Thinking Like a Social Scientist lunchtime lecture series
Date: Thursday 5 November 2009
Time: 1.05pm
Venue: Hong Kong Theatre, Clement House
Speaker: Professor John Worrall
In this lunchtime series of lectures, a selection of LSE's academics from across the spectrum of the social sciences explain the latest thinking on how social scientists work to address the critical problems of the day. They survey the leading ideas and contributions made by their discipline, explain the types of problems that are addressed and the tools that are used, and explore the kinds of solutions proposed.
If it is to be scientific at all, social science must base its claims and theories on evidence. But what exactly does it take for e to be good evidence for some claim about the world? In particular claims about risk. I argue that, although complex when it comes to details, some very simple ideas can illuminate questions about evidence and risk; and in particular can help us avoid some evidential fallacies that seem to be all to easy to fall into.
John Worrall is professor of Philosophy of Science at LSE.
The next lecture in this series, Should management be a social science or a design science? will take place on Thursday 12 November.
A list of all the lectures in the Thinking Like a Social Scientist lunchtime lecture series can be found here.
This event is free and open to all with no ticket required. Entry is on a first come, first served basis. For more information, email
events@lse.ac.uk or call 020 7955 6043.
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