Philosophy professor at the Universities of Iceland, Inland Norway, and Oslo. Mostly here for philosophy of science, epistemology (formal and social), and metaphilosophy. https://philpeople.org/profiles/finnur-dellsen https://www.finnurdellsen.com/https://bsky.app/profile/dellsen.bsky.socialhttps://bsky.app/profile/dellsen.bsky.social/post/3mhyjctj4jc2kI'm looking to hire two postdoctoral researchers on The Consensus Project. Full-time research positions for three years. Preferably people in social/formal epistemology and/or philosophy of science. Please share widely! More here: philjobs.org/job/show/31193 #philsci #philsky https://philjobs.org/job/show/3119326 Mar 2026 21:10 +0000at://did:plc:u5bvzipgoymgnapihyi2i3o7/app.bsky.feed.post/3mhyjctj4jc2khttps://bsky.app/profile/dellsen.bsky.social/post/3mep42alek22eSome professional news: I'm delighted to share that I've been awarded a "grant of excellence" from the Icelandic Research Fund (Rannís). This is the largest type of research grant that's available in Iceland; only a couple of these are awarded each year across all disciplines. https://island.is/en/o/rannis/news/allocation-from-the-icelandic-research-fund-for-the-financial-year-202612 Feb 2026 23:03 +0000at://did:plc:u5bvzipgoymgnapihyi2i3o7/app.bsky.feed.post/3mep42alek22ehttps://bsky.app/profile/dellsen.bsky.social/post/3maxpuk56ws2v@boruttrpin.bsky.social and I have a new paper out in Philosophical Quarterly. We had both written on how inference to the best explanation could work with uncertain evidence. So we teamed up to test some suggestions for how to do that using computer simulations: https://academic.oup.com/pq/article/doi/10.1093/pq/pqaf104/840505627 Dec 2025 11:39 +0000at://did:plc:u5bvzipgoymgnapihyi2i3o7/app.bsky.feed.post/3maxpuk56ws2vhttps://bsky.app/profile/dellsen.bsky.social/post/3lyn5ggkpms2eA weirdly underappreciated problem about Inference to the Best Explanation is how it can handle uncertain evidence. This new paper, now forthcoming in Philosophy of Science, proposes a strategy for doing that (and argues that Einstein may have used it). #philsky #philsci https://doi.org/10.1017/psa.2025.1015112 Sep 2025 11:20 +0000at://did:plc:u5bvzipgoymgnapihyi2i3o7/app.bsky.feed.post/3lyn5ggkpms2ehttps://bsky.app/profile/dellsen.bsky.social/post/3lwtxttp6ys2yI just found out that this paper, co-authored with James R. Beebe, is now out and freely available at Philosophy of Science. #philsky #philsci #xphi https://doi.org/10.1017/psa.2025.1009220 Aug 2025 17:39 +0000at://did:plc:u5bvzipgoymgnapihyi2i3o7/app.bsky.feed.post/3lwtxttp6ys2yhttps://bsky.app/profile/dellsen.bsky.social/post/3lwstgyofys2oTomorrow at U. of Iceland: James Beebe talks about how and ehy to make epistemic autonomy reflective. #philsky https://english.hi.is/research-talk-philosophy-james-r-beebe20 Aug 2025 06:47 +0000at://did:plc:u5bvzipgoymgnapihyi2i3o7/app.bsky.feed.post/3lwstgyofys2ohttps://bsky.app/profile/dellsen.bsky.social/post/3lwezc7j2hc2qThis paper of mine is now officially published, a mere four years after it was accepted at Philosphers' Imprint. #philsky #philsci #philpapers https://journals.publishing.umich.edu/phimp/article/id/4961/14 Aug 2025 18:55 +0000at://did:plc:u5bvzipgoymgnapihyi2i3o7/app.bsky.feed.post/3lwezc7j2hc2qhttps://bsky.app/profile/dellsen.bsky.social/post/3lvuxl3hud22lHappy to have a chapter (coauthored with Insa Lawler, @insar.bsky.social, and James Norton) in this excellent and totally open access volume on philosophical methodology. #philsky philpapers.org/rec/HORAPA-2 https://philpapers.org/rec/HORAPA-208 Aug 2025 09:41 +0000at://did:plc:u5bvzipgoymgnapihyi2i3o7/app.bsky.feed.post/3lvuxl3hud22lhttps://bsky.app/profile/dellsen.bsky.social/post/3lvtiwoac622bVery exciting workshop in Reykjavik in October, organized by @oscarw.bsky.social. Please spread the word and/or consider submitting an abstract. #philsci #philsky #hps https://philevents.org/event/show/13817407 Aug 2025 19:47 +0000at://did:plc:u5bvzipgoymgnapihyi2i3o7/app.bsky.feed.post/3lvtiwoac622bhttps://bsky.app/profile/dellsen.bsky.social/post/3lvq24bsy6c2oNew paper now forthcoming in PPR, co-authored with Bob Beddor. Argues that inquiry, especially in science, needs to be construed as a more social/egalitarian endeavor: the point of inquiring is often to confer epistemic benefits on others. #philsky #philsci https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/phpr.7003206 Aug 2025 10:43 +0000at://did:plc:u5bvzipgoymgnapihyi2i3o7/app.bsky.feed.post/3lvq24bsy6c2ohttps://bsky.app/profile/dellsen.bsky.social/post/3lv73wzjjsk2nNew paper forthcoming in Analysis on methodological pluralism! Co-authored with the rest of the "Philosophical Meth. Lab" (Sam Baron, Tina Firing, and James Norton)! #philsky #philsci #metascience https://academic.oup.com/analysis/advance-article/doi/10.1093/analys/anae053/820995630 Jul 2025 17:01 +0000at://did:plc:u5bvzipgoymgnapihyi2i3o7/app.bsky.feed.post/3lv73wzjjsk2nhttps://bsky.app/profile/dellsen.bsky.social/post/3lun6p2xbc22d#Gaza is often described as an open-air prison. That analogy is no longer accurate: prisoners are not systematically shot, bombed, and starved to death. Gaza is now an open-air death camp. https://www.msf.org/mass-starvation-spreads-across-gaza23 Jul 2025 14:02 +0000at://did:plc:u5bvzipgoymgnapihyi2i3o7/app.bsky.feed.post/3lun6p2xbc22dhttps://bsky.app/profile/dellsen.bsky.social/post/3luitgq6st223Many good and interesting points made here, including the final point about research papers soon being written by AIs, reviewed by AIs, and then subsequently summarized for us by AIs. At some point we'll need to rethink the current model of the ~10k word research article. #philsci #philsky https://www.theguardian.com/science/2025/jul/13/quality-of-scientific-papers-questioned-as-academics-overwhelmed-by-the-millions-published21 Jul 2025 20:30 +0000at://did:plc:u5bvzipgoymgnapihyi2i3o7/app.bsky.feed.post/3luitgq6st223https://bsky.app/profile/dellsen.bsky.social/post/3luezyryr322mI'm probably a bit late to this party, but I found this excellent podcast recently. Great if you need an intro to some of the ethical issues with AI; should work well for intro courses, for instance. #ai #philosophy https://www.vox.com/future-perfect/402418/artificial-intelligence-good-robot-podcast-openai-chatgpt-ethics-discrimination20 Jul 2025 08:17 +0000at://did:plc:u5bvzipgoymgnapihyi2i3o7/app.bsky.feed.post/3luezyryr322mhttps://bsky.app/profile/dellsen.bsky.social/post/3lud63sayv22nI'm hereby making an honest attempt at using this platform. It's all quite confusing to me, making me feel very old. But so be it; here goes!19 Jul 2025 14:25 +0000at://did:plc:u5bvzipgoymgnapihyi2i3o7/app.bsky.feed.post/3lud63sayv22n