- E-mailSorin.Bangu@uib.no
- Phone+47 55 58 29 48+47 981 99 964
- Visitor AddressSydnesplassen 12/13, 3. etg.BergenRoom314A
- Postal AddressPostboks 78055020 BERGEN
My main area of competence is contemporary philosophy of science, broadly understood. Most of my work is in philosophy of mathematics and philosophy of physics, and very often addresses issues at their boundary. I also venture into metaphysics and epistemology (when scientifically relevant), philosophy of logic and history of science and mathematics. I have longstanding interests in the history of analytic philosophy, in Quine and especially later Wittgenstein. (More details on my personal webpage)
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Grants/Awards (selection; for complete list see my personal webpage)
For research
- Research grant co-held with K. Cahill (Univ. of Bergen), awarded in Dec. 2018 by the Norwegian Research Council for Aug. 2019 - Aug. 2023. Budget ca. 10 mil. NOK (1.1 mil. €) Title: Mathematics with a Human Face. Set Theory within a Naturalized Wittgensteinean Framework
- Visiting Fellowship at Wadham College, Univ. of Oxford for Trinity Term 2020; postponed for Trinity 2021
- Visiting Fellowship at Institute Vienna Circle March-April 2020 (postponed)
For teaching: on the ‘List of Teachers Ranked as Excellent by their Students’ at Univ. of Illinois: Fall 2010 PHIL 430 Epistemology, Spring 2011 PHIL 471 Philosophy of Science
Talks (selection of recent invited presentations; for complete list see my personal webpage)
- TBA Philosophy of mathematics seminar, Oxford Univ. 4 May 2020 (postponed for 2021)
- TBA Philosophy of science seminar, Univ. of Stockholm/Uppsala 22 Oct. 2020
- TBA Ernst Mach Workshop IX: Non-causal explanations in physics Prague, Sept. 2020 (keynote speaker)
- The Intelligibility of Nature and Second Quantization. Scientific Understanding and Representation (SURe) workshop Atlanta, GA 13 March 2020
- Mathematical Explanations of Physical Facts. Montreal Inter-University Workshop on History and Philosophy of Mathematics Group, McGill Univ. Montreal, 14 Feb 2020; Department of Philosophy, Univ. of Oslo, Nov. 2019
- Mathematical explanations of physical phenomena: a minimal characterization (and its problems). Workshop Mathematics, Explanation and Heuristics Rome La Sapienza Univ. 14 june 2019; IHPST Paris 21 March 2019
- Fictions in Scientific Explanation. Southern California Philosophy of Physics Group UC Irvine LPS 27 April 2019
- Later Wittgenstein on Mathematical Necessity. Wittgenstein in the 21st Century Conf. UC Berkeley 6 April 2019 video; Getting Real about Words and Numbers Workshop, Antwerp. 29-31 Oct. 2018 (keynote speaker)
- From Alpha to Beta: the weak interaction and the metaphysics of change. Naturalized Metaphysics Workshop in Trondheim, Norway 14 Aug. 2018
- Later Wittgenstein on Logical Necessity. 6th World Congress on Universal Logic Vichy 21-22 June 2018 ; Canadian Philosophical Association Montreal 4-7 June 2018; Univ. of Bucharest IRH-ICUB 14 June 2018
- Having your (strawberry) cake and dividing it too. Workshop Applicability of Mathematics: Representation and Explanation Leeds UK 12 Dec. 2017
- On the (Non)Factivity of Scientific Understanding. The Argument from Idealizations. Society for the Metaphysics of Science Annual Conf. New York City Fordham Univ. 6 Oct. 2017; Understanding from Models Workshop, IHPS Paris Sorbonne, 3 Nov. 2017
- Explanatory Fictionalism? The case of Phase Transitions. Philosophy and Physics Interdisciplinary Workshop on Phase Transitions and Infinite Idealizations. 23 June 2017 Universite Catholique de Louvain, Louvain-la-Neuve Belgium
- High level explanation in physics. The case of BCS superconductivity. Perspectives on Explanation, Charles Univ. 18-19 May 2017 Prague video
- Dolls and Drumbeats: Experiments on Infant Mathematical Cognition. IUC Dubrovnik Philosophy of Science Conference 11-15 April 2016
- Methodological Reflections on the Experiments on Infants' Arithmetical Abilities. The Cognitive Basis of Logico-Mathematical Knowledge. Univ. of Bergen, 16-17 Nov. 2015
- Mathematical Knowledge from a Psychological Point of View. Third Congress of the Assoc. for the Philosophy of Mathematical Practice. Inst. H. Poincare, Paris Nov. 2015.
