Event – Centre for Philosophy of Social Science

21 October 202521 October 2025 tint Event, Perspectives on Science seminar

27.10. Perspectives on Science Seminar: Abigail Nieves Delgado

In next week’s Perspectives on Science Seminar, Abigail Nieves Delgado (Utrecht University) will give a talk titled “Beyond Race: Rethinking Population Descriptors in Microbiome Research”.

The seminar takes place in Metsätalo (room 10), and online via Zoom from 14:15 to 15:45 on Monday the 27^th of October 2025.

Perspectives on Science is a research seminar which brings together experts from the philosophy of science and several fields of science studies. It is organized by TINT – Centre for Philosophy of Social Science at the University of Helsinki. More information about the seminar can be found on the TINT webpage https://tint.helsinki.fi.

What: “Beyond Race: Rethinking Population Descriptors in Microbiome Research” by Abigail Nieves Delgado

When: Monday 27.10.2025 from 2 to 4 pm (EEST, Helsinki time).

Where: Metsätalo (room 10), and Zoom.

Zoom link: Contact mirja-leena.zgurskaya@helsinki.fi for the Zoom link.

Abstract:

Population descriptors like race, ethnicity, nation, or genetic ancestry are commonly used in biomedicine. They aim to convey relevant information about populations and their relation to one another. In this context, several authors have discussed the problems of using race and ethnicity interchangeably (Panofsky and Bliss 2017), using race as proxy (Gravlee 2009; Lin and Kesley 2000), and assuming that genetic ancestry is a neutral descriptor (Gannett 2014; Haddad 2025). In the field of human microbiome research (investigating differences in the microbiome depending on genetic and/or cultural contexts) these population descriptors are yet more problematic and imprecise. Given that microbiome composition changes depending on many organismal and environmental factors, the epistemic role of racial differences, ethnic characteristics, nation specific traits, or genetic ancestry percentages in distinguishing microbial patterns remains to be clarified. In this presentation we argue that population descriptors suffer especially from two problems: They introduce explanations with low proportionality that fail to grasp relevant causal relations; and their usage is motivated by an overly strong focus on global instead of local health issues. Both problems together amount to what we call the ‘missing locality challenge’ of descriptors. Not addressing it leads to epistemic biases and stereotypes against local communities. By drawing on a case study on human microbiome research, we introduce a new framework to meet this challenge. It ranks population descriptors from ‘global’ to ‘local’ contexts of application, which helps selecting appropriate descriptors for different kinds of disease causalities and groups without stereotyping them.

Bio:

Abigail Nieves Delgado is associate professor at the Freudenthal Institute, Utrecht University. She works on the history and philosophy of the life sciences, especially on racialization practices in the history of science as well as in contemporary biomedical research (e.g., in microbiome research and epigenetics) and in biometric technologies (e.g., facial recognition). She also investigates the politics of transdisciplinary knowledge production and the history of ethnobiology in Latin America. She is the principal investigator of the project “Microbiome research and race in the ‘Local South’” funded by the NWO. This project aims to develop epistemically fruitful, non-discriminatory, and locally relevant classification criteria of human diversity to be used in human microbiome research instead of pernicious and ambiguous categories of race.

If you have any questions about the seminar, do not hesitate to contact mirja-leena.zgurskaya@helsinki.fi.

8 October 2025 tint Event, Perspectives on Science seminar

13.10. Perspectives on Science Seminar: Jan Sprenger

In next week’s Perspectives on Science Seminar, Jan Sprenger (University of Turin) will give a talk titled “The Productive Model of Explanation in Psychology and Beyond”.

The seminar takes place in Metsätalo (room 10), and online via Zoom from 14:15 to 15:45 on Monday the 13^th of October 2025.

What: ”The Productive Model of Explanation in Psychology and Beyond” by Jan Sprenger

When: Monday 13.10.2025 from 2 to 4 pm (EEST, Helsinki time).

Where: Metsätalo (room 10), and Zoom.

Zoom link: Contact mirja-leena.zgurskaya@helsinki.fi for the Zoom link.

