British Academy: The UK's National Academy for the Humanities and Social Sciences

Enquiry, Evidence and Facts: An Interdisciplinary Conference

ABOUT THIS EVENT | ABSTRACTS

UCL Evidence research satellite meeting
Evidence, Inference & Enquiry: Towards an integrated science of evidence
Wednesday 12 December 2007: UCL Old Refectory

8.30	Registration and tea/coffee
9.15	Opening Session Chair: Baroness Professor Onora O’Neill
	Welcome and orientation Opening lectures The Leverhulme/ESRC Evidence Projects, UCL/LSE Evidence, Inference and Enquiry: Towards an Integrated Science of Evidence Professor Phil Dawid, University College London How Well Do 'Facts' Travel? Professor Mary Morgan London School of Economics and Political Science
10.30	Tea/coffee
11.00	Plenary Session 1: Facts, Evidence and Belief Chair: Professor Mary Morgan
	Lectures: You Can Argue with the Facts: A Political History of Climate Change Professor Naomi Oreskes How the alternative therapy industry promotes the public misunderstanding of evidence Dr Ben Goldacre Formal Modes of Argument Professor John Fox
12.45	Lunch
1.45	Parallel sessions
	1. Interdisciplinary Collaboration Chair: Dr Hasok Chang	2. Evidence and Medicine Chair: Professor Jim Smith	3. Tacit Knowledge and Common Sense Chair: Professor James Tomlinson
3.15	Tea/coffee
3.45	Plenary Session 2: Evidence, Action and Policy Chair: Professor Trisha Greenhalgh
	Lectures: Evidence-based Policy: So, What’s Evidence? Professor Nancy Cartwright Bones of Contention: Interpreting Facts from Physical Anthropology Professor Rick Steckel
5.00	Posters
5.30	Drinks reception

8.30	Registration and tea/coffee
9.15	Plenary Session 3: Case-based Reasoning Chair: Professor William Twining
	Lectures: The Role of the Case in the EBM Era: Evidence, Warrant, and Practice in Contemporary Medicine Professor Rachel Ankeny On Narrative Coherence Professor Sir Neil MacCormick
10.30	Tea/coffee
11.00	Plenary session 4: Reasoning and Inference Chair: Professor Nigel Harvey
	Lectures: Motivated Causal Reasoning: Choice as Evidence Professor Steven Sloman Some Evidence issues in Intelligence Analysis Professor David Schum Critical Distance: Stabilizing Evidential Claims in Archaeology Professor Alison Wylie
12.45	Lunch
1.45	Parallel sessions
	4. Facts Travelling Across Disciplines Chair: Professor Stephen Rowland	5. History and Philosophy of Science & Technology Chair: Professor Mark Geller	6. Evidential Reasoning Chair: Professor Andrew Chesher
3.15	Tea/coffee
3.45	Plenary session 5: Unity and Diversity Chair: Professor Philip Dawid
	Lectures Are There Universal Principles or Forms of Evidential Inference? Professor Peter Tillers Diversity in Fact Production: Confronting Natural and Social Sciences Professor Martina Merz

Session1: Interdisciplinary Collaboration Chair: Dr Hasok Chang	Session 2: Evidence and Medicine Chair: Professor Jim Smith	Session 3: Tacit Knowledge and Common Sense Chair: Professor James Tomlinson
Are Expert Opinions Telling Us Both Sides of the Story? Gianluca Baio (& Amanda Hepler & Grant Fisher)	Rhetoric and Argumentation: Evidence-based Policy making Jill Russell (& Trisha Greenhalgh & Emma Byrne & Janet McDonnell)	Artisans and Experts: Evidence and Authority in Early Modern England Patrick Wallis
The Subtleties of Alibi Evidence Amanda Hepler (& David Lagnado & Gianluca Baio)	'False Facts' and the Facts of Life (and Death) David Haycock	Common Sense Generalisations William Twining
Foucault’s Tourist Jason Davies	Life of a 'Fact' in Infectious Disease Transmission Erika Mattila	Building on the Page - Building on the Site: Christopher Wren's Italian sources Simona Valeriani

Session 4: Facts Travelling Across Disciplines Chair: Professor Stephen Rowland	Session 5: History & Philosophy of Science & Technology Chair: Professor Mark Geller	Session 6: Evidential Reasoning Chair: Professor Andrew Chesher
Travelling in the Social Science Community: Assessing the Impact of the Indian Green Revolution Across Time and Disciplines Peter Howlett	Evidence, Inference and Action: Towards a New Philosophy of Evidence Grant Fisher	Causal Models in Evidential Reasoning David Lagnado
From Rodent Utopia to Urban Hell: Experiments in Crowding Pathology Edmund Ramsden	Circulating Facts About Organisms: Biological Databases Sabina Leonelli	Evidential Reasoning in Economics: Advances in Identification Analysis Andrew Chesher
Science Facts vs. Folks Facts Jon Adams	Design Standards and Travelling Facts: Lessons from the Standardization of British Wire Sizes (c1880) Aashish Velkar	Generalisations and Evidential Reasoning Terence Anderson

Professor Peter Lipton had agreed to make a presentation entitled: Alien Abduction: Inference to the Best Explanation and the Evaluation of Testimony. It was with deep regret that the conference convenors learned he had died just before the conference.