Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Reposted by Extinct blog

Center for PhilSci @center4philsci.bsky.social · 1d

Don’t miss our Annual Lecture Series with Angela Potochnik!

📅 Tomorrow, October 10th
⏰ 3:30pm EDT
📍 CL-1008

Title: "Causes Don’t Push"

Can't make the talk? Join on Zoom: https://pitt.zoom.us/j/94976944388

#ALS #CenterPhilSci

3 11

Extinct blog @extinctblog.bsky.social · 15h

So, back in February I posted the first part of a reading list in the history of geology, intended mostly for people in philosophy and HPS who want to gain a footing in the subject. Here, 8 months later, is Part 2. (You can find the link to Part 1 within...)
www.extinctblog.org/extinct/2025...

A History of Geology Reading List, Part 2 — Extinct

In which Max has finally completed his two-part reading list for people interested in learning more about the history of geology

www.extinctblog.org

1 3 11

Reposted by Extinct blog

Philosophical Psychology @journalphp.bsky.social · 14d

Call for papers: Ian Hacking and the Philosophy of Psychiatry. Deadline: 1st February 2026. Guest editors: Şerife Tekin and Jonathan Y. Tsou. Submit your work! think.taylorandfranc... #philsky #philpsy #philsci

Ian Hacking and the Philosophy of Psychiatry

Submit work that examines how Hacking’s historical and pragmatic approach to philosophy has reshaped inquiries into psychiatry.

think.taylorandfrancis.com

18 23

Reposted by Extinct blog

Helene Scott @hscottfordsmand.bsky.social · 17d

🎉 can’t wait to dig into this book - and to add it to my syllabus for philosophers-to-be. The glimpses I’ve seen are full of exciting ideas, and I’m sure the full thing is even richer. #sts #philsci

🙌 to @adrian-currie.bsky.social and @phieveigl.bsky.social for pulling this into existence

Adrian Currie @adrian-currie.bsky.social · 18d

Book launch for “Methods in the Philosophy of Science: a user’s guide”. Ftf in Exeter and online on the 29th of Sept feat Sophie Veigl, Kerry McKenzie, Hasok Chang, and me. It should be fun! (the book will be open access in July, contact me in the meantime) www.exeter.ac.uk/events/detai... #philsci

5 18

Reposted by Extinct blog

Thomas Spiteri @tespiteri.bsky.social · 28d

I had a rich and wide-ranging conversation w/ Professor Philip Kitcher for the podcast this week.

We discuss his intellectual journey, interventions in creationism, sociobiology & the genome project, his philosophical evolution, and vision for philosophy serving the common good. A real privilege.

S5 E8 - Philip Kitcher on Philosophy for Science and the Common Good

Podcast Episode · The HPS Podcast - Conversations from History, Philosophy and Social Studies of Science · 11/09/2025 · 48m

podcasts.apple.com

7 27 90

Reposted by Extinct blog

Ferwen @ferwen.bsky.social · 22d

Florentino Ameghino, the father of Argentinian paleontology, was born #OTD 1854. He became a national icon for his role in creating national science and culture. 🧪⚒️

wp.me/p3ihHu-Af #histsci

Florentino Ameghino, the father of Argentinian paleontology.

Florentino Ameghino was born on September 18, 1854. He came from a family of Italian immigrants who settled in 1854 in the town of Lujan, Buenos Aires, Argentina, where the extraction and exportati…

wp.me

1 6 15

Reposted by Extinct blog

Ele Willoughby @minouette.bsky.social · 24d

For Day 16 #sciArtSeptember prompt rift: my portrait of #geologist & oceanographic #cartographer Marie Tharp (1920-2006), whose pioneering, thorough & complete ocean floor maps with Bruce Heezen, made using realms of echo sounder data, revealed the Mid-Atlantic Ridge.⁠ 🐡⚒️🧪👩🏼‍🔬 #histsci
⁠
After studying

My linocut portrait of Marie Tharp (woman in grey shirt with oversized glasses and red hair in up-do) in front of her physiographic of the Atlantic (in grey on teal) with mid-ocean ridge, resting her cheek on her left hand with elbow on table covered with depth sounder data.

