Michela Massimi: Local coastal communities and their ways of knowing. Ocean tales from the past and looking into the future

Tuesday September 30 2025 @11:30 (CET)
Sala B, Edificio de Humanidades, UNED & online

Abstract
In this talk I build on my work on perspectival realism to discuss the epistemic value of local knowledge. I will in particular focus on local knowledge by coastal communities and I will illustrate it with a historical example from Scotland taken from an ongoing pilot project entitled “Ocean and Us” and funded by the Royal Society of Edinburgh (https://www.skaje.uk/ocean-and-us/). I will then argue that more attention paid to local knowledge in scientific narratives and public discourse is key to fulfilling the participatory aspect inherent in the right to science (Art 27(1) of the UN Declaration of Human Rights).

Bio
Michela Massimi is Professor of Philosophy of Science in the Department of Philosophy at the University of Edinburgh and is affiliated with the Higgs Centre for Theoretical Physics. Her research lies in the area of history and philosophy of science, with a particular focus on the physical sciences. She is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh and the Royal Astronomical Society, an elected member of the German National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina, a corresponding member of the Académie Internationale de Philosophie des Sciences, and an elected member of the Academia Europaea. Her monograph Perspectival Realismwas awarded the 2023 Lakatos Award.