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8th Scientific Understanding and Representation (SURe) annual workshop
The workshop will take place May 27-29, 2026, at the Institute of Philosophy and Sociology, The Polish Academy of Science (IFIS PAN) in Warsaw. It is organized under the auspices of the Committee for Philosophical Sciences, Polish Academy of Sciences. Keynote speakers Magdalena Małecka (University of Copenhagen) Igor Douven (Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique) Book Panel on The Social Fabric of Understanding by Federica Malfatti (University of Innsbruck) Panelists: Finnur Dellsén (University of Iceland & Inland Norway University of Applied Sciences) Alfredo Vernazzani (Hanse-Wissenschaftskolleg & the TU Dortmund) Workshop description Representations play a central role in scientists’ understanding of the world. From mathematical models to diagrams, different representations in highly varied contexts yield diverse insights across the physical, biological, and social sciences. Despite the fact that how a phenomenon is represented has far-reaching ramifications for how it is understood, the literatures on scientific understanding and scientific representation are largely independent of each other. The time is ripe to foster greater synergy between these two areas in the philosophy of science, as they face complementary problems—and hold the promise of complementary solutions. For more information about the workshop series, go here. Local Organizing Committee Daniel Kostić, Anna Martin, and Marcin Miłkowski Program Download the program in PDF Day 1 — Wednesday, 27 May (Room 154) 9:30–10:00 OPENING & WELCOME Daniel Kostić, Anna Martin, Marcin Miłkowski 10:00–10:45 Quentin Ruyant Understanding with theories: theories as schematic representations 10:45–11:30 William Goodwin Heuristics, representation, and understanding in synthetic organic chemistry 11:30–12:00 Coffee break 12:00–12:45 Przemysław Nowakowski Does embodiment have a stable representation in cognitive science? 12:45–13:30 Giovanni Galli & Annika Schuster Can AI generate scientific representations of proteins? A DEKI-analysis of AlphaFold2 13:30–15:00 Lunch break (90 min) 15:00–15:45 Frauke Stoll Lost in translation? Testimonial understanding from deep neural networks 15:45–16:15 Coffee break 16:15–17:30 KEYNOTE — 75 MIN Igor Douven Discovering Sources of Crowd Wisdom via Symbolic Search (joint work with Nikolaus Kriegeskorte) CANCELED DUE TO UNFORESEEN CIRCUMSTANCES Day 2 — Thursday, 28 May (room 268) 9:30–10:15 Abel Sagodi & Benjamin Drukarch & Léon de Bruin The intractability of difference-making without dynamical systems theory 10:15–11:00 Nastia Garbayo When do representations provide understanding? Neural plasticity and the representation-hungry problem 11:00–11:30 Coffee break 11:30–12:15 Nynke Boiten & Dingmar van Eck Understanding scientific understanding and opacity in agent-based modelling 12:15–13:00 Grzegorz Gaszczyk & J.P. Grodniewicz How to assess whether AI is capable of providing explanations? 13:00–14:30 Lunch break (90 min) 14:30–15:15 Stefan Petkov Misunderstanding, misunderstanding CANCELED DUE TO UNFORESEEN CIRCUMSTANCES 15:15–15:45 Coffee break 15:45–17:00 KEYNOTE — 75 MIN Magdalena Małecka On representing decision-making in economics and behavioral science. Iconoclastic lessons from integrated history and philosophy of science & philosophy of science in practice Day 3 — Friday, 29 May (room 268) 9:30–10:15 Marc Mela Quílez When machine learning models become scientific models: a pragmatic representational approach to ML-based atmospheric modelling 10:15–10:30 Coffee break 10:30–12:15 BOOK PANEL The Social Fabric of Understanding Federica Malfatti (University of Innsbruck) Author presentation (20 min) · Comments by Alfredo Vernazzani (20 min) · Comments by Finnur Dellsén (20 min) · Federica's replies (30 min) · General discussion (15 min) 12:15–12:30 CLOSING & FAREWELL Daniel Kostić, Anna