by Lucas Dunlap Einstein has become such a cultural touchstone that the internet is full of dubiously sourced quotations attributed to him. One of the most famous usually appears as “I refuse to believe that God plays dice with the universe”, or more simply “God doesn’t play dice”. This appears to be a paraphrase of [...]
by Dr. Chris Fiacconi We have all had the experience of being in a potentially threatening situation. Your neck tenses, your heart pounds, and your palms sweat. You feel afraid, and try to escape from danger. In other words, you run away because you are scared. However, modern scientific research on how our brains generate [...]
Video of David Chalmer’s lecture, Spatial Experience and Virtual Reality, has been posted on the Rotman Institute of Philosophy YouTube channel. 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? Chalmers addressed this question by starting with an [...]
by Craig Fox A popular picture of scientific revolutions, such as Einstein’s overthrow of Newtonian physics, paints them as involving something like a gestalt shift; they involve a sudden reorientation of the perspective through which we see the world. The perspective through which scientists see the world is a more or less loose set of [...]
Remaining videos from the The Gravity and Geometry: Centenary Perspectives on General Relativity conference have been posted to the Rotman YouTube channel. The following videos are now included in the playlist: Lee Smolin, Perimeter Institute The Identity of the Indiscernible as a Physical Principle [embedyt]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cyBxRonlmvo[/embedyt] Marco Giovanelli, Einstein Papers Project "What is truth?" Einstein on [...]
Rotman Institute graduate student, Jamie Shaw, has a new publication in Gnosis entitled, "Moderate Moderation: The Mean of Excess". This paper argues that Aristotle's 'doctrine of the mean' should not be interpreted as saying that the mean is purely context dependent but, rather, on considerations of the good life as a whole. This is accomplished [...]
The Gravity and Geometry: Centenary Perspectives on General Relativity conference was held this past June, here at Western. Participants presented 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. Invited speakers at the conference included John Norton, Kaća Bradonjić, and Carla [...]
Video of Peter Singer’s lecture, Animal Liberation, Forty Years On, has been posted on the Rotman Institute of Philosophy YouTube channel. 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 [...]
Video of Peter Singer's lecture, The Most Good You Can Do: How Effective Altruism is Changing Ideas About Living Ethically, has been posted on the Rotman Institute of Philosophy YouTube channel. Effective altruism is built upon the simple but profound idea that living a fully ethical life involves doing the “most good you can do.” [...]
After severe brain injury, one of the key challenges for medical doctors is to determine the patient’s prognosis. Who will do well? Who will not do well? Physicians need to know this, and families need to know this too, to address choices regarding the continuation of life supporting therapies. However, current prognostication methods are insufficient [...]
