< Colloquia

Boston Colloquium for Philosophy of Science

2008–2009

49th Annual Program

The Robert S. Cohen Forum: Contemporary Issues in Science Studies
Freud, the Reluctant Philosopher
Monday, September 15, 2008, 1 p.m. – 5 p.m.
The Castle, 225 Bay State Road
Moderator: Murray Cohen (Boston University)
William Egginton (Johns Hopkins)
Freud, Lacan, and the Philosopher's Desire
Jennifer Radden (University of Massachusetts Boston)
Contagion, Suggestibility and Identification in Freud’s Group Psychology
Jurgen Reeder (Stockholms Universitet)
The Mysterious “Nature of the Subject”: Philosophy at the Interface of Psychoanalysis
Alfred Tauber (Boston University)
Brentano, Kant, and Freud



Natural Laws and Scientific Reduction
Friday, September 26, 2008, 1 p.m. – 5 p.m.
Photonics Center, Colloquium Room 9 th floor, 8 St. Mary’s St.
Moderator: John Tietze (Boston University)
Doug Kutach (Brown University)
Causal Foundationalism
Craig Callender (University of California, San Diego)
The Better Best System Theory of Laws of Nature
Peter Bokulich (Boston University)
Reduction vs. the Occurrent/Nomic Distinction
Marc Lange (University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill)
The Rule of Law -- and of Meta-Law

The Past, Present, and Future of Set Theory
Thursday, October 23, 2008, 4 p.m.
The Castle, 225 Bay State Road
Moderator: Alessandro Torza (Boston University)
Jaakko Hintikka (Boston University)
Commentator: Judson Webb (Boston University)

The Philosophy of Infinity
Monday, November 3, 2008, 1 p.m. – 5 p.m.
The Castle, 225 Bay State Road
Moderator: Peter Bokulich (Boston University)
Emilie Kutash (St. Joseph’s College)
The Many Types of Infinity in Ancient Philosophy and in Late Antiquity
Jean Nicolas Pestieau (State University of New York, Suffolk)
The Formal Quantification of Infinity and the Advent of Transfinite Arithmetic in the 1870's: The Age of Cantor, Set Theory and Modern Mathematics
Judson Webb (Boston University)
Infinity and Modern Philosophy
Mihai Ganea (Boston University)
Life without Infinity: Varieties of Finitism

The Telephone Gambit: Chasing Alexander Graham Bell's Secret
Monday, November 17, 2008, 4 p.m.
Boston University, The Castle, 225 Bay State Rd.
Moderator: Conevery Bolton Valencius (Harvard University)
Seth Shulman



Descartes' Life and Science
Monday, December 1, 2008, 4 p.m.
Boston University, The Castle, 225 Bay State Rd.
Moderator: Aaron Garret (Boston University)
Amir Aczel (Boston University)

-- 2009 Darwin Celebration --
Throughout the calendar year of 2009 the Boston Colloquium for Philosophy of Science will devote its entire program to examining and celebrating the life, work, and influence of Charles Darwin (1809-1882). This year marks the bicentennial of Darwin’s birth and the sesquicentennial of the publication of the Origin of Species. Not only did Darwin stimulate the transformation of a largely descriptive "natural history" tradition into the scientific field we now call biology, but his theory has also deeply influenced all the humans sciences.  Further, Darwinism affects the way Western societies conceive themselves and their citizens.  In short, Darwinian evolution is more than a science; it has become integral to our metaphysics.

Evolution before Darwin
Monday, January 26, 2009, 2 p.m. – 5 p.m.
The Castle, 225 Bay State Road
Moderator: Gal Kober (Boston University)
Daniel Dahlstrom (Boston University)
Evolution before Evolution: Some Philosophical Perspectives
Michael Ruse (Florida State University)
Progress – Evolution’s Evil Doppelganger?
Robert Richards (University of Chicago)
Romantic Biology and the Origin of “Origins”



Provost's Colloquium: The Impact of Darwinism on the Human Sciences
A Boston University Symposium
Thursday, February 12, 2009
The Metcalf Trustee Center, One Silber Way, 9th floor
Introduction by Provost David K. Campbell
Moderator: Alfred I. Tauber, Department of Philosophy
Morning Session: 9 a.m. - Noon
Matt Cartmill (Department of Anthropology)
150 Years without Darwin Is Enough! The Belated Impact of Darwinian Theory on the Study of Human Evolution
Michael Lyons, (Department of Psychology)
How Evolution Helps Us Think about Mental Disorders
Bart Lipman Department of Economics
Survival of the Fittest in Games, Decisions, and Markets
Afternoon Session: 2 p.m. – 5 p.m.
Neta Crawford , Department of Political Science
Evolution in World Politics
Jeff Coulter, Department of Sociology
Some Reflections on the Impact of “The Descent of Man” on the Trajectory of the Behavioral Sciences
James Johnson, Department of History
Darwin among the Historians



