Arab Philosophers - Conference on Scientism

5. Abraham Kuyper Center for Science and Religion at VU University in Amsterdam

Organizes on Jan. 23 - 25, 2014, conference on Scientisim

Titled

"All you need is science? Scientism and our multifaceted knowledge of reality"

This conference is meant to explore the nature and tenability of scientism as an epistemological position.

The conference is the first in a series organized by the Abraham Kuyper Center for Science and Religion at VU University in Amsterdam. Part of the Center’s activities is a large scale philosophical study on the topic of ‘Science beyond scientism’. The project is funded by the Templeton World Charity Foundation (TWCF).

The first international conference of the Abraham Kuyper Center will be devoted to the philosophical study of scientism. It will be held at VU University Amsterdam from January 23rd to 25th 2014.

Topics:

Questions to be addressed are:

How can scientism best be defined?
How does it relate to (philosophical) naturalism, physicalism, logical positivism and other philosophical neighbors?
How should the rise of scientism (especially in academia) be explained, what is its ‘pull’?
What arguments can be given in favor of scientism?
Why should scientism be deemed unsatisfactory, and, if so, what problems does it cause?
How does scientism make a difference to the ways in which scientific research is conducted?
What fields of research can be discerned where scientism makes a difference for the interpretation of data, theory choice etc.?
What alternatives to scientism can be distinguished, and how should we evaluate them?
What tasks and possibilities do disciplines like epistemology, philosophy of science, metaphysics and theology have here?

Submission of Contributed Papers:

We cordially invite you to submit a 500 word abstract on any topic relevant to the conference theme. Please prepare your abstract for anonymous review. Abstracts may be submitted by e-mail, abrahamkuypercenter@vu.nl, (as plain text, MS Word, Pages, or pdf files) or by regular mail.

Deadline: Abstracts should be submitted to the conference organizers by September 1st, 2013.

Authors will be informed by September 15th whether their papers have been accepted as a paper for the conference.