1. Presentation topics

2. 1. Science emerged in part due to hospitable social conditions. What do current sociological trends in the U.S. suggest about the future of science in that country? 2. Parsimony—and related aesthetic attributes of theory—are thought to bear some relationship to a theory’s veridicality. To what extent is there such a relationship, and how can insights related to it be exported fruitfully to other areas of human endeavor?

3. 3. How can we avoid the problems of scientism through understanding and application of philosophy of science? 4. How might we use philosophy of science to de-balkanize fields with mutually alienated traditions of quantitative and qualitative research? 5. How might the activities of the philosophy and sociology of science best be integrated?

4. 6. How can we use P of S to best deal with the problem of objectivity in an intersubjective world? 7. Society at large sometimes has a caricatured view of science. How can we best disseminate object lessons of the best of science? 8. Horgan suggested that science is at an end. To what extent is his view correct, and to what extent is instead in a state of transition?