Insa Lawler (Pryor)
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insar.bsky.social
Insa Lawler (Pryor)
@insar.bsky.social
150 followers 150 following 9 posts
Assistant Professor of Philosophy at UNC Greensboro
I do research on topics in epistemology, philosophy of science, philosophy of language, and meta-philosophy.
www.insalawler.com
Posts Replies Media Videos
Reposted by Insa Lawler (Pryor)
dailynous.com
The Department of Philosophy at the University at Buffalo is starting a fully online MS program in applied ontology...
New: Online Master’s Program in Applied Ontology - Daily Nous
The University at Buffalo is launching a fully online program in applied ontology. Graduates will leave the program with an MS degree. The program, based in Buffalo's Department of Philosophy, aims to...
dailynous.com
October 30, 2025 at 9:03 PM
insar.bsky.social
If you're interested in progress: In my paper "Does scientific progress need aims?" (open access), I reject the widespread assumption that scientific progress must be defined in terms of aims. I argue that the notion of (scientific) progress is not inherently a goal-relative concept. rdcu.be/eLM8x
Does scientific progress need aims?
rdcu.be
October 20, 2025 at 5:02 AM
Reposted by Insa Lawler (Pryor)
indivisible.org
This is what democracy looks like. #NoKings
October 18, 2025 at 11:22 PM
Reposted by Insa Lawler (Pryor)
jrnlofphil.bsky.social
"Wandering Inquiry" by Susanna Siegel #newarticle
#onlinefirst #philosophy #philsky

doi.org/10.5840/jphi...
Wandering Inquiry - published on October 9, 2025
Inquiry is guided, in the minimal sense that it is not haphazard. It is also often thought to have as a natural stopping point ceasing to inquire, once inquiry into a question yields knowledge of an a...
www.pdcnet.org
October 10, 2025 at 5:30 PM
Reposted by Insa Lawler (Pryor)
danielkostic.bsky.social
CFA: the 8th SURe workshop will take place May 27-29, 2026, at the IFiS PAN in Warsaw.

Submission deadline: 20 January 2026.

For more info visit: sure-workshop.weebly.com/current-work...

@philsci.bsky.social @epsaphilsci.bsky.social
Current Workshop
CFA: 8th Scientific Understanding and Representation (SURe) annual workshop   Call for abstracts        We invite authors to submit abstracts of up to 750-words for the upcoming...
sure-workshop.weebly.com
October 8, 2025 at 10:55 AM
Reposted by Insa Lawler (Pryor)
birchlse.bsky.social
At LSE Philosophy we have two assistant prof vacancies - one for sustainability-related areas, the other for AI-related areas - and for neither of these will you need a $100,000 visa.
September 22, 2025 at 6:40 AM
Reposted by Insa Lawler (Pryor)
samanthabrennan.bsky.social
Tenure track philosophy job in Canada

Western University’s Department of Philosophy seeks to hire a Asst Professor with an area of specialization in one or more of metaphysics,
epistemology, and logic, broadly construed). The anticipated start date is July 1,
2026

www.uwo.ca/facultyrelat...
www.uwo.ca
September 19, 2025 at 5:25 PM
Reposted by Insa Lawler (Pryor)
agelfert.bsky.social
Just deleted my academia.edu account after 17 (!) years -- the company's exploitative new terms of use are outrageous, and it's a shame such a blatant commercial sell-out is able to operate under the .edu top-level domain. If you are still on academia.edu, please consider deleting your account too.
Screenshot of account deletion process on academia.edu
September 19, 2025 at 10:34 PM
Reposted by Insa Lawler (Pryor)
dellsen.bsky.social
A weirdly underappreciated problem about Inference to the Best Explanation is how it can handle uncertain evidence. This new paper, now forthcoming in Philosophy of Science, proposes a strategy for doing that (and argues that Einstein may have used it). #philsky #philsci

doi.org/10.1017/psa....
Inferring to the Best Explanation from Uncertain Evidence | Philosophy of Science | Cambridge Core
Inferring to the Best Explanation from Uncertain Evidence
doi.org
September 12, 2025 at 11:20 AM
insar.bsky.social
Check out this open access volume on Methods in Analytic Philosophy!

I contributed a paper on philosophical progress and disagreement with Finnur Dellsén @dellsen.bsky.social and James Norton.
philpapers.org/rec/HORAPA-2
Joachim Horvath, Steffen Koch & Michael G. Titelbaum (eds.), Methods in Analytic Philosophy: A Primer and Guide - PhilPapers
Forthcoming guide with brief introductions on methods in analytic philosophy by experts on the relevant topics. With sections on: formal methods, argumentation, inferential methods, thought experiment...
philpapers.org
August 8, 2025 at 1:27 PM
Reposted by Insa Lawler (Pryor)
dellsen.bsky.social
New paper now forthcoming in PPR, co-authored with Bob Beddor.

