tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-53619915113003766502024-03-14T03:15:36.739+11:00Foundations of Science SydneyA group blog for researchers working on the Foundations of Science at the University of SydneyRod Taveirahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11636209673366313548noreply@blogger.comBlogger105125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5361991511300376650.post-54747744668038887372013-07-24T12:21:00.001+10:002013-07-24T12:21:51.168+10:00TALK: Spatial and Temporal Analogies Revisited<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 16.8pt;">
<span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Presented by</span><span style="font-size: 11pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Arial;">Stefano
Catelan<span style="font-size: x-small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-AU; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">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.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-AU; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">When:
Monday, July 29th, 1:00pm - 2:30pm</span></b><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-AU; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-AU; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Where: Philosophy Common Room</span></b><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-AU; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5361991511300376650.post-72951801006444949702013-05-06T13:26:00.000+10:002013-05-06T13:26:13.597+10:00Conference report: 6th Munich-Sydney-Tilburg Philosophy of Science: Models and Decisions
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<b><a href="http://www.modelsanddecisions2013.philosophie.uni-muenchen.de/index.html" target="_blank">6th Munich-Sydney-Tilburg Philosophy of Science: Models and Decisions</a></b></div>
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This was the 6th conference in the annual <a href="http://www.tilburguniversity.edu/research/institutes-and-research-groups/tilps/events/conferences/conferences-display/item-munich-sydney-tilburg-conference-series/" target="_blank">Munich-Tilburg-Sydney series of philosophy of science conferences</a>.</div>
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This year the conference was in Munich, hosted by the Munich Center for Mathematical Philosophy at the <a href="http://www.mcmp.philosophie.uni-muenchen.de/index.html" target="_blank">Ludwig-Maximilians University</a>. 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.</div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5361991511300376650.post-74381558518686131682013-04-29T12:51:00.000+10:002013-04-29T12:51:00.974+10:00Communicating about DNA - is there a problem?Science writer Phillip Ball spoke out in <i>Nature</i> 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. <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-04-25/leading-science-writer-refutes-dna-tale/4651610" target="_blank">ABC Science Online</a> has published commentary from Australian researchers, including SCFS researcher Paul Griffiths, on Ball's claims.Paul griffithshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06372695408357184772noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5361991511300376650.post-31411367677166678732012-11-22T12:17:00.002+11:002012-11-22T12:17:24.229+11:00Structure in Chemistry and Biology workshop<br />
<h4>
FRIDAY 7TH DECEMBER, 2012. 10.30AM TO 6PM<br /></h4>
<h4>
NEW LAW ANNEX SEMINAR ROOM 346, UNIVERSITY OF SYDNEY CAMPERDOWN CAMPUS</h4>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 1.1em; line-height: 17px; margin: 0.5em auto; padding: 0px;">
<span style="font-size: 1.1em;">The aim of the workshop is to bring philosophers and scientists together to probe fundamental questions about the role and status of appeals to structure in chemistry and biology.</span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 1.1em; line-height: 17px; margin: 0.5em auto; padding: 0px;">
<br />Philosophers will be interested in what structure is and what various structures, from the macroscopic structures of crystals to the quantum mechanical structures involved in the physicists characterisation of molecules, have in common. They will ask whether one kind of structure is more fundamental than another, and whether chemistry and molecular biology are reducible to physics and they will wonder whether some are all of the structures invoked by chemists and biologists are useful fictions rather than depictions of states of affairs existing in reality.<br /><br />Chemists and biologists typically find the level of abstraction involved in the talk of philosophers strange and mystifying. Yet the kinds of problems involving structure addressed by some philosophers of science appear in a tangible form in their work. There is not one, but a range of, characterisations of the structure of molecules (eg. interatomic geometry vs bond topology) and there is no general agreement about how these are related and which is more fundamental. Chemists do not agree on what the best representation of the benzene molecule is. They do not know how to reconcile the fact that glass has the amorphous structure of a liquid with the fact that the business end of golf clubs can be tailor-made from glass. Biologists wrestle with the question of how to relate the static picture of the structure of a protein or sugar and the dynamics of their actions that typically take place in solution.<br /><br />Robin Hendry, from the University of Durham, is a leading international figure in the philosophy of chemistry. He will introduce some of the basic questions concerning structure at the beginning of the workshop. Then he will explore these issues by joining forces with some leading Australian scientists who deal with structure in their work.<br /><br />If you would like to participate in the workshop, please contact <a href="mailto:achalmers@mail.usyd.edu.au" style="border: 0px; color: #125687; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Alan Chalmers</a>, or <a href="mailto:debbie.castle@sydney.edu.au" style="border: 0px; color: #125687; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Debbie Castle</a> Unit for History and Philosophy of Science, University of Sydney</div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 1.1em; line-height: 17px; margin: 0.5em auto; padding: 0px;">
<br /></div>
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See <a href="http://sydney.edu.au/science/hps/news_events/other_events.shtml">http://sydney.edu.au/science/hps/news_events/other_events.shtml</a> for details of the program.</div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5361991511300376650.post-69866187109595031432012-09-13T20:00:00.001+10:002012-09-13T20:00:57.683+10:00AAHPSSS's 2012 DYASON LECTURE
