Public Lecture by Erkko Professor Helen Beebee: Making Academic Progress

Time: November 27, 4:15 pm
Venue: Porthania, PIII (Yliopistonkatu 3, 1st floor)
Reception: After the lecture at the Helsinki Collegium for Advanced Studies (Fabianinkatu 24 A, 3rd floor)
Recording: .

The event is free and open to the public.

Abstract

Academic disciplines are mostly in the business of constructing, testing, defending and criticising theories, whether they’re theories about the origins of the Universe, how genes are expressed, why the dinosaurs became extinct, how to interpret the Kalevala, or the meaning of life. But what is all this theorising for? What are our collective aims – as historians, or philosophers, or biologists, or whatever? Why are those aims worth aiming for? And how, if at all, can we be confident that we are making progress towards those aims?

This lecture explores these questions. My starting point is the case of philosophy, especially as it contrasts with the sciences. Philosophers (and scientists) often like to think of themselves as engaged in a quest for knowledge, or for truth. That might be a viable aim for the sciences, but I don’t think it’s a viable aim for philosophy. There are always too many competing theories on the table, and no good, unbiased way of deciding between them. I’ll then move on to consider other academic disciplines, and will try to shed some light on the traditional mantra that the sciences are concerned with explanation and the humanities with interpretation.

Bio

is Professor of Philosophy of Science at the University of Leeds and, during the 2024–2025 academic year, the Jane and Aatos Erkko Visiting Professor in Studies on Contemporary Society at the Helsinki Collegium of Advanced Studies. She has previously held positions at the Universities of Manchester and Birmingham and the Australian National University. She is a Fellow of the British Academy and has been President of the British Society for the Philosophy of Science and the Aristotelian Society.

Helen’s work has mostly been in metaphysics, where she has published on causality, laws of nature, freedom of the will and related topics; she has a side-interest in David Hume’s metaphysics, on which she published a book (Hume on Causation) in 2006. She has also co-authored a short introductory book – Philosophy: Why it Matters (2019) – on philosophy aimed at a general audience. She is currently co-authoring a book on the aims of, and progress in, philosophy with Ylwa Sjölin Wirglin (University of Gothenburg).

About the Jane and Aatos Erkko Visiting Professorship

donated 2.92 million euros to the University of Helsinki Funds in 2008 for the establishment of a visiting professorship in studies on contemporary society at the Helsinki Collegium for Advanced Studies. The research emphasis of the professorship lies on issues concerning social justice. 

Contact

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