PSA 1998 Program
Philosophy of Science Association
1998
Sixteenth Biennial Meeting
Kansas City, Missouri
October 22-25
Final Program
[Back to PSA 1998 main page] | [Abstracts available here]
Thursday, October 22
1:00-3:30 PM
SYM--Realism and Classification in the Social Sciences
Organizer: Michael Root, University of Minnesota
Chair: John Dupre, University of London
"How We Divide the World?" [Manuscript]
Michael Root, University of Minnesota
"Half-Naturalized Social Kinds"
Richard W. Miller, Cornell University
"Race: Biological Reality or Social Construct?"
Robin Andreasen, University of Wisconsin, Madison
"Local Realism and Global Arguments"
Harold Kincaid, University of Alabama at Birmingham
SYM--The Structure of Scientific Theories Thirty Years On
Organizers: Steven French, Leeds University, and Nick Huggett, University of Illinois at Chicago
Chair: Richard Grandy, Rice University
"Understanding Scientific Theories: An Assessment of Developments, 1969-1998"
Frederick Suppe, University of Maryland
"Theories, Models and Structures: Thirty Years On"
Steven French, University of Leeds, and Newton da Costa, University of Sao Paulo
"The Emergence of Feminist Philosophy of Science"
Helen E. Longino, University of Minnesota
"Local Philosophies of Science"
Nick Huggett, University of Illinois in Chicago
"The Legacy of 'Weltanschauungen' Approaches in Philosophy of Science"
Alison Wylie, University of Western Ontario
CP--Foundations of Quantum Mechanics-1
Chair: Mathias Frisch, Northwestern University
"Bell's Theorem, Non-Separability and Space-Time Individuation in Quantum Mechanics" [Manuscript]
Darrin W. Belousek, University of Notre Dame
"The Light at the End of the Tunneling: Observations and Underdetermination" [Manuscript]
Michael Dickson, Indiana University
"Can Experiments Help Us Choose Between the Bohm and Copenhagen Interpretations of Quantum Mechanics?" [Manuscript]
Lon Becker, University of Illinois at Chicago
CP--Philosophy of Biology-1
Chair: Lindley Darden, University of Maryland
"Is Pure R-Selection Really Selection?" [Manuscript]
Bruce Glymour, Kansas State University
"Selection and the Extent of Explanatory Unification" [Manuscript]
Rob Skipper, University of Maryland at College Park
"Proper Function and Recent Selection" [Manuscript]
Peter Schwartz, University of Pennsylvania
CP--Explanation
Chair: Paul Humphreys, University of Virginia
"Interpolation as Explanation" [Manuscript]
Jaakko Hintikka, Boston University, and Ilpo Halonen, University of Helsinki
"Inference to the Best Explanation is Coherent" [Manuscript]
Igor Douven, Utrecht University
"Inference to the Best Explanation and Theoretical Entities" [Manuscript]
Susan Vineberg, Wayne State University
Thursday, October 22
4:00-6:30
SYM--Toward a New Understanding of Scientific Success
Organizer: Janet A. Kourany, University of Notre Dame
Chair: Ronald N. Giere, University of Minnesota
"How Inevitable Are the Results of Successful Science?"
