HPS student Samuel Hall will be presenting his paper titled "The Function of Cognitive and Conative Values in Science" at the 2018 Philosophy of Science Association (PSA) meeting in Seattle, Washington. This meeting marks the 50th anniversary of the first biennial meeting of the PSA. An abstract for his paper is provided below:
I offer a new taxonomy of values in science, clarifying and rejecting an epistemic/non-epistemic distinction in favor of distinguishing between cognitive values, characteristics of theories, and conative values, valued ends. The set of cognitive values is a function of the conative value guiding scientific inquiry. Cognitive values serve as reasons to commit to a theory while conative values dictate the norms of inquiry, conditioning the evaluation of evidential support and methodological standards of research. This value-directed view respects the motivating concern behind the value-free ideal, namely, avoidance of self-confirming belief in any particular scientific theory.
For more information about the PSA, visit https://psa2018.philsci.org/en/
