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PSA
Newsletter: Volume 10 : Number 4: December 2004
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Edited
for the Philosophy of Science Association by
Malcolm
Forster, http://philosophy.wisc.edu/forster
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IN THIS ISSUE:
1. Summary
Report on the Work of the 2004 PSA Program Committee by Miriam Solomon.
2. JOB: Philosophy,
King’s College London. DEADLINE:
Email strand-recruitment@kcl.ac.uk
immediately.
3. Professor Honored for Work in Philosophy,
Computer Science.
4. JOB: Research Fellow, Dept. of Science and
Technology Studies,
Link: www.ucl.ac.uk/sts/chang/job.htm DEADLINE:
5. CONFERENCE:
On
For more information see
http://www.pitt.edu/~pittcntr/Events/Upcoming_Special_Events/Einstein/Einstein_program.htm
John Norton
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PSA LINKS:
PSA 2004 Biennial
Meeting: http://www.temple.edu/psa2004
PSA website: http://philosophy.wisc.edu/PSA/
Philosophy of Science journal: http://www.journals.uchicago.edu/PHILSCI/home.html
PhilSci Archives: http://philsci-archive.pitt.edu/
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MORE DETAILS:
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1. Summary
Report on the Work of the 2004 PSA Program Committee by Miriam Solomon.
The PSA 2004 Program
Committee was overworked! This is good
news—it speaks to the health of the organization that 176 papers were submitted
(up from 147 in 2002). But it also means
that acceptance rates were down (to 33% for papers), and that program committee
members could give each paper less attention (reading 44 papers in 6 weeks
during the semester is a challenge).
Symposia and workshop proposals were also up (from 33 in 2002 to 45 in
2004). The acceptance rate for symposia
and workshops was 42%.
The entire review
process for papers—from assignment of two reviewers through to acceptance or
rejection—was completed before the identities of authors, or any demographic
facts about them, were known. After the
program was complete, I ran a Chi-square test on known group identities, and
discovered that there was no statistically significant difference in the
acceptance rate of papers from men vs. women, graduate students vs. post-PhDs
or
The Program Committee
used OpenConf software, which permitted them to view each other’s comments and
ratings after they had entered their own.
Decisions were made after repeated negotiations. We accepted the highly rated symposia,
workshops and papers without regard to area, and accepted more borderline submissions
based on the need for balance in the program.
The Program Committee
made a number of suggestions for the PSA Executive Office and future Program
Committees. The work of the Program
Committee would be made much more efficient with the help of a central office
that permanently set up the required conference software and provided the
necessary secretarial support; the HSS office (which is supposed to have taken
over our executive needs) does not provide this. Secondly, the reviewing workload is too great
(44 papers in 6 weeks!); several suggestions were made to handle this, the most
obvious of which is to enlarge the reviewing pool to include the journal’s
Editorial Board.
The full Report to the
Governing Board is available as a link to the PSA2004 webpage http://www.temple.edu/psa2004 In response to the report, the President
and Governing Board have appointed a committee to recommend changes to the PSA
Executive Office. Input is welcome; the
chair of the committee is our outgoing President Elliott Sober.
My sincere thanks to the
PSA for the privilege of working together with an excellent committee:
Christina Bicchieri, David Hilbert, Carl Hoefer, Harold Kincaid, Fred Kronz,
Roberta Millstein, Alan Richardson, and Andrea Woody, to put together PSA 2004.
Miriam Solomon
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2. JOB: Philosophy, King’s College London. DEADLINE:
Applications are invited
for a Readership and a Lectureship in the Department of Philosophy at King’s
College London, starting in September 2005.
The appointees will be expected to contribute to teaching and examining in one
or more of the following areas: formal logic, philosophy of science, philosophy
of mathematics, philosophy of logic, philosophy of language, philosophy of
mind/psychology, aesthetics, ethics, politics, history of ancient or modern
philosophy, epistemology, metaphysics, continental philosophy, Indian
philosophy
For information about
syllabi please visit the Department’s website on www.kcl.ac.uk/kis/schools/hums/philosophy/
The successful candidates will have a Ph.D and a demonstrable ability to teach
at undergraduate and postgraduate level.
The Readership will be on £37,558 - £42,573 per annum plus £2,323 London
Allowance per annum.
The Lectureship will be
on £23,643 - £27,116 per annum plus
£2,323 London Allowance per annum
Further particulars and
application forms may be obtained from the Personnel Department, King’s College
London,
The closing date for
applications is
Equality of opportunity
is college policy.
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3. Professor Honored for Work in
Philosophy, Computer Science.
MEDIA CONTACT: Randall
Curren (595) 275-4105 or Helene Snihur (585) 275-7800
September 28, 2004
Professor Honored for Work in Philosophy, Computer Science
A University of Rochester professor renowned and respected as a leading authority
on philosophical problems in the study of science and mathematics will be
honored with a symposium celebrating his nearly 50-year career.
