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PSA Newsletter: Volume 11 : Number 2: March 2005
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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. PSA Election results (details below).
2. CALL FOR PAPERS: Quantum Information, Epistemological and Logical
Lessons.
Lisbon, Portugal, August 29-30, 2005. Deadline: March 15, 2005.
http://www.uni-konstanz.de/ppm/events/LisbonPhysics2005/
3. NOMINATIONS
for the 2005 Lakatos Award. Deadline: April 19, 2005.
4. JOB: Postdoctoral Fellow, Amherst College, Law and Science. Deadline:
March 25, 2005.
5. CONFERENCE announcement: Norms, Reasoning and Knowledge in Technology.
June 3-4, 2005, Boxmeer, the Netherlands.
http://www.tm.tue.nl/capaciteitsgroep/aw/philosophy/NiK-conf.html.
6. CALL FOR PAPERS: Interactivist Summer Institute 2005, September 19-23,
2005.
Madren Conference Center Clemson University, Clemson, South Carolina,
USA.
7. CONFERENCE: 7th Annual Philosophy of Social Science Roundtable: March
11-13,
Barnard College, Columbia University. PROGRAM available at:
http://bc.barnard.columbia.edu/~awylie/RoundtableIndex.html
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PSA LINKS:
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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FURTHER DETAILS:
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1. PSA Election results.
The votes from the recent election have
been tabulated, with the following results
President: Lawrence Sklar, Michigan
Governing Board:
Mary Morgan, London School of Economics (re-elected)
Ellery Eells, University of Wisconsin-Madison
Noretta Koertge, Indiana University
Wolfgang Spohn, Universität Konstanz
The slate this year was very competitive and the results were quite close. I
congratulate the new officers, and thank all of the candidates for their
participation: the PSA completely depends upon its elected officers to keep it
running well and truly. It's not the easiest thing in the world running for
office, but it's an essential part of our Association's well-being.
George Gale
Exec. Sec.
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2. CALL FOR PAPERS: Quantum Information, Epistemological and Logical Lessons.
Lisbon, Portugal, August 29-30, 2005. Deadline: 15 March 2005.
http://www.uni-konstanz.de/ppm/events/LisbonPhysics2005/
A Special 2-day Workshop
The European Conference for Analytic Philosophy (ECAP5)
Lisbon, Portugal, August 29 - 30, 2005.
Invited Speakers:
Dorit Aharonov, HUJI (To be confirmed)
William Demopoulos, UCI (To be confirmed)
Andrew Hodges, Oxford
Huw Price, USYD
We invite submissions for contributed talks to this workshop. Papers should deal
with epistemological and logical lessons philosophers can draw from the science
of quantum information. Possible topics include (but are not limited to)
interpretations of quantum mechanics in light of quantum information,
interpretations of probabilities, computability and randomness, and
meta-philosophical questions about the relations between physics and
epistemology. Each contributed paper will have twenty minutes for presentation
and additional ten minutes for discussion.
Please send submissions (no more than 4000 words) electronically to us
(amit.hagar@uni-konstanz.de)
by 15 March 2005. We accept standard formats like pdf-, doc- and rtf-files. We
will let authors know whether their paper will be included in the workshop by 1
May 2005.
Amit Hagar and Stephan Hartmann
PPM Group, Konstanz.
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3. NOMINATIONS for the 2005 Lakatos
Award. Deadline: April 19, 2005.
The Lakatos Award is given annually for an outstanding contribution to the
philosophy of science, widely interpreted, in the form of a book published in
English during the previous six years. The Award is in memory of Imre Lakatos
and has been endowed by the Latsis Foundation. It is administered by the
following committee: the Director of the London School of Economics (Chairman),
Professor John Worrall (Convenor), and Professors Hans Albert, Nancy Cartwright,
Adolf Grünbaum, Philip Kitcher, Alan Musgrave, and Michael Redhead. The
Committee makes the Award on the advice of an independent and anonymous panel of
selectors. The value of the Award is £10,000.
To take up an Award a successful candidate must visit the LSE and deliver a
public lecture. The Award has so far been won by Bas Van Fraassen and Hartry
Field (1986), Michael Friedman and Philip Kitcher (1987), Michael Redhead
(1988), John Earman (1989), Elliott Sober (1991), Peter Achinstein and Alexander
Rosenberg (1993), Michael Dummett (1994), Lawrence Sklar (1995), Abner Shimony
(1996), Jeffrey Bub and Deborah Mayo (1998), Brian Skyrms (1999), Judea Pearl
(2001) Penelope Maddy (2002), Patrick Suppes (2003), and Kim Sterelny (2004).
http://www.lse.ac.uk/collections/philosophyLogicAndScientificMethod/lakatos/lakatosaward.htm
Nominations for the 2005 Lakatos Award
Nominations can now be made for the 2005 Lakatos
Award, and must be received by Monday 19th
April 2005.
The 2005 Award will be for a book published in English with an imprint from
1999-2004 inclusive. A book may, with the permission of the author, be nominated
by any person of recognized standing within the profession.
For further details of the nomination procedure or more information on the
Lakatos Award 2005, contact Tim Doyle on + 44 (0) 20 7955 7901, or email
t.b.doyle@lse.ac.uk .
John Worrall
Convenor, Lakatos Award Management Committee
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4. JOB: Postdoctoral Fellow, Amherst College, Law and Science. Deadline:
March 25, 2005.
Amherst College seeks a postdoctoral fellow for a two-year
appointment as a visiting assistant professor in the field of law and science.
