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April 2017
Read 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 [...]
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ABSTRACT 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 [...]
Find out moreJune 2017
Cosmology 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 [...]
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Join 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 [...]
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PhilMiLCog 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 [...]
Find out moreSeptember 2017
In 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, [...]
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ABSTRACT 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 [...]
Find out moreNovember 2017
ABSTRACT 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 [...]
Find out moreJanuary 2018
ABSTRACT Informed by developments in the animal and neurosciences, society is radically reconceiving the norms governing interactions with various nonhuman animals. These sciences increasingly support the view that humans are not the only species with rich mental, social, and emotional lives – a view now working its way into public and science policies, including Canadian [...]
Find out moreMarch 2018
ABSTRACT 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 [...]
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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 [...]
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ABSTRACT 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 of nature required the [...]
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ABSTRACT 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 [...]
Find out moreABSTRACT 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 [...]
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ABSTRACT 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 [...]
Find out moreJune 2018
PhilMiLCog 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 [...]
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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 system as [...]
Find out moreJoin 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 [...]
Find out moreOctober 2018
EVENT 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 [...]
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CONFERENCE 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 [...]
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