CEFISES Seminar: Kevin Kaiser, « On modelling interdisciplinary research: A empirical philosophy of science approach »

Livestream https://youtube.com/live/wnEIchHov10

Series: Digital Approaches

Speaker: Kevin Kaiser (UCLouvain)

Title: « On modelling interdisciplinary research : A empirical philosophy of science approach »

Abstract

Interdisciplinary research as an « alternative » approach in science is recently receiving increasing attention both from the scientific and the wider public. The list of discussed advantages over « monodisciplinary » approach is wide and uneven. It ranges from more traditional epistemic aims such has offering a more comprehensive understanding of complex phenomena to more instrumental one such as challenging some monopoly in science (natural science as the template of « good » science, English as the « lingua franca », etc.). Multiple tools (theoretical and empirical) have been proposed the study interdisciplinarity (as well as other X-disciplinary approaches). However, those tend to fall either in the two following functional categories : conceptual tools (high theoretical content; low applicability) or measurement tools (low theoretical content; high applicability).

In this talk, we will explore how the ongoing debate on (dis)unity in science in philosophy of science can inform a proposition that conserve high theoretical potency without limiting operationalization though empirical tools. An example of such will be given in the linguistico-connectionist account of unity of science and an implementation coupling citations network and text similarity will be given.