Café Scientifique: Philosophy In Science – Uncovering Hidden Assumptions

DOORS 7PM | SPEAKER 7.30PM

Professor of Philosophy and Associate Dean for Research and Innovation at the University of Sussex, Sarah Sawyer is also Vice-Chair of the Royal Institute of Philosophy, Deputy Director of the Sussex Centre for Consciousness Science, and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts. She studied German, French, & Philosophy at St Andrews, and went on to complete an MPhil & a PhD in Philosophy at Kings College London. She works primarily in the philosophy of mind and language, and in epistemology and metaphysics.

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People often think of science and philosophy as being distinct ways of engaging with the world: science discovers objective truths about the universe through rigorous empirical testing, while philosophy provides subjective insights that, while of potential individual and social benefit, don’t amount to hard facts. But is this right?

In this talk, Prof. Sawyer suggests that scientific theories rest on implicit philosophical assumptions, offering a couple of examples, and as a test case, she will focus specifically on consciousness science and its underlying philosophical assumptions.