Seminar autumn 2020
Philosophy of science perspectives on the climate challenge
Venue
14:15-16:00 Room F-113, Unitobler, 36 Lerchenweg.
Some of the sessions will be held online, contact Julie Jebeile for access information.
Background readings
Frigg, R., Thompson, E. & Werndl, C. (2015). Philosophy of Climate Science Part I: Observing Climate Change. Philosophy Compass 10/12, 953–964. Full text
Frigg, R., Thompson, E. & Werndl, C. (2015). Philosophy of Climate Science Part II: Modelling Climate Change. Philosophy Compass 10/12, 965–977. Full text
Bradley R. & Steele K. (2015). Philosophy of Climate Science Part III: Making Climate Decisions. Philosophy Compass, 10/11, 799–810. Full text
Parker, W. (2018). Climate Science. The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, Summer 2018 Edition. Full text
Winsberg, E. (2018), Philosophy and Climate Science. Cambridge University Press. Full text
2020–09–24 Introduction & overview
Parker, W. (2018). Climate Science. The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, Summer 2018 Edition. Full text
2020–10–01 Definition of climate
Werndl, C. (2016). On Defining Climate and Climate Change. The British Journal for the Philosophy of Science 67 (2), 337-364. Full text
Katzav, J. and Parker, W. (2018). Issues in the theoretical foundations of climate science. Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part B: Studies in History and Philosophy of Modern Physics, 63, 141-149. Full text
2020–10–08 (online) Confirmation of models
Carrier, M. and Lenhard, J. (2019). Climate Models: How to Assess Their Reliability. International Studies in the Philosophy of Science, 32(2), 81-100. Full text
Parker, Wendy S. (2020). Model Evaluation: An Adequacy-for- Purpose View. Philosophy of Science, 87(3), 457-477. Full text
2020–10–15 Ethics of climate change
Invited speaker: Michel Bourban, University of Warwick.
Bourban, M. (2020) Promoting Justice in Global Climate Policies. In book: Routledge Handbook on the Political Economy of the Environment. Publisher: Routledge.
2020–10–22 (online) Values in climate services
Invited speaker: Greg Lusk, Michigan State University
Lusk, G. (2020). Political Legitimacy in the Democratic View: The Case of Climate Services. Philosophy of Science. Full text
Parker, W. and Lusk, G. (2019). Incorporating User Values into Climate Services. Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society, 100(9), 1643-1650. Full text
2020–10–29 (online) History of climate change
Invited speaker: Dania Achermann, Bergische University Wuppertal.
Heymann, M. and Achermann, D. (2018). From Climatology to Climate Science in the 20th Century. In Sam White, Christian Pfister, and Franz Mauelshagen (eds.). Palgrave Handbook of Climate History, Palgrave MacMillan UK. Full text
2020–11–05 (online) Holism in models
Invited speaker: Johannes Lenhard, Technische Universität Kaiserlautern.
Lenhard, J. (2018). Holism, or the Erosion of Modularity: A Methodological Challenge for Validation. Philosophy of Science, 85(5), 832-844. Full text
2020–11–12 (online) Machine learning in climate science
Invited speaker: Suzanne Kawamleh, Indiana University.
Kawamleh, S. (2020). Can machines learn clouds? The Epistemic Implications of Machine Learning Methods in Climate Science. Philosophy of Science.
2020–11–19 (online) Climate tipping points
Curcifix, M. and Annan, J. (2020). Is the concept of ’tipping point’ helpful for describing and communicating possible climate futures? In M. Hulme (ed.), Contemporary Climate Change Debates, London: Routledge, pp. 23–35. Full text
Lenton, T. M. (2020). Tipping positive change. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B, 375: 20190123 Full text
2020–11–26 (online) Structural uncertainty
Invited speaker: Marina Baldissera Pacchetti, University of Leeds.
Baldissera Pacchetti, M. (2020). Structural uncertainty through the lens of model building. Synthese. Full text
2020–12–03 (online) Model robustness
Lloyd, E. (2015) Model robustness as a confirmatory virtue: the case of climate science. Studies in History and Philosophy of Science 49, pp. 58-68. Full text
Winsberg, E. (2018). What does robustness teach us in climate science: a re-appraisal. Synthese. Full text
2020–12–10 (online) Decisions with model ensembles
Invited speaker: Joe Roussos, Institute for Futures Studies, Stockholm.
Roussos, J. and Bradley, R. and Frigg, R. (2020) Making confident decisions with model ensembles. Philosophy of science. Full text