Ian Hacking, University of Toronto
"Models of and Models for: Theory and Practice in Contemporary Biology"
Evelyn Fox Keller, MIT
"A Successor to the Realism-Anti-Realism Question"
Janet A. Kourany, University of Notre Dame
SYM--The Organism in Philosophical Focus
Organizer: Manfred D. Laubichler, Princeton University
Chair: Richard M. Burian, VPI
"Fashioning a Descriptive Model of the Worm"
Rachel Ankeny, University of Pittsburgh
"Behavior at the Organismal and Molecular Levels: The Case of C. elegans"
Kenneth Schaffner, George Washington University
"Organism and Decomposition: Steps Towards an Integrative Theory of Biology"
Manfred D. Laublicher, Princeton University and Günter P. Wagner, Yale University
"Ontological Butchery: Distinguishing Organisms from Other Functionally Integrated Biological Entities"
Jack A. Wilson, Washington and Lee University
"The Organism in Development"
Robert C. Richardson, University of Cincinnati
Commentator: Jane Maienschein, Arizona State University
CP--Foundations of Quantum Mechanics-2
Chair: Robert Rynasiewicz, Johns Hopkins University
"Are GRW Tails as Bad as They Say?" [Manuscript]
Alberto Cordero, Graduate Center and Queens College, CUNY
"A Note on Nonlocality, Causation and Lorentz-Invariance" [Manuscript]
Federico Laudisa, University of Florence
"Van Fraassen and Ruetsche on Preparation and Measurement" [Manuscript]
Bradley Monton, Princeton University
CP--Science and Values-1
Chair: Peter Kirschenmann, Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam
"Laudan's Naturalistic Axiology" [Manuscript]
Karyn Freedman, University of Toronto
"Rhetoric, Narrative and Argument in Bruno Latour's Science in Action" [Manuscript]
David G. Stern, University of Iowa
"Defending Longino's Social Epistemology" [Manuscript]
K. Brad Wray, University of Calgary
CP--Probability and Statistical Inference
Chair: Henry Kyburg, University of Rochester
"No One Knows the Date of the Hour: An Unorthodox Application of Rev. Bayes' Theorem" [Manuscript]
Paul Bartha, University of British Columbia, and Christopher Hitchcock, Rice University
"The Likelihood Principle and the Reliability of Experiment" [Manuscript]
Andrew Backe, University of Pittsburgh
"The Plurality of Bayesian Measures of Confirmation and the Problem of Measure Sensitivity" [Manuscript]
Branden Fitelson, University of Wisconsin-Madison
"Why Bayesian Psychology is Incomplete" [Manuscript]
Frank Döring, University of Cincinnati
Friday, October 23
9:00-11:30
SYM--Studies in the Interaction of Psychology and Neuroscience
Organizer: Gary Hatfield, University of Pennsylvania
Chair: Gary Hardcastle, VPI
"Mental Functions as Constraints on Neurophysiology: Biology and Psychology of Color Vision"
Gary Hatfield, University of Pennsylvania
"Cognitive Science and the Neuroethology of Electroreception"
Brian L. Keeley, Washington University in St. Louis
"Neuropsychology and Neurology"
William Hirstein, William Paterson University
SYM--Relations between Philosophy of Science and Sociology of Science in Central Europe, 1914-1945
Organizer: Alan Richardson, University of British Columbia
Chair: Richard Creath, Arizona State University
"On the Relations between Psychologism and Sociologism in Early Twentieth-Century German Philosophy"
Martin Kusch, Cambridge University, UK (Paper read by Richard Creath)
"Otto Neurath and the Sociology of Knowledge"
Thomas E. Uebel, The London School of Economics, UK
"Logical Empiricism and the Sociology of Knowledge: Rethinking the Relations of Philosophy and Sociology of Science"
Alan Richardson, University of British Columbia
"Edgar Zilsel's 'Sociological Turn' in Philosophy"
Elisabeth Nemeth, University of Vienna, Austria
CP--Quantum Field Theory
Chair: Richard Healey, University of Arizona
"Why Physical Symmetries?" [Manuscript]
Elena Castellani, Department of Philosophy, University of Florence
"Changing the Subject: Redei on Causal Dependence and Screening Off in Relativistic Quantum Field Theory"
Laura Ruetsche and Rob Clifton, University of Pittsburgh
"Objects or Events? Towards an Ontology for Quantum Field Theory" [Manuscript]
