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STS Research Seminar: Kirsten Walsh, Philosophy Lecturer
19 October 2022, 3:00 pm–4:30 pm
Join this STS Research Seminar with Kirsten Walsh, Philosophy Lecturer, University of Exeter
This event is free.
Event Information
Open to
- UCL staff | UCL students | UCL alumni
Availability
- Yes
Cost
- Free
Organiser
-
UCL Department of Science and Technology Studies
Location
-
1.03Malet Place Engineering Building,2 Malet PlaceLondonWC1E 7JE
Situated Cognition in Early Modern Experimentation: The Case of Compelled Assent
The early moderns surely didn’t have an embodied, extended, embedded or enacted conception of the mind, but I aim to show that this perspective can make sense of some of their practices: in particular, how experimental philosophers approached their experiments. Focusing on Newton’s optical experiments, I’ll argue that some aspects of early modern scientific practice turn crucially on how the experimenter is situated towards gaining particular kinds of know-how. My account provides one answer to a long-standing puzzle regarding Newton’s method: namely, his appeal to ‘compelled assent’ as an epistemic standard.
About the Speaker
Kirsten Walsh
Philosophy Lecturer, SPA at University of Exeter
More about Kirsten Walsh