Bitbol - Probabilism as a principle of science

Probabilism as a principle of science

This seminar, given by Bitbol, will happend on 16 May 2025, at 14:0. It will take place in Room Not specified.

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Abstract

Instead of the traditional static, demiurgic, third-person, and ideally omniscient view of science, we now move toward a dynamic, practical, first-person, engaged, and inherently finite conception. In this new framework, probability is no longer seen merely as a mathematical tool we reluctantly use to cope with temporarily incomplete knowledge. Rather, it emerges as the foundational principle of all cognition, finally revealed by the most advanced scientific developments—at least when scientists are sufficiently aware of the epistemological implications of their work. In this light, quantum physics becomes the paradigm of science itself, rather than an exception or a scandal, as René Thom famously put it.