Rotman Director, Chris Smeenk, was recently awarded a $205,000 grant from the John Templeton Foundation to pursue research on the philosophy of cosmology. Smeenk will serve as principal investigator, along with co-investigators Jim Weatherall and John Manchak, both from the Department of Logic and Philosophy of Science at UC Irvine. Physical cosmology has made enormous [...]
Professor Markus Müller joined Western University in 2015 as an Assistant Professor in the Departments of Applied Mathematics and Philosophy. He also holds a Canada Research Chair in the Foundations of Physics at Western. In addition, Dr. Müller is an associate faculty member at the Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics in Waterloo. His work addresses [...]
Over the next few months, there will be four conferences held here in London that are co-sponsored by the Rotman Institute of Philosophy. Note that registration for a couple of these conferences is currently open. Further information can be found on our event pages, or on the respective conference websites. Computationally Assisted Mathematical Discovery and [...]
Carl Craver, of Washington University in St. Louis, recently delivered two talks at the Rotman Institute, co-sponsored by Western's Brain and Mind Institute, as part of our yearly neurophilosophy speaker series. The first talk, entitled Memory, Time and Agency, was an examination of how individuals with episodic amnesia make future-oriented decisions. The second talk, Ontic [...]
We are in the midst of a “Brain Boom,” with enormous research effort and funding devoted to studying the workings of the human brain based on new technologies. The field is at a stage like genomics prior to the Human Genome Project, with initatives such as the US Brain Initative just starting and the potential [...]
In two weeks, the Ontario Institute for Regenerative Medicine (OIRM), is hosting a free, public event on stem cells -- in partnership with Western University. One of the featured panelists is Rotman faculty member, Carolyn McLeod, who will be delivering a talk entitled, "The Ethics of Stem Cell Research". Stem Cells 101: The Promise and [...]
by Cory Goldstein On February 6, 2015, the Supreme Court of Canada declared in Carter v. Canada (Attorney General) that the prohibition of physician assisted death—section 14 and section 241(b) of the Criminal Code—is unconstitutional1. The Court stated that the prohibition was deemed to infringe on the rights of individuals under section 7 of the [...]
by Justin Bzovy On February 25th we had Evan Fraser, a Canada Research Chair in Global Food Security at the University of Guelph, as our Rotman speaker. Fraser gave a talk on Food in 2050: The Challenge of Feeding 9 Billion. I had a chance to sit and talk with him about his interdisciplinary approach [...]
Rotman members have delivered several talks, and participated in conferences and colloquia throughout the month -- including the 2016 American Philosophical Association Pacific Division Meeting. Listed below are the APA 2016 program sessions that include Rotman members, followed by additional events (shown in alphabetical order) for the month of March. 2016 American Philosophical Association Pacific [...]
Cordelia Fine, of the University of Melbourne, delivered a lecture on March 9, 2016 entitled, The myth of the Lehman Sisters? Sex, testosterone, and financial risk-taking. Video of this lecture has been posted on the Rotman Institute of Philosophy YouTube channel. Abstract: There is growing scientific interest in the role of testosterone in financial risk-taking [...]