<br />
<div class="p1">
<b>AAHPSSS's 2012 DYASON LECTURE will be presented by:</b></div>
<div class="p2">
<b>Warwick Anderson<br />
<br />
“ Fashioning the Immunological Self: The Biological Individuality of F. Macfarlane Burnet”.</b></div>
<div class="p3">
During the 1940s and 1950s, the Australian microbiologist F. Macfarlane Burnet sought a biologically plausible explanation of antibody production. In this talk, I seek to recover the conceptual pathways that Burnet followed in his immunological theorizing. In so doing, I emphasize the influence of philosophical speculations on individuality, especially those of Alfred North Whitehead; the impact of cybernetics and information theory; and the contributions of clinical research into autoimmune disease at Melbourne. Accordingly, this talk describes an intellectual arc distinct from most other tracings of Burnet’s conceptual development, which focus on his early bacteriophage research and his fascination with the work of Julian Huxley and other biologists in the 1920s. No doubt these were potent influences, but they seem insufficient to explain Burnet’s sudden enthusiasm in the 1940s for immunological definitions of self and not-self. I want to demonstrate here how Burnet’s deep involvement in philosophical biology—along with ineluctable clinical entanglements—shaped his immunological theories.<br />
<br />
<span class="s1"><b>WHERE: Eastern Avenue Lecture Theatre<br />
WHEN: Thursday, 27 Sept, 6.30-8pm<br />
<br />
<br />
</b></span>The event is free and all are very welcome.</div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5361991511300376650.post-41923756325018331652012-09-13T15:08:00.001+10:002012-09-13T15:08:14.004+10:00Call for Applications for Visiting Fellowships at the Sydney Centre for the Foundations of Science
<br />
<div class="p1">
We are currently inviting applications for one-semester visiting fellowships at The University of Sydney, for either second semester (August to November) 2013 or first semester (February to May) 2014. This program is associated with The Sydney Centre for the Foundations of Science (SCFS), a research centre promoting work into the logical, philosophical, and historical foundations of science (further details below). We are hoping to receive applications from leading historians and philosophers of science (including the special sciences and biomedical sciences) at any post-PhD career stage. This is the sixth round of such fellowships and we anticipate being able to offer them each year.</div>
<div class="p2">
<br /></div>
<div class="p1">
Up to four fellowships are available, and each fellowship will come with a travelling allowance of up to AUD 6,000. These fellowships will provide opportunities for academics on sabbatical from their home institution to spend a semester in a productive and collegial research environment (in a beautiful city), to work with members of the SCFS and with other visiting fellows. It is important that the applicant has a position at their home institution that extends beyond the term of the intended stay in Sydney and is on salary from their home institution for the duration of their intended stay. The allowance is to help offset some of the travelling and living-away-from-home expenses; it is not a salary. The successful applicants will be expected to work on a specific research project currently being conducted in the SCFS. See the SCFS website for current research projects. One of the aims of the SCFS is to strengthen international links in history and philosophy of science, so expressions of interest from researchers outside Australia are particularly encouraged.</div>
<div class="p2">
<br /></div>
<div class="p1">
Applications should including a cover letter, a CV, an indication of which of the current research projects you intend to work on and what your contribution to that project will be. Applications should be sent electronically to:</div>
<div class="p2">
<br /></div>
<div class="p1">
Dr Rodney Taveira</div>
<div class="p1">
Administrative Officer</div>
<div class="p1">
Sydney Centre for the Foundations of Science</div>
<div class="p1">
School of Philosophical and Historical Inquiry</div>
<div class="p1">
A14, Main Quadrangle</div>
<div class="p1">
University of Sydney</div>
<div class="p1">
Sydney, NSW, 2006</div>
<div class="p1">
Australia</div>
<div class="p3">
<span class="s1">Email: <a href="mailto:rodney.taveira@sydney.edu.au"><span class="s2">rodney.taveira@sydney.edu.au</span></a></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<br /></div>
<div class="p1">
by 14th November 2012. Applicants will be informed of decisions by 19th December 2012.</div>
<div class="p2">
<br /></div>
<div class="p1">
<b>About The Sydney Centre for the Foundations of Science</b></div>
<div class="p1">
The SCFS is an interdisciplinary research centre at the University of Sydney. We draw together researchers from philosophy, history, history and philosophy of science, science and medicine, with research concentrations in and around foundations of physics, decision theory, history and philosophy of biology, history of early modern science, history of medicine, and decision theory. Senior members of the SCFS include, Warwick Anderson, Stephen Bartlett, Alison Bashford, David Braddon-Mitchell, Mark Colyvan, Clio Cresswell, Ofer Gal, Stephen Garton, Stephen Gaukroger, Paul Griffiths, Ian Kerridge, Dominic Murphy, Maureen O'Malley, Hans Pols, Dean Rickles, Nick Smith, and Karola Stotz. We also have a number of mid-career and junior faculty, as well as several postdoctoral fellows and graduate students associated with the SCFS. Further details can be found on our website: <a href="http://sydney.edu.au/foundations_of_science/"><span class="s3">http://sydney.edu.au/foundations_of_science/</span></a></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5361991511300376650.post-65293674481376891012012-09-07T15:08:00.002+10:002012-09-07T15:08:52.905+10:00Report on Integration workshopFormer SCFS Visitor Sara Green and Prof Olaf Wolkenhauer have written a report on the recent "Integration in Biology and Biomedicine" workshop, held by the SCFS at the University of Sydney in May 2012. You can find a copy of the report here: <a href="http://www.nature.com/embor/journal/v13/n9/full/embor2012121a.html">http://www.nature.com/embor/journal/v13/n9/full/embor2012121a.html</a>. Many thanks to Sara and Olaf for their efforts!Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5361991511300376650.post-70097335731877438482012-05-11T09:36:00.000+10:002012-05-11T09:36:03.412+10:00Flock of Dodos film screening<br />
