Im Rahmen des Forschungsseminars laden wir recht herzlich ein zum Vortrag:

Prof. Dr. Andreas Hüttemann (Univ. Köln): "Reduction and Infinite Idealization"

In the paper I will first explain why is infinite idealization is often perceived to be a problem for reduction. I will then go on to ask why we did and should care about reduction.

The rationale for being interested in theory-reduction is to understand why the old theory was empirically successful within a certain range and why we can continue to use it within certain confines („coherence“). Reduction in this sense can be achieved in multiple ways. Neither Nagel-reduction nor limit-case reduction is necessary to achieve reduction in the sense of coherence.  I will argue that that infinite idealizations do not pose a problem for reduction in this sense. 

Speaker

Andreas Hüttemann is Professor for theoretical philosophy at the University of Cologne. He is the coordinator of the DFG-funded Research Group: “Causation, Laws, Dispositions and Explanation at the Interface of Science and Metaphysics” and the author of „Ursachen“ (Berlin 2013), „What’s wrong with microphysicalism?“ (London 2004) and „Idealisierungen und das Ziel der Physik“ (Berlin 1997).