The fellow will teach one course per semester, and the rest of the time will be
divided between curricular development and his/her own research. We welcome
inquiries from candidates who have done graduate work in the social, historical,
or philosophical studies of science and technology, as well as from scientists
or legal scholars with special expertise in the role of science in law or the
role of law in science. We are interested, among other things, in how knowledge
practices in law are shaped by science and in the ways knowledge practices in
the sciences are shaped by law. In addition, we are interested in how scientific
institutions incorporate, respond to, and resist the external constraints
imposed by law. Examples of courses that might be taught include:
DNA: Scientific Revolution and Its Legal
Impact; The Science of Forensics; Evidentiary Processes in Law and Science;
Intellectual Property, Biotechnology, and Society; and Privacy and Property in
the Internet Age.
Candidates should submit a letter of application explaining the relation of
their research and teaching interests to this position, a curriculum vitae,
sample syllabi for undergraduate courses, and a sample of written work (an
article or chapter, e.g.). Candidates should also arrange for three letters of
recommendation to be sent directly to the Search Committee. All application
materials should be sent to Professor John W. Servos, Search Committee in Law
and Science, Department of History, Amherst College, Amherst MA 01002. Closing
date for applications is March 25, 2005.
Amherst College is an undergraduate liberal arts college for men
and women, with 1,600 students and 190 faculty members. Located in the
Connecticut River Valley of western Massachusetts, Amherst participates with
Hampshire, Mount Holyoke, and Smith Colleges and the University of Massachusetts
in the Five-College Consortium.
Amherst
College is an equal opportunity, affirmative action employer and encourages
women, persons of color, and persons with disabilities to apply. The
administration, faculty, and student body are committed to attracting qualified
candidates from groups presently under-represented on our campus.
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5. CONFERENCE announcement: Norms,
Reasoning and Knowledge in Technology
June 3-4, 2005, Boxmeer, the Netherlands.
http://www.tm.tue.nl/capaciteitsgroep/aw/philosophy/NiK-conf.html
Norms, Reasoning and Knowledge in Technology
June 3-4, Boxmeer, the Netherlands
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Norms in Knowledge NWO Project
Section of Philosophy and Ethics of Technology
Technical University of Eindhoven
As part of
our continuing investigation in the epistemological features of normative claims
and their role in technological setting, we present a conference on Norms,
Reasoning and Knowledge in Technology. Invited
speakers will discuss the relationship between various facets of technological
knowledge and reasoning and related norms, with special emphasis on the
relationship between practical reasoning and functional ascriptions.
The conference features a diverse and distinguished panel of speakers interested
in the normative aspects of technological knowledge and the relationship between
practical reasoning and artifactual knowledge.
Space is limited so we ask that you apply for attendance early. Email NiK-conf@tm.tue.nl
and please state your affiliations and interests in philosophy of technology.
Please also indicate if you are willing to be a designated respondent during the
conference.
Confirmed speakers
============================
Brown, Mark A., Syracuse University
Hanson, Sven Ova, Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm
Horty, John F., University of Maryland
Hughes, Jesse, Technical University of Eindhoven
Koen, Billy V., University of Texas
Pollock, John, University of Arizona
Vaesen, Krist, Technical University of Eindhoven
Vermaas, Pieter, Technical University of Delft
Walton, Douglas, University of Winnipeg
For more information:
http://www.tm.tue.nl/capaciteitsgroep/aw/philosophy/NiK-conf.html
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6. CALL FOR PAPERS: Interactivist Summer
Institute 2005, September 19-23, 2005.
Madren Conference Center Clemson University, Clemson, South Carolina,
USA.
Join us in exploring the frontiers of understanding of life, mind, and
cognition. There is a growing recognition - across many disciplines - that
phenomena of life and mind, including cognition and representation, are
emergents of far-from-equilibrium, interactive, autonomous systems. Mind and
biology, mind and agent, are being re-united. The classical treatment of
cognition and representation within a formalist framework of encodingist
assumptions is widely recognized as a fruitless maze of blind alleys. From
neurobiology to robotics, from cognitive science to philosophy of mind and
language, dynamic and interactive alternatives are being explored. Dynamic
systems approaches and autonomous agent research join in the effort.
The interactivist model offers a theoretical approach to matters of life and
mind, ranging from evolutionary- and neuro-biology - including the emergence of
biological function - through representation, perception, motivation, memory,
learning and development, emotions, consciousness, language, rationality,
sociality, personality and psychopathology. This work has developed interfaces
with studies of central nervous system functioning, the ontology of process,
autonomous agents, philosophy of science, and all areas of psychology,
philosophy, and cognitive science that address the person.
The conference will involve both tutorials addressing central parts and aspects
of the interactive model, and papers addressing current work of relevance to
this general approach. This will be our third Summer Institute; the first was in
2001 at Lehigh University, Bethlehem, PA, USA, and the second was in 2003 in
Copenhagen, Denmark. The intention is for this Summer Institute to become a
traditional biennial meeting where those sharing the core ideas of interactivism
will meet and discuss their work, try to reconstruct its historical roots, put
forward current research in different fields that fits the interactivist
framework, and define research topics for prospective graduate students. People
working in philosophy of mind, linguistics, social sciences, artificial
intelligence, cognitive robotics, theoretical biology, and other fields related
to the sciences of mind are invited to send their paper submission or statement
of interest for participation to the organizers.
http://www.lehigh.edu/~interact/isi2005/index.htm
Mark H. Bickhard
Lehigh University
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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).
B. INSTRUCTIONS FOR SUBMISSIONS
Send information for possible inclusion in a future issue of the newsletter to
the editor (mforster@wisc.edu). It is best to send the information directly to
the editor as early as possible because publication dates are unpredictable.
Please include PSA somewhere in the subject line (so that the message is
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