Visiting Fellow Steven Orzack appears in and will be discussing, along with Paul Griffiths, <i>Flock of Dodos</i>, a film which looks at how and why the debate over evolution has changed. The film will be screened at 6.00pm, Monday 14 May at the Eastern Av. Auditorium, and will be followed by a panel discussion including Steven and Paul and the film's director, Randy Olson.<br />
Co-presented with Sydney Ideas and the School of Biological Sciences<br />
<a href="http://sydney.edu.au/sydney_ideas/lectures/2012/flock_of_dodos.shtml">http://sydney.edu.au/sydney_ideas/lectures/2012/flock_of_dodos.shtml</a><br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5361991511300376650.post-59472723189844292512012-05-08T17:18:00.000+10:002012-05-11T14:08:29.690+10:00Conference report: Integration in Biology and Biomedicine, Sydney, May 3-4 2012<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">A personal view of the
meeting from Paul Griffiths<o:p></o:p></span></i><br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Major new research initiatives at the University of Sydney
emphasise the ‘integrative’ nature of their work. This conference focused on
what ‘integration’ is and how it can be facilitated. Participants were leading Sydney scientists, philosophers
of science whose recent work has focused on integration, and social scientists studying
integration and developing practical interventions to promote integration. The
conference was jointly supported by the Sydney Centre for the Foundations of
Science, the Charles Perkins Centre, and the Institute for Sustainable Solutions.
The conference program is available <a href="http://sydney.edu.au/foundations_of_science/events/integration.shtml" target="_blank">here</a>.</span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">A key concept at the meeting was ‘translational integration’,
a term introduced by Sabina Leonelli. This is a very different conception of integration
from that found in from traditional accounts of the reduction of one science to
another, or of the ‘unity of science’, and also differs from more recent work
on the emergence of new fields at the intersection of different disciplines. These
differences can be brought out using some apparatus introduced at the meeting
by Todd Grantham: to see what is meant by ‘integration’ in any given context it
is necessary to identity the units that are being integrated, the nature of the
connections made between them, and the purpose for which they are being
connected. Traditional discussion of reduction and the unity of science focused
on scientific theories or models of broad application – units that constitute
the major achievements of scientific disciplines. The connections between these
units were on the same scale, with the ‘reduction’ of one theory or model to
another being particularly prominent. The aim of integration was to clarify the
overall structure of scientific knowledge. This is very different from
translational integration.</span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">The units of translational integration are methods, data,
and specific results (or even hypotheses). The ways they are connected are often
temporary and only locally valid, and the aim of integration is to design interventions. Integration of the results of research might seem an odd idea in a discussion which has often focused on integrating diverse elements in the <em>process</em> of research, but it does seem to be what is intended in some talk of 'integrative research. For example, in research on obesity, we have findings from, to choose just a few fields, molecular biology, physiology, social <span style="color: black;">science </span><span style="color: #1f497d; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-AU; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="color: black;">findings about the (in)effectiveness of education programs, information on the price elasticities of different foods, epidemiological data on obesity in
domestic pets paralleling that in humans, etc, etc. Treated in isolation, these may support very
different recommendations about what to do to improve health. One reason to describe research as ‘integrative’ is if it tries to articulate these diverse findings to make a case for trialling particular
interventions</span> </span> This seems to
capture what is intended by some references to ‘integrative research’ in the
research initiatives which sponsored the conference. It is also something along
these lines that the social scientists at the meeting have been seeking to
facilitate. </span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Gabrielle Bammer’s presentation of ‘integration and
implementation sciences’ described a systematic approach to delivering
integrative research. She assumed that such research will be problem-oriented,
and emphasised that a major issue in translational integration is that knowledge
is incomplete, so that part of translational integration is the management
of unknowns. The aim of <span style="mso-bidi-font-style: italic;">translational</span>
integration is not to achieve a more complete vision of nature, and so incompleteness
of knowledge is a practical issue to be managed, not an insuperable barrier to
integration. Whereas philosopher Sandra Mitchell’s presentation argued for
the necessary incompleteness of any single scientific representation of the
world, and a consequent need to revise our ideal of scientific enquiry, Bammer’s
suggestion that the management of unknowns is central to integrative research
would remain valid even on the traditional view that the aim of science is to
produce a complete and consistent model of the natural world. </span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Bammer discussed two classes of tools for delivering
integrative research: dialogic methods and modelling techniques. Dialogic
methods were exemplified in a presentation by Michael O’Rourke and Stephen
Crowley. These researchers have drawn on ideas from the philosophy of science
to design facilitated conversations between members of research teams which
draw out underlying presuppositions about the aims and standards of science
which team members bring from their home disciplines. Bringing these into the
open pre-empts misunderstandings and allows the management of disagreement. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">The use of models in translational integration ranges from
exploring potential connections between different fields, as exemplified in the
demonstration of systems diagrams by Robert Dyball, through the detailed causal
models of complex systems seen in presentations by David James and John Crawford, to
the deliberately abstractive mathematical models presented by Olaf Wolkenhauer.
