Curriculum Vitae

Simon Allzén

Postdoctoral Researcher in Theoretical Philosophy
- Department of Philosophy, Stockholm University
- Institute of Physics, University of Amsterdam
- Vossius Center for the History of Humanities and Sciences, University of Amsterdam

Contact

Mail: Email
Phone: +46 708 75 77 83
Web: Research
ORCID: 0000-0002-6124-8152

Research interests

Philosophy of science & physics
History of science & physics
Confirmation theory
Philosophy of astrophysics
Philosophy of cosmology

Academic positions

Postdoctoral Researcher in Theoretical Philosophy
Stockholm University & University of Amsterdam
2023–present

Education

2022: Ph.D. in Theoretical Philosophy
Stockholm University, Stockholm, Sweden
Thesis: Reassessing Realism: On the Ontology of the Unobservable.
2017: M.A. (with distinction) in Theoretical Philosophy
University of Gothenburg, Gothenburg, Sweden
2016: M.A. in Practical Philosophy
University of Gothenburg, Gothenburg, Sweden
2014: B.A. (with distinction) in Practical Philosophy
University of Gothenburg, Gothenburg, Sweden; B.A. (with distinction) in Theoretical Philosophy
University of Gothenburg, Gothenburg, Sweden

Publications

Journal articles

Allzén, Simon (2023). “Against Methodological Continuity and Metaphysical Knowledge.” European Journal for Philosophy of Science 13, 5.
Allzén, Simon (2022). “Scientific Realism and the Discovery of Radium.” Journal for General Philosophy of Science 53, 307–321.
Allzén, Simon (2021). “Scientific Realism and Empirical Confirmation: a Puzzle.” Studies in History and Philosophy of Science 153–159.

Book Chapters

Allzén, Simon (2023). “Extragalactic Realism Revisited: Astrophysics and Entity Realism.” In Philosophy of Astrophysics: Stars, Simulations, and the Struggle to Determine What is Out There, eds. Nora Mills Boyd, Siska De Baerdemaeker, Vera Matarese, and Kevin Heng, Synthese.

Preprints and works under review

Allzén, Simon (2025). Dark Matter Realism: How Referential Semantics Restricts Realism in Contemporary Fundamental Physics. arXiv preprint, under review in Synthese.
Allzén, Simon (2025). Bayesian Unification in the History of Dark Matter. arXiv preprint, under review in Philosophy of Science.
Allzén, Simon (2024). Dark Matter: Explanatory Unification and Historical Continuity. arXiv preprint, under review in Studies in History and Philosophy of Science.

Grants and awards

2023: Swedish Research Council
Dark Matter Diagnostics
International postdoc grant
€360,000 (three years)
2022: Stockholm–Cambridge Collaborative Research Grant
Establishing the Philosophy of Supersymmetry
€6,500 project grant
2021: Templeton Foundation
New Directions in Philosophy of Cosmology
Seed grant, US$4,000; Vossius Center for the History of Humanities and Sciences
University of Amsterdam
Junior Fellowship Award, €3,000
2020: Bergströms Stiftelse
Scholarship for research visit
20,000 SEK (~€2,000)

Visiting positions

2023: Postdoctoral Resident (2 years)
Institute of Physics &
Vossius Center for the History of Humanities and Sciences
University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, Netherlands.
2022: Short-term Research Visit
Final Theory Research Group
Max Planck Institute for the History of Science, Berlin, Germany.
2021: Junior Fellow (2 month junior fellowship)
Institute of Physics / Vossius Center
University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, Netherlands.
2020: Research Visit (2 months)
Department of Philosophy
University of Bristol, Bristol, United Kingdom.

