Latest Past Events
Stathis Psillos: From natures to laws of nature
Room 4190 - Western Interdisciplinary Research Building Western Interdisciplinary Research Building, Room 4190, LondonABSTRACT 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 [...]
Ned Block: How to think about the border between seeing and thinking?
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 [...]
Jenann Ismael: The link between time, totality, and determinism (or why the problem of determinism is really the problem of fatalism)
Room 4190 - Western Interdisciplinary Research Building Western Interdisciplinary Research Building, Room 4190, LondonABSTRACT 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 [...]