Andreas Bartels, Universität Gesamthochschule Paderborn
CP--Science and Values-2
Chair: Lynn Hankinson Nelson, University of Missouri, St. Louis
"What Should a Normative Theory of Values in Science Accomplish?" [Manuscript]
Kristina Rolin, University of Helsinki
"Scientific Objectivity and Psychiatric Nosology" [Manuscript]
Particia Ross, University of Minnesota
"Moral Responsibility and the 'Ignorant Scientist'" [Manuscript]
John Forge, Griffith University
"Does Science Undermine Religion?" [Manuscript]
Neven Sesardic, Miyazaki International College
CP--Confirmation / Scientific Inference-1
Chair: Jane Duran, University of California, Santa Barbara
"The Curve Fitting Problem: A Bayesian Rejoinder" [Manuscript]
Prasanta S. Bandyopadhyay and Robert J. Boik, Montana State University
"Use-Novelty, Gellerization, and Severe Tests" [Manuscript]
Tetsuji Iseda, University of Maryland, College Park
"Empiricism, Conservativeness and Quasi-Truth" [Manuscript]
Otavio Bueno, University of Leeds
Friday, October 23
11:45-12:45
Special Interest Group in Philosophy of Social Science
Panel Discussion: "Teaching of Philosophy of Social Science"
Chair: Harold Kincaid
Speakers: Alison Wylie, University of Western Ontario; Paul Roth, University of Missouri at St. Louis; James Bohman, St. Louis University
Friday, October 23
1:00-3:30
SYM--Philosophy of Chemistry
Organizer: Eric R. Scerri, Department of Chemistry, Purdue University
Chair: Lee McIntyre, Colgate University
"Agency of Multilevel Coherences: in Chemistry and in Other Sciences"
Joseph E. Earley, Sr., Georgetown University
"Can We Exclude Nature from the Stability of Laboratory Research?"
Daniel Rothbart, George Mason University
"Putting Quantum Mechanics to Work in Chemistry"
Andrea I. Woody, The University of Chicago
"The Periodic System: Its Status and its Alleged Reduction"
Eric R. Scerri, Department of Chemistry, Purdue University
SYM--The Developmental Systems Perspective in Philosophy of Biology
Organizer: Peter Godfrey-Smith, Stanford University
Chair: David Buller, Northern Illinois University
"Causal Symmetries and Developmental Systems Theory"
Peter Godfrey-Smith, Stanford University
"Causal Democracy and Causal Contribution in DST"
Susan Oyama, John Jay College, CUNY
"Development, Culture, and the Units of Inheritance"
James R. Griesemer, University of California at Davis
"Development, Evolution, Adaptation"
Kim Sterelny, Victoria University, New Zealand
SYM--Conceptual Foundations of Field Theories in Physics
Organizer: Andrew Wayne, Concordia University
Chair: Twareque Ali, Department of Mathematics and Statistics Concordia University
"The Gauge Argument"
Paul Teller, University of California at Davis
"Counterintuitive Features of Quantum Field Theory"
Gordon Fleming, The Pennsylvania State University
"Description, Individuation, and Relation in Gauge Field Theory"
Sunny Auyang, Independent Scholar
Commentator: Andrew Wayne, Concordia University
SYM--The Medical Consensus Conference
Organizer: Miriam Solomon, Temple University
Chair: James Robert Brown, University of Toronto
"The Epistemic Contribution of Medical Consensus Conferences"
Paul Thagard, University of Waterloo
"Are Consensus Conferences Political Instruments?"
Reidar Lie, University of Bergen, Norway
"NIH Consensus Conferences: Resolving Medical Controversy with Data in a Science Court"
John H. Ferguson, Office of Medical Applications of Research, NIH
Commentator: Miriam Solomon, Temple University
Friday, October 23
4:00-5:30
PSA Presidential Address
Awards, Announcements: Michael Friedman, University of Indiana
Introduction: Abner Shimony, Boston University
Richard C. Jeffrey, Princeton University
"I Was a Teenage Logical Positivist"
Saturday, October 24
9:00-11:30
SYM--Evidence, Data Generation, and Scientific Practice: Toward A Reliabilist Philosophy of Experiment
Organizer: Deborah G. Mayo, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University
Chair: Ian Hacking, University of Toronto
"Data, Phenomena and Reliability"
James F. Woodward, California Institute of Technology
"Can Philosophical Theories of Evidence be Useful to Scientists?"
