Understanding scientific explanations | As a Ph.D. candidate in the top-ranked @ucirvine.bsky.social Department of Logic and Philosophy of Science, Jaehyun Lee investigates the very nature of scientific inquiry @uofcalifornia.bsky.social

I am accepting graduate students for the UCI Cognitive Sciences PhD program for Fall 2026. Check out my lab website - www.relcoglab.org for our recent themes. Our funded work focuses on combinatorial reasoning, moral decision-making, and conceptual cognition in humans and large language models.

Looking forward to this! #philsci #cogsky #CognitiveNeuroscience www.merex-project.org/workshop-2026 @tonychemero.bsky.social @dcm.social.sunet.se.ap.brid.gy @davidcolaco.bsky.social @francesegan.bsky.social @gualtiero.bsky.social @laurennross.bsky.social @okaydaniellle.bsky.social

Amazing talk by Sally Haslanger @shaslang.bsky.social on "Social systems & their micro, meso, & macro interactions'' @ucisocsci.bsky.social & dinner afterwards with Ari Koslow, Tori Cotton @wittgencism.bsky.social, Cailin O’Connor @cailinmeister.bsky.social & Kate Ritchie @kateritch.bsky.social !!!

Enjoyed discussing "Why Science & Philosophy Need Each Other" w Megan Peters @meganakpeters.bsky.social We discuss the importance of engagement between science & philosophy, our experience w this & simplified conceptions of science & philosophy 🧠📕 Thanks Tev Naidu! #philsky #philsci #sciencesky

Huzzah! The PhilSci preprint archive for #philsci papers is finally on Bsky! Give them a follow to keep up with latest work in field ⬇️ @philsci-archive.bsky.social

So bad even political science (and philosophy) professors are showing up. With @daniellethomsen.bsky.social 🇺🇸 Here for democracy, science and #noKings #philsky #philsci #STS #sciencesky #HPBio

The Causality in Cognition Lab at Stanford University is recruiting PhD students this cycle! We are a supportive team who happened to wear bluesky appropriate colors for the lab photo (this wasn't planned). 💙 Lab info: cicl.stanford.edu Application details: psychology.stanford.edu/admissions/p...

📣 BIG NEWS EVERYONE. I am so excited to announce… 🎉 I’m moving to University College London @ucl.ac.uk to join the Experimental Psychology department in @uclpals.bsky.social! 🎉 The big move happens in spring/summer. So I’m already exploring recruiting staff & students at UCL for fall 2026!

Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring was published OTD in 1962. “[W]e have now acquired a fateful power to alter and destroy nature. But man is a part of nature, and his war against nature is inevitably a war against himself.” 🌱🐋 # HistSTM 🧪🌎 #philsci #philsky #WomeninSTEM

Enjoyed talking with Benjamin Kuper-Smith about: philosophy of science, mechanism, explanation, and career topics for his BJKS Podcast @bjkspod.bsky.social #philsci #philsky #HPS 🧠📒🔬 Check out other great episodes too! www.buzzsprout.com/1390924/epis...

Check out our chapter (led by @beakr.bsky.social) on cognitive ontology here! : philpapers.org/archive/KRIC... We propose a developmental approach to 'cognitive homologies' –– (cognitive capacities that are "the same across species") –– as a means for carving up cognition. Our approach adopts...

Another great summer development program at UCI LPS @ucisocsci.bsky.social #philsci #philsky #HPS

The peer review process: 3 strangers yelling “more cowbell” at your life's work

I had a rich and wide-ranging conversation w/ Professor Philip Kitcher for the podcast this week. We discuss his intellectual journey, interventions in creationism, sociobiology & the genome project, his philosophical evolution, and vision for philosophy serving the common good. A real privilege.

Danielle Thomsen's (@daniellethomsen.bsky.social) The Money Signal will change how you think about the function of money in US elections. A must-read! press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/bo...

