Michael Strevens on explanation and modern scientific knowledge | Thing in itself w/ Ashar Khan

Michael Strevens is professor of philosophy at NYU working in the philosophy of science. His research interests include explanation, complex systems, probability, confirmation, and the social structure of science and its role in science’s success; the psychology of concepts; and the philosophical applications of cognitive science, including philosophical methodology. 0:00 intro 2:29 a theory of explanation across the sciences 7:55 explanation and causality 9:47 selection criteria 14:15 reduction, emergence, and explanatory independence 32:40 consciousness and hard problems 42:43 responding to relativism 53:30 what changes during the scientific revolution 1:08:04 does a commitment to only evidence become harder as you scale up in the science? 1:12:00 scientific ways into normativity 1:17:20 the social motivations of scientists 1:26:24 can we ever consciously take hold of the science machine? Michael Strevens’ website: http://www.strevens.org/ Michael Strevens books: The Knowledge Machine: How Irrationality Created Modern Science (2020) Thinking Off Your Feet: How Empirical Psychology Vindicates Armchair Philosophy (2019) Tychomancy: Inferring Probability from Causal Structure (2013) Depth: An Account of Scientific Explanation (2008) Bigger Than Chaos: Understanding Complexity Through Probability (2003) Personal Website: https://www.asharkhan.ca/ Podcast Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/0dUBLTl... Google: https://www.google.com/podcasts?feed=... Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast... Amazon: https://music.amazon.ca/podcasts/9c6c...