1985-1986

Boston Colloquium for Philosophy of Science
26th Annual Program

Main Events directory, single talk events not included in anchor list. Full details below.

Symposium: The Crisis in Psychology: Recurrent or Inherent?

In association with the Department of Psychology

October 15th, 1985
Conference Auditorium
George Sherman Union

I.

Chair: Paula Menyuk

  • L.S. Vygotsky on the Historical  Meaning of the Crisis in Psychology

    Alex Kozulin, Psychology, Boston University Medical School

  • The Historical Transformation of the Culture of Psychology

    Jill Moravsky, Psychology, Wesleyan University

    Commentator: Sheldon White, Psychology, Harvard University

II.

Chair: Sigmund Koch

  • Psychological Knowledge in an Age of Social Construction

    Kenneth Gergen, Psychology, Swathmore College

  • Life-Span Developmental Psychology and the History of Science

    Michael Sokal, History of Psychology, Worcester Polytechnic Institute

    Commentator: Berhard Kaplan, Psychology and Comparative Literature, Clark University

Symposium: In Memory of Yehoshua Bar-Hillel

October 16th, 1985
Room 625
School of Theology

Chair: Ruth Anna Putnam

I. 3:00 p.m.

  • Intransivity in Individual Choice Behavior

    Maya Bar-Hillel, Psychology, Hebrew University at Jerusalem

  • Probability Logic vs Logical Probability

    Richard Jeffrey, Philosophy and Logic, Princeton University

II. 8:00 p.m.

  • Self-Reference

    Chaim Gaifman, Mathematics and Philosophy of Science, Hebrew University of Jerusalem and Stanford Research Insitute

Memory and Its Enemies: A Symposium on Yosef Yerushalmi’s Work, Zakhor: Jewish History and Jewish Memory

In association with the University Professor’s Program, Center for Judaic Studies, History Department, and Institute for Philosophy and Religion

October 21st 1985
Conference Auditorium
GSU
2-5 p.m., 7-10 p.m.

Speakers: Ahron Appelfeld, Ben Gurion University of the Negev; Robert Chazan, Queens College and Graduate Center, CUNY; Shoshona Feldman, Yale University; Michael Fishbane, Brandeis University; Nahum Glatzer, Boston University; Frank Manuel, Brandeis University; Michael Meyer, Hebrew Union College, Jewish Institute of Religion; Arnaldo Momigliano, University of Chicago and Oxford University; Oliver Sacks, Einstein College of Medicine; Bezalel Safron, Harvard University; Hayden White, University of California, Santa Cruz; Elie Weisel, Boston Universty; Yosef Yerushalmi, Columbia University.

Freiedrich Nietzsche’s Criticism of Science

October 22nd, 1985
Room 130
School of Education

  • Walther Zimmerli, Philosophy, Technical University of Braunschweig

  • Commentator: Susan Brison, Philosophy, Dartmouth College

  • Chair: Ezraim Kohak

Why Ecology Needs Feminsim

October 29th, 1985
Room 130
School of Education

  • Patsy Hallen, Philosophy, Murdoch University, Australia

  • Commentator: Sheldon Krimsky, Urban and Environmental Studies, Tufts University

  • Chair: Sylvia Benhabib

Aristotellian Teleology: Ends and Explanations

November 5th, 1985
Room 130
School of Education

  • Cynthia A. Freeland, Philosophy, University of Massachusetts, Amherst

  • Commentator: Donald Morrison, Philosophy and Classics, Harvard University

  • Chair: Scott Austin

Civil Rights, Science, and Democracy

In association with the Institute for Philosophy and Religion

November 6th, 1985
Room 130
School of Education

  • Ivan Supek, Physics and Philosophy of Science, Yugoslav Academy of Sciences and Arts, and University of Zagreb

  • Commentator: Victor F. Weisskopf, Physics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

  • Chair: Allison F. Lahnston

Two Concepts of Interpretation: Pierce and Heidegger

In association with the Program in Semiotic Studies

November 14th, 1985
Room 525
School of Theology

  • Hanna Buczynska-Garewicz, Philosophy, Holy Cross College

  • Chair: Thomas Winner

Plato’s Naturalistic Epistemology: Can He Have His Cave and Heed It Too?

November 26th, 1985
Terrace Lounge
George Sherman Union

  • Debra Nails, Philosophy, University of the Witwaterstrand, Johannesburg

  • Commentators: Ernest Sosa, Philosophy, Brown University; Kenneth T. Winkler, Philosophy, Wellesley College

  • Chair: Robert Paul Wolff

Symposium: History of Science as a Laboratory of Cognitive Studies

December 3rd, 1985
Room 522
College of Liberal Arts

Chair: David J. Kirsch

I. 3:00 p.m.

  • Imagery in 20th Century Scientific Thought: Metaphor and Physical Reality

    Arthur J. Miller, Physics, and History of Physics, University of Lowell and Harvard University

  • Commentator: Wendy Lehnert, Computer and Information Sciences, University of Massachusetts, Amherst.

  • Imagery and Memory in Michael Faraday’s Scientific Thought

    Ryan D. Tweney, Psychology, Bowling Green State University

  • Commentator: Susan Carey, Psychology, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

II. 8:00 p.m.

  • Ensembles and Metaphors in Creative Thought

    Howard E. Gruber, Psychology, University of Geneva and Rutgers University

  • Commentator: Marianne Wiser, Psychology, Clark University

Symposium: Rideo Ergo Sum: The Epistemology of Humor

January 21st, 1986
Terrace Lounge
George Sherman Union

I. 3:00 p.m.

  • The Antioch Sense of Humor Inventory

    Jay Turner, Psychology, Antioch University

    The Meaning of the Joke:  The Semantics of Humor

    Victor Raskin, English and Linguistics, Purdue University

II. 8:00 p.m.

  • Disciplinary Boundaries in Humorology: An Anthropologist’s Ruminations

    Mahadev L. Apte, Anthropology, Duke University

  • How Many People Does it Take to Change a Zeitgeist?

