Aimee van Wynsberghe: The Ethics of Ethical Robots
Room 2202 - Spencer Engineering Building Spencer Engineering Building, Western University, London, Ontario, CanadaABSTRACT Robots are no longer fuel for the imagination of science fiction writers; they are now a part of our personal and professional lives and will become increasingly so in the years to come. They are already a part of surgical procedures and are delivering sheets and medications throughout the hospital. They are becoming a [...]
Hanna Pickard: Why Do Addicts Use? Getting Real about Drugs, Identity, and Adversity
Room 2020 - Social Science Centre Social Science Centre, Western University, London, Ontario, CanadaRead the interview with Hanna Pickard conducted during her visit to the Rotman Institute. ABSTRACT The mainstream view of addiction is that it is a neurobiological disease of compulsion. Yet the evidence is overwhelming that addicts retain choice and a degree of control over drug consumption. This talk explores the power of the neurobiological myth [...]
James G. Lennox: Aristotle and Darwin: Antagonists or Kindred Spirits?
Room 1145 - Stevenson Hall Stevenson Hall, Room 1145, London, Ontario, CanadaABSTRACT In the decades following the forging of the so-called Neo-Darwinian Synthesis in the 1940s, a number of its philosophical defenders created a myth about what Charles Darwin was up against, a viewpoint called “typological essentialism” often attributed to Aristotle. In this paper I first sketch the history of how this myth was created. I [...]
Rotman 2017 Annual Conference: Cosmology and the Future of Spacetime
Room 114 - North Campus Building 2004 Perth Drive, London, Ontario, CanadaCosmology and the Future of Spacetime is a three-day conference taking place June 12-14, 2017 at Western University in London, Ontario, Canada. To view full details about the conference, please visit the conference page on the philosophy of cosmology website. CONFERENCE DESCRIPTION Even though general relativity has enjoyed profound success throughout the century since its [...]
2017 Philosophy of Logic Math and Physics Graduate Student Conference
Room 1145 - Stevenson Hall Stevenson Hall, Room 1145, London, Ontario, CanadaJoin us on June 15-16, 2017 for the seventeenth annual Philosophy of Logic, Math and Physics (LMP) graduate student conference in philosophy at Western University in London, Ontario, Canada. The LMP Graduate Student Conference will bring together philosophers of logic, mathematics, and physics for two days of presentations and discussions with some of the leaders in these fields. We are [...]
2017 PhilMiLCog Graduate Student Conference
Room 1145 - Stevenson Hall Stevenson Hall, Room 1145, London, Ontario, CanadaPhilMiLCog is a three-day graduate conference with a broad and interdisciplinary scope. The conference, now in its 15th year, is recognized as one of the top philosophy graduate conferences in North America, synthesizing research from the Philosophy of Mind, Language, and Cognitive Science, including psychology, linguistics, evolution, and computer science. PhilMiLCog provides an opportunity for graduate students with common interests from [...]
Alison Gopnik: The Gardener and the Carpenter: What developmental science tells us about relations between parents and children.
Wolf Performance Hall - Central Library 251 Dundas St, London, Ontario, CanadaIn this Rotman Lecture, co-sponsored with Western Alumni and the London Public Library, renowned author Alison Gopnik asks us to think about parenting as a relationship. ABSTRACT Caring deeply about our children is part of what makes us human. Yet the thing we call "parenting" is a surprisingly new invention. In the past thirty years, [...]
Alison Gopnik: When children are better learners than adults are: Theory formation, causal models, and the evolution of learning.
University Community Centre, Room 56 1151 Richmond Street, London, Ontario, CanadaABSTRACT In the past 15 years, we have discovered that even young children are adept at inferring causal relationship. But are there differences in the ways that younger children, older children and adults learn? And do socioeconomic status and culture make a difference? I will present several studies showing a surprising pattern. Not only can [...]
Ian Stewart: Restoring ecosystems after oil spills: philosophical considerations and policy implications
Room 1145 - Stevenson Hall Stevenson Hall, Room 1145, London, Ontario, CanadaABSTRACT Scientific and technological capacity for understanding and responding to oil spills is currently of great relevance for major infrastructure projects and sustainability goals in the Canadian context (and internationally). Planned expansion of oil and gas development into the Arctic is a case in point, as are pipeline projects linking central and coastal Canada. The [...]
Jenann Ismael: The link between time, totality, and determinism (or why the problem of determinism is really the problem of fatalism)
Room 4190 - Western Interdisciplinary Research Building Western Interdisciplinary Research Building, Room 4190, London, Ontario, CanadaABSTRACT The problem of fatalism was around long before relativity, but gained affirmation in many peoples minds from Relativity. Relativistic theories confront us with a vision of the universe from a temporally transcendent standpoint, i.e., one that treats time as an internal parameter in the universe composed of events. The problem of determinism also had [...]
