Category archives: Humanities & Social Sciences

The Italian coffee pot, a dialog on values in science (3): Science doesn’t do it itself, it has to be done

The Italian coffee pot, a dialog on values in science (3): Science doesn’t do it itself, it has to be done

Philosophy of science

By Jesús Zamora Bonilla

[Read Part 1 & Part 2] VIOLETA: You know the shape of the classical Italian coffee-pot, like the one Faustino has just braught. It consists of two truncated cones or pyramids, joined by their narrowest parts. I claim that the structure of the maps of values of a scientific discipline has a structure similar to […]

Is boost the new nudge?

Is boost the new nudge?

Economics

By José Luis Ferreira

Here, I summarize the discussion on the normative differences between nudges and boosts presented in Sims and Müller, 2019 . Behavioral Economics studies the systematic biases in economic decisions that occur because our cognitive processes are constrained and, thus, context-neutral optimization is impracticable. This area of research started with Tversky and Kahneman (1974) , and […]

The Italian coffee pot, a dialog on values in science (2): From value pluralism to the unity of scientific values

The Italian coffee pot, a dialog on values in science (2): From value pluralism to the unity of scientific values

Philosophy of science

By Jesús Zamora Bonilla

[Read the first part here] LORENZO: Alright, Violeta, we may admit that the members of a scientific discipline may agree to assess the conjectures and models each of them is proposing according to some consensual rule, and we may also admit that this rule may be impartial , in the sense that it will often […]

The Italian coffee pot, a dialog on values in science (1): Individualism, values and preferences

The Italian coffee pot, a dialog on values in science (1): Individualism, values and preferences

Philosophy of science

By Jesús Zamora Bonilla

LORENZO: We are very thankful to you, Faustino, for your invitation to see today’s football match in your home. This morning, in the Philosophy of Science Congress, you have been one of the few recalling that our national team plays the quarter-finals of the World Cup. FAUSTINO: You are welcome. I am very glad to […]

The road to quantum gravity (3): The speed of light and the origin of mass

The road to quantum gravity (3): The speed of light and the origin of mass

CosmologyHistoryTheoretical physics

By Daniel Fernández

In the previous chapter of this series, we went over the subjective, relative separation of the network of events known as Spacetime into space and time. The speed of light played a major role in the discussion. In particular, we divided Spacetime into three regions (with respect to a particular event) defined by the existence […]

The spreading of science news, from Arthur Eddington (1919) to black holes (2019).

The spreading of science news, from Arthur Eddington (1919) to black holes (2019).

HistoryPhilosophy of science

By Invited Researcher

On April 10 th 2019, the Event Horizon Telescope project released the first image ever of a black hole. Five simultaneous press conferences, in Brussels, Taipei, Santiago de Chile, Tokyo and Washington were broadcast live, staging a global media event for astrophysics. Besides the inevitable memes in the so-called social media, more serious press outlets […]