Argues that inquiry, especially in science, needs to be construed as a more social/egalitarian endeavor: the point of inquiring is often to confer epistemic benefits on others. #philsky #philsci

onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
Inclusive inquiry
What is the point of inquiry? Some say that the aim of inquiring into some question is to come to know its answer; others, that the aim is to attain justified belief, epistemic improvement, or some o...
onlinelibrary.wiley.com
August 6, 2025 at 10:43 AM
Reposted by Insa Lawler (Pryor)
aidanmcglynn.bsky.social
Haven't had a chance to read this double review-essay from @catsaintcroix.bsky.social on Greco and @rbnmckenna.bsky.social's books on idealisation in epistemology yet, but it looks really interesting
Catharine Saint-Croix, Greco (2023) _Idealization in Epistemology_ and McKenna (2023) _Non-Ideal Epistemology_ - PhilPapers
Epistemology is rife with idealization. And, although concern about particular idealizations—logical omniscience, infinite iterations of common knowledge, and so on—is long-standing, systematic metaep...
philpapers.org
July 29, 2025 at 3:00 PM
Reposted by Insa Lawler (Pryor)
annaalexandrova.bsky.social
Such a readable and fascinating argument by @jessiemunton.bsky.social of @cambridgephilos.bsky.social To see a visual object is to see how it could be, not just how it is. #openaccess #philsky
Can we perceive modal properties?
Can we see only how things actually are, or are we also able to see how things could be? Much work in philosophy of perception assumes that our visual perceptual experience is restricted to the actua....
onlinelibrary.wiley.com
July 26, 2025 at 9:01 AM
Reposted by Insa Lawler (Pryor)
annaalexandrova.bsky.social
Two permanent Lecturer posts at Birkbeck (equivalent of Assistant Professor). Area of specialisation is open but with teaching needs in ethics & phil of AI, ethics and poli phil, ancient, gender, continental, engaged. Closing date August 28th, start in Jan 2026 'a significant advantage' #philsky
Lecturer in Philosophy (2216) - Birkbeck, University of London
Birkbeck
cis7.bbk.ac.uk
July 17, 2025 at 9:13 AM
Reposted by Insa Lawler (Pryor)
jamesowenweatherall.com
Tell me you've never cared for a toddler without telling me you've never cared for a toddler. (Descartes' fourth rule governing collisions, from Principles of Philosophy [1644].)
A statement of Descartes' fourth rule of motion, which states that a smaller body can never move a stationary larger body, no matter its speed
July 22, 2025 at 11:02 PM
Reposted by Insa Lawler (Pryor)
drlynnchiu.bsky.social
Read all Elements in The Philosophy of Biology series for FREE during the ISHPSSB conference 20 - 25 July. You can find all of these Elements free to download and read here: cup.org/4kEgivL
Philosophy of Biology
Welcome to Cambridge Core
cup.org
July 20, 2025 at 5:16 PM
Reposted by Insa Lawler (Pryor)
alisabokulich.bsky.social
2 tenure-track Asst or Assoc professor jobs in History/Anthropology of Science, Technology & Medicine at
Carnegie Mellon U to begin in August 2026. Tech & social change or environmental & social impacts of STM; time period & geographic specialization open.
#HPS #HistSTM #STS
Deadline: Sep 15, 2025
Apply - Interfolio {{$ctrl.$state.data.pageTitle}} - Apply - Interfolio
apply.interfolio.com
July 17, 2025 at 9:18 AM
Reposted by Insa Lawler (Pryor)
thebjps.bsky.social
Just accepted:

‘Severe Testing: Error Statistics versus Bayes Factor Tests’
– Deborah Mayo

Abstract in alt text or read the full paper here (open access): www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/10.1086/...

#philsci #philsky
ABSTRACT In the face of today’s statistical crisis of science, it is often recommended that statistical significance tests be replaced with Bayes factor tests. In this article, I examine this recommendation. Bayes factor tests, unlike statistical significance tests, only depend on the probability of the data under H0 and a competitor H1. They are insensitive to a method’s error probabilities such as significance levels, type 1 and type 2 errors, and confidence levels. It might be thought that if a method is insensitive to error probabilities that it escapes the inferential consequences of inflated error rates at the heart of obstacles to replication. I will argue that this is not the case, and that Bayes factor tests can accord strong evidence to a claim H, even though little has been done to rule out H’s flaws. There are two reasons: their insensitivity to biasing selection effects, and the fact that H and its competitor need not exhaust the space of relevant possibilities. I will show how this results in a disconnect between Bayes factor tests and error control protocols that are being called for by replication reforms. To solve the problem, I propose that commonly used Bayes factor tests be supplemented with a post-data severity concept in the frequentist error statistical sense. The question is not whether ‘severity’ can be redefined Bayesianly—of course it can—the question is whether the resulting concept can address today’s concerns behind obstacles to replication. I will also respond to criticisms of the severity reformulation of statistical significance tests, and show how it enables avoiding fallacies of statistical tests.
July 7, 2025 at 9:15 AM
Reposted by Insa Lawler (Pryor)
ramonalvarado.bsky.social
As usual, an impressively thorough, philosophically cautious, yet thought-provoking talk by Emily Sullivan as keynote and recipient of IACAP’s Herbert Simon Award.