Abstract:

In their influential 1988 paper “Saving the Phenomena”, Bogen and
Woodward argued that scientific theories do not, in the first place,
predict and explain facts about observables. Rather, theories account
for phenomena, which are placed at an intermediate level between data
and theory. This work tries to take Bogen and Woodward’s thesis
seriously: it develops a model of explanation based on a tri-partition
between theory, phenomena and data. The model squares well with
explanatory practices in experimental psychology and the use of formal
models and statistical analysis. Finally I show how classical
philosophical models of explanation—the deductive-nomological model,
the mechanistic model and the interventionist model—can be obtained as
limiting cases of this more general account.

Bio:

Jan Sprenger obtained his PhD in 2008 from the University of Bonn in
Germany with a thesis on confirmation and statistical inference.
Subsequently he worked at Tilburg University in the Netherlands, from
2014 onwards as Full Professor and Director of the research center
TiLPS. In 2017 he moved to the University of Turin in Italy, his current
affiliation. He directed numerous national and international research
projects, among which an ERC Starting Grant on scientific objectivity
(2015-2021). In 2019 Oxford University Press published his monograph
“Bayesian Philosophy of Science” (jointly with Stephan Hartmann). His
current research interests focus on themes in semantics, formal
epistemology and philosophy of science, such as indicative conditionals,
counterfactuals and scientific explanation.

If you have any questions about the seminar, do not hesitate to contact mirja-leena.zgurskaya@helsinki.fi.

2 October 20258 October 2025 tint Event, Perspectives on Science seminar

10.10. Perspectives on Science Seminar: Katherine Furman

In the next Perspectives on Science seminar, Katherine Furman (University of Liverpool) will give a talk titled ““Doing your own research” and the Curious Case of Thabo Mbeki: Making implicit cases in philosophical reasoning explicit”.

The seminar takes place in Metsätalo (room 10) and online via Zoom from 14:15 to 15:45 on Friday the 10^thof October 2025. Please note, that this talk is exceptionally on Friday!

What: “”Doing your own research” and the Curious Case of Thabo Mbeki: Making implicit cases in philosophical reasoning explicit”” by Katherine Furman

When: Friday 10.10.2025 from 2 to 4 pm (EEST, Helsinki time)

Where: Metsätalo room 10, and Zoom.

Zoom link: Contact mirja-leena.zgurskaya@helsinki.fi for the Zoom link.

Abstract:

Plenty has been written philosophically about the phenomenon of “doing your research”. That is, when individuals distrust the experts and try to rely on their own competencies to figure out scientific issues for themselves. Typically, the agents are non-specific – they are a philosophical construct for the purposes of theory development. However, what happens when we fill in the details?

This talk offers a deep dive into Thabo Mbeki’s AIDS denialist policies in South Africa in the late 1990s and early 2000s. That is, the health policies that prevented access to HIV/AIDS treatment via the public health system. This was based on beliefs that HIV does not cause AIDS and that the prescribed medications are toxic. These beliefs were the result of Mbeki’s own distrust of mainstream HIV/AIDS science at the time and his resulting independent evidence gathering. Detailed analysis of this case suggest that it substantially deviates from the standard accounts of “doing your own research” in the philosophical literature. Overall, this talk argues that we need to be careful of who our hypothetical agents are in our theorising, because changing the cases can change the theory.

Bio:

Katherine Furman is a senior lecturer of Philosophy, Politics and Economics at the University of Liverpool. She predominantly works on philosophy and public policy, with a special interest in health policy development in contexts of distrust, especially in African countries.

If you have any questions about the seminar, do not hesitate to contact mirja-leena.zgurskaya@helsinki.fi.

3 June 20253 June 2025 tint Event, Perspectives on Science seminar

Perspectives on Science seminar / Helsinki Philosophy Colloquium talk 5.6 with Lorenzo Casini: “Realization Independence and the Epiphenomenalist Revenge”

This Thursday TINT will organize a joint session together with Helsinki Philosophy Colloquium, where Lorenzo Casini (University of Bologna) will give a talk on his joint work with Alexander Gebharter titled “Realization Independence and the Epiphenomenalist Revenge“. The session opens up University of Helsinki spring festival.

The session takes place live in Metsätalo sali 2 and via Zoom from 12:15 to 13:45 on Thursday the 5thof June 2025.

Please note the unusual room and time!