Karbank Symposium:
The Karbank Symposium, an annual lecture series, offers a forum for discussing issues in environmental philosophy broadly construed. Topics range from biodiversity, transgenic respeciation and global warming to nature aesthetics. The colloquia are designed to provide a forum for distinguished philosophers of various backgrounds to address their work to a broad audience. The Symposium is named in honor of Steven Karbank, a generous benefactor of the Boston University Department of Philosophy and major sponsor of the series.
Systems Biology Framed by Ecology: Historical and Contemporary Conceptual Perspectives
Monday, March 23, 2009, 1 p.m. – 5 p.m.
The Castle, 225 Bay State Rd.
Moderator: Daniel Star (Boston University)
Sharon Kingsland (Johns Hopkins University)
The Ecosystem Concept: Adapting an Atomic Age Idea to the Modern World
Eileen Crist (Virginia Tech Blacksburg Campus)
The Biosphere as System: Toward a Critical Analysis
Sahotra Sarkar (University of Texas at Austin)
From the Milieu Interior to the Functioning Ecosystem: Concepts of Stability and Equilibrium
Sander Gliboff (University of Indiana)
The Dynamics of Developing Systems in Rre-Darwinian German Biology, from Johann Friedrich Kielmeyer to Heinrich Georg Bronn

The Reception of Darwinism: Trans-cultural Differences
Friday and Saturday, April 3 - 4, 2009
The Photonics Center, Colloquium Room 9th floor, 8 Saint Mary's St.
Friday, April 3, The Periphery
2 p.m. – 5 p.m.
Moderator: Eve-Marie Engels (University of Tübingen)
Thomas F. Glick (Boston University)
Opening presentation
Katalin Straner (Central European University, Budapest; fellow, Harvard Univeristy)
Translating Darwin: Reception in 19th-Century Hungary
Ken Kalling (University of Tartu)
The reception of Darwinism in Estonia
Thomas F. Glick (Boston University)
The Reception of Darwinism by the Brazilian Intelligentsia

Saturday, April 4, Europe
Moderator: Thomas F. Glick (Boston University)
Morning Session: 10 a.m. - Noon
Jean Gayon (University of Paris, Sorbonne)
Reception of Darwin and Development of Darwinism in France
Richard D. Bellon (Michigan State University)- England
Inspiration in the Harness of Daily Labor: Darwin, Orchids and the Triumph of Evolution, 1858-1872
Afternoon Session: 2 p.m. – 5 p.m.
Nikolai Krementsov (University of Toronto)
Darwinism and Marxism: Cultural Resources of Soviet Biology
Pietro Corsi (University of Oxford)
Before and after Darwin: the Italian Case
Eve-Marie Engels (University of Tübingen)
The Reception and Construction of Charles Darwin in 19th Century Germany



Darwinism’s Impact in the United States
Friday, April 24, 2009, 1 p.m. – 5 p.m.
The Castle, 225 Bay State Road
Moderator: Wesley Wildman (Boston University)
Jon Roberts (Boston University)
Darwin’s Challenge to Religion
Paul Farber (Oregon State University)
Darwin and Race
Piers Hale (University of Oklahoma)
Post-Darwinian Natural Theologies in Britain and the United States: Asa Gray and Charles Kingsley
Paul Finkelman (Albany Law School)
Science, Religion and Race in Antebellum American: The Origin of the Human Species and Pro-Slavery Thought



Charles Darwin in Biography: The Lives behind the Origin of Species
Friday, May 1, 2009
The Photonics Center, Colloquium Room 9th floor, 8 Saint Mary's St.
Moderator: Rebecca Kinraide (Boston University)
Morning Session: 10 a.m. - Noon
Janet Browne (Harvard University)
Is your Darwin, My Darwin?
Andrew Berry (Harvard University)
Industrious and Persevering Traveler: Alfred Russel Wallace's Journey
Afternoon Session: 2 p.m. – 5 p.m.
Richard Milner, American Museum of Natural History
Darwin, the Unknown
David Kohn (American Museum of Natural History)
Charles Darwin: to the Greenhouse Born
Peter Parnell
Putting Darwin and Wallace Onstage: Creating 'Trumpery'
Panel discussion, 5 p.m. – 6 p.m.

Peter Parnell's play, Trumpery, about Darwin's relationship with Alfred Russel Wallace, will be playing at Boston University's Huntington Theatre, Thursday Aril 30, Friday May 1, and Saturday May 2. For further information, consult the CD09 webpage. www.bu.edu/dev/darwin2009

Neuphi 2008-2009:
Neuphi, the Philosophy of Neuroscience Group at Boston University, is organized by graduate students in the Department of Philosophy to seek a common integrative framework for the study of the mind.  The meetings, supported by the Department of Philosophy and the Center for Philosophy and History of Science, are designed to enrich the interplay between empirical and conceptual investigations through a critical examination of the explanatory strategies, major models, and logic employed in neuroscience.  To this end, leaders in philosophy of mind and the cognitive sciences present their work in an interdisciplinary setting. For 2008-2009, the tentative schedule of speakers includes Peter Cariani (September), Hakwan Lau (October), Patricia Churchland (November), Christof Koch (November), Susanna Siegel (December), Steven Grossberg (January), Alex Byrne (March), David Chalmers (April), and Alva Noe (April). For further information and schedule of events, email organizers@neuphi.com (to be included on the mailing list) or consult http://www.neuphi.com/. <http://www.neuphi.com/>