About us

What kinds of academic knowledge — 'science' in the German sense — can best inform policy and practice, what methods will produce this knowledge and how should this knowledge be put to use? Current areas of focus are causal modelling, historical scholarship, evidence-based policy, tools for scientists and the use of science, information synthesis and practical inference, uncertainty and risk in astrobiology, objectivity and social activist research, the role of descriptive/qualitative work in science, mapping tensions in work crossing scientific disciplines and integrating philosophers into scientific work.

Seminars in 2024-2025 

The events were all free to attend. For some events, it was possible to attend online, if you were outside of Durham. Please contact CHESS administrator at admin.chess@durham.ac.uk, if you have any questions.

Thu 14 November at 3.30-5.00 PM at ER149 (Elvet Riverside) 

MLAC meets Philosophy: Issues of translation and interpretation when we survey scientific communities

Thu 28 November at 3.30-5.00 PM at ER149 (Elvet Riverside)

Simona Capisani: Reflections of a philosopher at the COP16 Biodiversity Conference

Fri 7 February at 1.30-4.30 PM at ER228 (Elvet Riverside)

Workshop: Counterfactual Histories in Philosophy of Technology

Thu 27 March at 3.30-5.00 PM at Institute of Advanced Studies

Workshop with SGIA: Normative Philosophy and Qualitative Methods

Thu 8 May at 3.30-5.00 PM at ER278 (Elvet Riverside)
Joyce Havstad: Methodological Choice, Value-Criteria, and Fruitfulness

Thu 29 May at 3.30-5.00 PM at ER278 (Elvet Riverside)
Nancy Cartwright: In praise of the inexact, the inelegant and the unassuming

Thu 26 June at 1- 5.30 PM at PO005 (Department of Philosophy)
Workshop: Intellectual Humility in Early Modern Science and Philosophy

18 July at 10.00am-5.30pm at Schaper Room, 67 Oakfield Avenue (Glasgow Philosophy department)

Workshop: Chemistry and Quantum Mechanics: A Disputed Relationship

Speakers:

• Alexander Franklin (King’s College London) and Vanessa Seifert (University of Athens)
  ‘The problem of molecular structure just is the measurement problem (still!)’
• Robin Hendry (Durham University)
  ‘Structure in chemistry: lessons from condensed matter physics’
• Nick Huggett (University of Illinois Chicago) and James Ladyman (University of Bristol)
  ‘Quantum theory and the Born-Oppenheimer approximation’
• Olimpia Lombardi (CONICET, University of Buenos Aires)
  ‘Why the problem of molecular structure is not the quantum measurement problem’
• Alyssa Ney (LMU Munich)
  ‘Is chemistry more comprehensive than physics?'

Our weekly research meetings were held during Term times:

Thu at 11 AM -12 PM at PO004 (Department of Philosophy) and Teams

In Easter term 2025, the meetings were held on 8 May, 15 May, 29 May, 5 June and 12 June. Please contact CHESS administrator at admin.chess@durham.ac.uk, to be added on the CHESS mailing list where you get the latest information and links to online sessions.