June 14, 2022 – Hiphis Conference: “Models and Realities: Contributions from Philosophy and the History of Chemistry”
Tuesday, June 14, 2022, from5:30 p.m.to7:30 p.m.,UM Polytech, Peytavin Lecture Hall, free admission
(Triolet Campus, Building 31) + hybrid Zoom (to receive the link)
Jean-Pierre Llored
Historian and philosopher of chemistry, Associate Professor of Social Sciences and Humanities at École Centrale Casablanca (Morocco) and CentraleSupélec Paris-Saclay | Research Associate at the Gilles-Gaston Granger Center (Aix-Marseille) and IDHES ENS-Paris-Saclay
Abstract:
Drawing on examples illustrating the design and use of models in chemistry, I will show how this work involves a three-participant scenario (whole-parts-environment) rather than a two-participant one (whole and parts), while assuming the mutual dependence of chemical transformations and substances. By emphasizing the constitutive role of modes of intervention and the environment in the definition—which is always open-ended and provisional—of what chemists claim to be dealing with, I will then show that modeling concerns not only the mathematical processing of experimental results but also their practical implementation. To do so, I will use the example of the production of the reference matrix for the quantification of endocrine disruptors in analytical chemistry. Finally, the presentation will examine the meaning of the ceteris paribus clause within a framework of scientific practices where relational properties prevail, thereby establishing another link between models and realities.
Keywords:holism; reductionism; model; data; affordances; ceteris paribus; environment.
Jean-Pierre Llored isa lecturer in Social and Human Sciences at the École Centrale de Casablanca and is affiliated with the Department of Social and Human Sciences at École CentraleSupélec (Paris-Saclay). A chemist by training and holder of the agrégation in chemistry, he holds a master’s degree and a Ph.D. in philosophy (Free University of Brussels, supervised by Isabelle Stengers) and a doctorate in epistemology and the history of science and technology (École Polytechnique, supervised by Michel Bitbol). He is authorized to supervise research in the history of science and technology and in philosophy (Aix-Marseille University). He is a visiting scholar at Linacre College, University of Oxford, and is associate editor of the journal *Foundations of Chemistry*.
Upcoming HiPhiS Conferences(locations and details to be announced as soon as possible)
(view online:https://epistemologie.umontpellier.fr/hiphis/conferences.html)
–Tuesday, July 5, 2022: Gilles Zémor, Professor, University of Bordeaux: Foundations of Quantum Computing
–Tuesday, October 4, 2022: Luc Heuschling, Professor, University of Luxembourg: To what extent (and for what purposes) do legal scholars need “models” to reflect on the “reality” of law?
–Tuesday, October 25, 2022: Ana Palacios, Astronomer, University of Montpellier (astrophysics / title not provided)
–Tuesday, November 15, 2022: Valeria Giardino, CNRS Researcher, ENS Paris J.-Nicod Institute (philosophy of mathematics / title not provided)
HiPhiS Contacts: Delphine Bellis (delphine.bellis@univ-montp3.fr) / Laurent Boiteau (laurent.boiteau@umontpellier.fr) / Viviane Durand-Guerrier (viviane.durand-guerrier@umontpellier.fr)