Peter Achinstein, Johns Hopkins University
"Experimental Practice and the Reliable Detection of Errors"
Deborah G. Mayo, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University
SYM--Special Relativity and Ontology
Organizer: Yuri V. Balashov, University of Notre Dame
Chair: David Stump, University of San Francisco
"Becoming and the Arrow of Causation"
Mauro Dorato, University of Rome
"QM and STR: Combining Quantum Mechanics With Relativity Theory" [Manuscript]
Storrs McCall, McGill University
"Relativity and Persistence" [Manuscript]
Yuri Balashov, University of Notre Dame
Commentator: Rob Clifton, University of Pittsburgh
SYM--Philosophical Perspectives on Quantum Chaos
Organizer: Frederick M. Kronz, University of Texas at Austin
Chair: Ernan McMullin, University of Notre Dame
"Bohmian Insights into Quantum Chaos"
James T. Cushing, University of Notre Dame
"Nonseparability and Quantum Chaos"
Frederick M. Kronz, The University of Texas at Austin
"Chaos and Fundamentalism" [Manuscript]
Gordon Belot, Princeton University
CP--Philosophy of Social Science
Chair: Robert Feleppa, Wichita State University
"Do We See Through a Social Microscope?: Credibility as a Vicarious Selector" [Manuscript]
Douglas Allchin, University of Texas at El Paso
"Functional and Intentional Action Explanations" [Manuscript]
Mark Risjord, Emory University
"Functionalism and the Meaning of Social Facts" [Manuscript]
Warren Schmaus, Illinois Institute of Technology
"Degrees of Freedom in the Social World" [Manuscript]
Mariam Thalos, SUNY at Buffalo
CP--Philosophy of Biology-2
Chair: Sandra Mitchell, University of California, San Diego
"Explanatory Pluralism in Paleobiology" [Manuscript]
Todd A. Grantham, College of Charleston
"Reasoning With the 'Rosetta Stones' of Biology: Experimental Systems and Doable Research"
Kevin Lattery, University of Minnesota
"Organisation, Evolution and Cognition: Beyond Campbell's Evolutionary Epistemology" [Manuscript]
Wayne Christensen and Clifford Hooker, University of Newcastle
Saturday, October 24
11:45-12:45
PSA Business Meeting
Saturday, October 24
1:00-3:30
SYM--Recent Advances in the Logic of Decision: A Symposium in Honor of Richard Jeffrey
Organizer: Allan Franklin, University of Colorado
Chair: Brian Skyrms, University of California, Irvine
"Why We Still Need the Logic of Decision"
James Joyce, University of Michigan
"Subjective Thoughts on Subjective Probability:
What did Dick Jeffrey know and when did he know it? and a Mathematician's Request for Help from the Philosophers"
Ethan Bolker, University of Massachusetts, Boston
"Conditionals and the Logic of Decision"
Richard Bradley, London School of Economics
Commentator: Richard C. Jeffrey, Princeton University
SYM--The Prospects for Presentism in Spacetime Theories
Organizer: Steven Savitt, The University of British Columbia
Chair: Lawrence Sklar, University of Michigan
"There's No Time Like the Present (in Minkowski Spacetime)" [Manuscript]
Steven Savitt, The University of British Columbia
"Special Relativity and the Present"
Mark Hinchliff, Reed College
"Is Presentism Worth Its Price?"
