Empiricism and Humility:
Characterizing the Problem Space for a (Future) Science of UAP
A talk by Michael Cifone (Ph.D.)
Founding director of the Society for UAP Studies
Founding editor of Limina
September 6th 2026 at 14:00
At the University of Copenhagen
Location: South Campus, Room 4A.0.68 (Directions will follow)
Free – registration required because of limited seating
Write briefly to: CONTACT AT DNUS.DK to register.
(replace “AT” with “@”)
Organizers:
Danish Network for UAP Studies
Center for the Study of Theosophy and Esotericism (CCSTE)
Co-contributor:
Advanced Study Group: Anomalous Agenda – The Pufendorf Institute for Advanced Studies, Lund University.
Discussants: Aaron French, Frederik Uldall, Tim Rudbøg
Abstract
The scientific study of UAP confronts a landscape of problems that has resisted adequate characterization for nearly eight decades — and that persistent failure is itself the first datum any serious research program must address. This contribution argues that progress requires beginning not with the objects of inquiry but with the conditions under which inquiry into them has repeatedly failed to assemble into a cumulative science.
The methodological anchor is a Jamesian radical empiricism: the commitment that an adequate empiricism must neither admit any element not directly experienced nor exclude any element that is. From this standpoint, the contribution offers a preliminary characterization of the problem space, distinguishing three analytically separable domains: the institutional and political conditions that have structured UAP inquiry to date; the empirical challenges facing any serious observational program, from the purely physical frontier cases through the harder cases that resist decomposition into conventional physical or psychological categories; and the deeper formal and conceptual dimension that the most recalcitrant cases eventually demand.
Throughout, the contribution is framed by the epistemic virtue the field most requires: disciplined suspension — what the poet Keats called “negative capability” — as the condition for genuine inquiry rather than premature resolution in either direction. The contribution is offered as a sketch of an ongoing research program in the philosophical and methodological foundations of UAP Studies. Visit Michael Cifone’s personal page:
https://suaps-director.github.io/michael-cifone-personal/
Practicalities
Important: The event is on a Sunday.
This means that the entrance at building 4A will be locked.
Please show up at least 5 minutes before the talk so that we can let you into the building.
After the talk starts there will be no one at entrance 4A to let you into 4A.0.68
Meeting point at the entrance at Njalsgade 76 – Building 4A – see map below.
(Side entrance on Google Maps.)
Metro within walking distance: Islands Brygge
Parking lot close to the lecture room.
Use parking app.
