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DTSTART;TZID=America/Toronto:20220929T133000
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SUMMARY:Philosophical Perspectives on Astrochemistry
DESCRIPTION:Astrochemistry is a young discipline\, which started with the unexpected detection of molecules in the interstellar medium in the 1940’s. Astrochemical models aim at describing the physicochemical processes explaining the composition in the interstellar medium or of planetary atmospheres\, despite the fact that the models and the observations against which they must be validated are highly uncertain. These uncertainties\, the multiplicity of tasks that models must fill\, their different phases of development—from young models that need improvement to mature ones\, ready to get confronted to observations—\, the strong interdisciplinarity of the field make astrochemistry unique in terms of the challenges that astrochemists must face in evaluating the reliability of their models. Such an exceptional epistemic situation represents a huge opportunity for philosophers both to refine their understanding of model evaluation and to contribute to developing new methods for assessing the adequacy of a model. The goal of this seminar is both to present these challenges and to generate a discussion between philosophers and astrochemists about these topics. \nSPEAKERS\nJan Cami (Western University\, Department of Physics & Astronomy) \nIlsa Cooke (University of British Columbia\, Department of Chemistry) \nBenjamin Desrousseaux (University of Rennes\, Institut de Physique de Rennes) \nMarie Gueguen (University of Rennes\, Institut de Physique de Rennes) \nEls Peeters (Western University\, Department of Physics & Astronomy) \nWORKSHOP SCHEDULE\n\n\n\n\n\nTIME (EST)\nSPEAKER\n\n\n\n\n1:30 – 1:50 pm\nMarie Gueguen\n\n\n1:50 – 2:10 pm\nIlsa Cooke\n\n\n2:10 – 2:30 pm\nJan Cami\n\n\n2:30 – 2:50 pm\nCOFFEE BREAK\n\n\n2:50 – 3:10 pm\nBenjamin Desrousseaux\n\n\n3:10 – 3:30 pm\nEls Peeters\n\n\n3:30 – 4:30 pm\nPanel Discussion\n\n\n\n\nRegister to AttendPhoto by Tengyart on Unsplash \nView Similar Events\n2025 Annual Philosophy of Physics Conferences25 May 2025 - 28 May 2025Philosophy of Physics Workshop: Foundations of Thermodynamics 202416 June 2024 - 18 June 2024Foundations of Quantum Field Theory: 2023 Annual Philosophy of Physics Conference14 May 2023 - 17 May 2023Philosophical Perspectives on Astrochemistry29 September 2022\,  1:30 pm - 4:30 pm  EDT
URL:https://www.rotman.uwo.ca/event/philosophical-perspectives-on-astrochemistry/
LOCATION:Room 3000 – Western Interdisciplinary Research Building\, Western University\, London\, Ontario\, N6A 3K7\, Canada
CATEGORIES:Philosophy of Cosmology,Philosophy of Physics
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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20210826
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20210828
DTSTAMP:20260410T000057
CREATED:20210810T192451Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20210810T192727Z
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SUMMARY:Self-locating Uncertainty in the Cosmological Multiverse Workshop
DESCRIPTION:Several issues in cosmology have increasingly raised concerns about self-locating uncertainty.  It seems to many that to understand how the universe originated and how it is\, we need to better understand how to think about where we are in it\, or where we should expect ourselves to be.  On one hand\, considerations of self-locating belief may hold our best hope for confirming or disconfirming multiverse theories.  On the other\, self-locating considerations lead to seemingly intractable puzzles.  Prominent among those is the “measure problem”:  to assign an appropriate self-locating probability measure over a countably infinite multiverse.  Can alternative approaches to probability overcome this challenge?  Is an altogether non-probabilistic inductive logic called for?  Does freedom in the choice of a measure and an “observer proxy” make cosmologists’ results unreliable?  Do self-locating considerations require us to rethink familiar applications of probability theory in quantum mechanics or games of chance?  Can we confirm theories in a large universe without considering self-location?  