The theme of this year's library lecture series was The Brain Boom: How Neuroscience is Changing How We Understand Ourselves. Co-sponsored by the London Public Library and the Department of Philosophy at Western University, a series of four public lectures addressing the theme were given at the Landon Branch public library. The inaugural lecture, given [...]
by Cory E. Goldstein and Austin R. Horn Kyoko Wada joined the Rotman Institue this year as a postdoctoral fellow. She is a trained anesthesiologist with an MA in bioethics from Monash University, Australia and a PhD from Western University. She completed a bioethics research fellowship in the Departments of Psychiatry and Anesthesia & Perioperative [...]
by Nicole L. Fice, Cory E. Goldstein, and Austin R. Horn The media response to the recent Zika virus outbreak has been sensationalized and, as a result, governmental responses have been largely misplaced. Zika is a virus that has been around for decades, with relatively mild symptoms. However, a recent outbreak in Brazil that coincided [...]
What would ethical dilemmas look like, if you tried to depict them? How would you attempt to catch the relation between cause and effect on camera? Can the categorical imperative, an Aristotelian ‘tode ti’, or even mathematical intuition itself be photographed? Since the Rotman Institute was founded in 2008, we've collected an array of photos. [...]
By Philippos Papayannopoulos It's very common to read and hear people talking about Kurt Gödel's famous (first) incompleteness theorem, in popular media, books, discussions, etc. Which is a very good thing I think, given how wonderful and ingenious the ideas and the reasoning behind this theorem are. But even though it's more than almost 85 [...]
By Philippos Papayannopoulos This year’s (2016) Isaac Asimov memorial debate was dedicated to the question “Is the Universe a Simulation?”. A recent article in The Guardian (Oct 11, 2016) also was about the exact same question. In this post I discuss this hypothesis, but with an eye on how the question was pursued during the [...]
Interview by Philippos Papayannopoulos Michael Cuffaro is a philosopher of science who thinks about philosophical issues in quantum mechanics, about the nature of computing, about the interplay between them, about the notion of explanation in science, about complexity of algorithms, about Solomonoff Induction (I don’t know what this is either, but we’ll soon find [...]
Rotman members were busy during the month of October with new publications, conferences, book reviews, and more. News and updates are listed below in alphabetical order. Samantha Brennan presented the keynote address at the Atlantic Region Philosophers Association (ARPA) Annual Conference in Wolfville, Nova Scotia on October 21-22. The theme of this year's conference was [...]
by Adam Koberinski Today I sat down with one of the new Rotman postdoctoral fellows, Marc Holman, to chat about his research, his background, and his position here at the Rotman Institute. Dr. Holman has a lot of passion for his work, and it shows through in this interview. Adam Koberinski: Tell us a little [...]
Rotman Institute of Philosophy resident member Jessey Wright recently received an American Association of Philosophy Teachers Grant for Innovations in Teaching for a project, titled “A Game-Based Tool for Introducing Philosophy of Science Suitable for All Ages” that began two years ago as part of the institute’s K-12 Outreach program. We asked him to briefly [...]
