Valuing Questions

Liam Kofi Bright (CMU Pittsburgh) gives a talk at the Workshop on Five Years MCMP: Quo Vadis, Mathematical Philosophy? (2-4 June, 2016) titled "Valuing Questions". Abstract: If all scientists seek the truth, will they agree on how this search should be carried out? Social epistemologists have alleged that were scientists to be truth seekers they would display an unwelcome homogeneity in their choice of what projects to pursue. However, philosophers of science have argued that the injunction to seek the truth is incapable of providing any guidance to scientific project selection. Drawing on theories of the semantics of questions to construct a model of project selection, I argue that the injunction to seek the truth can guide choice through a philosophcially well motivated decision theory, but may indeed discourage division of cognitive labour. I end by discussing methods of maintaining heterogeneity among a community of inquirers, even veritistic ones, in light of my results.