Much recent work in philosophy of science has focused on modelling as scientific
practice, and models as scientific products. Whilst both these themes were well-represented
in these presentations, another perspective on models present at the conference
was their role as a tool for achieving translational integration. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The construction of a model to serve as the
basis for action can be the activity through which diverse data, methods, results,
and existing models from the contributing disciplines, are connected up and
rendered commensurable.<u style="text-underline: words;"><o:p></o:p></u></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">What agendas for future research emerged from the meeting?
The social scientists involved in research on integration all emphasised that it
is early days in the process of developing a systematic approach to delivering
integrative research. Those who work with research teams to facilitate
integration are simultaneously engaged in research into the effectiveness
of these interventions. However, given the ubiquity of interdisciplinary team science
in today’s biology and biomedicine, the idea of learning from theory and experience, and
embodying those lessons in a more systematic approach to integration is surely worth pursuing.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<br /></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<br /></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<br /></div>Paul griffithshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06372695408357184772noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5361991511300376650.post-43858446832074774952011-11-18T09:49:00.001+11:002011-11-18T09:52:30.088+11:00Templeton grant<span style="font-size: small;">Huw Price, Kristie Miller, Dean Rickles and Alex Holcombe have been awarded a Templeton Grant for their project <i>New Agendas for the Study of Time: Connecting the Disciplines</i>. The award will be worth a little over $1.5 million over three years</span><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue; font-size: small;">. <span>It will enable the project to advertise four full time research positions at USYD in the Centre for TIme, a small grants program, and three major international conferences in Sydney, Cambridge and Capetown.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;">
</span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5361991511300376650.post-86103303829363097952011-11-18T09:47:00.001+11:002012-02-21T11:12:40.171+11:00SCFS funding success<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;">Here are the details of the latest ARC successes at Sydney in history and philosophy of science and medicine:</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;"><br />
ARC Laureate Fellowship (2011–2016) awarded to<br />
<br />
Prof Warwick Anderson for the project <b>Southern Racial Conceptions: Comparative Histories and Contemporary Legacies<br />
</b>($2,120,561)<br />
<br />
ARC Future Fellowships (2011–2015) awarded to<br />
<br />
Prof Mark Colyvan for the project <b>Mathematical Explanation<br />
</b>($788,424)<br />
<br />
Dr Ivan Crozier (currently at the University of Edinburgh) for the project <b>Culture-bound Syndromes, Koro, and the Emergence of 'Cosmopolitan' Psychiatry<br />
</b>($678,914)<br />
<br />
ARC Discovery Early Career Research Awards (2012–2014) to<br />
<br />
Dr Victor Boantza for the project <b>The Making of the Modern Chemist: Struggles within Enlightenment Science<br />
</b>($375,000)<br />
<br />
Dr Eric Cavalcanti (currently at Griffith University) for the project <b>The Structure of Nonclassicality and the Foundations of Quantum Theory<br />
</b>($375,000)<br />
<br />
ARC Discovery Grants (2012–2014):<br />
<br />
Prof Warwick Anderson (with Ian MacKay)<br />
<b>Disease and the Modern Self: Becoming Autoimmune<br />
</b>($145,000)<br />
<br />
Prof Mark Colyvan<br />
<b>Mathematical Notation: A Philosophical Account<br />
</b>($150,000)<br />
<br />
Dr Dominic Murphy<br />
<b>The Structure and Function of Self-representation<br />
</b>($122,000)<br />
<br />
This all adds up to a grand total of just over $4.7 million ($4,754,899) from the various ARC schemes in the last few months; this figure is over $6 million when we add Prof Huw Price's Templeton grant (see above post). Congratulations to all!</span></span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5361991511300376650.post-82125065874490690512011-11-04T12:50:00.002+11:002011-11-04T12:52:18.335+11:00SCFS ARC success<span class="Apple-style-span">Congratulations to the following SCFS researchers, who were recently awarded Discovery grant funding from the Australian Research Council.<br /><br />Prof Warwick Anderson (with Ian MacKay)<br /><b>Disease and the modern self: becoming autoimmune<br /></b><br />Prof Mark Colyvan<br /><b>Mathematical notation: a philosophical account<br /></b><br />Dr Dominic Murphy<br /><b>The structure and function of self-representation<br /></b><br />Total amount awarded is $417,000.00</span> <!--EndFragment-->Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5361991511300376650.post-59805741858660567962011-08-31T09:44:00.005+10:002011-08-31T09:46:17.048+10:002012-13 Visiting Fellowships at the Sydney Centre for the Foundations of Science<span style=";font-family:georgia;font-size:85%;" >We are currently inviting applications for one-semester visiting fellowships at The University of Sydney, for either second semester (August to November) 2012 or first semester (February to May) 2013. This program is associated with The Sydney Centre for the Foundations of Science (SCFS), a research centre sponsoring work into the logical, philosophical, and historical foundations of science (further details below). We are hoping to receive applications from leading historians and philosophers of science (including the special sciences and biomedical sciences) at any post-PhD career stage. This is the fifth round of such fellowships and we anticipate being able to offer them each year.
