The Scottish Aesthetics Forum is delighted to announce its next lecture:
Dr Chiara Ambrosio (UCL)
“Who is Afraid of Mimesis?”
Thursday, 5 October, 2017, 4:15 – 6:00pm
Room S1, 7 George Square,
University of Edinburgh
The lecture is free and open to all!
Abstract: “All epistemology begins in fear,” claim Lorraine Daston and Peter Galison (2007: 372) in the final chapter of their history of objectivity. Their account shows that our relationship with objectivity coincides with the story of the scientific self, and of the epistemic virtues that communities cultivate explicitly to “discipline” their practitioners. In this talk I aim to show that the notion of representation in philosophy of science, and in particular that of mimesis, followed a fate very similar to that of objectivity. Specifically, I claim that the somewhat tormented relationship philosophers of science have developed with mimetic accounts of representation marks just another chapter in the history of epistemic fear.
A widespread criticism of mimetic accounts of representation is that they are merely a “common sense” view, built on the assumption that representation can be exhausted simply by postulating a mirror-like, dyadic relation between a representational source and its target. But as Stephen Halliwell (2002) argued in The Aesthetics of Mimesis, this kind of criticism was far more nuanced even in Plato, credited as one of the earliest and most adamant critics of mimetic accounts of art (and knowledge more broadly). I propose a revival of mimesis in philosophy of science that looks explicitly at texts in aesthetics such as Halliwell’s, to show the unique potentialities this historical concept still holds when it comes to our understanding of scientific representation. Drawing on concrete case-studies, I will propose a positive account of mimesis as historically-located, enactive and iconic. Construed as a form of iconicity, I claim, mimesis can be understood as a fertile representative device to discover, articulate and present new epistemic possibilities.
About the speaker: Chiara Ambrosio is a Lecturer in History and Philosophy of Science at UCL. Her work is strikingly interdisciplinary, much of which is a historical and philosophical investigation into representations in art and science in the 20th century. She is also currently researching the work of C. S. Peirce and aims to bring his ideas to the forefront of current debates on representation in philosophy of science and to connect his writings on the history of science with his work as both philosopher and scientist. Her other interests include pluralism, objectivity, and the philosophy of science in practice.
Additional information: The lecture will be followed by a dinner with our speaker. If you would like to attend the dinner, please contact the organisers by ——.
*** There are limited funds to cover dinner expenses for two students, offered on a first-come-first-served basis. ***
Don’t miss our upcoming events!
2 November 2017 – Angela Breitenbach (Cambridge) and
7 December 2017 – Michael Newall (Kent)
– To contact the organisers: scottishaestheticsforum@gmail.com.
– For more information: http://www.saf.ppls.ed.ac.uk
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