Conference compares scientific and mathematical practices

Philosopher Otávio Bueno, a professor at the University of Miami, will examine similarities and differences between scientific practice and mathematical practice at the conference "Styles of Thought: Scientific and Mathematical", organized by IEA-USP's Philosophy, History, and Sociology of Science and Technology Research Group on May 26, at 2 pm, in the Institute's Event Room.

According to Bueno, the notion of "style of scientific thinking" has been used as an analytical tool to understand the characteristics of different forms of conducting scientific investigations. Proposed by historian of science Alisteir Crombie, the concept originally referred to six styles which describe the specificities of the different perspectives adopted to problematize reality: deductive, experimental, hypothetical, taxonomic, statistical and evolutionary.

At the conference, Bueno will present a particular interpretation of the notion of styles of scientific thinking, which allows to extend it to the field of mathematics, but differently from that made ​​by philosophers of science Ian Hacking and Gilles-Gaston Granger.

Bueno has graduated and holds a masters from USP's Faculty of Philosophy, Letters and Human Sciences (FFLCH), and a PhD from the University of Leeds. He is a professor and head of the Department of Philosophy at the University of Miami. His research focuses on the areas of philosophy of science, philosophy of logic, philosophy of mathematics and most recently aesthetics. He is one of the editors of the journal of epistemology and philosophy of science "Synthese".

The event will be broadcast live on the web.