<br />
<br />Up to four fellowships are available, and each fellowship will come with a travelling allowance of up to AUD 6,000. These fellowships will provide opportunities for academics on sabbatical from their home institution to spend a semester in a productive and collegial research environment (in a beautiful city), to work with members of the SCFS and with other visiting fellows. It is important that the applicant has a position at their home institution that extends beyond the term of the intended stay in Sydney and is on salary from their home institution for the duration of their intended stay. The allowance is to help offset some of the travelling and living-away-from-home expenses; it is not a salary. The successful applicants will be expected to work on a specific research project that is of interest to members of the SCFS. One of the aims of the SCFS is to strengthen international links in history and philosophy of science, so expressions of interest from researchers outside Australia are particularly encouraged.
<br />
<br />Applications should including a cover letter, a CV, and a brief outline of the proposed research project (including why you wish to pursue the research at the University of Sydney and which members of the SCFS team you anticipate collaborating with). Applications should be sent (preferably electronically) to:
<br />
<br />Dr Rodney Taveira
<br />Administrative Officer
<br />Sydney Centre for the Foundations of Science
<br />School of Philosophical and Historical Inquiry
<br />A14, Main Quadrangle
<br />University of Sydney
<br />Sydney, NSW, 2006
<br />Australia
<br />Email: <span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 255);"><u><a href="http://www.blogger.com/rodney.taveira@sydney.edu.au">rodney.taveira@sydney.edu.au</a></u></span>
<br />
<br />by 14th November 2010. Applicants will be informed of decisions by 19th December 2010.
<br />
<br />ABOUT THE SYDNEY CENTRE FOR THE FOUNDATIONS OF SCIENCE
<br />
<br />The SCFS is an interdisciplinary research centre at the University of Sydney. We draw together researchers from philosophy, history, history and philosophy of science, science and medicine, with research concentrations in and around foundations of physics, decision theory, history and philosophy of biology, history of early modern science, history of medicine, and decision theory. Senior members of the SCFS include, Warwick Anderson, Stephen Bartlett, Alison Bashford, David Braddon-Mitchell, Mark Colyvan, Clio Cresswell, Ofer Gal, Stephen Garton, Stephen Gaukroger, Paul Griffiths, Ian Kerridge, Dominic Murphy, Maureen O’Malley, Hans Pols, Huw Price, Dean Rickles, Nick Smith, and Karola Stotz. We also have a number of mid-career and junior faculty, as well as several postdoctoral fellows and graduate students associated with the SCFS. Further details can be found on our website: <span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 255);"><u><a href="http://sydney.edu.au/foundations_of_science/">http://sydney.edu.au/foundations_of_science/</a></u></span>
<br />
<br />Please feel free to pass on this announcement to anyone who might be interested. Thanks.</span> Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5361991511300376650.post-66949316867520120002011-08-17T08:00:00.003+10:002011-08-17T14:20:55.323+10:00Congratulations, Warwick!Warwick Anderson has received a prestigious and highly competitive Laureate Fellowship from the Australian Research Council for a project looking at, says Warwick, "scientific debates around what it meant to be human in the southern hemisphere in the 20th century, placing Australian racial thought in a new context."