Assistant Professor opening at University of California, Irvine | @mathpsych.org #iccmpsyched mathpsych.org/page/news/131

Great paper by Jacqueline Wallis @jwallis1.bsky.social on dirty mice! 🐁🐀 #philsci #philsky #HPS "Here I draw on a recent movement...use of what are often called “dirty mice” – to challenge the standard view that less controlled experiments have diminished epistemic power."

Join us in San Diego this November for #MCCS25, including 16 X research talks and the MCCS debate. Invited faculty speakers are announced below. Half of speakers will be selected from submitted abstracts. Registration is open:

Enjoyed giving a keynote at CogSci 2025! 🧠 🖥️ 🌉@cogscisociety.bsky.social ‬ #CogSci2025 #philsci #philsky #HPS

Neuroscience needs a new paradigm: the brain is not a machine | By Nicole Rust “The brain is a dynamic complex system—like the weather or a megacity—whose parts interact via feedback loops that are impossible to study in isolation from each other.” iai.tv/articles/neu... #philsky #philsci #neuro

Congratulations to Jessica Lauman-Lairson for defending her excellent dissertation on "A Middle-Range Account of Analogical Inference" 🎉 Jeff Barrett and I co-advised, w Kyle Stanford on her committee! @ucisocsci.bsky.social‬ Check out her new Synthese pub here: link.springer.com/article/10.1...

Salih Can Özdemir, who completed his master’s degree in our lab and is currently pursuing his PhD at the University of California, San Diego, has been elected as a Graduate Student Representative on the Cognitive Science Society Board! @cogscisociety.bsky.social

Brilliant keynote by @laurennross.bsky.social at #cogsci2025 on cognitive science and its philosophy. Lauren pointed out the myriad ways in which cogsci and philosophy support and benefit one another, using explanation and causal reasoning as case studies. Thank you for a great talk!! 🙏

Notes from @noranewcombe.bsky.social 's beautiful Rumelhart Prize "tasting menu" - congratulations Nora!!! #CogSci2025

Congratulations to Dr. Ben Santos Genta for a terrific dissertation defense! 🎉 Ben has a Sloan Foundation Postdoc grant for work on Metascience & AI at NYU's Philosophy Department. Shown celebrating with his proud co-advisors! 😊 @cailinmeister.bsky.social Check out his work: benjamingenta.com

We kick off #EmbracingComplexity with the inimitable @laurennross.bsky.social explaining two key aspects of emergence that cause philosophical and scientific challenges. Challenges we hope to tackle! @ifisc.uib-csic.es @rherzoga.bsky.social

“And I’m like, what do you mean, you ‘do your own research’? You running a double-blind study in your living room, dawg?” - A guy walking ahead of me with his friends on a NYC sidewalk in 2021, also my favorite overheard dialogue of the entire pandemic

Giving a talk in the UCI Center for Neurobiology of Learning and Memory (CNLM) series today at 11am PST! @ucirvine.bsky.social 🧠X➡️Y Title: Bridging Philosophy and Neuroscience to Support Clarity About Causation Abstract and virtual login at link below. cnlm.uci.edu/scientific-a...

Incredible Beyond ASU workshop organized by @saraimari.bsky.social great discussion w David Wallace David Krakauer Seth Lloyd @mdubova.bsky.social @robertchisciure.bsky.social @thaliawheatley.bsky.social @leecronin.bsky.social & more! 🔭🧬🧪 #philsci lots on possibility space, contingency & causation!

Social scientists from @uofcalifornia.bsky.social - including @ucirvine.bsky.social's Nadia Chernyak, Holly Hapke, & Kristin Turney - are in DC today meeting with lawmakers to champion continued federal investment in the social sciences as part of COSSA's Social Science Advocacy Day. #UCinDC

Enjoyed this discussion with @drmichaellevin.bsky.social We discussed scientific explanation, its types, causation, reduction/emergence, & other topics. Great to see the strength of bringing both science and philosophy to the table for hard topics. www.youtube.com/watch?v=PoY-...

My paper "What is social structural explanation? A causal account" is one of the top 10 most-cited papers published by Noûs in 2023 #TopCitedArticle #philsci #PhilSky I provide a framework capturing how social structures are causes that explain inequalities onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....

