The Rotman Institute Philosophical Photography Contest challenged people to submit unique photographs that somehow managed to capture an abstract philosophical concept. We received a fabulous mix of photos that were reviewed by a small panel of judges. Choosing the winning photograph was no easy task -- some of the photographs themselves were particularly striking, some [...]
Rotman members kicked off the new year with a busy month of activities. New publications, conference presentations, media appearances, and other news are all listed below in alphabetical order. An article on sports ethics, Competing Interests: The team doctor’s dual loyalty problem, published in the Canadian Medical Association Journal included commentary by Samantha Brennan. Samantha [...]
ACMES 2, Computationally Assisted Mathematical Discovery and Experimental Mathematics, was a four day conference held on May 12 - 15, 2016 at Western University. Videos from the fourth day of the conference have been added to the ACMES 2 video playlist. Remaining videos from the conference will be available soon. Computational Discovery, also called Experimental [...]
The Rotman Institute is honoured to be hosting a number of events this semester on important issues from a variety of fields. These events will explore pressing questions like: Are humans the only species with rich mental, social, and emotional lives? Is it justifiable to keep animals in zoos and aquariums? Might robots be moral? [...]
We'd like to begin our monthly news post with two exciting announcements from December. First, please join us in congratulating Jackie Sullivan, who was recently promoted to Associate Professor with tenure, effective this July. Second, Lisa Forsberg has joined us as a new postdoctoral fellow. During her time at Western, besides her own research, Lisa [...]
2016 is almost behind us, and in keeping with the custom of compiling end of year lists, we've put together the following list of our top 10 videos of the year. The collection of videos and playlists on the Rotman Institute's YouTube channel cover an array of philosophical areas and topics. Videos of public Rotman [...]
Many fans of the Gilmore Girls were unhappy at how the show’s revival handled the storyline of the abrasive yet lovable Paris Geller. While I too agree that Paris deserves a happier ending, my dismay about her personal life was largely overshadowed by my dismay at how the show portrayed her career in commercial surrogacy [...]
With the conclusion of 2016, the Rotman Institute would like to take this opportunity to acknowledge the hard work and achievements of some of our graduate student members. This year a total of seven students successfully defended their doctoral theses. Their names, and the titles of their dissertations are listed below. Top row (left to [...]
Justin Donhauser joined the Rotman Institute as postdoctoral fellow this fall. He specializes in socially-relevant philosophy of science — focusing on clarifying how model-based ecological and climate-science methods can aid in political, ethical, and resource management decisions. Justin trained as a PhD fellow of the National Science Foundation endowed Ecosystem Restoration through Interdisciplinary Exchange (ERIE-IGERT) [...]
The 2016 Biennial Meeting of the Philosophy of Science Association took place at the start of November. Over 20 Rotman members took part in the meeting -- presenting papers, chairing sessions, and taking part in the poster forum. A detailed list of member involvement at the 2016 PSA was previously published on our blog. The [...]
