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SUMMARY:Beauty\, truth and understanding - Milena Ivanova (Department of H
 istory and Philosophy of Science)
DTSTART:20190220T130000Z
DTEND:20190220T143000Z
UID:TALK118327@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:Matt Farr
DESCRIPTION:In this paper I explore the epistemic justification of aesthet
 ic values in scientific practice. It is well documented that scientists us
 e aesthetic values in the evaluation and choice of theories they employ. A
 esthetic values are not only regarded as leading to practically more conve
 nient theories\, but are very often taken to indicate the likelihood of a 
 theory to be true. That is\, often scientists place epistemic import on th
 e aesthetic values of theories\, deciding whether to commit to a theory in
  light of its beauty\, especially in situation when the empirical data is 
 not available to guide such decisions. The question then arises as to whet
 her beauty can be trusted to be informing our epistemic attitudes towards 
 scientific theories.\n\nI outline some timely defences of the idea that be
 auty can be a guide to the truth and evaluate whether such defences have b
 een successful. I turn to an alternative explanation for the relevance and
  importance of beauty in science. I argue that the employment of aesthetic
  values reflects our own intellectual capacities and provide heuristic gui
 des to achieving understanding.
LOCATION:Seminar Room 2\, Department of History and Philosophy of Science
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