2015 PhilMiLCog Graduate Student Conference
PhilMiLCog is a three-day graduate conference with a broad and interdisciplinary scope. The conference, now in its 13th 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 [...]
2015 Philosophy of Logic Math and Physics Graduate Student Conference
The fifteenth annual Philosophy of Logic, Math and Physics (LMP) Graduate Student Conference will take place June 4-5, 2015 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. [...]
Gravity and Geometry: Centenary Perspectives on General Relativity
2015 Annual Philosophy of Physics Conference Participants will present physical, philosophical, and historical reflections on Einstein’s theory of gravity and space-time geometry, its development over the past century, and its future prospects. The conference will include speakers: Kaća Bradonjić (Wellesley College) Carla Cederbaum (University of Tuebingen) Michael Friedman (Stanford University) Marco Giovanelli (Einstein Papers Project) [...]
Peter Singer: The Most Good You Can Do: How Effective Altruism is Changing Ideas About Living Ethically
Great Hall - Somerville House Somerville House, Western University, London, Ontario, CanadaABSTRACT Effective altruism is built upon the simple but profound idea that living a fully ethical life involves doing the "most good you can do." Such a life requires an unsentimental view of charitable giving: to be a worthy recipient of our support, an organization must be able to demonstrate that it will do more [...]
Peter Singer: Animal Liberation, Forty Years On
Great Hall - Somerville House Somerville House, Western University, London, Ontario, CanadaABSTRACT Peter Singer's Animal Liberation, often credited with starting the modern animal rights movement, was first published in September 1975. In this lecture, the author assesses how well the argument has stood up over that period, and what progress has been made towards the changes in our treatment of animals that the book advocates. SPEAKER [...]
Katarzyna de Lazai-Radek and Peter Singer: Author-Meets-Critics: The Point of View of The Universe
Room 1145 - Stevenson Hall Stevenson Hall, Room 1145, London, Ontario, CanadaEVENT DESCRIPTION "The Point of View of the Universe: Sidgwick and Contemporary Ethics" is devoted to interpreting and defending in a contemporary setting a number of the doctrines found in Henry Sidgwick’s "The Methods of Ethics". It therefore discusses a wide number of moral problems of interest to contemporary moral philosophers, including the conflict between [...]
David Chalmers: Spatial Experience and Virtual Reality
Room 100 - Physics and Astronomy Building Physics and Astronomy Building, Western University, London, Ontario, CanadaABSTRACT Do virtual reality devices such as the Oculus Rift produce the illusion of an external reality? Or do they produce non-illusory experiences of a virtual reality? I address this question by starting with an analogous question about mirrors. When one looks in a mirror, does one undergo the illusion that there is someone on [...]
Chris Smeenk: Einstein’s Path to a New Theory
Stevenson & Hunt Room A - Central Library 251 Dundas St, London, Ontario, CanadaABSTRACT In November 1915, Einstein published a new theory of gravity. This lecture recounts the “rough and winding road” Einstein took in developing his theory, which ended with a dramatic race to the finish. Einstein’s approach was philosophical, partially guided by conceptual puzzles regarding space and motion. We will consider recent critical assessments of Einstein’s [...]
Hugo Critchley: Interoception, Emotion and Self: How the Heart Gates Feelings and Perceptions
Room 1145 - Stevenson Hall Stevenson Hall, Room 1145, London, Ontario, CanadaABSTRACT Information concerning the internal state of the body is arguably the basis for emotional feelings and may serve as the primary reference for the development of self-representation underpinning many aspects of consciousness. The combination of functional and structural neuroimaging, autonomic psychophysiology and patient studies has provided valuable insight into the brain mechanisms though which [...]
Stathis Psillos: Engaging Philosophy: Einstein on the Method of Science
Stevenson & Hunt Room A - Central Library 251 Dundas St, London, Ontario, CanadaABSTRACT Albert Einstein said that scientists are poor philosophers. Yet, he added that especially in periods of scientific revolutions, scientists should engage in philosophy and should not “surrender to philosophers the critical contemplation of the theoretical foundations” of science. In this talk I will aim to critically examine Einstein’s views on the method of science [...]
Doreen Fraser: Einstein, God, Dice, and Quantum Mechanics
Stevenson & Hunt Room A - Central Library 251 Dundas St, London, Ontario, CanadaABSTRACT Einstein is best known for his contributions to the physics of spacetime, the Special and General Theories of Relativity. However, he also played an important role in the development of quantum mechanics, the other great theoretical advance in twentieth century physics. Einstein’s famous response to quantum mechanics was that “God does not play dice.” [...]
