This is a notification for:
Title: John Huss
Rocks, clocks, and robustness: evidential integration and timescale
calibration
The geologic timescale is a relative timescale based on physical and
biological sequences and discontinuities in the rock record thought to
record events in the history of the earth and of life. In some sense going
beyond relative dating, absolute dating of rocks, fossils, and evolutionary
events (such as branching events on the tree of life) can be accomplished
through the use of radiometric dating, chronological signals extractable
from fossil growth patterns, astrochronology, and the “molecular clock.”
Sometimes these different methods, which start from largely independent
assumptions and evidentiary bases, converge in their temporal estimates,
resulting in a consilience of inductions. At other times they fail to
agree, either because fossils and molecules are giving temporal information
about different aspects of nature and should not be expected to agree, or
because of flawed assumptions that give rise to an inaccurate estimate. The
dispute over which kinds of evidence are more reliable is sometimes called
the “rocks vs. clocks debate.” I argue that, despite the fact that it can
be difficult to integrate disparate kinds of evidence, the principle of
total evidence should be applied to the dating of evolutionary events. One
complication, however, is that various putatively independent lines of
evidence for the dating of past events have had their independence
compromised in the way that dating methods are calibrated, resulting in
pseudorobustness. I propose a return to the robustness analysis of William
Wimsatt which emphasizes learning from failures of robustness in the
ongoing effort to improve method.
When: Thu 29 Nov 2018 15:00 – 16:30 Eastern Australia Time - Sydney
Calendar: Current Projects
Who:
* Kristie Miller- creator
Event details:
https://www.google.com/calendar/event?action=VIEW&eid=Xzg4cTM0ZDloNjkwazJiOWc2bDJqOGI5azg1MjNnYjlwNzRzNDhiOWg2b3FrY2g5azg4b2owZTFvNnMgZmV2MWxkcjRsa2h2MDM2b2U0aW4yanR0ZGdAZw&es=1
Invitation from Google Calendar: https://www.google.com/calendar/
You are receiving this email at the account [email protected]
because you are subscribed for notifications on calendar Current Projects.
To stop receiving these emails, please log in to
https://www.google.com/calendar/ and change your notification settings for
this calendar.
Forwarding this invitation could allow any recipient to modify your RSVP
response. Learn more at
https://support.google.com/calendar/answer/37135#forwarding
---------
SydPhil mailing list
To unsubscribe, change your membership options, find answers to common
problems, or visit our online archives, please go to the list information page:
https://mailman.sydney.edu.au/mailman/listinfo/sydphil