What: ”Realization Independence and the Epiphenomenalist Revenge” by Lorenzo Casini

When: Thursday 05.06.2025 from 12 to 2 pm (EEST, Helsinki time)

Where: Metsätalo (sali 2), and Zoom.

Zoom link: Contact mirja-leena.zgurskaya@helsinki.fi for the Zoom link.

Abstract:

For the last two decades, James Woodward has been attempting to defend mental causation against ephiphenomenalism by drawing on his interventionist theory of causation. Recently, he has imposed a “realization independence” condition, aiming to address a charge of underdetermination levelled by Michael Baumgartner. If sound, Woodward’s proposal promises to solve an age-old metaphysical debate based on ideal experimental evidence.

Here, we argue that the proposal runs into a dilemma: Either it contradicts the core tenet of interventionism and leads to absurd consequences or it cannot escape the underdetermination charge. This renders it vulnerable to what we call the epiphenomenalist revenge: the most plausible way out of the dilemma is to give up mental causation altogether. More generally, our argument undermines the claim that the mental causation problem can be solved on evidence-based grounds.

Bio:

Lorenzo Casini is a philosopher of science specializing in causal inference, and working on conceptual and methodological issues in the special sciences, more generally. After obtaining his PhD in Philosophy from the University of Kent in 2013, Casini held positions at Konstanz, LMU Munich, Geneva, the Sant’Anna School of Advanced Studies in Pisa, and the IMT School for Advanced Studies in Lucca. Currently, he is Assistant Professor in Logic and Philosophy of Science at the University of Bologna.

If you have any questions about the seminar, do not hesitate to contact mirja-leena.zgurskaya@helsinki.fi.

28 May 20252 June 2025 tint Event, Perspectives on Science seminar

2.6. Perspectives on Science Seminar / The ReSES project: Diane Coyle

The next Perspectives on Science seminar will be held together with The ReSES project, and Diane Coyle (University of Cambridge) will give a lecture titled “The Measure of Progress”, based on her book The Measure of Progress: Counting What Really Matters (2025).

The seminar takes place only online via Zoom starting 14:00 on Monday the 2nd of June 2025.

The ReSES project aims to rethink how economics can better serve society. The project’s Argumenta Distinguished Lectures series provides a platform for leading experts to present ideas that challenge conventional economic thought and promote societal well-being.

Read more about the event, Coyle’s book, and The ReSES project here.

What: “The Measure of Progress” by Diane Coyle

When: Monday 02.06.2025 from 2 to 4 pm (EEST, Helsinki time)

Where: Zoom.

Zoom link: https://helsinki.zoom.us/j/61931407064?pwd=4ItMhJnNP78TSxXRZL7ZoIGPQxI9JQ.1

Abstract:

The ways that statisticians and governments measure the economy were developed in the 1940s, when the urgent economic problems were entirely different from those of today. In her talk, Diane Coyle will argue that the framework underpinning today’s economic statistics is so outdated that it functions as a distorting lens, or even a set of blinkers. When policymakers rely on such an antiquated conceptual tool, how can they measure, understand, and respond with any precision to what is happening in today’s digital economy? Coyle will make the case for a new framework, one that takes into consideration current economic realities.

Coyle will explain why economic statistics matter and argue that to understand the current economy, we need different data collected in a different framework of categories and definitions, and she will offer some suggestions about what this would entail. She will argue that only with a new approach to measurement will we be able to achieve the right kind of growth for the benefit of all.

Bio:

Professor Diane Coyle is the Bennett Professor of Public Policy at the University of Cambridge. Professor Coyle co-directs the Bennett Institute where she heads research under the themes of progress and productivity. Coyle is also a Director of the Productivity Institute, a Fellow of the Office for National Statistics, and an expert adviser to the National Infrastructure Commission. She has served in public service roles including as Vice Chair of the BBC Trust, member of the Competition Commission, of the Migration Advisory Committee and of the Natural Capital Committee. Coyle was Professor of Economics at the University of Manchester until March 2018 and was awarded a DBE for her contribution to economic policy in the 2023 King’s Birthday Honours.

If you have any questions about the seminar, do not hesitate to contact mirja-leena.zgurskaya@helsinki.fi.

