In March 2013 the German Society for Philosophy of Science/Gesellschaft für Wissenschaftsphilosophie (GWP) held its first meeting. It is somewhat of a sociological puzzle why a country with such a rich tradition in philosophy of science did not have (up until now, that is) a society dedicated to the field. The overarching conference theme was How [...]
By: Greg Horne and Melissa Jacquart On Friday, March 22nd, Mary Domksi spoke to the Rotman Institute about one of her current research questions: how are we to understand the blending of mathematics and empiricism in Sir Isaac Newton’s Principia Mathematica (1687)? For those unfamiliar with the Principia, it is perhaps one of the most [...]
As part of the Rotman Institute Speaker Series, each year one speaker is chosen as the Rotman Institute Lecturer in Philosophy and Science. This year, the Rotman Institute had the pleasure of hearing from Professor John D. Norton as the 2012/2013 Rotman Lecturer. Norton is currently the Director for the Center for Philosophy of Science, [...]
BU Conference: “How HPS can contribute to science education” 4/5 Defining what place HPS should take in official guidelines is not an easy task. But it is of primary importance, and academics have a role to play in it. In the context of U.S. primary and secondary education, a national framework (pdf) provides guidelines [...]
By: Patrick Clipsham On November 19th 2012, Professor Patricia Churchland (UC San Diego) gave the first lecture in the Neurophilosophy Speaker Series, which is jointly sponsored by Western’s Rotman Institute of Philosophy and Brain and Mind Institute. Churchland is, without doubt, the ideal academic to give such an important lecture, as she has long been [...]
(Image: Quantum Cloud, sculpture by Antony Gormley) Last year two books appeared that will be on the required reading list for philosophers of physics for many years to come: Gordon Belot's Geometric Possibility and Laura Ruetsche's Interpreting Quantum Theories. The Rotman Institute hosted a book bash to celebrate the arrival of publication of these long-awaited [...]
Mohan Matthen has a nice, punchy write up on Plantinga's 'Evolutionary Argument Against Naturalism' (EAAN) over at NewAPPS. The EAAN has been influential in some anti-Darwinian circles (Nagel's recent flirtation with teleology in science being one prominent example). I think Mathen is entirely right to suggest that the EAAN relies on an "extraordinarily narrow view [...]
In September 2011, Yann Benétreau-Dupin arrived at Western to pursue his PhD in Philosophy. Yann was one of the two recipients of the Rotman Institute of Philosophy Doctoral Entrance Scholarship, a $10,000 scholarship offered to students of with outstanding performance history and achievements, and who specialize in the study of philosophy and science. In October, [...]
By Wayne Myrvold Big news of the day is the press conference that CERN held this morning, announcing strong evidence of something that has some of the right properties to be the Higgs boson. Is today the day that will forever mark the “discovery” of the Higgs boson? We like nice, neat milestones like that, [...]
By Wayne Myrvold A few weeks ago, I gave a talk at the annual meeting of the Canadian Society for the History and Philosophy of Science. The title was “On the Social Responsibility of Philosophers of Science.” The idea behind the talk was simple, as it pretty much had to be, given the time constraints. [...]