<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5361991511300376650.post-44703995488387703472011-05-25T17:54:00.001+10:002011-05-25T17:55:41.697+10:00John Wilkins at Scientific AmericanJohn has a guest blog entry on evolution and truth on the Scientific American site. Click <a href="http://www.scientificamerican.com/blog/post.cfm?id=the-evolution-of-common-sense-2011-05-24">here</a> to read.Paul griffithshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06372695408357184772noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5361991511300376650.post-7993150281054960502011-05-19T15:32:00.002+10:002011-05-19T15:39:59.047+10:00Blackheath Philosophy Forum lectures by SCFS membersRecent lectures by SCFS members to the Blackheath Philosophy Forum:<br /><br />Arthur Eddington and Time's Arrow, Huw Price<br /><br />How Evolution Selects for truth, Paul Griffiths<br /><br />Available online at:<br /> <br />http://www.blackheathphilosophy.com.au/2011%20blackheath%20archive.htmlPaul griffithshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06372695408357184772noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5361991511300376650.post-78370329078892864832011-05-16T19:54:00.003+10:002011-05-16T20:04:32.058+10:00<strong>Report on the 4th Sydney-Tilburg Conference on the Philosophy of Science: The Authority of Science<br />University of Sydney, 8-10 April 2011</strong><br><br />The conference brought together scientists and philosophers of science to explore the idea that recent developments in philosophy of science can help with the uptake of scientific ideas in public policy. It opened with a public forum (televised and available <a href="http://www.themonthly.com.au/authority-science-3255">here</a>) and ran two days of papers, including several plenaries and a keynote address.<br><br />Christian List's plenary address, which opened the conference, examined the very idea of the `voice of science' from the perspective of his recent work on group agency. List emphasised that if the `voice of science' is considered to be the expression of the views of the scientific community then, whatever aggregation procedure is used, the collective judgment of science may lack essential qualities of a `voice' which guides policy, such as consistency of opinion across a range of issues. For science to have a coherent `voice' in this sense, science itself must be a structured institution of the kind that is often regarded as a group agent, such as a corporation or a government. Institutions such as national academies may have adequate structure to count as group agents.<br><br />The debate over action on climate change is widely regarded as an example of the failure of science to translate itself into policy. In his plenary address, the distinguished chemist Theodore Brown compared this case to the successful effort to reach international agreement on the control of chlorofluorocarbons to protect the ozone layer. He demonstrated how contingent that outcome was on the timing of events and the interests of particular actors at those times, and how these conditions for successful policy making were absent in the superficially-similar case of international negotiations over greenhouse gas abatement and climate change. Similar themes were explored by academic lawyer Rosemary Lyster, although her focus was on the legal implications. She discussed the recent attempt to bring a case of `civil conspiracy' against ExxonMobil for mis-leading the public about climate change, and the legal and moral responsibilitiesof the media in giving disproportionate coverage to climate-change sceptics.<br><br />The keynote address was delivered by Sir Peter Gluckman, who, in his role as the New Zealand Prime Minister's Chief Science Advisor, has just released <a href="http://www.pmcsa.org.nz/">`Towards better use of evidence in policy formation: a discussion paper'</a>. In contrast to much recent discussion engendered by the perceived failure to translate climate science into policy, Gluckman argued that to maintain the efficacy of scientific advice, scientists must scrupulously avoid advocacy and seek to act as honest brokers laying out options and facilitating social choice through the normal democratic process.<br><br />A general theme that ran through the conference was that there is a genuine need for engaged philosophy of science to help with both the public acceptance of science and the subsequent translation of science into policy. Indeed, this has been something of a recurring theme in all the Sydney-Tilburg philosophy of science conferences; we hope to see such socially-relevant philosophy of science continue in our future conferences.<br><br />Mark Colyvan (University of Sydney), Paul Griffiths (University of Sydney),<br />Stephan Hartmann (Tilburg University), and Jan Sprenger (Tilburg University)Paul griffithshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06372695408357184772noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5361991511300376650.post-50339240887790347402011-03-08T15:48:00.002+11:002011-03-08T15:53:47.787+11:00Ways of Seeing: Reforming the HumanitiesSydney Ideas Event, copresented with The Griffith Review and SCFS<br /><br />Thursday April 7th 6.00-7.30 Law School Foyer<br /><br />A discussion of the future of the humanities. More information <a href="http://sydney.edu.au/sydney_ideas/lectures/2011/ways_of_seeing_reforming_the_humanities.shtml">here</a>Paul griffithshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06372695408357184772noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5361991511300376650.post-87311208962482466952011-02-22T15:10:00.000+11:002011-02-22T15:12:11.782+11:00Alison Gopnik, "The Philosophical Baby: What Children's Minds Tell Us About Truth, Love and the Meaning of Life"<p class="p1">A Sydney Ideas lecture</p> <p class="p2"><br /></p> <p class="p1">The Philosophical Baby: What Children's Minds Tell Us About Truth, Love and the Meaning of Life</p> <p class="p2"><br /></p> <p class="p1">Alison Gopnik, Professor of Psychology and Affiliate Professor of Philosophy, University of California , Berkeley</p> <p class="p2"><br /></p> <p class="p1">Co-presented with the Sydney Centre for the Foundations