of people, with the exception of the Chairs of the LOC and PC, who may be drawn from the SC. The Chairs of the LOC and PC are also expected to act as joint editors of the conference volume.
Proposals (one PDF document) must be submitted to the President of the Association (Prof. Stephan Hartmann, email: epsa@lrz.uni-muenchen.de) by August 15, 2017 and must include the following:
We just released the second newsletter in 2016!
In this issue we ask Olav Gjelsvik & Katarzyna Paprzycka about the situation in Norway and Poland for philosophy, especially philosophy of science. Roman Frigg takes a closer look for us at the Centre for Philosophy of Natural and Social Science – LSE CPNSS. Italian physicist Fulvio Ricci and British philosopher Mary S. Morgan are the interviewees for our category “Science meets philosophy” and our category “Women in Philosophy of Science. Three-minute interview with… “.
The conference will feature contributed papers, symposia, and posters covering all subfields of the philosophy of science, and will bring together a large number of philosophers of science from Europe and overseas. We are also welcoming philosophically minded scientists and investigators from other areas outside the philosophy of science, for example as participants in symposia, and we particularly welcome submissions from women, ethnic minorities, and any other underrepresented group in the profession.
We invite submissions for Contributed Papers, Symposia and Poster Sessions through EasyChair, our online submission system, by 5 January 2017.
For more information please visit EPSA17's website.
EPSA and the University of Exeter offer 15 travel grants (of up to 250 GBP each) for graduate students presenting a paper at the conference EPSA17 in Exeter. Grants are merit-based and will be awarded according to the ranking of papers by the program committee. Information about how to apply for travel grants will be included in the notification of acceptance.
EPSA will award a Graduate Student Essay Prize for the best paper presented by a graduate student at EPSA17 in Exeter. The winner will be officially announced during EPSA17. He/she will receive 500 EUR. In addition, the winning paper will be taken into consideration for publication in EJPS, where it will be subjected to a standard review procedure that may result in requests for revisions to the original submission. Information about how to submit a paper for the essay prize will be included in the notification of acceptance.
We just released the first newsletter in 2016!
In this issue we ask Lilia Gurova & Stavros Ioannidis about the situation in Bulgaria and Greece for philosophy, especially philosophy of science. Alexander Christian, Christian J. Feldbacher, and Alexander Gebharter take a closer look for us at the Duesseldorf Center for Logic and Philosophy of Science (DCLPS). British cosmologist and astronomer John Peacock and American philosopher Alison Wylie are the interviewees for our category “Science meets philosophy” and our new category “Women in Philosophy of Science. Three-minute interview with… “.
The Steering Committee of the European Philosophy of Science Association (EPSA) seeks applications for the position of Editor-in-Chief of the European Journal for Philosophy of Science (EJPS). The editorship will be assumed on 1 July 2017 and is normally held for a renewable term of four years.
The European Journal for Philosophy of Science was founded in 2009 and the first issue was published in 2011. The journal currently publishes three issues per year. The Editor-in-Chief is responsible for selecting manuscripts for publication, supervising the editorial office, and coordinating the production of the journal with the publisher Springer. The Editor-in-Chief must hold a permanent academic appointment at a European University and have a distinguished research record in philosophy of science.
Applications for the Editor-in-Chief of the European Journal for Philosophy of Science should summarize the applicant’s qualifications for the editorship, present the proposed editorial team (currently the journal has two Editors-in-Chief and five Associate Editors, but other arrangements are also possible), and describe the likely institutional support, such as teaching relief, office space, and administrative assistance. Applications from outside of Europe are welcome, but at least half of the editorial team (i.e. Editors-in-Chief and Associate Editors) should have a position in Europe. If two Editors-in-Chief are proposed, at least one of them should have a permanent appointment at a European University. The application should also include the CVs of all members of the proposed editorial team. Please submit applications by e-mail attachment to the secretary of EPSA, Ms Maria Csauscher, at epsa@lrz.uni-muenchen.de. The deadline for applications is 1 September 2016. Questions concerning the application should be directed to the President of EPSA, Prof. Stephan Hartmann, at S.Hartmann@lmu.de.
Hosted by New Bulgarian University
The newly founded East European Network for Philosophy of Science (EENPS) invites submission of contributed papers and proposals for symposia in the following sections:
An abstract of up to 1000 words, prepared for blind review, should be sent as an attached doc or pdf file to eenps.submission@gmail.com no later than the 1st of March, 2016. The e-mail message should contain in the subject line and the author’s names, affiliation and an e-mail address for contact in the main body. The attached abstract should contain the title of the relevant section, the title of the contributed paper and a short resume of the paper.
The proposals for symposia should be sent as an attached doc or pdf file to eenps.submission@gmail.com no later than the 1st of March, 2016. The e-mail message should contain in the subject line. The attached proposal for a symposium should contain the title of the relevant section, the title of the proposed symposium, the names and the contact details (affiliation, e-mail addresses) of the organizers and the participants, a general description of the topic and its significance for the philosophy of science (up to 1000 words), and short descriptions (up to 300 words) of each contributed talk. Short CVs (up to 1 page) of the organizers and the participants should be attached to the same e-mail.
1 March, 2016: Deadline for the submission of abstracts and proposals of symposia
15 April, 2016: Notification of acceptance
15 June 2016: Deadline for the registration for the conference (There will be no registration fees but registration is required due to the limited number of places in the conference rooms.)
24-26 June, 2016: Conference
Information about the venue, accommodation, registration, and other practical matters will be available soon at: https://sites.google.com/site/eastnetworkphilsci/eenps-2016
Are you still thinking about EPSA15 and making plans for 2017 already? Then save the date for EPSA17 in Exeter from 6.-9. September 2017!
The paper "Empirical problems for explanationism" by Rune Nyrup has been awarded the first Graduate Student Essay Prize of the European Philosophy of Science Association (EPSA). This prize is aimed at graduate students who had their papers accepted for presentation at the EPSA 2015 conference in Düsseldorf. It is expected to encourage early career scholars to pursue their research, and to highlight the quality and variety of philosophical work on science carried out within European academia. The submissions were blindly examined by the Graduate Student Essay Prize Committee appointed by the EPSA Steering Committee, which included Lilia Gurova, Sabina Leonelli, Bert Leuridan [chair] and David Teira. All the submissions were of high quality and represented different strands of philosophy of science. The decision was therefore difficult to reach, however the paper "Empirical problems for explanationism" was agreed by all committee members to deserve the award given the importance of its subject for philosophy of science, the originality of its claims, its clearly presented argument and its thorough grasp of the relevant literature. Rune Nyrups's paper challenges the existing empirical arguments for the view that good explanations of phenomena provide epistemic support for the underlying hypotheses. The winner will receive 500 EUR and the paper will be taken into consideration for publication in the EJPS.
Congratulations Rune!
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