BSPS Annual Conference 2025

The conference will officially begin on Tuesday 15 July 2025 with a welcome and plenary talk from 3pm, followed by a drinks reception. However, there are several events occurring earlier in the day, which attendees may be interested in attending (and, therefore, should take into account when planning their travel to York):

• All BSPS members are invited to attend the AGM, which will take place as a hybrid event, at 10.30am on 15 July 2025

• All students and ECRs are invited to attend the Graduate Student Workshop, at 1.30–3pm on 15 July 2025 (further details TBA)

• All BSPS members are invited to attend a Q&A with the editors of the British Journal for the Philosophy of Science (details TBA)

Submission is now open for proposals for symposia. The deadline for submitting symposium proposals is 24 January 2025.

A symposium should involve several presenters, typically 3–4, organized around a topic of interest. Symposia may be on any topic in the philosophy of science. A maximum of 90 minutes of space on the programme will be allocated to successful symposia. The symposia will be selected by the BSPS committee.

The committee will strive for quality, variety, innovation, and diversity on the programme; ideally the programme will reflect the full range of current work in the philosophy of science.

Priority will be given to symposia featuring at least one early career scholar. For the purposes of this call, a person is an early career scholar if at least one of the following criteria apply: (i) they are a PhD student; (ii) their PhD was awarded no more than five years ago (excluding any career breaks); (iii) they have never held a permanent academic position.

Symposia that make connections with, or include, working scientists are warmly invited. We will not consider ‘Author Meets Critics’ sessions, but topical sessions that build upon recently published books are acceptable. Current members of the BSPS committee may not feature in symposia, whether as organizers, presenters, or non-presenting co-authors.

Proposals must include sufficient supporting material to permit the committee to evaluate the quality and interest of the symposium. Proposals for symposia should include:

• The title of the proposed symposium
• A short descriptive summary of the proposal (100–200 words)
• A description of the topic and a justification of its current importance to the discipline (500–1000 words)
• Titles and abstracts of all papers, with 250-500 words for the title and abstract of each paper
• A list of participants and either an abbreviated curriculum vitae or short biographical description (not to exceed one page) for each participant, including any non-presenting co-authors
• Institutional affiliation and e-mail addresses for all participants, including any non-presenting co-authors
• A note indicating which, if any, participants are early career scholars

Authors will be informed of the committee’s decisions by 14 February 2025.

Please see the Rules for Acceptance section for important information on BSPS policy regarding multiple submissions.

Proposals for symposia should be submitted via email as one pdf file to the programme organizer, Ali Boyle (a.boyle2@lse.ac.uk).

The call for abstracts is now open.

Papers may be on a wide selection of topics within the philosophy of science (see list below) and should be suitable for presentation in 20 minutes, which will allow 10 minutes discussion.

Abstracts should be received no later than 21 February 2025 (symposium applicants will have heard back by 14 February). Abstracts should be a maximum of 500 words (not including indicative bibliography). Abstracts will be anonymously refereed by the programme committee, and successful contributors notified by 28 March 2025. Abstracts should include an outline of the central argument of the paper. To ensure full consideration, please also include a short bibliography of 2–5 representative references. We do not anticipate being able to share referees’ comments.

List of topics

• General philosophy of science
• Philosophy of the physical science
• Philosophy of the life sciences
• Philosophy of the cognitive sciences
• Philosophy of the social sciences
• Formal philosophy of science
• Integrated history, philosophy, and social studies of science
• Science and values
• Philosophy of AI
• Philosophy of medicine

Please submit your anonymized abstract via OxfordAbstracts.

Questions about submissions should be directed in the first instance to the programme organizer, Ali Boyle (a.boyle2@lse.ac.uk).

No one will be permitted to present more than once at BSPS 2025. Thus, if a symposium proposal in which you are a presenting author is accepted, you may not submit a contributed paper for which you are the presenting author. Commentators that are part of symposia are considered to be presenting authors. A scholar may appear as co-author on more than one paper or symposium talk, but may present at BSPS 2025 only once.

Any individual can be part of only one symposium proposal in which they are a presenting author. Note that this policy excludes the practice of being a presenting author for more than one symposium proposal and subsequently choosing to present in only one symposium if multiple proposals are accepted.

If an accepted symposium subsequently loses participants, maintaining acceptance will become contingent upon the symposium organizer developing satisfactory alternatives to maintain the quality and coherence of the committee.

All questions about submissions should be directed in the first instance to the programme organizer, Ali Boyle (a.boyle2@lse.ac.uk).