Science and reason: exploring new horizons

Science and reason: exploring new horizons
seminar - discussion of the group Science, Reason and Faith.
Luis Montuenga - Paloma Pérez Ilzarbe. Pamplona, March 18, 2025.

presentation:
The experimental sciences have earned well-deserved prestige. Our experience during the recent COVID-19 pandemic, for example, highlights the vital role that science and technology play in the well-being and progress of humanity. Paradoxically, however, that same experience has revealed a growing sense of mistrust—and even fear—toward science and emerging technologies, such as artificial intelligence, which some perceive as disconnected from the truth, especially regarding human nature.
This seminar delve deeper into this discussion about the different ways of understanding scientific activity. It addresses whether it is possible to move beyond a purely utilitarian view of the empirical sciences and how other modes of rationality can help reinforce science’s commitment to truth and make it more evident. The way in which the relationship between truth and empirical science is conceived may lie at the root of both its prestige and the mistrust it provokes.
To address these issues, the event features Luis Montuenga, a scientist with extensive research experience, and Paloma Pérez-Ilzarbe, a philosopher specializing in epistemology and the study of science. Following a brief opening statement by each speaker their respective perspectives, a dialogue will begin, moderated by School of Science Moreno, a professor and researcher at the School of Science , in which the audience will also participate.

 Luis Montuenga is Full Professor Cell Biology at the University of Navarra and researcher at research center Applied research center (CIMA), where he directs the laboratory for Biomarkers and New Therapies. Dr. Montuenga is the author of more than 230 publications in the fields of Oncology and Cell Biology, has supervised 23 thesis , and has delivered numerous lectures and seminars internationally. From 2007 to 2011, he served research Vice President research the University of Navarra, and from 2014 to 2023, he has served Dean the School of Science. His research focuses exclusively on lung cancer, with a special interest in biomarkers for early detection and prognosis, animal and cellular models of lung carcinogenesis, and new therapeutic strategies based on the profile of lung cancer patients. During his degree program position professor position undergraduate and postgraduate program the areas of Cell Biology, Histology, development Biology, Molecular Oncology, and Ethics of Science. He has always maintained an active interest in multidisciplinary dialogue.

 Paloma Pérez-Ilzarbe holds a PhD in Philosophy from the University of Navarra. Professor of Logic and Philosophy of Language. She is currently deputy director of the department of Philosophy at the University of Navarra. Her area of specialization is the history of logic and her interest is mainly focused on the borderline issues between logic, metaphysics and epistemology. In particular, he has studied the relationship between science and Philosophy in the pragmatist tradition. For example, the chapter "Vaz Ferreira as a Pragmatist. The articulation of science and philosophy" (in Pragmatism in the Americas, 2011), and the articles "La búsqueda de la verdad: Philosophy y ciencias en Carlos Vaz Ferreira" (Filosóficoyearbook , 2005) and "La idea de ciencia de Eugenio d'Ors: Un approach 'postpragmático'" (Filosóficoyearbook , 2007), address the topic of scientific rationality, its connection with truth and its place in the whole of human knowledge . She is currently participating in the project "Political Utopia, gender and science in modernity through Margaret Cavendish", where she investigates the philosophical assumptions of seventeenth century science and the conceptions of rationality that interpreted it.