Call for Abstracts

Workshop “Epistemic values and their scales”
18-19 November 2025
Philosophy department & lab. MAPP, Université de Poitiers, France

What exactly is assessed through so-called epistemic values, such as simplicity, scope or explanatory power? Do these values mean the same when applied to retrospective assessments, such as hypothesis acceptance, and to prospective assessments, such as those concerning pursuit-worthiness? Can some epistemic values be decomposed into others? Can epistemic values be assessed using various kinds of scales—binary, ordinal or qualitative, quantitative, probabilistic—or are some scales unsuitable for some values? Are quantitative or probabilistic scales the gold standard in science, or can qualitative grading be just as defensible in some cases? If multiple scales can be applied, how do they relate to each other and how can value judgments be converted across different scales? Do epistemic values and their associated scales apply equally to theories, hypotheses, arguments, and propositions?
This workshop will explore these and related questions to advance our understanding of epistemic values and their scales, in science and in common knowledge. We welcome contributions addressing these topics through a variety of methodologies, including conceptual analysis, case-studies, formal modeling, and more. Although the workshop does not primarily focus on the epistemic versus non-epistemic divide, contributions addressing non-epistemic considerations are welcome insofar as they shed light on the questions outlined above.

Confirmed speakers (by alphabetical order)
• Thomas Boyer-Kassem (Université de Poitiers, France)
• Paul Égré (CNRS, Paris, France)
• Cyrille Imbert (CNRS, Nancy, France)
• Dunja Šešelja (Ruhr University Bochum, Germany)
• Pekka Syrjänen (University of Helsinki, Finland)

Abstract submission
If you would like to contribute, please send an abstract of about 500 words in a pdf document prepared for blind review at workshopepistemicvalues@gmail.com before September 22th. In the body of the email, please indicate the names and affiliations of the authors. We expect to notify abstract acceptance by September 30th.

In-person participation is strongly preferred; online participation will remain exceptional (one or two slots). Please indicate in your email whether you intend to participate online only. We are pleased to offer some travel bursaries to support presenters with restricted budgets — e.g. those from under-resourced institutions or from countries with limited resources. If you wish to apply for a bursary, please indicate this in your submission email.

Organizers
Thomas Boyer-Kassem (Université de Poitiers, France)
Dunja Šešelja (Ruhr University Bochum, Germany)
For questions, please write to thomas.boyer.kassem@univ-poitiers.fr

Funded by Thomas Boyer-Kassem’s Junior Institut Universitaire de France Chair.