Dear ISHers,

Many announcements today. Some that I gather here, and some that I will have to send in separate emails. Sorry about the email load.

Best, 
Lucie

Call for volunteers - ISHPSSB social media
We are still searching for a volunteer to take over the role of communication on social media, which has been handled by Sophie for several years.
Please contact us if you are interested.

ISHPSSB Porto Meeting CfA/P - 30 days left
I'll send back the full call for abstracts/papers/proposals. Remember that the deadline for application is November 1st. The website is: https://ishpssb2025.icbas.up.pt/ 

reminder_30daysleft_2.png

Symbiosis: Emerging Reconceptualizations and Theories (Conference in Bordeaux, France)

On Monday, October 14th, we organize in Bordeaux, France (UTC+2), an exceptional international conference with outstanding speakers on the concept of symbiosis and the many emerging conceptual and theoretical approaches to symbiosis and host-microbiome interactions in today's biology and philosophy of biology. 

Program:

All practical details:
https://www.philinbiomed.org/event/symbiosis-conference/ 

Registration (either in-person or virtual) is free but mandatory: please complete the following form:
https://rdv.immuconcept.org/studs.php?sondage=bf5q4zjqeenn51pe

This is a PhilInBioMed and ImmunoConcEpT event, organized by Thomas Pradeu, and funded by the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation.

New grant program for history of science in India
Program for the Archiving of Science and Technology (PAST)

Call for Project Proposals, 2025-26
 
Funding up to Rs 10 lakhs per project
Proposal Deadline: 15 November, 2024
Project time-line (up to 12 months between): 1 February, 2025 - 15 February, 2026

Grant program to preserve diverse histories of science and technology in contemporary India, with a focus on archival material relating to marginalised and under-represented histories.

Full details and submission form: https://archives.ncbs.res.in/past

Grant Program Online Information Sessions: 4:00 PM IST on 15 October, 2024; 29 October, 2024 and 11 November, 2024
Online meeting location: https://bit.ly/archives-ncbs-past-grant-meeting
Meeting ID: 945 4064 6607
Passcode: 230626

This program is thanks to generous funding from Arcadia, a charitable foundation that works to protect nature, preserve cultural heritage and promote open access to knowledge.

LTT - 10/4 and Intro. video - Tushar Menon - Scientific realism as a normative notion (twice over)

The Center for Philosophy of Science invites you to join us for our Lunch Time Talk.  Attend in person, Room 1117 on the 11th floor of the Cathedral of Learning at the University of Pittsburgh or visit our live stream on YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCrRp47ZMXD7NXO3a9Gyh2sg.    

LTT: Tushar Menon
Tushar discusses his work here at the Center:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r5Tt_RTH9Yo
Friday, October 4 @ 12:00 pm - 1:30 pm EDT

Title: Scientific realism as a normative notion (twice over)
Abstract: The semantic component of standard scientific realism—sometimes called semantic realism—is the view that the semantic treatment of scientific-theoretical terms should be the same as that of observational terms. This is to be understood, roughly, as the claim that theoretical claims are descriptive just as observational claims are. But standard semantic realism does not say anything about why we are right to treat observational claims as descriptive in the first place. In this talk, I argue that the justification of the descriptive deployment of observational terms is best understood from a normative pragmatist perspective, in terms of what we can use such discourse to do. I thus construe semantic realism as the claim that this is also the way to assess the correctness of the descriptive deployment of scientific-theoretical terms. I then argue that descriptive deployment is itself to be understood normatively, in terms of a Sellars-Brandom-style inferentialism. The upshot is (i) that we can do much more justice to the impulses that motivate scientific realism, and (ii) assess the relative merits of scientific realism across a wider domain of scientific theories (in particular mathematised physics) if we understand it in this doubly normative sense.

This talk will also be available live streamed on:  Zoom:  https://pitt.zoom.us/s/93846460443 and YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCrRp47ZMXD7NXO3a9Gyh2sg.