Work in Progress Seminar with Cailin O’Connor
8 November 2019, 11:00 am - 1:00 pm EST
Join Cailin O’Connor for a work in progress seminar focused on her paper, Measuring Conventionality.
ABSTRACT
Conventions are usually treated as univocal, but I argue here that they are better thought of as coming in degrees of arbitrariness. In doing so, I use information theory to measure the degree to which a convention could have been otherwise. This kind of understanding can, hopefully, improve evolutionary explanation of cultural traits.
AUTHOR PROFILE
Cailin O’Connor is a philosopher of biology and behavioral sciences, philosopher of science, and evolutionary game theorist. She is an Associate Professor in the Department of Logic and Philosophy of Science, and a member of the Institute for Mathematical Behavioral Science at UC Irvine. She is currently co- administering the NSF grant “Consensus, Democracy, and the Public Understanding of Science” with philosopher of physics James Owen Weatherall (previous NSF grant Social Dynamics and Diversity in Epistemic Communities). Their co-authored trade book The Misinformation Age was published with Yale University Press.