The HPS Podcast - Conversations from History, Philosophy and Social Studies of Science

This episode is the first of two in which the celebrated Professor of History of Science, Simon Schaffer, discusses the famous HPS publication, Leviathan and the Air-Pump: Hobbes, Boyle and the Experimental Life , which Simon co-wrote with another esteemed HPS scholar, Steven Shapin, in the early 1980s.  The book went on to become one of the most well-known across both HPS and STS, with next year...

Welcome back to The HPS Podcast for Season 4. In today's episode, Carmelina and Samara touch on a variety of topics, but a core theme is 'how we study science through the lens of the humanities'. Both Sam and Carmelina believe the skills and perspectives developed through disciplines such as history, sociology, and philosophy are crucial to resolving many of today's problems. S...

We are pleased to bring you a special five episode podcast series Working Fathers created by Professor in HPS   Cordelia Fine , political philosopher Associate Professor Dan Halliday , social psychologist, Dr Melissa Wheeler and historian Dr Annabelle Baldwin. What’s next for Australian fathers? In this final episode of the mini-series, we look at the future of fatherhood. So far, one thing all ou...

We are pleased to bring you a special five episode podcast series Working Fathers created by Professor in HPS   Cordelia Fine , political philosopher Associate Professor Dan Halliday , social psychologist, Dr Melissa Wheeler and historian Dr Annabelle Baldwin. In Episode 4, Give Dads a Break , we look at more of the pressures that prevent fathers from being active and equal caregivers in their chi...

We are pleased to bring you a special five episode podcast series Working Fathers created by Professor in HPS   Cordelia Fine , political philosopher Associate Professor Dan Halliday , social psychologist, Dr Melissa Wheeler and historian Dr Annabelle Baldwin. How much freedom do fathers have? Do fathers have real choices about how to divide their time between paid work and caring for the kids at...

We are pleased to bring you a special five episode podcast series Working Fathers created by Professor in HPS   Cordelia Fine , political philosopher Associate Professor Dan Halliday , social psychologist, Dr Melissa Wheeler and historian Dr Annabelle Baldwin. How people divide labour within and beyond the family unit has changed throughout human history. The current model in many Western nations,...

We are pleased to bring you a special five episode podcast series created by Professor in HPS   Cordelia Fine , political philosopher Associate Professor Dan Halliday , social psychologist, Dr Melissa Wheeler and historian Dr Annabelle Baldwin.   The series is called Working Fathers , and explores the varied roles fathers play in contemporary Australia and how policy can better recognise, value an...

In a break from our usual format, we are pleased to bring you a special five episode podcast series created by Professor in HPS   Cordelia Fine , political philosopher Associate Professor Dan Halliday , social psychologist, Dr Melissa Wheeler and historian Dr Annabelle Baldwin. The series is called Working Fathers , and explores the varied roles fathers play in contemporary Australia and how polic...

Our guest today is Professor of Philosophy and History of Science at the University of Exeter, Sabina Leonelli. Sabina recently released a book in the Cambridge Elements Philosophy of Science series on The Philosophy of Open Science. In her book, Sabina offers a stimulating perspective on the Open Science movement, discussing both its strengths and some of its unintended downsides, including const...

Today Carmelina is joined by Professor Uljana Feest, Philosopher of Psychology and Chair for Philosophy of Social Science and Social Philosophy at the Leibniz University of Hannover.   In this episode, Uljana discusses her work on the philosophy and history of psychology as it relates to the replication crisis. In a recent article ‘What is the Replication Crisis a Crisis Of?’ Uljana proposes somet...

Today we are joined by Miguel Ohnesorge and Aja Watkins to talk about a new subfield of HPS - The Philosophy of the Geosciences.  Miguel and Aja recently co-authored an article titled 'What is the Philosophy of the Geosciences?'  In today's episode, we discuss many of the themes introduced in the paper, including common problems found across such diverse geoscientific disciplines as...

How are we to understand Indigenous biological difference in the twenty-first century? Is it a racist ruse, a stubborn residue of racial pseudoscience? Or is it a potentially empowering force that can be unlocked by newly accurate science? Or by being under Indigenous control? Today’s guest is Deakin Distinguished Professor Emma Kowal. Emma first trained as a doctor and public health researcher, b...

