Workshop: Rethinking Progress via Ignorance and Failure: Insights from Science, Medicine and Humanities
Workshop with Prof. Dr. Stuart Firestein (Columbia University/PSL), March 15, 2018
Date: Thursday, March 15, 2018
Venue: ETH Zurich, Zentrum, Rämistrasse 101, HG F 33.5
«It is ignorance – not knowledge – that is the true engine of science.» Stuart Firestein, a neurobiologist working on the sense of smell, thereby justifies the value of ignorance in his 2012 book of the self-same title. His next book Failure: Why Science Is So Successful (Oxford University Press, 2016) expounds on the value of failure in science. Stuart Firestein is at ETH Zurich to present at the Philosophy Colloquium, and this workshop is designed to further benefit from his stay in order to discuss the validity and implications of his claims.
While much of the discussion on the value of ignorance and failure has centred on the natural sciences, this workshop brings together scholars from the very different backgrounds – including medicine and the humanities – in order to further flesh out Firestein’s claims. By comparing the conditions under which ignorance and failure are valuable, and the limitations of this view in different disciplines, we aim to create a more complete picture applicable to a variety of research fields.
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Please register:
Organization: Vanessa Rampton and Nadja El Kassar
Sponsored by
The Branco Weiss Fellowship
Critical Thinking ETH (CTETH)
Center "History of Knowledge" (ZGW)
Chair for Philosophy II