Culture’s Technology/ Technology’s Culture

November 5, 1995
CFA Concert Hall, Boston University College of Fine Arts
855 Commonwealth Avenue

Perry Hoberman

Leo Marx, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, emeritus

Commentator: Caroline Jones, Boston University

Philosophies of Nature: A Boston University Symposium In Honor of Erazim Kohák

November 13-17, 1995
Terrace Lounge, George Sherman Union
775 Commonwealth Avenue

November 13th

Afternoon Session, 1pm – 5pm

• God and Nature, and Early Greek Poetry

  Stephen Scully, Department of Classical Studies

• Plato and Nature

  Stanley Rosen, Department of Philosophy

• Aristotle on the Politics of Male, Female and Androgynous Human Nature

  Judith Swanson, Department of Political Science

• Nature and Modern Concepts of the Classic: Observations on the History of Aesthetic Norms

  Wolfgang Haase, Institute for the Classical Tradition

November 14th

Morning Session, 9am – noon

• The Contingency of Nature

  Robert Neville, Dean, School of Theology

• Revolution and Reformation

  Alan Olson, Department of Religion

• Nature as an Exegetical Principle in Medieval Judaism

  Marvin Fox, Department of Religion and Department of Philosophy

Afternoon Session, 2pm – 5pm

• Is There a Buddhist Philosophy of Nature

  David Eckel,  Department of Religion

• Human Nature: Anxiety, Sin and the Future

  Leroy Rouner, Institute for Philosophy and Religion

• Yin and Yang: The Natural Dimension of Evil

  Livia Kohn, Department of Religion

November 15th

Morning Session, 9am – noon

• Nature, Beauty, and Morality: Reflections on Adam Smith

  Charles Griswold,  Department of Philosophy

• Limits to Human Nature: Moral Marginalia in the Enlightenment

  Knud Haakonsen, Department of Philosophy

• Aristotelian and Newtonian Models in Hegel’s Philosophy of Nature

  Alfredo Ferrarin, Department of Philosophy

Afternoon Session, 2pm – 6pm

• The Natural and Supernatural in Human Nature: Hegel on the Soul

  Klaus Brinkmann,  Department of Philosophy

• Nature and Hope: The Project on Humanist Marxism

  Robert Cohen, Department of Philosophy and Department of Physics emeritus

• Eternal Recurrence

  Krzysztof Michalski, Department of Philosophy

• The Rationality of Conduct: Dewey and Oakeshott

  Victor Kestenbaum, Department of Philosophy

November 16th

Afternoon Session, 1pm – 5pm

• What’s Human about Human Nature?

  Alan Wolfe,  Department of Sociology and The University Professors

• Whose Nature? Which Morality?

  Lawrence Cahoone, Department of Philosophy

• Nature as Presence and Experience

  Erazim Kohák, Department of Philosophy emeritus

• Modernism and Human Nature

  John Westling, Provost

November 17th

Afternoon Session, 1pm – 5pm

• Biology’s “Epistemological Contradiction”

  Alfred Tauber,  Center for Philosophy and History of Science

• Decoding Relativity

  John Stachel, Department of Physics

• Monism, But Not through Reductionism

  Tian Yu Cao, Department of Philosophy

• The Relationship Between Philosophy and Physics

  Abner Shimony, Department of Physics and Department of Philosophy emeritus

Proof and Progress in Mathematics

Monday, February 12, 1996
Conference Auditorium, George Sherman Union
775 Commonwealth Ave.

Morning Session, 9am – Noon

• The Evolution of Mathematics in the 1900s

  Arthur Jaffe, Harvard University

• Physics Distorts, Proof is Essential

  Saunders MacLane, University of Chicago, emeritus

• What is a Proof and What does it Prove?

  Jaakko Hintikka, Boston University

Afternoon Session, 2pm – 5pm

• The Phenomenology of Mathematical Proof

  Gian-Carlo Rota, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

• Conjectures

  Barry Mazur, Harvard University

• Moderator: David Kazhdan, Harvard University

Historical Examination and Philosophical Reflection on the Foundation of Quantum Field Theory

Cosponsored by the Boston University Physics Department
March 1st-3rd, 1996
Conference Auditorium, George Sherman Union, 775 Commonwealth Ave
& Department of Physics, Metcalf Center, 590 Commonwealth Ave

