< Colloquia

Boston Colloquium for Philosophy of Science

2006–2007

47th Annual Program

The Robert S. Cohen Forum: Contemporary Issues in Science Studies
Civic and Epistemic Values in Science
Monday, September 11, 2006
The Castle, 225 Bay State Road
Moderator: Robert S. Cohen, Boston University
10:00 a.m.- noon
Steven DeLue, Miami University
The Problematic Implications of Multicultural Toleration for the Values of Science
Charles Weijer, University of Western Ontario
Trust in Clinical Science

2:00-5:00 p.m.
Keith Parsons, University of Houston
Can Science Tell Us the Truth about Truth?
Ron Giere, University of Minnesota
Science and Secularism
Noretta Koertge, Indianna University
Why It Is Intelligent to Look for Design in Nature

100 Years After Westermarck's The Origin and Development of Moral Ideas
Friday, September 29, 2006, 2:00-4:00 p.m.
The Castle, 225 Bay State Road
Moderator: Peter Bokulich, Boston University
Aaron Garrett, Boston University
Westermarck, Moore, and the Road No Longer Taken
Knud Haakonssen, University of Sussex
Ethics as a Social Science

Causation in Biology and Physics
Friday and Saturday, October 20–21, 2006
B.U. School of Law, Barristers Hall, 765 Commonwealth Avenue
Moderator: Gal Kober, Boston University
Friday, 9:00 a.m. - noon
Andre Ariew, University of Missouri
Is the Post-Synthesis Darwinian Theory a Causal Theory?
Denis Walsh, University of Toronto
Statistical Laws and Formal Explanation
Tim Lewens, University of Cambridge
Force and Causes, Probabilities and Populations: Clarifying the Metaphysics of Selection

Friday, 1:00-4:00 p.m.
Alex Rosenberg, Duke University
Causally Democratic Genocentrism
Sandra Mitchell, University of Pittsburgh
Complex Causality in Biology
James Woodward , California Institute of Technology
Cause and Mechanism in Biology

Moderator: Luciana Sarmento Garbayo, Boston University
Saturday, 9 a.m.-Noon
Francis Longworth, Ohio University & University of Birmingham
Pluralistic Theories of Causation
Peter Bokulich, Boston University
Causal Properties and Physical Dynamics
Ned Hall, Harvard University
Causation and structural equations

Saturday 1:00-3:00 p.m.
John Norton, University of Pittsburgh
Causation as Folk Science
Yemima Ben-Menahem, Hebrew University
The Causal Spectrum
Mathias Frisch, University of Maryland
Where to Hunt for Causes in Physics

De-Transcendentalizing Religion: Hobbes Vs. Wittgenstein
Findlay Visiting Professor Lectureship
Friday, November 3 , 2006, 4:00 p.m.
B.U. School of Theology, Room 525, 745 Commonwealth Avenue
Moderator: Charles Griswold, Boston University
Anat Biletzki, Tel Aviv University/Boston University

Whither Philosophy? A Boston University Department of Philosophy Roundtable Discussion
Wednesday, November 29, 2006
The Castle, 225 Bay State Road
Philosophy of Science and Logic
9:00-10:30 a.m.
Moderator: Gal Kober, Boston University
Peter Bokulich
Tian Yu Cao
Jaako Hintikka
Judson Webb

Ethical and Political Philosophy
11:00-12:30 a.m.
Moderator: Jamie Kelly
Hugh Baxter
Charles Griswold
Simon Keller
David Lyons
Alfred Tauber

History of Philosophy I
2:00-3:30 p.m.
Moderator: David Jennings
Klaus Brinkman
Aaron Garrett
Manfred Kuehn
David Roochnik

History of Philosophy II
4:00-5:30 p.m.
Moderator: Bret Doyle
Daniel Dahlstrom
Walter Hopp
Victor Kestenbaum
Stanley Rosen
Allen Speight

Aristotle and Today's Biology
Monday, January 22, 2007, 1:00-5:00 p.m.
The Castle, 225 Bay State Road
Moderator: David Roochnik, Boston University
Devin Henry, University of Western Ontario
Natural Teleology in Aristotle's Generation of Animals
William Wians, Merrimack College
Is Aristotle's Account of Sexual Differentiation Iconsistent?
Alfred Miller and Maria Miller, The Catholic University of America
An Aristotelian Analysis of Current Problems in the Foundation of Embryology
James Lennox, University of Pittsburgh
The Concept of Bios of Aristotle's Biology


Re-Assessing the Science Wars: Where Are Science Studies Now, and Where Are They Going Tomorrow?
Friday, February 2, 2007
Terrace Lounge, G.S.U., 775 Commonwealth Avenue
Moderator: Alisa Bokulich, Boston University
9:00 a.m.- noon
Michael Lynch, Cornell University
Dim Echoes of the Science Wars Arising in the Dover, Pennsylvania "Intelligent Design" Trial
Peter Dear, Cornell University
Wars with Imaginary Enemies: Science and the Uses of History
Alfred I. Tauber, Boston University
Reclaiming Science for Philosophy

2:00-6:00 p.m.
Joseph Rouse, Wesleyan University
An Unrecognized Synthesis in Recent Science Studies
John Zammito, Rice University
Naturalism and Science Studies: A Rejoinder to Rouse
Philip Kitcher, Columbia University
The Eclipse of Pragmatism


Sound and Space
Monday, February 26, 2007, 2:00-4:00 p.m.
Terrace Lounge, George Sherman Union, 765 Commonwealth Avenue
Moderator: Simon Keller, Boston University
Casey O'Callaghan, Bates College
The Significance of Auditory Space
Barbara Shinn-Cunningham, Boston University
Perceiving Sound in Space: A View from Neuroscience

Einstein's Odyssey: From Special to General Relativity
The 100th Anniversary of the Completion of the Theory of General Relativity
Monday, March 5, 2007, 3:00-5:00 p.m.
The Castle, 225 Bay State Road
Moderator: Peter Bokulich, Boston University
John Stachel, Boston University


Karbank Symposium in Environmental Philosophy
Nature and the Good Life
Friday, March 9, 2007
Photonics Center, Colloquium Room 9th Floor, 8 Saint Mary's Street
Moderator: Simon Keller, Boston University
10:00 a.m.-noon
David Schmidtz, University of Arizona
Saving the Elephants
Respondent: Ronald Sandler, Northeastern University

1:30-3:30 p.m.
Nick Zangwill, University of Oxford
Clouds of Illusion in the Aesthetics of Nature
Respondent: Amelie Rorty, Harvard University

3:45-5:45 p.m.
Niko Kolodny, University of California, Berkeley
Individual Action and Climate Change
Respondent: Felicia Nimue Ackerman, Brown University



E. Teller Vs. J.R. Oppenheimer a Half Century Later
Monday, March 19, 2007, 2:00-4:00 p.m.
The Castle, 225 Bay State Road
Moderator:John Stachel, Boston University
Gennady Gorelick, Boston University
Edward Teller and the Realities of Illusory Worlds
David Kaiser, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Fallout: Oppenheimer and the H-bomb Decision


Explanation in Physics
Monday, April 16, 2007, 2:00-5:00 p.m.
Terrace Lounge, George Sherman Union 2nd floor, 765 Commonwealth Ave.
Moderator: Roger White, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Alisa Bokulich, Boston University
Structural Explanation Revisited
Chuang Liu, University of Florida
The Emergence of the Classical World at the Thermodynamic Limit
Robert Batterman, University of Western Ontario
Asymptotic Explanation