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 13th 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: ”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.