Center for Philosophy of Science,
University of Pittsburgh
Conference: March 30-31, 2012

Cases involving climate change, epigenetics, GMOs, nanotechnology and stem-cells have taught us that various kinds of factor create epistemic uncertainty.  Knowing what we do not know is a good thing when we are making difficult choices and taking serious risks.  How do we and should we take risks when the quality and quantity of information is poor or brittle?  How do we and should we make decisions when our preferences are unfixed or unreliable?  How do we make decisions and take risks when the classical theories of rational decision-making are no longer our shepherd?  The conference will explore these questions from a range of perspectives, philosophical as well as psychological.

Speakers:
–Melissa Finucane, East-West Center, Honolulu, Hawaii
–Baruch Fischhoff, Carnegie Mellon University
–Teddy Seidenfeld, Carnegie Mellon University
–Paul Slovic, Decision Research, Eugene, Oregon
–Paul Weirich, University of Missouri-Columbia

We invite submissions of extended abstracts (1000 words) of papers of approximately 30-minute presentation time. Please include your name, the title of the paper, your academic affiliation and your e-mail address in the submission.  The deadline for submissions is November 1st, 2011.  Please direct your submissions to https://www.easychair.org/account/signin.cgi?conf=nsnr2012.  The decisions will be announced by December 15th, 2011.  Accommodation for up to 3 nights will be provided for speakers.

Organizing Committee: Nils-Eric Sahlin (Chair), Melissa Finucane, John D. Norton, Teddy Seidenfeld and Paul Weirich.

Questions can be directed to Nils-Eric Sahlin, NIS50@pitt.edu, or Karen Kovalchick, rubus@pitt.edu.

For updates, visit: www.pitt.edu/~pittcntr