1 20 75

Reposted by Extinct blog

Alisa Bokulich @alisabokulich.bsky.social · 24d

CFP on Recent Work in Philosophy of the Historical Sciences special issue Revue Philosophique de Louvain. Abstract 500 words to [email protected] & [email protected], by October 1, 2025.
Accepted abstracts full papers due July 1, 2026
pencelab.be/en/events/rp...
#HPS #paleosky

Call for Papers: Recent Work in the Philosophy of the Historical Sciences

pencelab.be

1 9 22

Reposted by Extinct blog

Minnesota Center for Philosophy of Science @mcps-philsci.bsky.social · Sep 10

Our International Postdoc Forum is a virtual seminar series for early career researchers to share their work w/commentary by MCPS community members. Excited to welcome @rosetrappes.bsky.social (University of Bergen, Norway) at 1215 CT Wed 24 Sept. Sign up for Zoom link. buff.ly/MSAXLgY

9 16

Extinct blog @extinctblog.bsky.social · 25d

Amazing. Congrats!

1

Reposted by Extinct blog

Richard Fallon @richardfallon.bsky.social · 25d

In a few weeks, I'll be starting a new role as Research Associate in Natural History Humanities at Cambridge, based at the @sedgwickmuseum.bsky.social. As part of @camglamresearch.bsky.social, my project will be about 'Re-Excavating the Cambridge School of Geology, 1850–1914'.

Robert B. Farren's portrait of the elderly geologist Adam Sedgwick, cradling and gesturing to a globe.

10 9 91

Extinct blog @extinctblog.bsky.social · 27d

Nice obit of Mark Norell in the NYT:
www.nytimes.com/2025/09/13/s...

Mark Norell, Who Studied Link Between Dinosaurs and Birds, Dies at 68

www.nytimes.com

2

Reposted by Extinct blog

Ele Willoughby @minouette.bsky.social · 27d

Day 13 #SciArtSeptember prompt bottleneck, I’m interpreting literally with Japanese #geochemist Katsuko Saruhashi (1920-2007) 🧪🐡👩🏻‍🔬 #histsci who created tools that allowed her to make 1st measurements of CO2 in seawater, raised the alarm about nuclear fallout, tracing it in oceans & researched 🧵

Printed in a gradient of dark blue-green at the bottom through dark blue to light blue at the top, this is my 9.25” x 12.5” portrait of Japanese geochemist in the lab adjusting a round bottomed flask with other posts and an array of chemical glassware in the foreground. In the background are carved ocean waves so the top looks like sky over wavy ocean

1 25 88

Reposted by Extinct blog

Ferwen @ferwen.bsky.social · Sep 10

Annie Montague Alexander, naturalist & fossil hunter, died #OTD, 1950. She co-founded the museum of natural history of the University of California and the Museum of Vertebrate Zoology.
wp.me/p3ihHu-1MU #WomeninSTEM #histsci

1 10 36

Extinct blog @extinctblog.bsky.social · Sep 10

For the 40th(!) installment of my "Problematica" series, I'm celebrating one of my favorite writers, Richard Fortey, who died this past May. Fortey wrote these beautiful bouncy sentences that REFUSE to leave your head. Here I've assembled a few of my favorites
www.extinctblog.org/extinct/2025...

For the love of Fortey — Extinct

Problematica #40: In which Max pays tribute to the late paleontologist Richard Fortey by assembling some of his favorite Fortey-an sentences

www.extinctblog.org

2 8 60

Reposted by Extinct blog

Michael D. Barton @darwinsbulldog.bsky.social · Sep 8

M. J. S. (Jonathan) Hodge: In Memoriam: hpsleeds.wordpress.com/2025/09/05/j...

#histsci #HPS

M. J. S. (Jonathan) Hodge: In Memoriam

Jon Hodge passed away peacefully on Friday August 29, 2025, in the Harrogate District Hospital, of complications following pneumonia. While in the hospital, Jon shared many stories and jokes with t…

hpsleeds.wordpress.com

1 5

Reposted by Extinct blog

NiCHE Canada @nichecanada.bsky.social · Sep 2

Today we are sharing a @harvardpress.bsky.social interview with @dagomardegroot.bsky.social on his forthcoming book, Ripples on the Cosmic Ocean: An Environmental History of Our Place in the Solar System

niche-canada.org/2025/09/02/e...

#envhist #histsci #space #books

The Final Frontier is Closer Than You Think - An Interview with Dagomar Degroot

Space shaped humanity—from asteroid extinctions to ice age shifts, Martian dust storm science, and solar technologies—revealing cosmic forces’ enduring influence.

niche-canada.org

9 25

Reposted by Extinct blog

Michael D. Barton @darwinsbulldog.bsky.social · Sep 4

Historian of science Janet Browne, author of the definitive biography of Charles Darwin (Voyaging, 1995; The Power of Place, 2002) will publish an abridged and updated one-volume version next year with @princetonupress.bsky.social: bit.ly/4mS7R0Q