30 April 2025 tint Event, Perspectives on Science seminar

5.5 Perspectives on Science Seminar: Pekka Syrjänen

In the next Perspectives on Science seminar, Pekka Syrjänen (University of Helsinki) will give a talk on his paper co-authored with Mark Rubin (Durham University) titled “Methodological Pluralism and the Replication Crisis”.

The seminar takes place in person at Metsätalo room 10 and online via Zoom from 14:15 to 15:45 on Monday the 5th of May 2025.

What: “Methodological Pluralism and the Replication Crisis” by Pekka Syrjänen

When: Monday 05.05.2025 from 2 to 4 pm (EEST)

Where: Metsätalo (sali 10), and Zoom.

For Zoom link, please contact mirja-leena.zgurskaya@helsinki.fi.

Abstract:

In the scientific literature, solutions to the replication crisis often involve imposing stricter restrictions on the research process, such as preregistration and adherence to confirmatory research methods. In this article, we argue that reliable results can be produced through a variety of research methods. We support this claim by examining factors that influence the reliability of research findings across multiple levels of scientific inference, including background knowledge and assumptions, theory content and structure, methodology, and data. We argue that the reliability of findings depends on a set of key factors across these levels, rather than adhering to a particular methodological stance. Our analysis thus shows that reliable results can emerge through diverse pathways, including both theory-driven and data-driven methods.

Bio:

Pekka Syrjänen is a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Helsinki. His work focuses on the role of prediction in science.

And co-author, Mark Rubin bio:

Mark Rubin is a professor of social psychology at Durham University. His research focuses on social identity, stereotyping, and prejudice. He has published metascientific work on issues connected with the replication crisis in science such as preregistration, multiple testing, significance testing, and hypothesising after the results are known (HARKing).

If you have any questions about the seminar, do not hesitate to contact mirja-leena.zgurskaya@helsinki.fi.

3 March 20253 March 2025 tint Event, Perspectives on Science seminar

10.3. Perspectives on Science Seminar: Inkeri Koskinen

In the next Perspectives on Science seminar, Inkeri Koskinen (TINT / University of Helsinki) will give a talk titled “Peer Review in Artistic Research: a Case Study”.

The seminar takes place in person at Metsätalo and online via Zoom from 14:15 to 15:45 on Monday the 10th of March 2025. To join the seminar, please contact mirja-leena.zgurskaya@helsinki.fi for the Zoom invitation.

Abstract

We examine the introduction of academic peer review practices to a field that resists the idea of shared epistemic standards of evaluation and does not have stable epistemic communities. Artistic research, as an academic discipline that gives doctoral degrees and has peer reviewed publications, has emerged over the past few decades largely as a result of broader science policy trends, and the resulting reorganisation of higher education in many countries. In its internal discussions questions about peer review are often treated as a part of the complex set of problems resulting from the institutional pressure to adaptat to academic institutional structures that are not well aligned with artistic practice.

Is epistemically well-functioning peer review possible in artistic research? How to best understand the nature and epistemic functions of the kind of small and transient communities that emerge in different fields of art and in artistic research? We approach these questions from the point of view of social epistemology and recent philosophical discussions about peer review. Our work is based on a case study of The Journal for Artistic Research.

Bio

Inkeri Koskinen is a philosopher of science working as an Academy of Finland Research Fellow in Practical philosophy, University of Helsinki. Her research interests include objectivity, the social epistemology of scientific knowledge, diversity in science, transdisciplinarity, philosophy of the humanities, and demarcation.

14 October 202414 October 2024 tint Event, In English

20.11 Mariana Mazzucato: Industrial Strategy | ReSES AD Lecture

Date: 20.11.2024
Time: 16:00 (EET, Helsinki time)
Place: Online
Zoom link

ARGUMENTA DISTINGUISHED LECTURE

A New Approach to Industrial strategy:
Directing the economy toward an inclusive and sustainable future
Mariana Mazzucato

The ReSES project is happy to announce an upcoming online public lecture titled “A New Approach to Industrial Strategy” to be delivered by Mariana Mazzucato. This event is part of the Argumenta Distinguished Lectures series organized by ReSES at the Faculty of Social Sciences at the University of Helsinki.

