Two direct roles for values in the heart of the sciences

Tim Lewens,  professor of philosophy of science at Cambridge, is a guest professor at DEC. He will be in Paris in November as well as in January. 

He will be giving two talks in November, one in partnership with IHPST, and two in January.
 
Conference 1 - From Hidden Hand to Many Hands: The Case of Casabe.

Cultural evolutionary theorists frequently put stress on the cumulative nature of cultural adaptation. Sometimes they also place stress on the ways in which these cumulative processes share commonalities with processes of adaptation by natural selection. One particular parallel—often illustrated using the case of manioc processing in Amazonia—concerns the 'hidden hand' form of explanation required to account for adaptation in both natural and technological domains. In this talk I look in detail at ways in which Tukanoan people make a type of bread called casabe. This case has often been thought to exemplify the 'hidden hand' aspect of cultural evolution; but here I argue that it is better understood as an instance of a 'many hands' explanation.
 
Conference 2 - Two direct roles for values in the heart of the sciences (Tuesday, November 26, IHPST, 13 rue du Four).

Some philosophers have argued that while values can play legitimate roles throughout all phases of the sciences, values should not be allowed to play a 'direct' role in the internal phases of science. This is on the grounds that values need to be distinguished from evidence. Here I suggest two different ways in which this 'direct', or evidential, role is legitimate even within the sciences' internal phases. First, values can help to make a case for what Alexandrova calls 'mixed' hypotheses. Second, when thick value claims combine in the right ways, they can also provide evidence for hypotheses that are entirely descriptive in content. I illustrate these arguments using cases from conservation science and medicine