Invited talks

2025: “Dark Matter Realism: Referential Semantics & Realism in Contemporary Fundamental Physics.”
Higher Seminar in Theoretical Philosophy
Stockholm University, Stockholm, Sweden.; “From Particles to Pluralism: The Changing Ontology and Epistemology of Dark Matter.”
The Epistemology of Dark Matter and Modified Gravity
National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Greece.
2024: “When, How, and Why Dark Matter Became a Particle.”
Philosophy of Physics Seminar
University of Bristol, Bristol, United Kingdom.; “Is There a Coherent History of Dark Matter?”
“On the Interface Between Physics and Metaphysics: Does Matter Matter?”
Embassy of the Free Mind, Amsterdam, Netherlands.; “History and Philosophy as Justification of Dark Matter.”
Vossius Center for the History and Philosophy of the Social and Natural Sciences
University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, Netherlands.
2023: “Whig History as Justification of Scientificality: A Case Study of Dark Matter.”
Amsterdam Meetings in Philosophy and History of Gravitation, Institute of Physics
University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, Netherlands.
2022: “Scientific Realism and Empirical Confirmation: a Puzzle.”
Higher Seminar
University of Gothenburg, Gothenburg, Sweden.
2021: “Entity Realism and Black Holes.”
Vossius Center, Institute of Physics
University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, Netherlands.

Conference and workshop

2023: “History as Justification: A Case Study of the History of Dark Matter.”
Amsterdam Meetings in Philosophy and History of Gravitation, Institute of Physics
University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, Netherlands.
2022: “Modest Scientific Realism and Belief in Astronomical Entities.”
Philosophy of Science Association
Pittsburgh, USA.
2021: “Dark Matter, Evidence, and Theory Confirmation.”
Philosophy of Dark Matter, Epistemology of the LHC
Bonn, Germany
2020: “Against Methodological Continuation.”
Seminar
University of Bristol, Bristol, United Kingdom.
2019: “IBE and Conceptual Changes of Theoretical Entities in Science.”
Philosophy of Science seminar
Stockholm University, Stockholm, Sweden.; “Scientific Realism and Dark Matter.”
Conference presentation
University of Manchester, Manchester, United Kingdom.
2018: “A Meta-inductive Argument for the Viability of Abduction in Science.”
Workshop presentation
Trondheim University, Trondheim, Norway.

Teaching experience

2025: Karolinska Institutet, Sweden
Philosophy of Science and Scientific Method (PhD course).; Karolinska Institutet, Sweden
Philosophy of Science and Scientific Method (Master course).; Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Sweden
Philosophy of Science and Scientific Method (PhD course).
2022: Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Sweden
Philosophy of Science and Scientific Method (PhD course).; Stockholm University, Stockholm, Sweden
Epistemology (introductory course, theoretical philosophy).; Stockholm University, Stockholm, Sweden
Philosophy of Science (summer course, theoretical philosophy).
2020: Stockholm University, Stockholm, Sweden
Epistemology and Philosophy of Science (introductory course, theoretical philosophy).
2019: Stockholm University, Stockholm, Sweden
Epistemology and Philosophy of Science (introductory course, theoretical philosophy).
2018: Stockholm University, Stockholm, Sweden
Epistemology and Philosophy of Science (introductory course, theoretical philosophy).; Stockholm University, Stockholm, Sweden
Scientific Method and Research Ethics (advanced level).; Stockholm University, Stockholm, Sweden
Knowledge and Science (Secondary School Teacher Programme – Upper Secondary).

Professional service

Current: Referee
British Journal for the Philosophy of Science;
Philosophy of Science;
Synthese
2022: Workshop organizer
Philosophy of Supersymmetry
Cambridge–Stockholm
2019: Organizer
PhD conference.
2018: Committee member
Swedish Higher Education Authority
PhD program evaluation
Department of Philosophy, Linguistics and Theory of Science
University of Gothenburg.

Languages and technical skills

Languages

Swedish [native]
English [fluent]

Technical skills

R, Python [competent]
HTML, CSS, JavaScript [proficient]
Data visualization, NLP [proficient]
LaTeX [competent]
Experience with large bibliometric and text-analytic datasets
Programming and training machine learning models and LLMs
Data scraping and wrangling from various sources