These are among the questions that we seek to debate\, connect\, and progress in this workshop. \nThis workshop will take place on August 26 – 27\, 2021 via zoom. Please register prior to August 25\, 2021 to receive the workshop link & password. \nREGISTER TO ATTENDVIEW THE SELF-LOCATING UNCERTAINTY WORKSHOP SCHEDULE & TALK ABSTRACTSSPEAKERS\n\nSimon Friederich (University of Groningen)\, The Problem of Researcher Degrees of Freedom in Multiverse Theory Testing \n\nMarie Gueguen (University of Pittsburgh)\, The Born Supremacy \n\nJohn D. Norton (University of Pittsburgh)\, Eternal Inflation: When Probabilities Fail \n\nMatthew W. Parker (Rotman Institute of Philosophy)\, The Teacup Game: Probability and Permutation Invariance in an Infinite Universe \n\nSylvia Wenmackers (KU Leuven)\, Paradoxical Probabilities in the Context of Cosmology \nWORKSHOP SCHEDULE\n\n\n\n\n\n\nDay 1 – Thursday\, Aug 26\nDay 2 – Friday\, Aug 27\n\n\n\n\n9:00 – 9:05 am\nWelcome – Matthew W. Parker\nWelcome – Matthew W. Parker\n\n\n9:05 – 9:45 am\nSylvia Wenmackers\nMarie Gueguen\n\n\n9:45 – 10:05 am\nQ&A\nQ&A\n\n\n10:05 – 10:15 am\nBreak\nBreak\n\n\n10:15 – 10:55 am\nJohn D. Norton\nSimon Friederich\n\n\n10:55 – 11:15 am\nQ&A\nQ&A\n\n\n11:15 – 11:25 am\nBreak\nBreak\n\n\n11:25 am – 12:05 pm\nMatthew W. Parker\nPanel Discussion\n\n\n12:05 – 12:25 pm\nQ&A\nQ&A\n\n\n\n\nAll times above are in Eastern Daylight Time (EDT) \nImage credit: CharlVera (license) \nThis event is made possible by a grant from the John Templeton Foundation\, to Chris Smeenk and Jim Weatherall. Learn more on the project website\, New Directions in Philosophy of Cosmology.
URL:https://www.rotman.uwo.ca/event/self-locating-uncertainty-workshop/
LOCATION:Virtual (register for Zoom link)
CATEGORIES:Other Conferences,Philosophy of Cosmology
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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20210813
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20210814
DTSTAMP:20260410T000057
CREATED:20210810T201050Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20210810T201050Z
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SUMMARY:Emergence in Cosmology Workshop
DESCRIPTION:The early universe is described extremely well by linear perturbations evolving in a simple expanding universe model\, described by classical general relativity.  An approximately scale invariant spectrum of nearly Gaussian\, adiabatic curvature fluctuations accounts for observed anisotropies in the cosmic microwave background as well as baryon acoustic oscillations.  But how does this familiar classical picture emerge from the preceding quantum-gravity phase\, when classical general relativity and its account of spacetime is expected to break down?  This workshop will\, first\, consider recent proposals to address this question based on matrix theory\, a proposed non-perturbative definition of string theory.  We will also consider more general questions regarding what quantum gravity should be expected to achieve\, such as resolving the initial singularity\, and how the proposed sense of emergence compares to other cases. \nAdvance registration is required in order to attend. Please complete your online registration by no later than August 12\, 2021. \nREGISTER TO ATTENDVIEW THE EMERGENCE IN COSMOLOGY WORKSHOP TALK ABSTRACTSSPEAKERS\n\nKaren Crowther (University of Oslo) \n\nSung-Sik Lee (McMaster University) \n\nJoshua Norton (University of California\, Irvine) \n\nSumit Das (University of Kentucky) \n\nSuddhasattwa Brahma (McGill University) \nWORKSHOP SCHEDULE\n\n\n\n\n\n9:00 – 9:45\nKaren Crowther: Four Attitudes Towards Singularities in the Search for a Theory of Quantum Gravity\n\n\n\n\n9:45 – 10:30\nSung-Sik Lee: Clock-Dependent Spacetime\n\n\n10:30 – 10:45\nBreak\n\n\n10:45 – 11:30\nJoshua Norton: Suppressing Spacetime Emergence\n\n\n11:30 – 12:00\nGeneral Discussion\n\n\n12:00 – 13:00\nLunch\n\n\n13:00 – 13:45\nSumit Das: Emergent Cosmology from Quantum Quench in C=1 Matrix Model\n\n\n13:45 – 14:30\nSuddho Brahma: Emergent Cosmology from the BFSS Matrix Model\n\n\n14:30 – 15:00\nGeneral Discussion\n\n\n\n\nAll times above are in Eastern Daylight Time (EDT) \nImage by jordygoovaerts0 from Pixabay \nThis event is made possible by a grant from the John Templeton Foundation\, to Chris Smeenk and Jim Weatherall. Learn more on the project website\, New Directions in Philosophy of Cosmology.
