Bipasha Baruah: Global Trends in Women’s Employment in Renewable and Clean Energy: Continuities, Contradictions, Disruptions
Room 1170 - Western Interdisciplinary Research Building Western Interdisciplinary Research Building, London, Ontario, CanadaABSTRACT Concerns about environmental sustainability and fossil-fuel insecurity have motivated countries around the world to transition to clean energy supplies derived from renewables such as solar, hydro, bioenergy, geothermal and wind. Since producing and distributing renewables is more labor-intensive than producing and distributing fossil fuels, this shift is creating new employment opportunities and addressing energy [...]
Janet Martin: Evidence Reversals: How Fragile is the Evidence Base?
Room 1170 - Western Interdisciplinary Research Building Western Interdisciplinary Research Building, London, Ontario, CanadaWhat happens when an existing claim is tested and the original evidence is contradicted by new and stronger evidence? Join us for a talk by Dr. Janet Martin, director of the MEDICI Centre, Schulich School of Medicine & Dentistry, on evidence reversals. SPEAKER PROFILE Dr. Janet Martin is Associate Professor in the Departments of Anesthesia [...]
Happiness and Well-Being: Philosophical Perspectives
Stevenson & Hunt Room A - Central Library 251 Dundas St, London, Ontario, CanadaEVENT DESCRIPTION Each year, the Rotman Institute of Philosophy and the Department of Philosophy at Western University organize a public lecture series, co-sponsored with the London Public Library. The theme for this year's lecture series is happiness and well-being. The four speakers taking part in this year's series have expertise in a range of [...]
Writing for a general audience: a workshop with science writer Kayt Sukel
Room 1110 - Western Interdisciplinary Research Building Western Interdisciplinary Research Building, London, Ontario, CanadaCurrent Western University graduate students are invited to attend a writing workshop with Kayt Sukel, author of Risk and This is Your Brain on Sex, where she will offer tips, techniques, and best practices for clear communication with a general audience. Learn how to talk to reporters – and avoid underselling (or overselling) your research. Discover new [...]
Erik Angner: Why the Science of Well-Being Needs the Philosophy of Well-Being—and Vice Versa
Room 1170 - Western Interdisciplinary Research Building Western Interdisciplinary Research Building, London, Ontario, CanadaABSTRACT In 1976, Mario Bunge advocated a “vigorous and symmetrical interaction between science and philosophy … to close the gap between the two camps and to develop a scientific philosophy and a science with philosophical awareness.” The aim of this paper is to defend both parts of Bunge’s thesis, viz., that philosophical conclusions are relevant [...]
Winter & Spring 2019 Rotman Dialogues
Room 4190 - Western Interdisciplinary Research Building Western Interdisciplinary Research Building, Room 4190, London, Ontario, CanadaEVENT DESCRIPTION Rotman Dialogues are events based on a specific book or reading, that are facilitated by Institute graduate students. Conducted much as an author-meets-critics event, these informal discussions begin with a brief introduction by the author, followed by questions from the one or two graduate students chairing the session. Finally, the dialogue is [...]
Anjan Chakravartty: Constraints on Rational Scientific Disagreement
Room 1170 - Western Interdisciplinary Research Building Western Interdisciplinary Research Building, London, Ontario, CanadaABSTRACT In recent work I have argued that scientific disagreement can be rational even in contexts of shared evidence and comparable expertise. The notion that rival interpretations of a theory or a model can be rational, however, has potentially worrying consequences for how we view scientific knowledge and our reliance on it in societal contexts [...]
Lisa Feldman Barrett – Emotions: Facts vs. Fictions
Wolf Performance Hall - Central Library 251 Dundas St, London, Ontario, CanadaThe 2019 Rotman Lecture will be delivered by Dr. Lisa Feldman Barrett, professor of psychology at Northeastern University, and author of "How Emotions are Made: The Secret Life of the Brain". She delivered the 2017 TED Talk, "You aren’t at the mercy of your emotions -- your brain creates them”, which was among the top [...]
Emily Thomas – Travel Writing as Thought Experiments: Science, Francis Bacon, and Margaret Cavendish’s Blazing World
Room 1145 - Stevenson Hall Stevenson Hall, Room 1145, London, Ontario, CanadaABSTRACT Travel has a long and intimate history with philosophy. Travel also has a long and intimate relationship with fiction. Sometimes travel fiction acts as ‘thought experiments’, experiments that we can run through in our heads. This talk explores a 1666 fiction travelogue, Margaret Cavendish’s Blazing World. In the novel, a virtuous young lady is [...]