We have a very special episode today with guest host Dr Joshua Eisenthal interviewing fellow philosopher of science, and good friend, Dr Haixin Dang on the fascinating subject of Disagreement in Science. It might seem like scientists should always aspire to achieve consensus, and therefore any disagreement in science is a mark of failure. However, as Haixin points out, disagreement is in fact a vi...

Today's episode features one of our favourite philosophers of physics, Dr Sophie Ritson. Sophie's research focuses on the way contemporary physicists – of both the experimental and theoretical kind – work together to develop reliable knowledge and find creative ways to expand our fundamental understanding of the universe. Sophie is unafraid to dig in where others fear to tread. She began...

Today's guest is Dr Kirsten Walsh, a philosophy lecturer at the University of Exeter. Kirsten’s research primarily focuses on Isaac Newton and his methodology, but she is careful to consider philosophical issues alongside a sensitivity and consideration for historical contexts. In today’s episode Kirsten gives us a sense of how our historical understanding of Newton has changed over time, and...

This week the team at The HPS Podcast are taking a mid-semester break! To celebrate we are reposting one of our favourite episodes from Season 1 featuring Professor Greg Radick, a leading historian of biology at the University of Leeds. In the podcast Greg discusses the use of counterfactuals in history of science - the term we use for asking ‘What if?’ questions about history - and their potentia...

In today’s episode we have assistant professor and philosopher of science, Dan Hicks, taking us through better understanding public scientific controversies. ‘Public scientific controversies’ is a term Dan uses to capture a broad variety of controversies that involve both science and the public. This would include controversies around vaccines, genetically modified foods, medical research and clim...

Today's episode features Professor Anna Alexandrova from the University of Cambridge discussing a field she has pioneered - the Philosophy of Well-Being Science. As Anna points out, well-being and happiness are now established phenomena for scientific research, particularly in the disciplines of psychology and economics. But does current scientific research produce knowledge that is properly...

Today's guest is Dr Kate Lynch , who will discuss the topic of 'causal explanation in science'. Kate is a philosopher of biology and a lecturer in HPS at the University of Melbourne. In this episode Kate introduces us to the difference between 'causation' and 'causal explanation', as well as difficulties involved in assessing what makes a good causal explanation....

Today's episode is dedicated to the often complex, sometimes fraught relationship between practicing scientists and the history of science.  To discuss this topic, we are joined by two of the most distinguished scholars in the history of science, Lorraine Daston and Peter Harrison, who recently co authored an article for Aeon, urging for a fresh dialogue between scientists and historians. In...

Welcome to Season 3 of the HPS podcast! It's so great to be back. Kicking off our third season, we have a new addition to the team, Carmelina Contarino. Carmelina is an Honours student in HPS at the University of Melbourne and will be joining Samara in producing the podcast, as well as hosting several of the episodes. In today's episode, Samara and Carmelina dive into what has become a b...

Today on the podcast, Mauricio Suárez talks with Samara about his new book - Inference and Representation: A study in Modelling Science. Mauricio is Professor of Logic and Philosophy of Science at the Universidad Complutense de Madrid, a life member at Clare Hall Cambridge and research associate at the London School of Economics.  Mauricio has a long standing interest in the ways scientists repres...

Welcome to the final episode of Season 2 (with a bonus ep coming next week!). We take a moment in this episode to reflect on the first year of the HPS podcast. Just a few weeks ago Sam and Indi attended the biannual AAHPSSS (The Australasian Association for the History, Philosophy and Social Studies of Science) conference at the University of Sydney. In this episode they reflect on their time at t...

"We get this instinct that true science must start from a firm foundation. Time and again, that's what I see NOT happening in the practice of science. We start from where we stand. The foundation is never indubitable, the foundation is provisional." Our very special guest today is Hasok Chang. Hasok is Professor of History and Philosophy of Science at the University of Cambridge and...

"Philosophers of science are really good about thinking about causation and trying to figure out what the mechanisms are that make something work" Today we welcome Katherine Furman , who talks to Indi about the philosophy of public health. Katherine is a lecturer of Philosophy, Politics and Economics at the University of Liverpool. She is currently on research leave to work with the SOCR...