Professional service (selection; for complete list see my personal webpage)
Conference organization
- Organizer of Annual Bergen Philosophy of Science Workshop 2013-present
- Program committee member British Society for the Philosophy of Science Annual Meeting Kent. Univ. July 2020
- Co-organizer (with K. Cahill) of Wittgenstein: Naturalism and Necessity Univ. of Bergen 21-22 Nov. 2019 Video
- Program committee member British Society for the Philosophy of Science Annual Meeting, Durham Univ. July 2019
- Program committee member European Philosophy of Science Association Meeting, Univ. of Exeter Sept. 2017
- Program committee member Explanation Beyond Causation, LMU Munich (MCMP) 23-24 October 2014
Administrative academic work
- External reviewer for US National Science Foundation (NSF) grants 2018
- Co-representative in the Philosophy PhD Network including Univ. of Uppsala, Bologna, Bucharest, Helsinki and Bielefeld
- Member in hiring and promotion and tenure committees for several universities
- MA Studies Program Coordinator; PhD supervisions. Dept. of Philosophy, Univ. of Bergen, 2013- 2015, 2016, 2019, 2020
Professional organizations
- Editorial Board Nordic Wittgenstein Studies (Springer)
- Editor of Phil Papers Philosophy of Mathematics, Misc. (section including Applicability of Mathematics, Mathematical Practice, Mathematical Explanation)
For teaching materials see mitt uib
Postdoctoral supervision:
Jeffrey Schatz (PhD Univ. of Calif. Irvine 2019) From August 2020, co-supervision with Kevin Cahill in the project Mathematics with a Human Face: Set Theory within a Naturalized Wittgensteinean Framework
PhD students:
- Martin Sætre (Wittgenstein’s Philosophy of Mathematics) Current co-supervision with Kevin Cahill in the project Mathematics with a Human Face: Set Theory within a Naturalized Wittgensteinean Framework
- Ragnhild Jordahl (Metaphysics, Necessity, Laws of Nature. Defended 23 April 2020) Co-supervision with Ole Hjortland
- Mark Young (Hist. and Phil. of Science. Defended 26 April 2019) Currently postdoctoral researcher at the Dept. of Values, Technology and Innovation, TU Delft. From Jan 2021, Marie Curie postdoctoral fellow at Univ. of Vienna
MA students:
- Steffen Haakonsen (Scientific Realism. 2017)
- Carl-Fredrik Bassøe (Causation and Digraphs. 2016) Co-supervision with Uwe Wolter, Comp. Science Dept.
- Sindre Søderstrøm (The Normative force of Logic. 2016) Co-supervision with Ole Hjortland
Recent courses (considering attending? first master the art of sleeping in seminars)
- Introduction to Theoretical Philosophy FIL 125 (undergraduate)
- Philosophy of Science FIL 219/319 (und. & grad.)
- Graduate proseminar FIL 342 (grad.)
- Metaphysics FIL 220/320 (und. & grad.)
- Epistemology FIL 237/337 (und. & grad.)
For Faculty of Natural Sciences and Mathematics, Univ. of Bergen:
- Science in Today's World MNF 201
- Examenum Philosophicum Seminars
Before coming to Univ. of Bergen I have taught at Univ. of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (2010-2012), Univ. of Cambridge (2008-2010), Univ. of Western Ontario (2007) and Univ. of Toronto (2005-2006). For more information see my personal webpage.
Books
Naturalizing Logico-Mathematical Knowledge: Approaches from Philosophy, Psychology and Cognitive Science. Routledge, 2018
- Edited collection of essays. – Publisher presentation and table of contents
- Reviews: Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews, Philosophical Quarterly
The Applicability of Mathematics in Science: Indispensability and Ontology. Palgrave Macmillan, 2012
- Monograph. – Commissioned for the series New Directions in the Philosophy of Science. Table of contents and Introduction.
