The History and Philosophy of the Concepts of Scientific Law and Probability

"It was extremely helpful to gain an in-person sense of which philosophical arguments participants found most pressing and forceful. [...] I feel like I did a semester-long seminar on laws in the span of a few days. Very enriching."

"The course provided an in-depth look at historical issues but also places where the contemporary literature on the laws of nature needs further development. As a young researcher, I found that particularly helpful, along with the openness of the faculty to discussion."

“Compared to other courses I have attended, the academic quality was excellent, and also the cohesion between the topics covered by the lectures and the discussions. In other courses, sometimes, there was a lack of unification in the content of the lectures and it ended up being an amalgamation of different topics, only interesting to the lecturer and a small group in the audience, so it was very easy to disconnect. In this course, I think the topics were very well chosen and organized so that there was a clear conducting line on the background, and the majority of lecturers made an effort not to go very far away from that conducting line.”

"It was very useful to discuss these relevant topics with the very proponents of the ideas. I also liked the student presentations that allowed us to know more of our peers' work."

"The course has helped me in several ways: by informal talks with the professors and speakers, by discussions with my peers (clarifying points of the lectures that I didn't understand and other general discussions), by making contact with professors or other participants who work on a topic related to the topic of my thesis, and it has helped me to clarify what are the important points I want to address in my thesis by having to explain them to other participants and answer their questions."

"Getting feedback on my research from faculty and other participants was extremely helpful. A few people pointed out potential pitfalls of my thesis along with ways to amend my arguments. The summer school clarified the relevant choice points for defending my preferred account of laws, along with the arguments and methodology that opponents might find most persuasive."

Target group

Graduate Students, postdocs, faculty in philosophy, history and the sciences, and a few advanced undergraduate students.

Please read the following directions carefully.

Below is the list of the documents you need to prepare or arrange for submission:

1. Completed online SUN Application Form (see notes below)
2. Full curriculum vitae or resume, including a list of publications, if any
   Please upload your Curriculum Vitae or resume, including a list of publications, if any.
3. Statement of Purpose (max. 1,000 words)

In the Statement of Purpose, please describe how the course is relevant to your teaching, research or professional work, and in what way you expect to benefit from it. Please list relevant courses in the field you have taken previously during your studies.

Please provide a name, contact email, and phone number of a person (a faculty member, job supervisor, etc.) who can be contacted by the course directors to attest to your abilities, qualifications, and academic/professional performance.

Optional attachments:

You can upload further optional documents on the Qualifications page such as

• academic documents that you think may be relevant to support your application in the ‘Other Supporting Documents’ section. All documents should be merged into a single PDF file not exceeding the size 2 MB. No passwords and encryption are allowed.