Craig Callendar, The London School of Economics
"Presentism According to Relativity and Quantum Mechanics"
Simon Saunders, University of Oxford
SYM--Kuhn, Cognitive Science, and Conceptual Change
Organizer and Chair: Nancy J. Nersessian, Georgia Institute of Technology
"Continuity Through Revolutions: A Frame-Based Account of Conceptual Change During Scientific Revolutions" [Manuscript]
Xiang Chen, California Lutheran University, and Peter Barker, University of Oklahoma
"Nomic Concepts, Frames, and Conceptual Change"
Hanne Andersen, University of Roskilde, and Nancy J. Nersessian, Georgia Institute of Technology
"Kuhnian Puzzle Solving and Schema Theory"
Thomas J. Nickles, University of Nevada at Reno
CP--Causation and Laws of Nature
Chair: James H. Fetzer, University of Minnesota, Duluth
"Who's Afraid of Undermining? Why the Principal Principle Need Not Contradict Humean Supervenience" [Manuscript]
Peter B. Vranas, University of Michigan
"The Conserved Quantity Theory of Causation and Chance Raising" [Manuscript]
Phil Dowe, University of Tasmania
"'Laws of Nature' as an Indexical Term: A Reinterpretation of Lewis's Best-System Analysis" [Manuscript]
John Roberts. University of Pittsburgh
"The Principle of the Common Cause Faces the Bernstein Paradox" [Manuscript]
Jos Uffink, Utrecht University
CP--Scientific Theories/Representation of Scientific Knowledge
Chair: Joseph C. Pitt, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University
"Theories as Complexes of Representational Media" [Manuscript]
Robin F. Hendry, University of Durham and Stathis Psillos, London School of Economics
"The Limited World of Science: A Tractarian Account of Objective Knowledge" [Manuscript]
Alfred Nordmann, University of South Carolina
"The Semantic (Mis)Conception of Theories" [Manuscript]
C. Wade Savage, University of Minnesota
"Category Theory: The Language of Mathematics" [Manuscript]
Elaine Landry, McGill University
Saturday, October 24
4:00-6:30
SYM--Philosophy and the Social Aspects of Scientific Inquiry: Moving On From the "Science Wars"
Organizer: Noretta Koertge, Indiana University at Bloomington
Chair: Cassandra Pinnick, Western Kentucky University
"Reviving the Sociology of Science"
Philip Kitcher, University of California, San Diego
"The Recent Past and Possible Future of the Sociology of Science"
Stephen Cole, SUNY at Stony Brook
"Science, Values and the Value of Science"
Noretta Koertge, Indiana University at Bloomington
"The Contexts of Scientific Practice"
Rose-Mary Sargent, Merrimack College
SYM--The Coevolution of Language and Brain: Is there Anything New Under the Sun?
Organizer and Chair: Edward Manier, University of Notre Dame
"The Roots of Human Linguistic Competence-in Apes"
Duane M. Rumbaugh, Georgia State University
"Syntax Facit Saltum: Minimal Syntactic Computation and the Evolution of Language"
Robert C. Berwick, MIT
"Evolutionary Engineering: How our Mental Capacities were Built from a Set of Primitives"
Marc Hauser, Harvard University
"Could Grammar Have Evolved?"
Terry Deacon, McLean Hospital, Harvard Medical School, and Boston University
"Richard Rudner, Postmodern Separatism and The Symbolic Species"
David Rudner, Tufts University
CP--Foundations of Statistical Physics/Space-Time Theories
Chair: John Norton, University of Pittsburgh
"Explaining the Emergence of Cooperative Phenomena" [Manuscript]
Chuang Liu, University of Florida
"Reconsidering the Concept of Equilibrium in Classical Statistical Mechanics" [Manuscript]
Janneke van Lith-van Dis, Utrecht University
"The Analysis of Singular Spacetimes" [Manuscript]
Erik Curiel, University of Chicago
"Gravity and Gauge Theory" [Manuscript]
Steve Weinstein, Northwestern University
CP--Philosophy of Psychology/Cognitive Science
Chair: Michael Bradie, Bowling Green State University
"The Dogma of Isomorphism: A Case Study From Speech Perception" [Manuscript]
Irene Appelbaum, University of Montana
"Measured Realism and Statistical Inference: An Explanation for the Fast Progress of 'Hard' Psychology" [Manuscript]
J.D. Trout, Loyola University of Chicago
"Helmholtz's Naturalized Conception of Geometry and his Spatial Theory of Signs" [Manuscript]
David J. Hyder, Max-Planck-Institut für Wissenschaftsgeschichte
"Visual Prototypes" [Manuscript]
Pauline Sargent, University of California, San Diego
CP--Confirmation/Scientific Inference-2
Chair: Robert Brandon, Duke University
"Problems with the Deductivist Image of Scientific Reasoning" [Manuscript]
Philip E. Catton, University of Canterbury
"Applying Pure Mathematics" [Manuscript]
Anthony Peressini, Marquette University
"Defending Abduction" [Manuscript]
Ilkka Niiniluoto, University of Helsinki