11-12 Oct 2013
Bern, Switzerland
Conference: Probabilistic Modeling in Science and Philosophy Probabilistic models are all the rage. We find a fascinating variety of them in the natural sciences (e.g. random walk and percolation models), in the social sciences (e.g. network models) and even in philosophy (e.g. in Bayesian epistemology and philosophy of science). But what are probabilistic models to begin with, and why are they so successful? How do they represent their target systems? What are scope and limitations of probabilistic models? Further, what is the meaning of the probabilities involved? Are they objective, or do they only reflect the degrees of belief of a scientist? The talks of the conference probe the varieties of probabilistic models, reflect their scope and limitations, and interpret the probabilities in probabilistic models. A particular focus will be on probabilistic modeling in climate research. Confirmed speakers: Claus Beisbart (Bern, CH) Seamus Bradley (Munich, DE) Roman Frigg (London, UK) Stephan Hartmann (Munich, DE) Dirk Helbing (Zürich, CH) Rafaela Hillerbrand (Delft, NL) Aidan Lyon (College Park, USA) Margaret Morrison (Toronto, CA) ??endy Parker (Durham, UK) Christoph Raible (Bern, CH) Frank Schweitzer (Zürich, CH) Johanna F. Ziegel (Bern, CH) Time and place: University of Bern, October 11 ? 12, 2013 Regristration: There is a registration fee of CHF 25 covering participation and coffee breaks. Please register until August 31, 2013 at: http://www.oeschger.unibe.ch/events/conferences/imodeling/registration_en.html More information: http://www.oeschger.unibe.ch/events/conferences/modeling/ Organizers: Claus Beisbart (Institute for Philosophy, Bern, Claus.Beisbart@philo.unibe.ch), Christoph Raible (Oeschger Centre for Climate Change Research, Bern, raible@climate.unibe.ch) in collaboration with Stephan Hartmann (Munich Center for Mathematical Philosophy)