Former and current students and professional colleagues will meet on River Campus
Saturday, Oct. 9, and Sunday, Oct. 10, to discuss the work of Henry E. Kyburg,
Jr., who is Burbank Professor of Moral and Intellectual Philosophy and holds
appointments in both the philosophy and computer
science departments.
Kyburg has published numerous articles and books on topics such as inductive logic,
statistical reasoning, probability, and epistemology, which is the study of the
nature of knowledge. His current research focuses on uncertain or probabilistic
inference--the process by which humans reach most conclusions, and the process
that will be central to artificial intelligence--and data mining, the process
by which computers search for information in data and draw conclusions from it.
"Henry's at the forefront of work in uncertain inference, probability, and
machine cognition, charting the frontiers of philosophy and computer science,"
said Randall Curren, chair of the Department of Philosophy. "He continues
to produce extraordinary, cutting-edge work that is very important to the
field."
In addition to teaching at the University, Kyburg holds an appointment as senior
research scientist at the Institute for Human and Machine Cognition, located in
"Henry's impact in the field of artificial intelligence has been as significant
as in philosophy, making him one of the rare individuals to gain prominence in
both fields," said Lenhart Schubert, professor of computer science.
"As a member of our computer science department, he has inspired, guided,
and carried out much novel and important work on evidence-based reasoning, and
also has served as a statistics-probability-logic guru to many of us."
Kyburg is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science,
the
During the symposium, Kyburg will participate in a panel discussion on "Probability
as a Guide to Life," examining probability theory as it applies to
practical matters of evidence, choice, and explanation. The panel also includes
Isaac Levi, Emeritus Dewey Professor of Philosophy at Columbia University;
Teddy Seidenfeld, the Herbert A. Simon Professor of Philosophy
and Statistics at Carnegie Mellon University; Ronald Loui, associate professor
of computer science at Washington University in St. Louis; and Thalos, who is
professor of philosophy at the University of Utah.
Levi and Kyburg were fellow graduate students in philosophy at
Seidenfeld received his bachelor's degree in mathematics and philosophy from the
Kyburg joined the Department of Philosophy of the
In addition to his research and teaching, Kyburg is a member of numerous organizations,
such as the American Philosophical Association, the Philosophy of Science
Association, and the American Mathematical Society, and has served on many
program committees and editorial boards.
"Probability and Inference: A Symposium in Honor of Professor Henry E. Kyburg,
Jr." is sponsored by the Departments of Philosophy and of Computer Science
at the University and by the Institute for Human and Machine Cognition. The
symposium coincides with Meliora Weekend, the celebration of homecoming, alumni
reunions, and family weekend events. For more information, contact the
Department of Philosophy, (585) 275-4105.
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4. JOB: Research Fellow, STS Department,
Link: www.ucl.ac.uk/sts/chang/job.htm
Applications are invited
for the post of Research Fellow in the Department of Science and Technology
Studies, University College London, to contribute to the research project
"Evidence in the Natural Sciences".
This project forms part of a multidisciplinary research programme
"Evidence, Inference and Enquiry", funded by the Leverhulme Trust and
the ESRC. The research fellow will be
expected to work in close collaboration with Dr Hasok Chang, and also to
participate in the overall research programme.
The appointment is for
two years, and can start as early as
The successful applicant
must hold a PhD by the start of appointment.
The appropriate subject of the PhD is not narrowly specified, but
PhD-level training in the philosophy of science is essential. The ideal candidate would be a philosopher of
science with a strong interest in the history of the natural sciences. There is some flexibility in the remit of the
research fellow's work, but a central part of it will be to survey and develop
non-formal philosophical frameworks for conceptualising evidence.
For further information,
please see www.ucl.ac.uk/sts/chang/job.htm
and further links there. Any questions
should be directed to Hasok Chang by e-mail h.chang@ucl.ac.uk
or telephone (+44-(0)20-7679-1324).
Applicants must submit a
UCL application form (available from the above website), including the names
and contact details of two referees; the first two pages of the application
form may be substituted by a full CV.
Short-listed candidates will be invited to submit samples of work and
have referees contacted; interviews will be arranged where possible. All application materials should be submitted
by post to Dr Hasok Chang, Department of Science and Technology Studies,
University College London,
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END OF PSA NEWSLETTER
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ENDNOTES:
-------------
A. The purpose of this newsletter
The PSA Newsletter is
published electronically on an "as needed" basis by the Philosophy of Science Association to
disseminate information. The newsletter
is moderated and is restricted to information pertinent to members of the
Association (e.g., official business of the Association, information about
upcoming meetings or other information likely to be of interest to a broad
range of membership).
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