Ned Block: How to think about the border between seeing and thinking?
ABSTRACT Seeing and thinking are of course different, but is there a fundamental basis for the difference and if so, what is it? This talk will argue that perception is iconic in format and non-conceptual and non-propositional in content. Further, this way of drawing the border between perception and cognition holds even if cognitive penetration [...]
Stathis Psillos: From natures to laws of nature
Room 4190 - Western Interdisciplinary Research Building Western Interdisciplinary Research Building, Room 4190, London, Ontario, CanadaABSTRACT The key claim of this talk will be that the conception of nature as being governed by natural laws is thoroughly modern. It arose mostly in the natural philosophy of Rene Descartes and was meant to replace natural powers as principles of change and of connection among distinct existences. This new conception of laws [...]
Panel Discussion – Editing the Human Genome: The Ethics of Moulding our Future
Wolf Performance Hall - Central Library 251 Dundas St, London, Ontario, CanadaABSTRACT The groundbreaking discovery of the gene-editing tool known as CRISPR allows scientists to precisely, efficiently, and cheaply modify the human genome. This may provide us with the power to cure disease and to unlock the secrets of early human development. It might, in the future, allow us to modify humans in directions that we now only [...]
Julian Savulescu: The Science and Ethics of Human Enhancement
Room 106 - Physics and Astronomy Building 1151 Richmond Street, London, Ontario, CanadaABSTRACT Scandal after scandal has revealed that sport has been experimenting with human enhancement on a massive scale. These are among the most high-profile cases. But in fact human enhancement technologies influence all aspects of life. From students and professionals taking modafinil to enhance cognition, focus and drive, to evidence that SSRIs (anti-depressants) affect moral [...]
Laura Franklin-Hall: The Animal Sexes as Queer Kinds
Room 4190 - Western Interdisciplinary Research Building Western Interdisciplinary Research Building, Room 4190, London, Ontario, CanadaABSTRACT Though biologists identify organisms as ‘male’ and ‘female’ across a broad range of animal species—in the pipefish, orb spider, quokka, and king quail—the particular traits enjoyed by males and females can vary tremendously. This diversity has led some to conclude that the trans-animal sexes—males, of whatever animal species, and females likewise—have “little or no [...]
2018 PhilMiLCog Graduate Student Conference
Room 2166 - Stevenson Hall London, Ontario, CanadaPhilMiLCog is a three-day graduate conference with a broad and interdisciplinary scope. The conference, now in its 16th year, is recognized as one of the top philosophy graduate conferences in North America, synthesizing research from the Philosophy of Mind, Language, and Cognitive Science, including psychology, linguistics, evolution, and computer science. PhilMiLCog provides an opportunity for graduate students with common interests from [...]
Thermodynamics as a Resource Theory: 2018 Annual Philosophy of Physics Conference
Room 114 - North Campus Building 2004 Perth Drive, London, Ontario, CanadaEVENT DESCRIPTION The Revolution will be thermalized. Recently, there has been a shift in the way that many physicists are approaching the science of thermodynamics. Instead of regarding its laws as purely physical laws, researchers are increasingly treating the theory as a theory about how agents, such as ourselves, can use information about a physical [...]
2018 Philosophy of Logic Math and Physics Graduate Student Conference
Room 1145 - Stevenson Hall Stevenson Hall, Room 1145, London, Ontario, CanadaJoin us on June 23-24, 2018 for the eighteenth annual Philosophy of Logic, Math and Physics (LMP) graduate student conference in philosophy at Western University in London, Ontario, Canada. The LMP Graduate Student Conference will bring together philosophers of logic, mathematics, and physics for two days of presentations and discussions with some of the leaders in these fields. We [...]
Panel Discussion: Canada Up in Smoke? Debating the Impact of Cannabis Legalization
Room 1200, Spencer Engineering Building Spencer Engineering Building, Western University, London, Ontario, CanadaEVENT DESCRIPTION The Society of Neuroscience Graduate Students at Western University is hosting an upcoming panel discussion on the legalization of cannabis, due to take effect in October. The event will include experts from a range of fields, exploring the medical, legal, and ethical considerations of the new policy. The Rotman Institute of Philosophy and [...]
Rotman 2018 Annual Conference: Understanding Replication Across the Sciences
Room 3000 - Western Interdisciplinary Research Building Western University, London, Ontario, CanadaCONFERENCE DESCRIPTION Currently, there is a widespread perception that scientific activity is in the middle of a (so-called) 'reproducibility' or 'replication crisis'. Many important findings published in leading scientific journals have turned out to be difficult or impossible to replicate. The ongoing controversy surrounding the reproducibility of scientific activity threatens to undermine the authority of [...]