Applications open for the Summer Development Program at UCI Logic and Philosophy of Science. Room & board provided, plus reimbursement for transportation (up to $500). Deadline for application submission is April 17th 2025! lpssdp.com

This is a bright spot to start the day (on the West Coast, that is). The paper on "possibility space" with @laurennross.bsky.social and Viktor Jirsa is now published! onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....

Really needed this reminder of why we do what we do as researchers. Thanks for the great #whistlerbrain2025 meeting @toddc.bsky.social

Enjoyed the 8th Whistler Scientific Workshop on 'Brain Functional Organization, Connectivity, & Behavior' organized by Todd Constable @toddc.bsky.social Great mix of scientists from all career levels, impressive new research, & a supportive group! Lots of 🧠 and also ❄️⛷️🏂🏔️!!!

Enjoyed this interview with Ricardo on @thedissenteryt.bsky.social ! We discussed different types of causation, the topic of explanation in science, & my recent Cambridge Univ Press Elements book on "Explanation in biology" 📕 YouTube: youtu.be/sbY40h-1gKY Book: www.cambridge.org/core/element...

Great article by @kordinglab.bsky.social‬ on "why causal knowledge is pragmatically possible". The best arguments for causation--& only one we need--is pragmatic. Here pragmatic isn't weak/subjective, but connected to actual goals, utility & outcomes in the world. medium.com/@kording/why...

We have a new lab blog answering the question, "So what's new?" It highlights recent work with @laurennross.bsky.social, the construction of a lifespan brain model, and the first efforts in sociocultural neuroscience. It's been a busy couple of years! www.armcintosh.com/blog/2025/2/...

Thinking about neuroscience: Essays from the field | @ucirvine.bsky.social social scientists @meganakpeters.bsky.social, cog sci, & @laurennross.bsky.social, LPS, offer expertise on authorship practices, memory and mood in @thetransmitter.bsky.social’s new book  www.socsci.uci.edu/newsevents/n...

There is a FAKE Lauren Ross account w/ dash in name handle ⬇️ bsky.app/profile/laur... Please 1. unfollow imposter 2. Report fake acct by clicking three dots to right of follow button of imposter linked above 3. Block fake The real Lauren Ross account is ⬇️ @laurennross.bsky.social #philsci #hpbio

New paper in EJN by Cédric Brun, Jan Pieter Konsman, Thomas Polger How Do Computational Models in the Cognitive and Brain Sciences Explain? onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1...

New book "Explanation in Biology" with Cambridge University Press is out & open access! Covers (1) causal explanation & (2) non-causal/mathematical explanation in life sciences--bio, neuro, etc 🌿🧬🧠 Introduction to philosophical work on scientific explanation! www.cambridge.org/core/element...

Free download for two weeks

reminder that you can attend this great symposium on zoom! talks from heavy hitters, just a stellar lineup. grateful to be included. tomorrow & friday, Jan 16-17, pacific time. #neuroskyence #psychscisci #consciousness #neuroscience #philosophy #theory #psychology www.chapman.edu/scst/confere...

Philosophy & Theory of Neuroscience Conference 🧠 next week @ Chapman & available via zoom.Talks by @drmichaellevin.bsky.social @meganakpeters.bsky.social Newsome, Yassa, Roskies, Carolyn Parkinson, Frederick Eberhardt & many others! www.chapman.edu/scst/confere... #philsky #philsci #neuroskyence

In the era of Trump 2.0, we're calling on all scientists+ to unpack science for the public. This is much bigger than anyone of us. But if we all do one thing, imagine the cumulative impact! It need not be a burden. More here, in @thetransmitter.bsky.social. www.thetransmitter.org/craft-and-ca...

Now that those #OHBM abstracts are done - think about submitting to this connectivity workshop. Stellar lineup of speakers is set! Register (and submit abstracts) here - medicine.yale.edu/mrrc/about/s... deadline is Jan 10, 2025.