The Rotman Institute is honoured to be hosting a number of events this semester on important issues from a variety of fields. These events will explore pressing questions like:

Are humans the only species with rich mental, social, and emotional lives? Is it justifiable to keep animals in zoos and aquariums?

Might robots be moral? How can we ensure that robots are safe and secure? How will robots protect our privacy when we interact with them?

Has increasing medicalization of mental illness been beneficial? Are we properly addressing social and environmental factors that cause mental distress?

Is it possible to discover and justify new fundamental laws in cosmology? Does cosmology require new rules for testing theories? What is the status of spacetime concepts in cosmology?

Our next upcoming event is a talk by Gillian Crozier (Canada Research Chair in Environment, Culture and Values: Revisiting the Social License of Zoos & Aquariums in Light of Evolving Social Norms. This talk is scheduled for Thursday, January 26th at 3:30pm in StvH 1145. A reception will take place prior to the talk at 2:30pm in the Rotman Institue main space. Registration for this event is open now.

Additional events scheduled for this semester are listed below; please mark these dates on your calendar. Registration for each event opens 3 – 4 weeks prior to the event date.

Please also remember to submit photographs (limit four per person) to the Rotman Institute Philosophical Photography Contest. We’re looking for high quality photos in two distinct categories. First, Life at the Rotman Institute: photos that depict members here at the Institute, around campus, or engaged in other related activities. The second category is Philosophical Concepts: photos that somehow capture a philosophical idea, problem, theory, etc. If you have a photographic eye and a taste for philosophical problems, then this photo contest is for you! Note that the contest deadline has been extended to January 20th — you’ve still got time to enter!