During the 2010/2011 Rotman Institute of Philosophy Speaker Series, Susan Haack spoke about Scientism, the view that natural science is the most authoritative way of looking at the world, and is superior to other interpretations of life. Video of this lecture, Six Signs of Scientism, is now available on the Rotman YouTube channel.
The 14th Annual Philosophy of Physics conference, Conceptions of Empirical Success, was held in Honor of Bill Harper’s retirement in 2010, and was organized by Wayne Myrvold. It features speakers on topics to which Harper made important contributions — in particular, historical approaches to questions of empirical success and decision theory.
This Rotman Lecture concerns John Locke’s practical and theoretical interest in measurement. Locke’s fascination with the measurement of weight, distance, time and monetary value is evident throughout his notebooks, journal and correspondence. It is hardly surprising, therefore, that it features in his philosophical reflections as early as Drafts A and B of the Essay concerning Human Understanding (1671) [...]
On Wednesday, April 8, at 7:30pm, Rotman postdoc Dan Hicks will be giving a lecture for the Humanist Association of London and Area at the Cross Cultural Learning Centre, 505 Dundas Street in London. The lecture is open to the general public and a $2 donation is suggested. The title and abstract are below.The GMO [...]
The Orgasm Wars Friday, March 6 3:30pm-5pm New Chu International Centre Abstract: There has been a fierce battle occurring among people who explain the evolution of human female orgasm, about its evolutionary origins and nature. The core issue is that the female orgasm presents an evolutionary puzzle. Unlike the male orgasm, female orgasm is not [...]
This is a reminder about the public talk about Einstein at the Wolf Performance Hall this evening at 7pm. The talk will also be live-streamed online on the pages linked below, and will soon appear on our YouTube channel. Details on the talk follows below. Gravity, Geometry, and Philosophy: 100 Years in Einstein's Universe - [...]
Next week, the Rotman Institute welcomes two outstanding speakers. Robert DiSalle will speak on March 2nd on Gravity, Geometry, Philosophy: 100 Years in Einstein's Universe, and Elisabeth Lloyd will give a talk titled The Orgasm Wars, about the evolutionary puzzle of the female orgasm.Both talks will also be live-streamed online on the pages linked below, [...]
[Re-posted from https://acmes.org/] Algorithms and Complexity in Mathematics, Epistemology and Science6-8 May 2015, London, Ontario, Canada.ACMES is a multidisciplinary conference that focuses on a combination of the science of reliability and uncertainty quantification with conceptual and foundational issues concerning reliability in the application of scientific theories to real phenomena. The conference integrates longer talks from six [...]
The second lecture Peter Achinstein gave in November, 2014 is now available on our YouTube channel, and below: Abstract: Isaac Newton famously claimed that hypotheses, i.e., unproved propositions, have no place in “experimental philosophy.” Maxwell disagreed and proposed three methods that can legitmately be employed when a scientist lacks proof for a theory, or even a [...]
Abstract: Scientists and philosophers who seek, or advocate seeking, a “theory of everything” (e.g., string theory, Thomas Nagel’s panpsychic theory, David Chalmers’ “construction of the world”) want to produce a grand, unifying theory that can explain everything on the basis of fundamental laws and constituents of the universe. Advocates of this idea offer very general [...]