of Science, University of Sydney </p> <p class="p2"><br /></p> <p class="p1">In the last thirty years there's been a revolution in our scientific understanding of babies and young children, a revolution that's also transformed our understanding of human nature itself. In this talk, Alison Gopnik will outline some of the new discoveries and their implications for the way we think about young children and ourselves. Human beings have a longer childhood than any other animal - our children are more helpless and dependent than any others. Why make babies so helpless for so long? She shows that childhood - our long period of helplessness - is responsible for our uniquely human consciousness and our ability to learn, imagine and love. Their long protected childhood gives human babies an opportunity to learn and play, and that lets them plan and work as adults. Children not only learn about the world around them, they also learn about other people and themselves. By the time they are three or four they understand love and morality. These remarkable learning abilities reflect special features of babies' brains, features that may actually make babies more conscious than adults.</p> <p class="p2"><br /></p> <p class="p1">Alison Gopnik is a professor of psychology and affiliate professor of philosophy at the University of California at Berkeley. She is an internationally recognised leader in the study of children's learning and development and was the first to argue that children's minds could help us understand deep philosophical questions. </p> <p class="p2"><br /></p> <p class="p1">Date: Thursday 24 February, 2011</p> <p class="p1">Time: 6.00pm to 7.30pm </p> <p class="p1">Venue: Law School Foyer, Eastern Avenue, the University of Sydney</p> <p class="p1">Cost: Free event, no booking or registration required</p> <p class="p1">Web: www.sydney.edu.au/sydney_ideas</p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5361991511300376650.post-70015637235581416012011-02-09T11:13:00.003+11:002011-02-09T11:19:40.181+11:00DOES UNDERSTANDING EVOLUTION HELP US TO UNDERSTAND ETHICS? Peter Singer, Professor of Bioethics at Princeton UniversitySydney Ideas talk co-presented with Think Global School<div><br /></div><div><b>Free event but registration is essential. (Registration is full. It will be audio and visually recorded - recordings will be available from the Sydney Ideas website.)</b></div><div><b><br /></b></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; "><p style="margin-top: 0.5em; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-left: auto; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; font-size: 1.1em; line-height: 17px; ">Evolution is neutral with regard to values. It is a fallacy to try to deduce what we ought to do from our understanding of evolution. But understanding evolution does help us to understand human nature, and since in ethics we are often interested in changing behaviour, evolution gives us valuable clues as to what is, or is not, likely to work. The first part of the lecture will explore this topic. In the second part, I will consider the argument that since our moral sense has evolved, it serves to enhance our reproductive fitness, and hence is not a guide to what is really right or wrong. I shall argue that there is some truth to this claim, but properly understood, it should lead us to scepticism about some ethical views, but not about ethics itself.</p><p style="margin-top: 0.5em; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-left: auto; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; font-size: 1.1em; line-height: 17px; "><br />Peter Singer was born in Melbourne, Australia, in 1946, and educated at the University of Melbourne and the University of Oxford. He has taught at the University of Oxford, La Trobe University and Monash University, and has held several other visiting appointments. Since 1999 he has been Ira W. DeCamp Professor of Bioethics in the University Center for Human Values at Princeton University. From 2005 on, he has also held the part-time position of Laureate Professor at the University of Melbourne, in the Centre for Applied Philosophy and Public Ethics.<br /><br />Peter Singer first became well-known internationally after the publication of <em>Animal Liberation</em>. His other books include: <em>Democracy and Disobedience</em>; <em>Practical Ethics</em>; <em>The Expanding Circle; Marx; Hegel; Animal Factories</em> (with Jim Mason); <em>The Reproduction Revolution</em> (with Deane Wells), <em>Should the Baby Live?</em> (with Helga Kuhse),<em> How Are We to Live?</em>, <em>Rethinking Life and Death</em>, <em>Ethics into Action</em>, <em>A Darwinian Left</em>, <em>One World</em>, <em>Pushing Time Away</em>, <em>The President of Good and Evil</em>, <em>How Ethical is Australia?</em> (with Tom Gregg), <em>The Way We Eat</em> (with Jim Mason) and <em>The Life You Can Save</em>. He also co-authored <em>The Greens</em> with Bob Brown, founder of the Australian Greens.<br /><br />Peter was the founding President of the International Association of Bioethics, and with Helga Kuhse, founding co-editor of the journal <em>Bioethics</em>. Outside academic life he is the co-founder, and President of The Great Ape Project, an international effort to obtain basic rights for chimpanzees, gorillas and orangutans. He is also President of Animal Rights International.</p></span></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5361991511300376650.post-50702398967426306682011-02-07T10:56:00.002+11:002011-02-07T11:01:00.080+11:00Sydney Ideas talk by Professor Michael Hunter, "The Royal Society and the Decline of Magic"A Sydney Ideas lecture co-presented with HPS and the SCFS.<br /><br />The role of the Royal Society in the so-called ‘Decline of Magic’ was paradoxical. In the society’s early years, many of its Fellows were deeply committed to magical pursuits, while some urged the institution actively to investigate their validity. Yet in practice the society simply excluded magic from its corporate activities, for a variety of reasons on which it is possible to speculate. What is important is that, due to the society’s crucial role in defining the proper realm of scientific enquiry, the result was to banish magic from this by default. This proved surprisingly influential, leading to the emergence in the early 18th century of a myth of the society’s positive role in eradicating such beliefs which was erroneous but is significant in itself.