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SUMMARY:Scientific naturalism and the modern empirical occult: historiogra
 phical and practical issues - Andreas Sommer (Department of History and Ph
 ilosophy of Science)
DTSTART:20200220T130000Z
DTEND:20200220T140000Z
UID:TALK137662@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:Richard Staley
DESCRIPTION:Following public debates over the significance of Cornell psyc
 hologist Daryl Bem's parapsychological experiments for the 'replication cr
 isis' and standards of scientific publishing\, a more recent controversy o
 ver the validity of certain 'occult' phenomena in the _American Psychologi
 st_ suggests that controversies over science and the 'supernatural' aren't
  likely to end any time soon. In this session\, I will sketch historical a
 nd sociological work on the 'decline of magic' in Western academia from th
 e Enlightenment to the 20th century\, and suggest that despite the axiomat
 ic function of 'scientific naturalism' in modern university culture\, conc
 eptions of it are as vague today as they were in 1892\, when Thomas Huxley
  enlisted historical claims to replace his coinage 'agnosticism' with that
  term. Arguing that controversies over empirical tests of alleged occult p
 henomena ultimately boil down to simplistic historical assumptions regardi
 ng scientific practice and metaphysical bias\, I will address desiderata i
 n recent historical scholarship on scientific naturalism. I will conclude 
 the session by inviting discussions over whether and how professional hist
 orians and philosophers of science should take the risk of intervening in 
 ongoing public disputes on science and the 'supernatural'. 
LOCATION:Seminar Room 2\, Department of History and Philosophy of Science
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