Industrial strategy is experiencing a renaissance. Getting the details right matter. Mission-oriented industrial strategy needs to be more than words if we want to avoid missions becoming part of the problem, not the solution. During this lecture, Professor Mariana Mazzucato will offer insights gained from work with governments around the world – on opportunities ranging from healthy and sustainable housing estates in our local Camden Council to the ecological transition in Brazil – that are advancing new approaches to bring economic, social, and environmental policy goals into alignment at the centre of their growth strategies. She will explore what it takes for governments to design, implement, and govern new industrial strategies and examine the tools, institutions, partnerships, and capabilities governments need to deliver transformative change.

Mariana Mazzucato (PhD) is Professor in the Economics of Innovation and Public Value at University College London (UCL), where she is Founding Director of the UCL Institute for Innovation & Public Purpose. She is winner of international prizes including the Grande Ufficiale Ordine al Merito della Repubblica Italiana in 2021, Italy’s highest civilian honour, the 2020 John von Neumann Award, the 2019 All European Academies Madame de Staël Prize for Cultural Values, and 2018 Leontief Prize for Advancing the Frontiers of Economic Thought. Most recently, Pope Francis appointed her to the Pontifical Academy for Life for bringing ‘more humanity’ to the world.

As well as The Entrepreneurial State: debunking public vs. private sector myths (2013), she is the author of The Value of Everything: Making and Taking in the Global Economy (2018), Mission Economy: A Moonshot Guide to Changing Capitalism (2021), and most recently The Big Con: How the Consulting Industry Weakens our Businesses, Infantilizes our Governments and Warps our Economies (2023). She advises policymakers around the world on innovation-led inclusive and sustainable growth. Her roles have included for example Chair of the World Health Organization’s Council on the Economics of Health for All, Co-Chair of the Global Commission on the Economics of Water, a member of the South African President’s Economic Advisory Council, and the Co-Chair of the Group of Experts to the G20 Task Force for the Global Mobilization against Climate Change.

Funded by the Finnish Cultural Foundation, the ReSES project aims to rethink how economics can better serve society. The project’s Argumenta Distinguished Lectures series provides a platform for leading experts to present ideas that challenge conventional economic thought and promote societal well-being. Professor Mazzucato’s lecture, “A New Approach to Industrial Strategy” is a significant addition to this series.

The lecture is free and open to the public, reflecting the ReSES project’s dedication to making scholarly discussions accessible to a broad audience.

You can join the Zoom webinar via this link

22 August 20245 April 2025 admin Event

Agency, Preferences, and Welfare workshop

TINT organizes a one-day workshop entitled Agency, Preferences, and Welfare on the 9th of September 10-17, in Psychologicum (Siltavuorenpenger 1) room 134. The workshop is an interdisciplinary discussion straddling ethics, philosophy of science and economics on the concept of preference and the foundations of behavioral welfare economics. The speakers are B. Douglas Bernheim (Stanford), Mark Budolfson (University of Texas, Austin), Till Grüne-Yanoff (KTH), Lilian O’Brien (Helsinki and TUNI), Samuli Reijula (Helsinki).

There is no registration fee, but space is limited, so if you are planning on attending, please send an email to jaakko.kuorikoski@helsinki.fi.

Date: 9.9.2024
Time: 10-17
Location: Psychologicum (Siltavuorenpenger 1) room 134

Program

9.30 – 10.00	Coffee
10.00-10.15	Welcome
10.15-11.15	Douglas Bernheim (Stanford University): The Mental Statist Approach to Behavioral Welfare Economics.
11.15-12.15	Lilian O’Brien (University of Helsinki and Tampere University): Commitment and rational choice
12.15-14.00	Lunch
14.00-15.00	Samuli Reijula (University of Helsinki): Behavioral policy for self-governance
15.00-16.00	Mark Budolfson (University of Texas, Austin): Accounting for the wellbeing of those with no willingness to pay
16.00-17.00	Till Grüne-Yanoff (KTH, Stockholm): Unfair Behavioral Public Policies

The workshop is organized by TINT and ESSK project.

23 October 202213 June 2024 admin Announcements, Event

26.10. Seminar on the Economics Nobel Prize 2022

TINT seminar on the Economics Nobel Prize 2022 with two speakers: Refet Gürkaynak from Bilkent University and Hannu Vartiainen from the University of Helsinki. The titles of their talks below.

