*Apologies for cross-posting*

Dear all, 

Anna Alexandrova (Cambridge) will speak on Wednesday, 15 October at the HPPE seminar of LSE's Economic History Department. Her paper's title is: "Can the Science of Well-Being be Objective?" Please email if you would like to receive a copy of the paper.

The seminar takes place from 1-2:30pm, in room CLM 2.04.

Best wishes, 

Tobias Vogelgsang

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About Alexandra: 
Anna Alexandrova is a lecturer in philosophy of science. Before coming to Cambridge she taught at the University of Missouri St Louis (2007–2011) and got her PhD in Philosophy and Science Studies at the University of California San Diego in 2006.

Alexandra's abstract:
Often science studies phenomena whose definition relies on a normative standard. For example, well-­‐being, health, freedom and many more. I propose the notion of a mixed claim to denote the cases when a normative concept appears in an empirical hypothesis. I argue that mixed claims are different from other cases of value-­‐ladenness in science and that, although they pose distinct problems for objectivity, we should not seek to eliminate them from science. Rather we need to develop principles for their legitimate use. Philosophers of science have already reconciled values with objectivity in several ways, but none of the existing proposals fits the case of mixed claims. Using the example of the science of well-­‐being, I articulate a conception of objectivity for this science and for mixed claims in general.

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