Dr. Luis Favela, an Assistant Professor of Philosophy and Cognitive Science at UCF, has been accepted to be a fellow at the University of Pittsburgh’s Center for Philosophy of Science for the Fall 2019 semester. As a university ranked #2 for General Philosophy of Science, and #1 for Philosophy of Cognitive Science in the world, this fellowship will allow Favela to conduct research and network with researchers from top institutions.
“As a competitive and prestigious fellowship, my earning this fellowship brings attention and increases the prominence of the Department of Philosophy and UCF as a whole. I am especially happy that it will help bring attention to our Cognitive Sciences Program,” says Favela.
The University of Pittsburgh’s Center for Philosophy of Science is devoted to philosophy of science in all its forms. It was founded in 1960 by Adolf Grünbaum and its first activities included the Annual Lecture Series and a supporting series of volumes. In the decades following, Center activities were expanded to include a Visiting Fellows Program, through which philosophers of science reside in the Center for a term or academic year to talk philosophy and undertake their own research.
As a fellow, Favela will be conducting research with collaborator Dr. John Beggs, Associate Professor of the Department of Physics at the University of Indiana Bloomington. The research will be conducted in the form of a project titled, Universality and Nonreductive, Nonmechanistic Neuroscience. “This project has two main aims: First, to describe and review a nonreductive and nonmechanistic approach to neuroscience research guided by the application of universality classes. Second, to develop an argument for the epistemic justification of applying universality classes in neuroscience, “explains Favela.