#philsci #philtech
July 2, 2025 at 10:21 AM
Reposted by Insa Lawler (Pryor)
alisabokulich.bsky.social
⏰ Free access to read & download thru August 20 the final published version of Wendy Parker & my paper "Understanding Data Uncertainty" at this link ⬇️
authors.elsevier.com/c/1lMUI8yuR6...

#philsci #metasci 🧪 ⚒️
Studies in History and Philosophy of Science journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/shpsa Understanding data uncertainty Alisa Bokulich", Wendy S. Parker b," " Department of Philosophy, Boston University, United States › Department of Philosophy, Virginia Tech, United States ABSTRACT Scientific data without uncertainty estimates are increasingly seen as incomplete. Recent discussions in the philosophy of data, however, have given little attention to the nature of uncertainty estimation. We begin to redress this gap by, first, discussing the concepts and practices of uncertainty estimation in metrology and showing how they can be adapted for scientific data more broadly; and second, advancing five philosophical theses about uncertainty estimates for data: they are substantive adequacy-for-purpose view of uncertainty estimation, addresses a weakness in a recent philosophical account of data, and provides a new perspective on the "safety" versus "precision" debate in metrology. 1. Introduction Uncertainty is an inescapable part of science. Yet while much has been written in recent years on uncertainty in computational modeling contexts (especially related to climate modeling; see, e.g., Parker, 2010; Frigg, Thompson, & Werndl, 2015; Knutti et al., 2019), comparatively little philosophical attention has been given to uncertainty associated with scientific data collected via observation, measurement, and experiment. Important preliminary work on this topic examines the evaluation of systematic uncertainty in measurement (Staley, 2020), changing conceptions of uncertainty in metrology (de Courtenay & Grégis, 2017; Grégis, 2019b), and the representation of uncertainty when measurements are discordant (Grégis, 2019a). Overall, however, when it comes to uncertainty associated with scientific data obtained via observation, measurement, and experiment—what we will call "data uncertainty"-the territory remains largely unexplored from a philosophical point of view. Conception…
July 1, 2025 at 9:39 PM
Reposted by Insa Lawler (Pryor)
franzberto.bsky.social
Spread the word! The Philosophical Quarterly is celebrating the philosopher philosophers love: 'Themes from David Lewis's Metaphysics' will be our next Special Issue, call for papers here:

academic.oup.com/pq/pages/cal...

@oupphilosophy.bsky.social @standrewsphil.bsky.social
June 30, 2025 at 1:21 PM
Reposted by Insa Lawler (Pryor)
aworsnip.bsky.social
For one year only, the 8th Chapel Hill Normativity Workshop will (paradoxically) be in Montreal! Keynote by Jane Friedman plus 7 talks selected via open CFA. As usual, accepted papers eligible for special issue of Phil Studies. Submissions due Oct 15th; more info at normativity.web.unc.edu
Chapel Hill Normativity Workshop
normativity.web.unc.edu
July 1, 2025 at 2:58 PM
Reposted by Insa Lawler (Pryor)
quantamagazine.bsky.social
A new paper shows that the “creativity” of certain AI may actually be a direct, inevitable consequence of how they are built. Webb Wright reports:
www.quantamagazine.org/researchers-...
Researchers Uncover Hidden Ingredients Behind AI Creativity | Quanta Magazine
Image generators are designed to mimic their training data, so where does their apparent creativity come from? A recent study suggests that it’s an inevitable by-product of their architecture.
www.quantamagazine.org
June 30, 2025 at 2:10 PM
Reposted by Insa Lawler (Pryor)
xphilosopher.bsky.social
Yale Philosophy offers a course on “Formal Philosophical Methods” — a broad introduction to probability, logic, formal semantics, etc.

Instructor Calum McNamara has now made all materials for the course (78 pages) freely available

static1.squarespace.com/static/6255f...
June 30, 2025 at 5:41 PM
Reposted by Insa Lawler (Pryor)
ingridrobeyns.bsky.social
I'm very honoured with the awarding of the 2025 Stevin prize for my research. And I'm particularly pleased that this prize goes to a philosopher, as it recognizes that we not only do blue sky research, but also analyses that can make a difference to the world.
www.nwo.nl/en/prof-dr-i...
Prof. Dr. Ingrid Robeyns | NWO
Is there a limit to how much wealth one person should be allowed to accumulate? Ingrid Robeyns believes there should be. She conducts research into inequality and is the founder of ‘limitarianism’. This is particularly relevant at a time when the wealth of the super-rich continues to increase. Limitarianism is a scientifically based worldview. It is an example of how the political philosopher Robeyns challenges thinking about justice, democracy and climate issues. She is receiving this year’s Stevin Prize in recognition of her achievements in knowledge utilisation.
www.nwo.nl
June 27, 2025 at 5:25 AM