1983-1984

Boston Colloquium for Philosophy of Science
24th Annual Program

The Physicist’s Toolbox

October 4th, 1983
Room 314
George Sherman Union

  • Martin H. Krieger, Science, Technology, and Society, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

  • Commentator: S.S. Schweber, Physics, Boston University

  • Chair: Bernard Chasan

Scientific Knowledge and the Act of Faith

October 12th, 1983
School of Nursing Auditorium
635 Commonwealth Avenue

In association with the Boston University Institute of Philosophy and Religion

  • Wolfhart Pannenberg, Theology, University of Munich

  • Commentator: Harold H. Oliver, Theology and Science, Boston University

  • Chair: Geoffrey Bannister

Do Electrons Exist?

October 18th, 1983
Room 314
George Sherman Union

  • Asher Peres, Physics, Technion, Haifa

  • Commentator: John Statchel, Physics, Boston University and the Einstein Project, Princeton

  • Chair: Abner Shimony

The Psychological Machine: Computers and the Culture of Self-Reflection

November 1st, 1983
Room 314
George Sherman Union

  • Sherry Turkle, Sociology, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

  • Commentator: Daniel Dennett, Philosophy, Tufts University

  • Chair: Richard Sens

The Principle of Equivalence: Einstein’s Way Out

November 8th, 1983
Room 314
George Sherman Union

  • John Norton, Physics, Boston University and the University of Pittsburgh

  • Commentator: John C. Graves, Philosophy of Science, Boston

  • Chair: Kenneth Brecher

General Relativity: A Theory Without Problems?

November 15th, 1983
Room 314
George Sherman Union

  • Jean Eisenstaedt, Physics, Institut Henri Poincare, University of Paris

  • Commentator: Stanley Deser, Physics, Brandeis University

  • Chair: John Statchel

Chinese Studies in the History of Science

November 22nd, 1983
Room 314
George Sherman Union

  • Li Peishan and Xu Lingying, History of Science, Institute for the History of Natural Science, Academia Sinica, Beijing

  • Commentators: Nathan Sivin, History of Chinese Science, University of Pennsylvania; William Haas, History of Science, Harvard University; Robert S. Cohen, Physics and Philosophy of Science, Boston University and Wissenschaftskolleg, Berlin

  • Chair: I.C. Ojha

Free to go Mad

November 29th, 1983
Room 314
George Sherman Union

  • Nathaniel Laor, Psychiatry, Yale University and Tel Aviv University

  • Commentator: Murray Cohen, Psychology, Boston University

  • Chair: Robert Paul Wolff

Science and Religion in an Advanced Scientific Culture

November 30th, 1983
Small Ballroom, Second Floor
George Sherman Union

In association with the Boston University Institute for Philosophy and Religion

  • Langdon Gilkey, Theology, University of Chicago

  • Commentator: Erwin Hiebert, History of Science, Harvard University

  • Chair: Michael Mendillo

Heuristics for Scientific and Literary Creativity

December 6th, 1983
Room 314
George Sherman Union

  • Eugene Lashchyk, Philosophy, La Salle University

  • Commentator: Marx W. Wartofsky, Philosphy, Baruch College, C.U.N.Y

  • Chair: Richard Martin

Karl Popper, A Retrospect

December 13th, 1983
Room 314
George Sherman Union

  • Joseph Agassi, Philosophy, York University and Tel Aviv University

  • Commentator: Robert Ackermann, Philosophy, University of Massachusetts, Amherst

  • Chair: Thomas McCarthy

The Marxian Method of Critique: Normative Presuppositions

January 17th, 1984
Room 314
George Sherman Union

  • Seyla Ben Habib, Philosophy, Boston University

  • Commentators: Joshua Cohen, Linguistics, Philosophy, and Political Science, Massachusetts Institute of Technology; James Schmidt, Philosophy and Political Science, Boston University

  • Chair: Robert Paul Wolff

Sounding and Being: A New Acoustical Phonological Model of Musical Structure

January 31st, 1984
Room 314
George Sherman Union

  • Robert Cogan, Music, New England Conservatory of Music

  • Commentators: Vernon Howard, Philosophy of Education, Harvard University; Marx W. Wartofsky, Philosophy, Baruch College, C.U.N.Y

  • Chair: Anthony Leeds

Einstein on Locality and Separability

February 14th, 1984
Room 314
George Sherman Union

  • Don Howard, Philosophy of Science, University of Kentucky

  • Commentator: Jon P. Jarrett, Philosophy of Science, University of Vermont

  • Chair: Abner Shimony

Computer Simulation of the Rise and Fall of Phlogiston Theory

February 21st, 1984
Room 314
George Sherman Union

  • Jan Ziktow, Logic and Philosophy of Science, University of Warsaw and Carnegie Mellon University

  • Commentators: Donald Beaver, History of Science, Williams College; Erwin Hebert, History of Science, Harvard University

  • Chair: Robert Paul Wolff

Saving the Scientific Text: Documents, Readers and the Way Of The World

Februrary 28th, 1984
Room 314
George Sherman Union

  • Robert Palter, History of Science, Trinity College, Hartford

  • Commentator: Moredecai Feingold, History of Science, Harvard University

  • Chair: Abner Shimony

Is Psychology a United Science?

March 13th, 1984
Room 314
George Sherman Union

  • Sophie Hartounian, Psychology, St. Xavier College, Chicago

  • Commentator: Paula Menyuk, Linguistics, Boston University

  • Chair: Richard Sens

From Quarks to the Big Bang: The Synthesis of the 1970’s

March 27th, 1984
Room 314
George Sherman Union

  • Sheldon Glashow, Physics, Boston University and Harvard University

  • Commentator: Kenneth Brecher, Astronomy and Physics, Boston University and NASA -Goddard Space Flight Center

  • Chair: Abner Shimony

The Resonant Dynamics of Binocular Form Perception: Reconciling Features, Waves and Gestalts

April 10th, 1984
School of Theology, Room 19
745 Commonwealth Ave.

  • Stephen Grossberg, Mathematics, Boston University

  • Commentator: Judson Webb, Philosophy,  BostonUniversity

  • Chair: Michael Martin

The Burden of Proof

April 11th, 1984
Place to be announced

In association with the Boston University Institute for Philosophy and Religion

  • Anthony Flew, Philosophy, University of Reading and York University

  • Commentator: Hilary Putnam, Philosophy, Harvard University

  • Chair: John H. Lavley, Philosophy, Boston University

God and Coherence: On the Epistemological Foundations of Religious Belief

April 18th, 1984
Small Ballroom, Second Floor
George Sherman Union

In association with the Boston University Institute for Philosophy and Religion

  • Kai Nielson, Philosophy, University of Calgary

  • Commentator: Erazim V. Kohak, Philosophy, Boston University

  • Chair: William C. Carroll