The congress that meets every four years goes to Kobe: the CLMPST 2027 call is open

Few things in philosophy convene once every four years. A field that works to an Olympic rhythm is a field with confidence in itself.

The International Congress of Logic, Methodology and Philosophy of Science and Technology — CLMPST for short — has met on that rhythm since 1960. The eighteenth edition takes place from 23 to 28 August 2027 at Kobe University in Japan.

The call for abstracts and symposium proposals is open.

The letter in the name#

For most of its life the congress was CLMPS: Congress of Logic, Methodology and Philosophy of Science. The T at the end — and Technology — is a recent addition.

That looks like an administrative detail. It is not.

Through the twentieth century, philosophy of science was concerned above all with knowledge: when is a theory confirmed? What is a law? What is an explanation? Technology was treated within that frame as the application of science — philosophically secondary.

That distinction is no longer defensible. Most of today's science exists first as an instrument: no particle physics without the accelerator, no genomics without the sequencer, no climate model without computing power. Knowledge does not precede the apparatus.

The letter added to the congress's name is the record of that recognition.

The weight of the congress#

CLMPST is held under the auspices of IUHPST/DLMPST — the Division of Logic, Methodology and Philosophy of Science and Technology of the International Union of History and Philosophy of Science and Technology. The 2027 edition is hosted by the Japan Association for Philosophy of Science and Kobe University.

Recent congresses: Buenos Aires (2023), Prague (2019), Helsinki (2015), Nancy (2011), Beijing (2007).

Two things stand out in that list. The first is the deliberate geographical spread. The second is that the congress alternates between capital cities and the field's leading university centres.

The call reflects the same intent: researchers are invited from every region and culture of the academic world.

Keynote speakers#

Four names have been announced, and each represents a different wing of the field:

Hasok Chang (Cambridge) — founder of the programme of "complementary science" in philosophy of science. His thesis: the history of science does not merely narrate the past; it can reopen questions today's science treats as closed. Is Water H2O? is the exemplary case.

Sonja Smets (Amsterdam) — works on dynamic epistemic logic and quantum logic. Her interest is modelling with formal tools how knowledge flows within a group.

Katie Steele (Australian National University) — decision theory and reasoning under uncertainty. She writes in particular on the problem of rational decision in fields carrying deep uncertainty, such as climate policy.

Jun Otsuka (Zen University) — philosophy of statistics and the epistemology of machine learning. His question: on what metaphysical assumptions does statistical inference rest?

What the four have in common is that none of them does "pure" philosophy of science in the classical sense. Each embeds philosophy in the technical practice of a field.

Practical details#

• Dates: 23-28 August 2027
• Venue: Kobe University, Rokkodai campus, Nada-ku, Kobe, Japan
• Organisers: IUHPST/DLMPST · Japan Association for Philosophy of Science · Kobe University
• Scope: everything from mathematical logic to metaphilosophy, from the foundations of the exact sciences to the philosophy of social science, from philosophy of technology to the history of science
• Call: open for individual abstracts and symposium proposals

Details at clmpst2027.org.