Finnur Dellsén
@dellsen.bsky.social
Philosophy professor at the Universities of Iceland, Inland Norway, and Oslo. Mostly here for philosophy of science, epistemology (formal and social), and metaphilosophy.
https://philpeople.org/profiles/finnur-dellsen
https://www.finnurdellsen.com/
https://philpeople.org/profiles/finnur-dellsen
https://www.finnurdellsen.com/
The project is on consensus in science -- when it's a reliable sign of truth, how to use it in science communication, and how to progress science via consensus. We'll be hiring two postdocs and two MA-students, hosting several events, and be doing lots of exciting collaborative research!
February 12, 2026 at 11:04 PM
The project is on consensus in science -- when it's a reliable sign of truth, how to use it in science communication, and how to progress science via consensus. We'll be hiring two postdocs and two MA-students, hosting several events, and be doing lots of exciting collaborative research!
Some professional news: I'm delighted to share that I've been awarded a "grant of excellence" from the Icelandic Research Fund (Rannís). This is the largest type of research grant that's available in Iceland; only a couple of these are awarded each year across all disciplines.
Allocation from the Icelandic Research Fund for the financial year 2026 | The Icelandic Centre for Research
The Board of The Icelandic Research Fund has completed the allocation of grants for new research projects for 2026. A total of 414 valid applications were received, 70 of which were funded, or 17%.
island.is
February 12, 2026 at 11:03 PM
Some professional news: I'm delighted to share that I've been awarded a "grant of excellence" from the Icelandic Research Fund (Rannís). This is the largest type of research grant that's available in Iceland; only a couple of these are awarded each year across all disciplines.
December 27, 2025 at 11:42 AM
Although this wasn't our goal, I was extra pleased that our results end up largely vindicating a suggestion I had made in a previous paper, which I called Evidentially Robust IBE. doi.org/10.1017/psa....
Inferring to the Best Explanation from Uncertain Evidence | Philosophy of Science | Cambridge Core
Inferring to the Best Explanation from Uncertain Evidence
doi.org
December 27, 2025 at 11:41 AM
Although this wasn't our goal, I was extra pleased that our results end up largely vindicating a suggestion I had made in a previous paper, which I called Evidentially Robust IBE. doi.org/10.1017/psa....
@boruttrpin.bsky.social and I have a new paper out in Philosophical Quarterly. We had both written on how inference to the best explanation could work with uncertain evidence. So we teamed up to test some suggestions for how to do that using computer simulations: academic.oup.com/pq/article/d...
Testing abductions from uncertain evidence
Abstract. Inference to the Best Explanation (IBE) is traditionally conceived of as a rule of inference, in which one infers to the hypothesis that provides
academic.oup.com
December 27, 2025 at 11:39 AM
@boruttrpin.bsky.social and I have a new paper out in Philosophical Quarterly. We had both written on how inference to the best explanation could work with uncertain evidence. So we teamed up to test some suggestions for how to do that using computer simulations: academic.oup.com/pq/article/d...
Reposted by Finnur Dellsén
Finnur Dellsén got a nice pic of me on my standard Q&A slide, so now I have a stock reply to any time anyone disagrees with me.
November 7, 2025 at 10:22 AM
Finnur Dellsén got a nice pic of me on my standard Q&A slide, so now I have a stock reply to any time anyone disagrees with me.
Reposted by Finnur Dellsén
Helen Longino giving the first Annual Institute of Philosophy and Duke University Research Talk at the University of Iceland! The talk was titled “Why Center Interaction? (In science and elsewhere)”
October 8, 2025 at 8:00 PM
Helen Longino giving the first Annual Institute of Philosophy and Duke University Research Talk at the University of Iceland! The talk was titled “Why Center Interaction? (In science and elsewhere)”
It's definitely a good one! I also like what Einstein says somewhere about internal and external considerations in favor of a theory (or something to that effect). Fits IBE quite well, I think.
September 12, 2025 at 8:39 PM
It's definitely a good one! I also like what Einstein says somewhere about internal and external considerations in favor of a theory (or something to that effect). Fits IBE quite well, I think.
Sounds great, I look forward to reading this.
September 12, 2025 at 8:37 PM
Sounds great, I look forward to reading this.