#HPS #histsci

14 40

Reposted by Extinct blog

Ele Willoughby @minouette.bsky.social · Aug 26

Happy birthday to #geologist & #paleontogist Alice Wilson (1881-1964).⁠ 🐡🧪👩🏼‍🔬⚒️ #histsci
⁠
A job in the Mineralogy Division of the U of Toronto Museum was her entry into #geology. In 1909 as a museum assistant with Geological Survey of Canada (GSC), in Ottawa, she catalogued & labelled invertebrate 🧵

Linocut portrait of a young Alice Wilson with her hands under her chin printed in gold ink. Behind her is her own geological map of the Ottawa Valley with the different features on collaged translucent Japanese papers in raspberry, purple, yellow, pale blue, and beige in inks of similar but darker hues. “OTTAWA RIVER” is marked but the final R is obscured by her head.

2 16 57

Reposted by Extinct blog

Dolly Jørgensen @dollyjorgensen.bsky.social · Aug 28

Join us Mon 1 Sept 2025 for @greenhouseuis.net #envhum book talk with @richardfallon.bsky.social on Contesting Earth’s History in Transatlantic Literary Culture 1860-1935: Believers & Visionaries on the Borderlines of Geology & Palaeontology (Oxford UP 2025).
newnatures.org/greenhouse/e...
#histsci

On left: purple flower and underneath Greenhouse Environmental Humanities Book Talks
On right: cover of the book Contesting Earth's History in Transatlantic Literary Culture, 1860-1935 with drawings of many animals and two naked people

14 27

Reposted by Extinct blog

Philip Ball @philipcball.bsky.social · Sep 2

Today is publication day for this beautiful thing. I hope that it will tell a broad audience what historians of science have now long recognized: that alchemy was not a superstitious aberration but rather, an important phase in the history of ideas and of manufacturing.

25 67 390

Extinct blog @extinctblog.bsky.social · Aug 30

Not really, but that is certainly true (if you have a permissive sense of 'determine' in mind). Basically, the paper is an attempt to talk about scientific characterization without making everything about explanation

2

Reposted by Extinct blog

British Journal for the Philosophy of Science @thebjps.bsky.social · Aug 29

The Interdisciplinary Entanglement of Characterization and Explanation
– Max Dresow & Alan C Love

Abstract in alt text or read it for free here:
www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/10.1086/...

#philsci #philsky

ABSTRACT. Philosophers have traditionally focused on the nature of scientific explanation while ignoring the process by which features of the world are formulated as discrete explanantia and explananda. However, the characterization of phenomena is an important activity in its own right, and is intertwined with evaluations of the appropriateness and sufficiency of explanatory strategies. We explore this entanglement of characterization and explanation using an extended case study from deep time: research into the Cambrian explosion. Our analysis focuses on three spheres of research that together illustrate key features of characterization for complex phenomena, including open-endedness, interdisciplinarity, and a concern with explananda and explanantia alike. In addition, they suggest a pair of substantive claims: (1) characterizations of complex phenomena are frequently contested along several dimensions of descriptive understanding, and (2) the dynamics of characterization for complex phenomena are poorly described by models that treat recharacterization primarily as a response to explanatory failures.

1 6 16

Reposted by Extinct blog

Thomas Spiteri @tespiteri.bsky.social · Aug 28

🎙️ New HPS Pod!

I chat with Prof. Lydia Patton about HOPOS — the history of philosophy of science. From her editorship of the journal to the future of the discipline, Patton shares why a historical lens reshapes core philosophical questions.

🎧 Link in bio!

#HOPOS

S5 E7 - Lydia Patton on HOPOS

open.spotify.com

1 25 88

Reposted by Extinct blog

British Journal for the Philosophy of Science @thebjps.bsky.social · Aug 25

Just accepted:

Situated Cognition in Early Modern Experimentation: The Case of Compelled Assent
– Kirsten Walsh, Adrian Currie & Tom Roberts

Abstract in alt text or read the full paper here:

#philsci #philsky #hps

ABSTRACT. The early moderns surely didn’t defend an embodied, extended, embedded, or enacted conception of the mind, but we aim to show that this perspective can make sense of some of their practices; in particular, the epistemology of early modern experimentation. Focusing on Newton’s early optical work, we argue that the epistemic warrant he claims for his experimental results turns crucially on how the experimenter is situated towards gaining particular kinds of maker’s knowledge. Our account provides one answer to a long-standing puzzle regarding Newton’s method: his appeal to ‘compelled assent’ as an epistemic standard. We thus provide both a novel interpretation of Newton’s epistemology and a proof of concept towards applying tools from contemporary philosophy of mind to the history of science.

1 6 19