Wayne Myrvold: Einstein and the Atom
Stevenson & Hunt Room A - Central Library 251 Dundas St, London, Ontario, CanadaABSTRACT Einstein's name is widely associated with the "atom bomb," via the formula E = MC2. Less widely known is that he played a key role in providing evidence that atoms exist at all. One of Einstein's early papers was an analysis of Brownian motion, the ceaseless dance of tiny particles, such as pollen grains, [...]
Chris Smeenk: Einstein’s Universe (Classes Without Quizzes)
Stevenson & Hunt Room A - Central Library 251 Dundas St, London, Ontario, CanadaThis lecture is part of the free public lecture series, Classes Without Quizzes, co-sponsored by Western Alumni and the London Public Library. ABSTRACT Einstein developed his theory of general relativity 100 years ago. Join philosophy professor Chris Smeenk for an exploration of Einstein’s distinctively philosophical approach to physics, and how his ideas have shaped our [...]
Einstein: Philosopher | Scientist, 100 years of General Relativity
SATELLiTE Project Space 121 Dundas St, London, Ontario, CanadaEXHIBIT DESCRIPTION Explore the genius of Einstein through a uniquely philosophical lens. On the centennial of Einstein solving the puzzle of General Relativity, this interactive exhibit delves into the philosophical groundwork that informed Einstein’s approach to science. Manuscript replicas (Courtesy of the Albert Einstein Archives, the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel.) illustrate in detail Einstein’s [...]
Kirstin Borgerson: Toward an Epistemic Justification for Research-Practice Integration in Medicine
Room 1145 - Stevenson Hall Stevenson Hall, Room 1145, London, Ontario, CanadaABSTRACT Arguments in favor of greater research-practice integration in medicine have tended to be ethical, political, or pragmatic. But there are good epistemic reasons to pursue greater integration, and it is important to think through these reasons in order to avoid inadvertently designing new systems in ways that replicate deep and enduring problems within current [...]
Evan Fraser: Food in 2050: The Challenge of Feeding 9 Billion
Wolf Performance Hall - Central Library 251 Dundas St, London, Ontario, CanadaABSTRACT Creating food systems capable of sustainably, equitably, and nutritiously feeding 9 billion people while dealing with climate change is one of the 21st century’s “Grand Challenges”. Meeting this challenge is about more than just producing enough - indeed, we already produce enough for everyone, but more than a billion are overweight while almost a [...]
Alastair Wilson: Emergent Contingency
Room 1145 - Stevenson Hall Stevenson Hall, Room 1145, London, Ontario, CanadaABSTRACT I begin by distinguishing between two conceptions of what needs explaining in modal metaphysics - necessity or contingency - and arguing that we should take seriously the neglected 'necessity-first' perspective. Then I illustrate how this perspective might work by offering a radical new theory of modality based on Everettian quantum mechanics (EQM), otherwise known [...]
Cordelia Fine: Let Toys Be Toys: The Science and Ethics of Gendered Toy Marketing
Wolf Performance Hall - Central Library 251 Dundas St, London, Ontario, CanadaABSTRACT The gendered marketing of toys is under considerable scrutiny, with consumer-led campaigns against it invariably giving rise to vigorous debates. Critics argue that gendered toy marketing is socially and developmentally harmful; defenders see it as reflecting and responding to boys’ and girls’ fundamentally different interests. In this talk, based on work co-authored with Charles [...]
Cordelia Fine: The myth of the Lehman Sisters? Sex, testosterone, and financial risk-taking
Room 100 - Physics and Astronomy Building Physics and Astronomy Building, Western University, London, Ontario, CanadaABSTRACT There is growing scientific interest in the role of testosterone in financial risk-taking – a topic of considerable public interest too, with suggestions that there is “too much testosterone on Wall Street”. Both research and debate is often grounded in an implicit model in which testosterone is presumed to be the proximal mechanism underlying [...]
Carl Craver: Memory, Time and Agency
Room 100 - Physics and Astronomy Building Physics and Astronomy Building, Western University, London, Ontario, CanadaABSTRACT Individuals with episodic amnesia and deficits in episodic future projection are frequently described as trapped in an eternal present or bound to stimuli in the here and now. I argue that individuals with medial temporal lobe damage and deficits in these capacities nonetheless retain much of their orientation in time and much of their [...]