- Reviews: Philosophia Mathematica (critical notice), International Studies in Philosophy of Science, Metascience
Selected papers (complete list and downloadable versions on my personal webpage)
- Mathematical Explanations of Physical Phenomena. Australasian Journal of Philosophy. Forthcoming.
- Phase Transitions. In The Routledge Companion to the Philosophy of Physics. E. Knox and A. Wilson. (eds.) Routledge. Forthcoming.
- Hard and Blind: On Wittgenstein’s Genealogical View of Logical Necessity. Philosophy and Phenomenological Research. Forthcoming
- Discontinuities and Singularities, Data and Phenomena: For Referentialism. Synthese 196: 1919–1937 (2019) link
- Later Wittgenstein and the Genealogy of Mathematical Necessity. In Wittgenstein and Naturalism. K. Cahill and T. Raleigh. (eds.) Pp. 151-173. Routledge (2018) link
- The 'Miracle' of Applicability? The Curious Case of the Simple Harmonic Oscillator. (Co-author Robert Moir) Foundations of Physics 48(5): 507-525 (2018) link
- Scientific Explanation and Understanding: Unificationism Reconsidered. European Journal for Philosophy of Science 7(1): 103-126 (2017) link
- Numerical Methods, Complexity and Epistemic Hierarchies. (Co-author Nicholas Fillion) Philosophy of Science 82.5: 941-955 (2015) link
- Symmetry. In The Oxford Handbook of Philosophy of Physics. R. Batterman. (ed.) Pp. 287-313. Oxford Univ. Press (2013) link
- Indispensability and Explanation. British Journal for the Philosophy of Science 64(2): 255-277 (2013) link
- On the Role of Bridge Laws in Inter-theoretic Relations. Philosophy of Science 78(5): 1108-1119 (2011) link
- On Bertrand's Paradox. Analysis 70: 30-35 (2010) link
- Understanding Thermodynamic Singularities. Phase transitions, Data and Phenomena. Philosophy of Science 76.4: 488-505 (2009) link
- Reifying Mathematics? Prediction and Symmetry Classification. Studies in History and Philosophy of Modern Physics 39.2: 239-58 (2008) link
- Inference to the Best Explanation and Mathematical Realism. Synthese 160: 13-20 (2008) link
- Steiner on the Applicability of Mathematics and Naturalism. Philosophia Mathematica (3)14: 26-43 (2006) link
Book reviews, symposium contributions, etc.
- Marc Lange Because Without Cause (Oxford Univ. Press, 2017) British Journal for Philosophy of Science. BJPS Review of Books. (2017) link
- Peter Vickers Understanding Inconsistent Science (Oxford Univ. Press, 2013) Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews. (2014) link
- Structures, Fictions, and the Explanatory Epistemology of Mathematics in Science. Metascience 22(2): 247-273 (2013) Invited contribution to a symposium on Christopher Pincock's Mathematics and Scientific Representation, Oxford Univ. Press, 2012. Co-symposiasts: M. Balaguer and E. Landry. Responses by C. Pincock. link
I'm currently Professor in the Department of Philosophy, University of Bergen; I'm also involved in the activities of Wittgenstein Archives Bergen. Before coming to Bergen in 2012, I held a lecturership positon at University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Philosophy Dept., (2010-2012) and another lecturership at University of Cambridge, History and Philosophy of Science Dept. between 2008-2010. In 2007-2008 I was Rotman Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Western Ontario. I received a PhD from Univ. of Toronto in 2006. I moved to Toronto in 2001 after I studied philosophy and mathematics at Univ. of Bucharest.
Research grant FRIPRO-FRIHUMSAM co-held with K. Cahill (Univ. of Bergen). Ca. 1.1 mil € awarded by the Norwegian Research Council in Dec. 2018. Title: Mathematics with a Human Face. Set Theory within a Naturalized Wittgensteinean Framework, period 2019-2023.
Annual Bergen Philosophy of Science Workshop (BPSW)
- 29-30 Aug. 2019 program and abstracts
- 24-25 May 2018 program and abstracts
- 31 May 2017 program and abstracts
- 14 June 2016 program and abstracts
- 4-5 June 2015 program and abstracts
- 5-6 June 2014 program and abstracts
- 20-21 June 2013 program and abstracts