Dear All,
In our next week’s Perspectives on Science Seminar, Kerry McKenzie (University of California, San Diego) will give a talk titled “Integrated History and Philosophy of Science: From Arguments to Aesthetics”.
The seminar will take place online on Zoom and in Metsätalo room 10 from 14:15 to 15:45 on Monday, May 4, 2026. The speaker will be joining us online.
Perspectives on Science is a research seminar that 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: “Integrated History and Philosophy of Science: From Arguments to Aesthetics” by Kerry McKenzie
When: Monday, 04.05.2026, from 2 to 4 pm (EEST, Helsinki time).
Where: Zoom and Metsätalo room 10. The speaker is only present via Zoom.
Zoom link: Contact mirja-leena.zgurskaya@helsinki.fi for the Zoom link.
Abstract:
“Integrated History and Philosophy of Science: From Arguments to Aesthetics”
This talk will be a reflection on integrated history and philosophy of science. The relevance of history to the philosophy of science has long been recognized, and is perhaps made most salient by the pessimistic meta-induction (PMI) – the argument that the history of science undermines realist attitude toward current science (cf. Laudan 1981). In previous work I have argued that the PMI poses an even more serious challenge to the metaphysics of science — the area in which I principally work – than it does to science itself. In the first part of this this talk I will briefly outline why that is and then use that to advocate for the pursuit of ‘empiricist’ and ‘instrumentalist’ approaches to scientific metaphysics – that is, to developing interpretations of metaphysics that foreground the intellectual experiences they give rise to or the psychological resources they provide. In the second part, I will argue that Ernst Cassirer’s telling of the history of science has a certain narrative quality – that of a tension-resolution pattern – that lends a certain ‘experiential quality’ to structuralist metaphysics. While I reject any inference from aesthetic qualities to truth – such as those made by James McAllister (1996) – these qualities may go some way to explain the enduring attraction of structuralist metaphysics. This shows that the history of science – or at least, our narratives about that history – may shape theory acceptance in ways that go well beyond its influence via the PMI.
Bio:
Kerry McKenzie is an Associate Professor in Philosophy of Science at UC San Diego, where she also directs the interdisciplinary Science Studies Program. She is currently working on a book on the relationship between history and philosophy of science and scientific metaphysics, and on some of the cultural dimensions of philosophy of physics.
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If you have any questions about the seminar, do not hesitate to contact mirja-leena.zgurskaya@helsinki.fi.