Martin, Marcin Miłkowski Program Committee Daniel Kostić, IFIS PAN Anna Martin, IFIS PAN Marcin Miłkowski, IFIS PAN Sorin Bangu, University of Bergen Otavio Bueno, University of Miami Mazviita Chirimuuta, University of Edinburgh Finnur Dellsén, University of Iceland Catherine Elgin, Harvard University Roman Frigg, London School of Economics (LSE) Stephen Grimm, Fordham University Jennifer Jhun, Duke University Kareem Khalifa, University of California Los Angeles (UCLA) Tarja Knuuttila, University of Vienna Insa Lawler, University of North Carolina, Greensboro Michela Massimi, University of Edinburgh Angela Potochnik, University of Cincinnati Henk de Regt, Radboud University Collin Rice, Colorado State University Mark Risjord, Emory University Samuel Schindler, Aarhus University Elay Shech, Auburn University Mauricio Suárez, Complutense University of Madrid Peter Tan, Fordham University Daniel Wilkenfeld, University of Pittsburgh Venue and Logistics The 8th SURe annual workshop (SURe2026) will be held at the Institute of Philosophy and Sociology, Polish Academy of Sciences: Staszic Palace ul. Nowy Świat 72 00-330 Warszawa Poland Room numbers: 154 & 268 http://www.ifispan.pl/en/ Map The venue is close to the University of Warsaw, and there are bus stops (Uniwersytet) and one subway stop (M2, Nowy Świat-Uniwersytet) nearby. Tickets are available from ticket machines (3.40 PLN for 20 minutes or 4.40 PLN for 70 minutes). The entrance to the Staszic Palace, the seat of the Institute, is easy to find: just look for the Nicolaus Copernicus Monument. There will be signs where to go, but here’s the short explanation how to find your way. Note: there are several staircases in the building, which is large, and it is easy to get lost. Just use the lift to avoid getting lost. Transportation There are two airports in Warsaw: Warsaw Chopin and Warsaw Modlin (outside the city, for Ryanair flights only). There are city buses and trains operating from the Warsaw Chopin to the city centre. Taxis to the city centre are affordable. From Warsaw Modlin, you can take a train from a nearby train station (the bus shuttle to the station is covered by the ticket price) or a bus to the city centre. The taxis from Modlin are not recommended because they will all be overpriced. Train timetables are available on the Polish Railways website. Accommodation There are many hotels near the venue. Most hotels can be easily found via booking.com. Our advice is to book accommodation in the walking distance or close to M2 subway stations. Restaurants There are many restaurants near the Staszic Palace — at Nowy Świat Street as well as at Krakowskie Przedmieście Street and in the Old Town (about 10 minutes of walking from the Staszic Palace). Bills of fare are accessible at entrances, frequently also in English. Recommended walks 1. The University Campus, of historical importance – about 100 m from the Staszic Palace, the main entrance: Krakowskie Przedmieście Street 26; 2. The Old Town – 10 minutes from the Staszic Palace; 3. Nowy Świat Street; 4. Plac Zwycięstwa (Victory Square), Opera Building; 5. Krakowskie Przedmieście Street; 6. Bednarska Street and Mariensztat. Top Warsaw museums National Museum of Art, Al. Jerozolimskie 3 Polin. Museum of the History of Polish Jews, ul. Anielewicza 6 Warsaw Rising Museum, ul. Grzybowska 79 Museum of Modern Art, ul. Marszałkowska 103 The Microsoft CMT service was used for managing the peer-reviewing process for this conference. This service was provided for free by Microsoft and they bore all expenses, including costs for Azure cloud services as well as for software development and support. |
Project financed from the state budget funds allocated by the Minister of Science and Higher Education under the Wektory Nauki (Vectors of Science) Programme, project no. WNK/SP/0375/2025/01. The amount of funding is PLN 18,850, and the total value of the project is PLN 23,810.
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