On September 17th, Peter Singer will be delivering the first Rotman lecture of the academic year, entitled, "The Most Good You Can Do: How Effective Altruism is Changing Ideas About Living Ethically". What is effective altruism? Singer explored the topic in his 2013 TED talk, "The why and how of effective altruism". (NOTE: Starting at [...]
The Algorithms and Complexity in Mathematics, Epistemology and Science (ACMES) conference was held this past May, here at Western. Invited speakers at the conference included Max Gunzburger, Jesús Sanz-Serna, and Mark Wilson. Videos of each of their lectures have been uploaded onto the Rotman YouTube channel, and can be found in the ACMES playlist. Remaining [...]
Have you visited the Rotman Institute YouTube channel lately? All videos have now been sorted into playlists by area, making it much easier to find the content you are looking for. Browse videos on Philosophy of Science, History and Philosophy of Science, Science and Values, and more. And if you have not done so already, [...]
During the 2010/2011 Rotman Institute of Philosophy Speaker Series, Andrew Janiak, of Duke University, delivered a lecture entitled, “Three Concepts of Cause in Newton’s Thought”. His lecture examined how Newton’s assertion that objects spread across space can interact causally is related to his endorsement of the traditional metaphysical concepts of substance and of causation. Video [...]
Kyle Stanford, of the University of California Irvine, delivered a lecture entitled, "The Difference Between Ice Cream and Nazis: Evolution and the Emergence of Moral Objectivity", where he examined the evolutionary function of moral projection. This lecture took place on March 4, 2011 as part of the Rotman Institute of Philosophy Speaker Series. Video of [...]
During the 2010/2011 Rotman Institute of Philosophy Speaker Series, Uriah Kriegel, of the University of Arizona, delivered a lecture entitled, "Experiential Origins of Intentionality". Several authors - Loar, McGinn, Strawson, and Horgan, among others - have argued that the intentionality proper to conscious experience is somehow prior to, and grounds, other forms of intentionality. Here [...]
During the 2010/2011 Rotman Institute of Philosophy Speaker Series, Colin Howson, of the University of Toronto, delivered a lecture entitled "Should Probabilities be Countably Additive?", examining a specific case in the philosophy of science related to probability. Video of this lecture is now available on the Rotman YouTube channel.
During the 2010/2011 Rotman Institute of Philosophy Speaker Series, Susan Haack spoke about Scientism, the view that natural science is the most authoritative way of looking at the world, and is superior to other interpretations of life. Video of this lecture, Six Signs of Scientism, is now available on the Rotman YouTube channel.
Cross-posted from Dan Hicks' personal blog. Starting in September, I will be an AAAS Science and Technology Policy Fellow, working in the EPA’s Chemical Safety for Sustainability [CSS] program. I’ve actually known about this for almost two months, but only received the paperwork making things official this week. (I’m taking this as my first introduction [...]
The 14th Annual Philosophy of Physics conference, Conceptions of Empirical Success, was held in Honor of Bill Harper’s retirement in 2010, and was organized by Wayne Myrvold. It features speakers on topics to which Harper made important contributions — in particular, historical approaches to questions of empirical success and decision theory.