URL:https://www.rotman.uwo.ca/event/emergence-in-cosmology-workshop/
LOCATION:Virtual (register for Zoom link)
CATEGORIES:Other Conferences,Philosophy of Cosmology
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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20210122
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20210507
DTSTAMP:20260410T000057
CREATED:20210104T214522Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20211117T165912Z
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SUMMARY:Emerging Minds Colloquium Series
DESCRIPTION:Beginning January 2021\, The Rotman Institute of Philosophy will be hosting the ‘Emerging Minds’ colloquium—a series of virtual talks delivered by members of the Institute and scholars from around the world. We invite you to take part by both presenting and attending\, in order to network with others who are completing novel interdisciplinary work in science and philosophy. More details to come soon. Please direct any inquires regarding this event series to Jaipreet Mattu. \nJan 22Jan 29Feb 10Mar 5Apr 1May 6Jan 22\nThe Problem of Trustworthy AI in Medicine\nPaul Istasy\, Medical Student; Schulich School of Medicine and Dentistry\, Western University\n\nDate: Friday\, January 22\, 2021\nTime: 6:00PM EST\nDuration: 20 minute talk\, followed by 15 minute question/answer period\nHost: Ben Chin-Yee\nPresentation Style: powerpoint \n\nAbstract: \nThis paper argues that under a patient-centered model of care\, the notion of trustworthy artificially intelligent systems is inherently misconstrued. Trust is an essential component of the physician-patient relationship. Current models of the clinical encounter focus on shared decision-making\, whereby physicians develop management plans with patients and actively elicit and integrate patients’ values and preferences into clinical decisions. With the increasing use of artificial intelligence (AI) in medicine\, there is a growing concern about how this will influence the physician-patient relationship. While the majority of the relevant literature examines the dynamics of human-machine relationships\, the influence that these machines have on human-human relationships remains an understudied topic. The trust in physician-patient relationships is determined by the competence and integrity of a physician—the former is self-evident\, and the latter is required for identification-based trust\, which is a type of trust whereby a physician identifies with and incorporates a patient’s values in medical decision-making. I provide an analysis of the physician-patient trust relationship in light of the introduction of medical AI. I demonstrate that even if artificially intelligent systems show superior competence to physicians in certain tasks\, they will ultimately fail to display integrity and thereby\, eliminate any possibility of identification-based trust between the patient and the physician. To this end\, medical AI systems cannot be considered the epistemic authority in a medical setting and if introduced without philosophical scrutiny it may adversely affect the physician-patient trust relationship. \nJan 29\nA Roundtable with Rotman Postdocs: Life After the PhD\n\nDate: Friday\, January 29\, 2021\nTime: 7:00PM EST\nDuration: 30 minute presentation with 30 minute question/answer period\nHost: Jaipreet Mattu\nPresentation Style: roundtable \n\nSummary: \nJoin the seven current Rotman postdoctoral researchers to discuss their academic journey\, current research interests\, and experiences conducting interdisciplinary research at The Rotman Institute. The postdocs will also provide prospective students advice on applying for postdoctoral positions and answer audience questions during a question-answer period.  \nView the profiles of the Rotman postdocs: \nEdward Baggs \nBartek Chomanski \nBenjamin Chin-Yee \nNiels Linnemann \nRebecca Livernois \nMatt Parker \nVicente Raja \nFeb 10\nBean-In-The-World: On the Complexity of Plant Behavior\nVicente Raja\, Postdoctoral Fellow; Rotman Institute of Philosophy\, Western University\n\nDate: Wednesday\, February 10\, 2021\nTime: 4:00PM EST\nDuration: 30 minute talk\, followed by 15 minute question/answer period\nHost: Ed Baggs\nPresentation Style: powerpoint and video \n\nAbstract: \nPlants move. A lot. Their world is about soil\, water\, and sun\, but also about luring insects for pollination or avoiding being eaten by caterpillars. Being able to move helps plants in some of these activities and\, like other plant behaviors (e.g.\, communication\, habituation)\, that ability is way more complex than one would expect. In this presentation\, I am going to talk about such a complexity of plant movement\, in particular\, and plant behavior\, in general. To do so\, first I am going to address the importance of notions like complexity or nonlinearity for the study of behavior. This will allow me to frame the study of particular plant behaviors within a larger enterprise of the behavioral and cognitive sciences. Then\, I will show a study of the dynamics of plant movements of nutation. This study is performed on common beans common beans (Phaseolus vulgaris L.) in two conditions—with and without a support to climb onto—and is based on three typical signatures of adaptively controlled processes and motions: harmonicity\, predictability\, and complexity. The results I will report support the hypothesis that patterns of nutation are influenced by the presence of a support to climb in their vicinity\, suggesting that plant behavior could be understood as a goal-directed activity possibly involving the perception of the support to climb and the control of action towards it. In the last part of the presentation\, I will evaluate several