Robert Rupert – There Is No Personal Level: On the Virtues of a Psychology Flattened from Above
Room 1170 - Western Interdisciplinary Research Building Western Interdisciplinary Research Building, London, Ontario, CanadaABSTRACT In their attempt to understand the structure of cognitive science, philosophers of mind often give pride of place to what they take to be an ontologically distinctive level of reality, the so-called personal level. The typical product of such an effort consists of the following claims: (a) humans have introspective, commonsense-based, or a priori [...]
Şerife Tekin: The Indispensability of Patient Testimonies for Objectivity in Psychiatry
Room 1170 - Western Interdisciplinary Research Building Western Interdisciplinary Research Building, London, Ontario, CanadaABSTRACT A primary goal of psychiatric epistemology is to identify the properties of mental disorders that are relevant for developing effective interventions. Sources of information that individuate these properties include scientific research on mental disorders (e.g., clinical drug trials), data emerging from clinical settings (e.g., case studies), and first-person reports of those suffering from mental [...]
MCMP-Western Ontario Workshop on Computation in Scientific Theory and Practice
The goal of this interdisciplinary meeting is to explore philosophical and historical issues that arise at the intersection of theoretical computer science, mathematics, and natural science,
2019 Philosophy of Logic Math and Physics Graduate Student Conference
Room 1145 - Stevenson Hall Stevenson Hall, Room 1145, London, Ontario, CanadaThe 19th annual Philosophy of Logic, Mathematics, and Physics (LMP) Graduate Conference will take place on Monday-Tuesday, June 10-11, 2019, at the University of Western Ontario in London, Ontario, Canada. We are pleased to announce that David John Baker (University of Michigan) will be giving the keynote address for this year’s LMP. Western University’s Philosophy Department [...]
Foundations of Quantum Field Theory: 2019 Annual Philosophy of Physics Conference
Room 3000 - Western Interdisciplinary Research Building Western University, London, Ontario, CanadaThis workshop on the philosophy of quantum field theory (QFT) will bring together philosophers and physicists to address a set of foundational questions significant to both fields. Almost all of modern fundamental physics is written in the mathematical language of QFT. (The exception to this proves the rule: Einstein's theory of gravity is not [...]
Carlos Montemayor – The Difference Between Consciousness and Attention: Scientific Challenges
Room 1130 - Western Interdisciplinary Research Building Western Interdisciplinary Research Building, London, ON, CanadaABSTRACT We know our minds directly, by having privileged access to them. We also know about them more indirectly, by studying the biological and structural conditions that allow creatures like us to have minds. This gap between the subjective and the objective has been the focus of much debate in consciousness studies. I here explore [...]
Rotman Dialogue with Louise Barrett: Enactivism, pragmatism…behaviorism?
Room 7107 - Western Interdisciplinary Research Building Western Interdisciplinary Research Building, London, ON, CanadaRotman Dialogues are events based on a specific book or reading, that are facilitated by Institute graduate students. Conducted much as an author-meets-critics event, these informal discussions begin with a brief introduction by the author, followed by questions from the one or two graduate students chairing the session. Finally, the dialogue is opened up to [...]
Allan Franklin – Measuring Nothing Repeatedly: Null Experiments in Physics
Room 7107 - Western Interdisciplinary Research Building Western Interdisciplinary Research Building, London, ON, CanadaThe philosophy of physics reading group will host Allan Franklin for a guest talk during an off-week of their regularly scheduled meeting time. He'll be speaking about a new book he co-authored called Measuring Nothing Repeatedly: Null Experiments in Physics. Individuals interested in attending the talk need not participate in the reading group, but are [...]
The promises and perils of A(rtificial) I(ntelligence)
Room 1130 - Western Interdisciplinary Research Building Western Interdisciplinary Research Building, London, ON, CanadaThe rise of artificial intelligence inspires both fear and optimism. The creation and use of machines and software capable of learning and developing the ability to think and behave autonomously promises significant social benefits, but also great social upheaval. AI will affect how we travel, work, and receive health care. It will impact the quality [...]
Evidence & Belief in the Age of Mass Information
Stevenson & Hunt Room A - Central Library 251 Dundas St, London, Ontario, CanadaPerhaps at no other time in history has information been more widely & easily accessible. But how reliable is it? What do we do when confronted with fundamental disagreement about matters of social importance, including climate change and vaccination? Whom should we trust? Experts might help us. But who counts as an expert? Our [...]
Philosophical Issues in Research Ethics Workshop
The Philosophical Issues in Research Ethics Workshop will bring together leading scholars in the field. Building on the success of the two-day workshop held at Carnegie Mellon University in November 2018, this workshop seeks to: (1) Create a high-level forum for exchange of ideas among philosophers working on problems in research ethics; (2) Foster [...]