{"id":2188,"date":"2026-03-23T12:41:55","date_gmt":"2026-03-23T12:41:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cful.letras.ulisboa.pt\/lancog\/?p=2188"},"modified":"2026-03-23T12:41:55","modified_gmt":"2026-03-23T12:41:55","slug":"seminar-series-in-analytic-philosophy-2025-26-session-19","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cful.demiurgos.eu\/lancog\/seminar-series-in-analytic-philosophy-2025-26-session-19\/","title":{"rendered":"Seminar Series in Analytic Philosophy 2025-26: Session 19"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><strong>Scientific Understanding as Dependency-Grasping<\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Robert Michels (LanCog, University of Lisbon)<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">27 March 2026, 16:00 (Lisbon Time \u2013 WET)<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Faculdade de Letras de Lisboa<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Sala Mattos Rom\u00e3o [C201.J] (Departamento de Filosofia)<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><strong>Abstract:\u00a0<\/strong>Dells\u00e9n has recently proposed an account of scientific understanding that extends the well-established dependence-grasping account of objectual understanding. This proposal is attractive because it bridges traditional epistemology and the epistemology of science, combining a central philosophical insight about understanding with sensitivity to the scientific context. In this paper, we raise two objections that challenge the adequacy of this account for scientific practice. First, it fails to ensure that the dependencies one must grasp in order to achieve scientific understanding are appropriately related to scientific models. Second, it overlooks the fact that scientific understanding often involves an awareness of the epistemic limitations of such models. We then propose modifications to Dells\u00e9n\u2019s account that address both concerns while preserving its central insights. As a result, we obtain a genuine dependency-grasping account of scientific understanding. (Joint work with Niels Linnemann, University of Geneva.)<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>This event is funded by Portuguese national funds through FCT \u2013 Funda\u00e7\u00e3o para a Ci\u00eancia e a Tecnologia, I.P., within the project UID\/00310\/2025, Centro de Filosofia da Universidade de Lisboa (<a href=\"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.54499\/UIDB\/00310\/2025\">https:\/\/doi.org\/10.54499\/UIDB\/00310\/2025<\/a>)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Scientific Understanding as Dependency-Grasping Robert Michels (LanCog, University of Lisbon) &nbsp; 27 March 2026, 16:00 (Lisbon Time \u2013 WET) Faculdade de Letras de Lisboa Sala Mattos Rom\u00e3o [C201.J] (Departamento de Filosofia) &nbsp; Abstract:\u00a0Dells\u00e9n has recently proposed an account of scientific understanding that extends the well-established dependence-grasping account of objectual understanding. This proposal is attractive because [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"activitypub_content_warning":"","activitypub_content_visibility":"","activitypub_max_image_attachments":4,"activitypub_interaction_policy_quote":"anyone","activitypub_status":"federated","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2188","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cful.demiurgos.eu\/lancog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2188","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cful.demiurgos.eu\/lancog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cful.demiurgos.eu\/lancog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cful.demiurgos.eu\/lancog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cful.demiurgos.eu\/lancog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2188"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cful.demiurgos.eu\/lancog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2188\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2189,"href":"https:\/\/cful.demiurgos.eu\/lancog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2188\/revisions\/2189"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cful.demiurgos.eu\/lancog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2188"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cful.demiurgos.eu\/lancog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2188"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cful.demiurgos.eu\/lancog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2188"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}