implications of this suggestion. \nMar 5\nMeasuring Time with Fossils: A Start-Up Problem in Stratigraphic Geology\nMax Dresow\, Doctoral Candidate\, University of Minnesota; Member of Minnesota Center for Philosophy of Science\n\nDate: Friday\, March 5\, 2021\nTime: 4:30 pm EST\nDuration: 30 minute presentation\, followed by 20 minute question/answer period\nHost: Jaipreet Mattu\nPresentation Style: powerpoint \n\nAbstract: \nThis talk is about a relatively obscure problem in the practice of historical geology that has been solved\, to the satisfaction of most geologists\, for over 150 years. Why then show up? Because the problem is an interesting one—or so I will attempt to convince you. But that’s not all. The problem also illustrates a generic difficulty that scientists face when trying to get a new method off the ground in the absence of knowledge that might warrant the method as epistemically reliable. Call this a “start-up problem” in scientific practice. In this talk\, I will examine a start-up problem that arose in the attempt to construct a trans-national geological time scale on the basis of (mostly) fossil evidence. I will explain how this problem arose\, why it was so serious\, and how it was ultimately overcome. In addition\, I will suggest that this and other start-up problems teach us something important about the nature of justification in ongoing research\, and its relationship to practices of heuristic appraisal. \nApr 1\nTaming the Uncertainty Monster: Lessons from Astrochemistry\nMarie Gueguen\, Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA) Fellow\n\nDate: Thursday\, April 1\, 2021\nTime: 11:30 am EST\nDuration: 30 minute presentation\, followed by 30 minute question/answer period\nHost: Martin Zelko\nPresentation Style: powerpoint \n\nAbstract: \nAstrochemistry is a young discipline that started with the surprising detection of molecules in the interstellar medium in the 1940’s. This was a surprise for such a low temperature\, low density environment\, with constant exposure to ionizing radiation\, seems too hostile to host molecules. Astrochemical models that rely on extrapolated reaction rate constants for networks of chemical reactions often fail to reproduce observations. The spectroscopic observations\, performed by ground and space-based telescopes\, that permit the detection of molecules in space and the physical conditions in astrophysical media are known to be both incomplete and uncertain\, despite recent significant progress in telescopic resolution. Hence\, astrochemistry is faced with the challenging task of evaluating models known to be incomplete against uncertain data. Yet\, models are essential for identifying where better experimental data are needed\, for improving and guiding future observational campaigns observations\, as well as for motivating further theoretical development. Thus\, astrochemists have no choice but to develop methods to assess their models\, to learn from departures between models and observations\, and to decide when disagreements between the former and the latter should lead us to question the fundamental assumptions of astrochemical models. In this talk\, I will present some specifics of model evaluation in astrochemistry as well as methods recently developed to make the most out of a models’ expected departures from observations. This crucial task of model evaluation requires interdisciplinary expertise\, and philosophers have a key role to play\, both in advancing these methods and in fleshing out an adequacy-for-purpose view of models that stands up to such taxing empirical circumstances. \nMay 6\nPhilosophy of Psychedelics\nChris Letheby\, Postdoctoral Researcher\, University of Western Australia\n\nDate: Thursday\, May 6\, 2021\nTime: 9:30 – 11:00 am EST\nDuration: 45 – 50 minute presentation\, followed by 30 minute question/answer period\nHost: Sidath Rankaduwa\nPresentation Style: powerpoint \nPlease note\, this event will take place during a zoom webinar and advance registration is required.\n\nAbstract: \nIn this talk I give an overview of the arguments in my forthcoming book\, Philosophy of Psychedelics. The book is motivated by recent evidence that “classic” (serotonergic) psychedelics such as LSD and psilocybin can be administered safely in controlled environments\, and can cause lasting psychotherapeutic benefits with just one or two administrations. These benefits seem to be predicted by the occurrence of a specific type of experience during the drug action: a “mystical-type” experience of oneness\, self-transcendence\, or cosmic consciousness. This fact gives rise to what I call the Comforting Delusion Objection to psychedelic therapy: the concern that this novel and promising treatment modality works by the induction of implausible metaphysical beliefs\, and ought therefore to be avoided. In response to the Objection\, I assume the truth of a naturalistic worldview and show\, within this constraint\, that the overall epistemic profile of psychedelic therapy is better than it initially appears. Psychedelic therapy does not work centrally by changing metaphysical beliefs\, but by altering the sense of self; moreover\, it has myriad epistemic benefits consistent with a naturalistic worldview. The positive side of my project is an attempt to reconcile naturalism and an “Entheogenic Conception” of psychedelics as effective agents of knowledge acquisition and spiritual growth.
URL:https://www.rotman.uwo.ca/event/emerging-minds/
LOCATION:Virtual (register for Zoom link)
CATEGORIES:Artificial Intelligence,Graduate Student Events,Philosophy of Cosmology,Philosophy of Mind & Neuroscience,Philosophy of Science,Science and Values
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