People   >   Student members   >   Oriol Roca-Martín

  • LOGOS BIAP Universitat de Barcelona

    I am a PhD candidate under the supervision of Manolo Martínez and José Díez. Before joining the Cognitive Sciences and Language (CCiL) Doctoral Programme at the UB (Universitat de Barcelona) I earned a BA in Philosophy from the UAB (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona), and the CCiL MA from the UB. My doctoral research is funded by a grant (code CEX2021-001169-M-20-1) associated to the "Evidence in Science" branch of the BIAP, and I develop my current research activities within the LOGOS project Reassessing Scientific Objectivity (code PID2020-115114GB-I00). Besides, I part-time study a BE in Mathematical Engineering in Data Science at the UPF (Universitat Pompeu Fabra) (this is currently paused given the current stage of my doctoral period)).

    My thesis, "So, what is real in the Real Patterns framework? Exploring its boundaries and applications for the life sciences", focuses mainly on the difficulties that arise when trying to understand the nature of the special sciences—specifically, how these disciplines successfully develop effective theories, effective scientific ontologies, and evidence strategies to justify their taxonomical and modelling decisions in relation to complex, multi-scale, 'emergent' systems. All with a special interest on case studies from biology or cognitive science. Based on the information-theoretic and computational complexity principles, Daniel Dennett proposed Real Patterns as a framework for understanding the special sciences that would presumably avoid the downsides associated with reductionism and emergentism, while respecting key scientific and/or metaphysical desiderata—i.e., realism, objectivity, and a "non-mysterious" naturalism. While ideas framed in terms similar to Real Patterns are very often indirectly appealed to in order to justify scientific or practical decisions—especially when it comes to fields working with data-centric approaches, and statistical and machine learning methods—, this framework offers only a general, vague sketch of its philosophical basis. In this project, I take Dennett's proposal at face value and try to identify and analyse its weaknesses and strengths, ultimately aiming at: (i) developing a deeper understanding of the implications of committing to 'patterny' philosophical approaches—currently most associated with Ladyman and Ross' (2007: "Every Thing Must Go") defense of their Real Patterns-based Ontic Structural Realism—; (ii) assessing the possible scope and applicability of such a framework—closely following the development of ideas such as Computational Mechanics, Causal Emergence, or Synergistic Information—; and (iii) evaluating whether Real Patterns can have the theoretical merits to configure a genuine (non-eliminativist), novel alternative framework for accounting for 'emergent' behaviors in the special sciences, as it was originally proposed for.

    Much more broadly, I am interested in: causal models and causal inference; statistical learning; information and computation (as such, and as sources of methodological tools); the mitigation of misinformation; and the philosophy of psychiatry and medicine; all along with interests in some of the ethical, social, and practical derivations of all the latter topics.

    When I am not sitting on a chair, I love adventures and playing music.

List of Publications

Oriol Roca-Martín, Vicent Costa, Pilar Dellunde, Zoe Falomir   |   2021
Innovative perspectives in the design of intelligent artwork classification algorithms: tools for better human-machine integration. UABDivulga OnlineJournal

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