A weirdly underappreciated problem about Inference to the Best Explanation is how it can handle uncertain evidence. This new paper, now forthcoming in Philosophy of Science, proposes a strategy for doing that (and argues that Einstein may have used it). #philsky #philsci
doi.org/10.1017/psa....
doi.org/10.1017/psa....
Inferring to the Best Explanation from Uncertain Evidence | Philosophy of Science | Cambridge Core
Inferring to the Best Explanation from Uncertain Evidence
doi.org
September 12, 2025 at 11:20 AM
A weirdly underappreciated problem about Inference to the Best Explanation is how it can handle uncertain evidence. This new paper, now forthcoming in Philosophy of Science, proposes a strategy for doing that (and argues that Einstein may have used it). #philsky #philsci
doi.org/10.1017/psa....
doi.org/10.1017/psa....
Reposted by Finnur Dellsén
Curious why my latest paper left one notable astrobiologist "unpleasantly surprised"? Follow the link and you might just find out! #philsci #philsky #astrobiology www.cambridge.org/core/journal...
Scientific Progress, Astrobiology and the Pursuit of Knowledge | Philosophy of Science | Cambridge Core
Scientific Progress, Astrobiology and the Pursuit of Knowledge
www.cambridge.org
September 8, 2025 at 10:55 AM
Curious why my latest paper left one notable astrobiologist "unpleasantly surprised"? Follow the link and you might just find out! #philsci #philsky #astrobiology www.cambridge.org/core/journal...
And we argue, on that basis, that the debate about scientific progress should be seen as central to the various debates about scientific realism.
August 20, 2025 at 5:45 PM
And we argue, on that basis, that the debate about scientific progress should be seen as central to the various debates about scientific realism.
We show, among other things, that scientists' views about various forms of scientific realism are best predicted by their views on scientific progress -- as opposed to, for instance, their views on the epistemic status of current theories, the no-miracles argument, or the pessimistic induction.
August 20, 2025 at 5:40 PM
We show, among other things, that scientists' views about various forms of scientific realism are best predicted by their views on scientific progress -- as opposed to, for instance, their views on the epistemic status of current theories, the no-miracles argument, or the pessimistic induction.
I just found out that this paper, co-authored with James R. Beebe, is now out and freely available at Philosophy of Science. #philsky #philsci #xphi
doi.org/10.1017/psa....
doi.org/10.1017/psa....
The Centrality of Progressive Realism to the Scientific Realism Debate | Philosophy of Science | Cambridge Core
The Centrality of Progressive Realism to the Scientific Realism Debate
doi.org
August 20, 2025 at 5:39 PM
I just found out that this paper, co-authored with James R. Beebe, is now out and freely available at Philosophy of Science. #philsky #philsci #xphi
doi.org/10.1017/psa....
doi.org/10.1017/psa....
Tomorrow at U. of Iceland: James Beebe talks about how and ehy to make epistemic autonomy reflective. #philsky
english.hi.is/research-tal...
english.hi.is/research-tal...
Research Talk in Philosophy: James R. Beebe
english.hi.is
August 20, 2025 at 6:47 AM
Tomorrow at U. of Iceland: James Beebe talks about how and ehy to make epistemic autonomy reflective. #philsky
english.hi.is/research-tal...
english.hi.is/research-tal...
Reposted by Finnur Dellsén
This is hilarious, and makes a good point.
August 15, 2025 at 3:06 AM
This is hilarious, and makes a good point.
There was some sort of transition from one paper handling system to another, during which my paper seems to have just been forgotten about for a good while. Phil Imprint is doing the best they can with very limited resources so I have lots of sympathy for them.
August 14, 2025 at 8:47 PM
There was some sort of transition from one paper handling system to another, during which my paper seems to have just been forgotten about for a good while. Phil Imprint is doing the best they can with very limited resources so I have lots of sympathy for them.
In the paper I argue for the heretical view that there is a way in which accommodated data provides more support than predicted data.
How could that possibly be right? Read the paper to find out. (It's fully open access.)
How could that possibly be right? Read the paper to find out. (It's fully open access.)
August 14, 2025 at 6:56 PM
In the paper I argue for the heretical view that there is a way in which accommodated data provides more support than predicted data.
How could that possibly be right? Read the paper to find out. (It's fully open access.)
How could that possibly be right? Read the paper to find out. (It's fully open access.)