    Joseph Boskin, History, Boston University

Cartesian Psychology and Handelian Opera: A Meeting of Science and Music

February 11th, 1986
Terrace Lounge
George Sherman Union

  • Peter Kivy, Philosophy, Rutgers University

  • Commentator: Vernon Howard, Philosophy of Art, Harvard University

  • Chair: Mordecai Feingold

 

Symposium: African Conceptions of Technology and Nature

In Association with the African Studies Center

February 18th, 1986
Terrace Lounge
George Sherman Union

  • African Concepts of Self: A Ghanian Example

    Leith Mullings, Anthropology, CUNY Medical School

  • An African Concept of Nature

    Kwasi Wiredu, Philosophy, National Humanities Center, North Carolina, and University of Ghana

  • Commentator: Lucius Outlaw, Philosophy, Haverford College

Are There Scientific Revolutions in Medicine? The Example of Immunology

February 25th, 1986
Terrace Lounge
George Sherman Union

  • Anne-Marie Moulin, History of Science, C.N.R.S., Paris

  • Commentator: Guido Majno, Patholgy and History of Medicine, University of Massachusetts Medical Center, Worcester

  • Chair: Richard Sens

A Centenary Symposium: In Memory of Niels Bohr

In association with the Department of Physics

March 11th, 1986
Room 352
Science Center

I. 3:00 p.m.

Chair: Kenneth Brecher

  • Is The Thought of Niels Bohr Philosophically Coherent?

    Abner Shimony, Physics and Philosophy, Boston University

  • The Role of Classical Concepts in Bohr’s Philosophy of Nature

    Don Howard, Philosophy of Science, University of Kentucky and Boston University

  • The Philosophical Reception of Complementarity

    Robert S. Cohen, Physics and Philosophy, Boston University

II. 8:00 p.m.

Chair: Joan Bromberg

  • Bohr and the Photon

    John Stachel, Physics, Boston University and the Einstein Papers

  • The Measurement of the Electromagnetic Field and the Development of Quantum Field Theory

    Sylvan S. Schweber,  Physics, Brandeis University

China Roundtable: Observations on the Philosophy and History of Science and Technology in the People’s Republic of China

Chair: James C. Thomson, Jr. 

Panel:

  • Robert S. Cohen, Physics and Philosophy, Boston University
  • Gerald Holton, Physics and History of Science, Harvard University
  • Melvin Kranzberg, History of Technology, Georgia Institute of Technology
  • Amelie O. Rorty, Philosophy, Rutgers University and Boston University
  • Nathan Sivin, History of Science, University of Pennsylvania

Symposium: The Philosophy of Economics

In association with the departments of Economics and Philosophy

April 1st, 1986
Terrace Lounge
George Sherman Union

I. 2:00 p.m.

Chair: Arjo Klamer

Commentator: Robert Paul Wolff, Philosophy, University of Massachusetts, Amherst

  • Economics and Moral Philosophy: An Economist’s View

    Michael McPherson, Economics, Williams College and the Brookings Institution

  • Philosophy and Economic Methodology: A Philosopher’s View

    Daniel Hausman, Philosophy, Carnegie-Mellon University

  • Making a Case When Theory is Untestable: Friedman’s Monetary History

    Neil DeMarchi, Economics, Duke University

II. 8:00 p.m.

Chair: Sandra Baum

Commentator: Richard Zeckhauser, Economics and Political Science, Harvard University

  • Lakatosian Consolations for Economics

    Alexander Rosenberg, Philosophy, Syracuse University

  • The Paradoxes of Allais and Ellsberg

    Isaac Levi, Philosophy, Columbia University

Symposium: Probability and Inference in the Law of Evidence

Chairs: Peter Tillers and Eric D. Green

In association with the Boston University School of Law

Speakers: Charles Nesson, Harvard Law School; Ronald J. Allen, Northwestern University; L. Jonathan Cohen, Queen’s College, Oxford; Stephen E. Fienberg, Carnegie-Mellon University; Richard D. Friedman, Cardozo School of Law, Yeshiva University; R. Lea Brilmayer, Yale School of Law; Glenn Shafer, University of Kansas Business School; William L. Twining, University College, London; David Schum, George Mason University; Adrian S. Zuckerman, University College, Oxford; Peter Tillers, New England School of Law.

Antiformalism and Arationality: Toward an Anthropology of Philosophies

April 8th, 1986
Room 525
School of Theology

  • Joanna Overing, Anthropology, London School of Economics

  • Commentator: David Wong, Philosophy, Brandeis University

  • Chair: Amelie O. Rorty

Cosmology: Science, Doxa, Philosophy?

April 22nd, 1986
Room 525
School of Theology

  • Jacques Merleau-Ponty, Philosophy, University of Paris, Nanterre

  • Commentators: So-Young Pi, Physics, Boston University; Kenneth Brecher, Physics and Astronomy, Boston University

  • Chair: John Statchel

Symposium: Perception and the Emotions

April 29th, 1986
Terrace Lounge
George Sherman Union

Chair: Michael Martin

Speakers:

  • Lawrence Blum, Philosophy, University of Massachusetts, Boston

  • Ronald DeSousa, Philosophy, University of Toronto

  • Amelie O. Rorty, Philosophy, Rutgers University and Boston University

Meaning and Context: ‘In Medias Res’ as a Semiotic Problem

May 8th, 1986
Room 525
School of Theology

In association with the Program in Semiotic Studies

Chair: Thomas Winner

  • Krystyna Pomorska, Literature, Massachusetts Institute of Technology