“The Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences 2022″
Refet Gürkaynak (Bilkent University)

“Why this year’s Prize is interesting from a modelling perspective”
Hannu Vartiainen (University of Helsinki)

The seminar takes place online via Zoom on the 26th of October 2022, from 14:00 onwards.

31 May 202213 June 2024 admin Announcements, Event, In Finnish

Paneelikeskustelu: Rokotusasenteet ja luottamus tieteeseen

31.5.2022 klo 17–19
Tiedekulman Stage (Yliopistonkatu 4) ja Tiedekulman live stream.

Tieteenfilosofian kansalliskomitea järjestää paneelikeskustelun aiheesta Rokotusasenteet ja luottamus tieteeseen. Mitä olemme oppineet rokotusasenteista? Mistä kielteiset asenteet johtuvat? Mikä rooli on luottamuksella tieteeseen? Miten luottamusta voitaisiin kohentaa?

Keskustelussa mukana:
Pia Vuolanto, Tampereen yliopisto
Anna Soveri, Turun yliopisto
Mika Rämet, Rokotetutkimuskeskus, Tampereen yliopisto
Saana Jukola, Ruhrin yliopisto, Bochum
Inkeri Koskinen, Tampereen yliopisto
Ilmari Hirvonen, Helsingin yliopisto

Puhetta johtaa Uskali Mäki, Helsingin yliopisto

Tilaisuus on jatkoa syksyllä 2020 järjestetylle keskustelulle Tieteen rooli koronakriisissä.

Nauhoite keskustelusta katsottavissa TINTin Youtubessa

Lisätietoja: inkeri.koskinen@tuni.fi

27 November 202113 June 2024 admin Announcements, Event

Seminar on Economics Nobel Prize 2021

INT seminar on the 2021 Economics Nobel Prize on Wednesday 8.12. Speaking at the event are Roope Uusitalo (University of Helsinki) and Arthur Netto (University of São Paulo).

The seminar takes place in Zoom on Wednesday 8.12. from 13:00 to 15:00. Register for the seminar here.

Program:

Roope Uusitalo (University of Helsinki): “Card, Angrist, Imbens and the credibility revolution in Economics”

Arthur Netto (University of São Paulo): “An Academic Harbor for Governmental Affairs: How Princeton Industrial Relations Section Legitimized Program Evaluation in Economics”
Discussion

17 November 202113 June 2024 admin Announcements, Event

Breaking the Glass Ceiling: Gender in Science and Philosophy

TINT – Centre for Philosophy of Social Science, The Philosophical Society of Finland (SFY) and The Association for Women and Feminist Philosophers in Finland (NFY) present

Breaking the glass-ceiling: Gender in science and philosophy.

Over the last couple of decades the gender gap in academia has significantly narrowed, yet the pace at which progress is taking place is surprisingly slow. In philosophy, for example, it’s still very much the case that while the proportions men and women are roughly equal among undergraduate philosophy students, the number of men increases disproportionately at the faculty level. Finnish academic philosophy is no exception. What causes this gap to persist? Why do some fields fare better than others? Which measures can we take to fill the gap? During this event we bring together national and international experts to address these and related questions with a particular focus on the Finnish context.

The event will be held in Helsinki at Metsätalo, sali 1 / hall 1.
Entrance via Unioninkatu 40 or Fabianinkatu 39.

Program | 17.11.2021

17:30 Opening words: Caterina Marchionni (TINT) & Sami Pihlström (SFY)
17:35 Introduction: Säde Hormio, Päivi Seppälä & Sanna Tirkkonen
17:45 Jennifer Saul (University of Waterloo)
18:15 Q&A (chaired by Caterina Marchionni)
18:25 Liisa Husu (Örebro University)
18:55 Q&A (chaired by Päivi Seppälä)
19:05 Panel discussion (in alphabetical order, chaired by Jaakko Kuorikoski)
Sara Heinämaa (University of Jyväskylä)
Maria Lasonen-Aarnio (University of Helsinki)
Uskali Mäki (University of Helsinki)
Kristina Rolin (Tampere University)
Helena Siipi (University of Turku)
19:30 Q&A
19:45 End of the event

The event is free from charge and open to everyone.

The event will also be streamed through Zoom.

Facebook event
Breaking the Glass Ceiling: Gender in Science and Philosophy (facebook.com)