Call for Abstracts: Knowledge and Models in Climate Science: Philosophical, Historical, and Scientific Perspectives

[Update: Logistics information can be found here, more info coming soon] [Update: Abstract submissions due August 22, 2014]   We are delighted to announce that the Rotman Institute of Philosophy will host its second annual conference, Knowledge and Models in Climate Science, on Oct. 24-26, 2014.  The conference will bring together researchers to discuss the [...]

Why Talk to Philosophers? Part IV.

Wayne Myrvold Here's the latest in our series of physicists writing about the value of philosophy:  Ivette Fuentes on the interplay between science and philosophy (and also science and the arts!)  Science and philosophy share common goals. They aim at developing and deepening our understanding of reality, at uncovering the basic constituents of the Universe [...]

2014-07-01T08:50:50-04:00July 1st, 2014|Philosophy of Physics, Philosophy of Science|

Why Talk to Philosophers? Part III.

Wayne Myrvold Continuing our series of physicists writing about what they find vaulable in philosophy and in talking to philosophers, here's Lee Smolin. My knowledge of the history and philosophy of physics helps me understand the challenges, frustrations and puzzles I encounter in my research, by putting them in the context of the long history [...]

2014-06-25T09:15:01-04:00June 25th, 2014|Philosophy of Physics, Philosophy of Science|

Why Talk to Philosophers? Part II.

Wayne Myrvold Continuing our series of physicists talking about why they find philosophy valuable (Part I here), here's Carlo Rovelli. The recent dismissive remarks about philosophy by Neil deGrasse Tyson reopen a debate which I think is worthwhile reopening. Neil deGrasse Tyson is not the only one to consider philosophy useless for science. Many of my [...]

2014-06-24T19:28:32-04:00June 24th, 2014|Philosophy of Physics, Philosophy of Science|

Why Talk to Philosophers? Part I.

Wayne Myrvold About a month ago, I did a guest post over at New APPS that was prompted by philosophers’ responses to Neil de Grasse Tyson’s dismissive remarks about philosophy. Unsurprisingly, attitudes towards philosophy vary widely among physicists, and there are plenty of physicists who have a much more positive attitude towards philosophy. Some of [...]

2014-06-24T19:29:37-04:00June 20th, 2014|Philosophy of Physics, Philosophy of Science|

New Video: Stathis Psillos – From the Bankruptcy of Science to the Death of Evidence

Rotman Canada Research Chair at Western, Stathis Psillos, spoke as part of the Lives of Evidence series of lectures put on by Situating Science. A recording of his talk, From the 'Bankruptcy of Science' to the 'Death of Evidence': Science and its Value, is at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ichALemSCFE.

2014-06-02T12:26:58-04:00June 2nd, 2014|Philosophy of Science, Science and Society|

New video: Rotman Institute Lecturer Bas van Fraassen, “The Semantic Approach to Science, After 50 Years”

What is a scientific theory? How does it get empirical meaning? What are its linguistic status and formal characteristics? 50 years ago, the advent of the semantic view of scientific theory marked a departure from the 'received view' or syntactic approach, according to which a theory is given by a system of axioms (definitions and [...]

2014-04-12T17:39:51-04:00April 14th, 2014|Events, Philosophy of Science|

Rotman Summer Institute 2014

Causal Powers in Science: Blending Historical and Conceptual Perspectives Each year the Rotman Summer Institute brings graduate students together with exceptional faculty from around the world to focus on a topic of special interest where philosophy and science meet and interact. This year’s Institute brings together philosophers of science and metaphysicians with historians of philosophy [...]

2014-03-18T15:29:08-04:00January 9th, 2014|Education, Events, Philosophy of Science, Science Education|
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