Ontology is the philosophical study of what exists. In this course, we will be exploring stance voluntarism: the idea that seemingly competing ontological positions can both be rational to endorse because they differ not on matters of fact, but merely with respect to non-cognitive commitments (“stances”). We will focus chiefly on stance voluntarism as it relates to the sciences.
The policies for the course can be found here.
Our main book for this course will be:
Chakravartty, Anjan. 2017. Scientific ontology : integrating naturalized metaphysics and voluntarist epistemology. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Hereafter, this is referred to simply as “Chakravartty”.
WEEK 1
2/22 No Class
2/24 Introduction
- Course policies
- Chakravartty, A. 2018. “Realism, Antirealism, Epistemic Stances, and Voluntarism.” In The Routledge Handbook of Scientific Realism, edited by Juha Saatsi, 225-236. London: Routledge.
- Chakravartty, Ch. 1
WEEK 2
3/1 Critiques of Stance Voluntarism
Presenter: Farhan Islam
Psillos, Stathis. 2003. “Putting a Bridle on Irrationality: An Appraisal of Van Fraassen’s New Epistemology.” In Images of Empiricism: Essays on Science and Stances, with a Reply From Bas C. Van Fraassen, edited by Bradley John Monton, 288-319. Oxford University Press.
Chakravartty, Ch. 2
WEEK 3
Presenter: Nate Obbard
van Fraassen, Bas C. 2002. The empirical stance. New Haven: Yale University Press.
3/10 Naturalism
Chakravartty, Ch. 3
WEEK 4
3/15 Naturalized Metaphysics without Stances
Presenter: Pete Huggins
Bryant, Amanda. 2020. “Epistemic Infrastructure for a Scientific Metaphysics.” Grazer Philosophische Studien 98 (1):27-49. doi: https://doi.org/10.1163/18756735-000096.
Bryant, Amanda. forthcoming. “Book Symposium: Anjan Chakravartty’s Scientific Ontology A Thousand Flowers on the Road to Epistemic Anarchy: Comments on Chakravartty’s Scientific Ontology.” Dialogue.
3/17 Stances Toward Dispositions
Chakravartty, Ch. 4
WEEK 5
3/22 TBD
Presenter: Kenzo Okazaki
3/24 Stances Toward Structures
Chakravartty, Ch. 5
WEEK 6
3/29 TBD
Presenter: Nam Nguyen
3/31 Ontological uncertainty
Chakravartty, Ch. 6
WEEK 7
4/5 TBD
Presenter: Rebecca Amen
4/7 Stances
Chakravartty, Ch. 7
WEEK 8
4/12 TBD
Presenter: Phin Choukas
4/14 Skepticism
Chakravartty, Ch. 8
WEEKS 9 and 10
We have two weeks to play… I may workshop some of my stuff.
WEEK 9 Taking Stock
4/19 Metascience Volume 27, issue 3, November 2018, pp. 357-387
Symposium: Lewis, Magnus, Strevens, & Chakravartty
4/21 TBD
WEEK 10
4/26 Guest Speaker: Jared Millson, Cal State Bakersfield
Millson and Khalifa (in progress), “Inquisitive Veritism”
4/28 TBD
Writing Workshop Begins
WEEK 11
5/3 Break (No Classes)
5/5 Extra Office Hours (Email me)
WEEK 12
5/10 KK
Peer Evaluators: Pete, Phin
5/12 Farhan
Peer Evaluators: Pete, Phin, Kenzo
5/14 Becca
Peer Evaluators: Pete, Phin, Nate
WEEK 13
5/17 Nate
Peer Evaluators: Pete, Phin, Nam
5/19 Nam
Peer Evaluators: Pete, Phin, Becca
5/21 Kenzo
Peer Evaluators: Pete, Phin, Farhan
FINALS WEEK
5/27 Final Paper Due at 11:59PM