TALK: Spatial and Temporal Analogies Revisited

Presented by

Stefano Catelan

Time and space do not seem to be as alike as they supposedly were in the early days of the analytic enterprise. Recent works in the Philosophy of Physics seem to acknowledge a clear difference between the two. In this paper, I shall first look at the traditional philosophical thesis that space and time are radically alike. Secondly, I shall contrast such thesis with the current tendency which argues that time, being somehow special, is fundamentally different from space. Lastly, after remarking on a number of the assumptions made by both parties, I shall conclude that there may be a sense in which the two fall short of their purpose.

When: Monday, July 29th, 1:00pm - 2:30pm

Where: Philosophy Common Room

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Conference report: 6th Munich-Sydney-Tilburg Philosophy of Science: Models and Decisions

6th Munich-Sydney-Tilburg Philosophy of Science: Models and Decisions

This was the 6th conference in the annual Munich-Tilburg-Sydney series of philosophy of science conferences.

This year the conference was in Munich, hosted by the Munich Center for Mathematical Philosophy at the Ludwig-Maximilians University. The theme was "Models and Decisions", with the aim of bringing together two distinct groups of researchers from within philosophy of science and from further afield. The keynote speakers were: Luc Bovens (Professor of Philosophy at the London School of Economics), Itzhak Gilboa (Professor of Economics and Decision Sciences at HEC, Paris, and at the Eitan Berglas School of Economics, Tel-Aviv University), Ulrike Hahn (Professor of Psychology at Birkbeck College, University of London), Michael Strevens (Professor of Philosophy at New York University), and Claudia Tebaldi (Professor of Statistics and Climate Science University of British Columbia, Vancouver and at Climate Central). The conference was a great success, with terrific papers and discussions. The next conference will be hosted by the Sydney Centre for the Foundations of Science in April 2014 at the University of Sydney.

Communicating about DNA - is there a problem?

Science writer Phillip Ball spoke out in Nature last week against what he claimed is simplistic and outdated science communication about DNA, on the 60th anniversary of Watson and Crick's April 1953 publication.  ABC Science Online has published commentary from Australian researchers, including SCFS researcher Paul Griffiths, on Ball's claims.