<br /><br />Michael Hunter has been Professor of History at Birkbeck since 1992. He is the principal editor of the Works (14 vols., 1999-2000) and Correspondence (6 vols., 2000) of Robert Boyle, the founder of modern chemistry. In addition, he has written various interpretative works on Boyle, and his biography, Boyle: Between God and Science, was published in 2009. He has also written or edited many books on the history of ideas and their context in late 17th-century Britain, dealing with such themes as the early history of the Royal Society. His current research is on changing attitudes to magical ideas c. 1700. A further interest is in printed images of the period. A major grant from the UK Arts and Humanities Research Council from 2006 to 2009 resulted in the construction of the website, British Printed Images to 1700 a digital library of prints and book illustrations from early modern Britain, and the publication of an ancillary interpretive volume.<br /><br />Date: Tuesday 15 February, 2011<br />Time: 6 to 7.30pm<br />Venue: Law School Foyer, Eastern Avenue, the University of Sydney<br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">Cost: Free event, no booking or registration required</span><br />Web: sydney.edu.au/sydney_ideasUnknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5361991511300376650.post-85398976717533770952011-01-26T09:19:00.002+11:002011-01-26T09:26:43.270+11:00Workshop - "Constructive Mathematics" - University of MelbourneAnyone interested who will be in Melbourne the week of Feb 14 is welcome to attend this interdisciplinary workshop at the University of Melbourne. <br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">"What constructive mathematicians actually do" <br /><br />Maarten McKubre-Jordens, University of Canterbury, New Zealand</span><br /><br />I) <span style="font-style:italic;">Introduction to constructive mathematics </span><br /><br />11:00am, 14 February, Old Arts-227 (Cecil Scutt Collaborative Teaching Room)<br /><br />II) <span style="font-style:italic;">Constructive mathematics in action</span><br /><br />11:00am, 16 February, Old Arts-227 <br /><br />III) <span style="font-style:italic;">Strange encounters and the importance of constructive thought; or, the Infinite Monkey Theorem</span><br /><br />11:00am, 18 February, Old Quad Moot Court<br /><br />See <a href="http://paraconsistent-mathematics.blogspot.com/">http://paraconsistent-mathematics.blogspot.com/</a> for more information.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5361991511300376650.post-35421847499909005492011-01-16T19:19:00.002+11:002011-01-16T19:20:12.400+11:00John Wilkins on National RadioJohn Wilkins will be doing the 'Ockham's Razor' talk on National Radio this week, on the concept of species:<br /><br />http://www.abc.net.au/rn/ockhamsrazor/stories/2011/3089886.htmPaul griffithshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06372695408357184772noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5361991511300376650.post-60919331070820992432010-11-22T10:20:00.002+11:002010-11-22T10:22:56.391+11:00Ken Wharton: A Constructive Principle for Interpreting Quantum PhenomenaSCFS Visiting Fellow Ken Wharton is giving a 'current projects' talk at USyd today (Nov 22) at 1pm in the Philosophy Common Room.<br />"The ongoing efforts to interpret quantum mechanics typically ignore the Feynman path-integral approach, despite the fact that this mathematics most naturally extends to relativistic quantum field theory. While literally interpreting the path-integral mathematics seems untenable, it is notable that this mathematics implies strong symmetries between experiments that are typically assumed to be unrelated. If one adopts the principle that any underlying ontology must respect these same symmetries (the "action duality"), it turns out that quantum interpretations are strongly constrained. Furthermore, one can use this principle to construct new interpretations by considering pairs of experiments related by this symmetry, particularly cases where interpreting one experiment appears straightforward and the other problematic. The results generally support time-symmetric and retrocausal interpretations. (Joint work with Huw Price, David Miller, and Peter Evans.)"Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5361991511300376650.post-81960449601845862032010-09-06T13:55:00.000+10:002010-09-06T13:56:17.182+10:00Charles Wolfe public lecture on La MettrieLA METTRIE: MAN A MACHINE<br />Dr Charles Wolfe, History and Philosophy of Science, Faculty of Science<br /><br />KEY THINKERS SERIES – 15TH SEPTEMBER 2010 <br /><br />Julien Offray de La Mettrie, a medical doctor and philosopher was born in Saint-Malo (Brittany) in 1709, and died in 1751 in Berlin, where he was an intellectual-in-residence at Frederick II’s court ... of indigestion, food poisoning, or acute peritonitis after having consumed a whole pheasant pasty with truffles. He had been forced to flee from France and then even from Holland because of his writings, and was one of the most scandalous figures of the Enlightenment. I will focus especially on his best-known work, L’Homme-Machine or Man a Machine (1748), one of the greatest examples of materialist philosophy ever written - in which mind and body are explained as belonging to one material substance, which medical and physiological knowledge sheds light on. How is it that a philosopher admired today by all manner of ‘brain scientists’ was also the hero of the Marquis de Sade? Addressing this sort of question gets us to the heart of Enlightenment materialism.<br /><br />All are welcome to attend this free series.<br /><br />Venue: Lecture Theatre 101, Sydney Law School Building, Eastern Avenue, Camperdown Campus<br />Time: 6.00pm to 7.30 (includes Q & A)<br />Bookings: Free events, no registration or booking requiredPaul griffithshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06372695408357184772noreply@blogger.com0