By Dan Hicks [This is the first of a series of posts on science and the public interest, written by members of the Rotman Institute’s Science, Policy, and Philosophy Working Group.] In the wake of Thomas Kuhn's The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, contemporary philosophers of science generally recognize that values play a role in [...]
by Yann Benétreau-Dupin The fourth Oxford mini-course and workshop on the philosophy of cosmology took place last month. It was another event made possible by a grant from the Templeton foundation, which has funded two large projects on the philosophy of cosmology at Rutgers and Oxbridge (see a previous post on this blog about another such event, the [...]
We will be discussing issues concerning embodied and situated accounts of cognition. The plan is to begin with Larry Shapiro's recent book "Embodied Cognition" (2011), following which we will look at other key work in this general area. Shapiro's book offers a good starting point providing the most detailed and up to date overview of [...]
With 50,000 new cases occurring each year in Canada, serious brain injuries place an enormous burden on patients, families, and the healthcare system. Patient outcome after serious brain injury is highly variable. Following a period of coma (unconsciousness) lasting days or weeks, some patients make a good recovery, while others progress into a vegetative or [...]
Causal Powers in Science: Blending Historical and Conceptual Perspectives Each year the Rotman Summer Institute brings graduate students together with exceptional faculty from around the world to focus on a topic of special interest where philosophy and science meet and interact. This year’s Institute brings together philosophers of science and metaphysicians with historians of philosophy [...]
Postdoctoral Fellow Rachael Brown's "Three Kinds of Structuralism" has been accepted for presentation at the Philosophy of Biology at Madison Workshop (POBAM) https://sites.google.com/site/uwpobam/.
Join us this January 24th, for the first talk of the new year at a Rotman special event. Stathis Psillos will revisit this controversy, analyse the wider context in which it took place, examine the role of history of science in the defence of a realist approach to science and draw some significant lessons for the [...]
Rotman Postdoc Dan Hicks reviews two anthologies that cover ethical issues in our food system. Both anthologies are intended for "food ethics" courses, and discuss such issues as food security, animal welfare, and biotechnology. Before coming to Western, Hicks developed and taught a food ethics course at the University of Notre Dame. Hicks finds that [...]
Rotman Institute Postdoctoral Fellow in Philosophy of Physics, Science and Theoretical Physics, Keizo Matsubara was published in Synthese for his article titled Realism, Underdetermination and String Theory Dualities earlier this year. String theory promises to be able to provide us with a working theory of quantum gravity and a unified description of all fundamental forces. [...]
Rotman Institute Post-doctoral Fellow in Philosophy of Biology and Cognitive Science, Rachael Brown has been accepted for publication in Biological Theory for her paper titled Identifying Behavioral Novelty. Although there is no in-principle impediment to an EvoDevo of behavior, such an endeavor is not as straightforward as one might think; many of the key terms [...]