This paper of mine is now officially published, a mere four years after it was accepted at Philosphers' Imprint. #philsky #philsci #philpapers
journals.publishing.umich.edu/phimp/articl...
journals.publishing.umich.edu/phimp/articl...
An Epistemic Advantage of Accommodation over Prediction
Many philosophers have argued that a hypothesis is better confirmed by some data if the hypothesis was not specifically designed to fit the data. ‘Prediction’, they argue, is superior to ‘accommodatio...
journals.publishing.umich.edu
August 14, 2025 at 6:55 PM
This paper of mine is now officially published, a mere four years after it was accepted at Philosphers' Imprint. #philsky #philsci #philpapers
journals.publishing.umich.edu/phimp/articl...
journals.publishing.umich.edu/phimp/articl...
Happy to have a chapter (coauthored with Insa Lawler, @insar.bsky.social, and James Norton) in this excellent and totally open access volume on philosophical methodology. #philsky
philpapers.org/rec/HORAPA-2
philpapers.org/rec/HORAPA-2
Joachim Horvath, Steffen Koch & Michael G. Titelbaum (eds.), Methods in Analytic Philosophy: A Primer and Guide - PhilPapers
Forthcoming guide with brief introductions on methods in analytic philosophy by experts on the relevant topics. With sections on: formal methods, argumentation, inferential methods, thought experiment...
philpapers.org
August 8, 2025 at 9:41 AM
Happy to have a chapter (coauthored with Insa Lawler, @insar.bsky.social, and James Norton) in this excellent and totally open access volume on philosophical methodology. #philsky
philpapers.org/rec/HORAPA-2
philpapers.org/rec/HORAPA-2
Very exciting workshop in Reykjavik in October, organized by @oscarw.bsky.social. Please spread the word and/or consider submitting an abstract. #philsci #philsky #hps
philevents.org/event/show/1...
philevents.org/event/show/1...
Science, values, and society: themes from Helen Longino
On the occasion of Helen Longino’s talk at the University of Iceland on the 8th of October 2025, we are organising a mini-workshop on themes from Longino’s philosophical work on the 10th o...
philevents.org
August 7, 2025 at 7:47 PM
Very exciting workshop in Reykjavik in October, organized by @oscarw.bsky.social. Please spread the word and/or consider submitting an abstract. #philsci #philsky #hps
philevents.org/event/show/1...
philevents.org/event/show/1...
I wasn't able to make thismone open access. Preprint available here: philpapers.org/archive/BEDI...
philpapers.org
August 6, 2025 at 10:45 AM
I wasn't able to make thismone open access. Preprint available here: philpapers.org/archive/BEDI...
New paper now forthcoming in PPR, co-authored with Bob Beddor.
Argues that inquiry, especially in science, needs to be construed as a more social/egalitarian endeavor: the point of inquiring is often to confer epistemic benefits on others. #philsky #philsci
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
Argues that inquiry, especially in science, needs to be construed as a more social/egalitarian endeavor: the point of inquiring is often to confer epistemic benefits on others. #philsky #philsci
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
Inclusive inquiry
What is the point of inquiry? Some say that the aim of inquiring into some question is to come to know its answer; others, that the aim is to attain justified belief, epistemic improvement, or some o...
onlinelibrary.wiley.com
August 6, 2025 at 10:43 AM
New paper now forthcoming in PPR, co-authored with Bob Beddor.
Argues that inquiry, especially in science, needs to be construed as a more social/egalitarian endeavor: the point of inquiring is often to confer epistemic benefits on others. #philsky #philsci
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
Argues that inquiry, especially in science, needs to be construed as a more social/egalitarian endeavor: the point of inquiring is often to confer epistemic benefits on others. #philsky #philsci
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
And although we frame the argument as focusin on methods in philosophy specifically, it easily generalizes to other disciplines, and indeed to any systematic research.
July 30, 2025 at 5:07 PM
And although we frame the argument as focusin on methods in philosophy specifically, it easily generalizes to other disciplines, and indeed to any systematic research.
The model we use to show this is a sort of extension/elaboration/improvement on the models that Kitcher and Strevens use to model the benefits of cognitive diversity in science.
July 30, 2025 at 5:05 PM
The model we use to show this is a sort of extension/elaboration/improvement on the models that Kitcher and Strevens use to model the benefits of cognitive diversity in science.