March 1st

Morning Session 1, 9:30am – 10:30am

• Philosophers’ Interests in Quantum Field Theory

  Chairman, Robert Cohen, Boston University emeritus

  Tian Yu Cao, Boston University
  Michael Redhead, Cambridge University

Morning Session 2, 11:00am – 12:30pm

• Chairman, Lawrence Sulak, Boston University
  Sheldon Glashow, Boston University and Harvard University

Afternoon Session, 2:00pm – 5:00pm

• Three Approaches to the Foundation of Quantum Field Theory

  Chairman, Abner Shimony, Boston University
  Arthur Wightman, Princeton University
  Howard Georgi, Harvard University
  David Gross, Princeton University
  CommentatorSam Treiman, Princeton University

Evening Session, 8:00pm – 10:00pm

• Quantum Field Theory and the Final Theory

  Chairman, Gerald Holton, Harvard University
  Steven Weinberg, University of Texas
  CommentatorLaurie Brown, Northwestern University
  CommentatorAbner Shimony, Boston University

March 2nd

Morning Session, 9:00am – 12:00pm

• Mathematics, Statistical Mechanics and Quantum Field Theory

  Chairman, Yakir Aharonov, Boston University
  Michael Fisher, University of Maryland
  Arthur Jaffe, Harvard University
  Roman Jackiw, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
  Commentator: Howard Schnitzer, Brandeis University

Afternoon Session, 1:30pm – 4:30pm

• Quantum Field Theory and Space-Time

  Chairman and Commentator, John Stachel, Boston University
  Bryce DeWitt, University of Texas
  Chris Isham, Imperial College, London
  Andy Strominger, University of California, Santa Barbara

• Roundtable Discussion

  Moderator, James Cushing, University of Notre Dame
  Sidney Coleman, Harvard University
  Sheldon Glashow, Boston University and Harvard University
  Michael Redhead, Cambridge University
  Steven Weinberg, University of Texas

March 3rd

Workshop Morning Session, 9:00am – 12:00pm

• The Ontology of Particles or Fields

Workshop Afternoon Session, 1:30pm – 3:30pm

• Non-abelian Gauge Theory

Workshop Afternoon Session 2, 4:00pm – 6:00pm

• Renormalization Group

Judaism and the Sciences: Medieval Encounters and Modern Resonances

March 11-13, 1996
Hillel House, 233 Bay State Road
Cosponsored with Boston University Hillel House

March 11th

Morning Session, 10:00am – 12:00pm

• Maimonides’ Allegiances to Science and to Judaism

  Menachem Kellner, University of Haifa

• The Logical and Scientific Premises of Maimonides’ Thought

  Alfred Ivy, New York University

Afternoon Session, 2:00pm – 6:00pm

• Medical Astronomy from a Jewish Perspective

  Bernard Goldstein, University of Pittsburgh

• The Role of Singularities in the Cosmogonies of Gersonides, Rosenzweig, and Contemporary Physics

  Norbert Samuelson, Temple University

• Natural Science in the Biblical Commentary of Abraham ibn Ezra

  Herbert Davidson, University of California Los Angeles

• Science and Cuzari

  Tzvi Langermann, National Library, Jerusalem

March 12th

Morning Session, 9:00am – 1:00pm

• Science in the Jabne Stories: The Constructive Skepticism of the Bavli’s Foundational Mythology

  Menacham Fisch, Tel Aviv University

• The Impact of the Scientific Imagination on Kabbalistic Ontology, Cosmology, and Epistemology

  Elliot Wolfson, New York University

• Maimonides’ Treatise on Logic andn al-Farabi’s Paraphrase of the Organon

  Joel Kraemer, University of Chicago

• When the Jews Learned Logic from the Pope: Hebrew Versions and Commentaries of the Tractatus of Peter of Spain

  Charles Manekin, University of Maryland

Afternoon Session, 3:00pm – 5:00pm

• Jewish Responses to Early Modern Science

  David Ruderman, University of Pennsylvania

• Jews and the Royal Society During the Early Modern Period

  Matthew Goldfish, University of Arizona

March 13th

Morning Session, 9:00am – 1:00pm

• Science in Kabbalstic Works of the Modern Period

  Moshe Idel, Hebrew University

• Modern Traditional Judaism and Science: Why so Little so Late?

  Jay Harris, Harvard University

• Orthodox Perceptions of Science and Technology in the Modern Period

  Michael Silber, Hebrew University

• Halakhic Responses to Modern Science and Technology

  Shlomo Sternberg, Harvard University

Afternoon Session, 3:00pm – 5:00pm

• Jewish Responses to Science in Totalitarian Societies: Insiders and Outsiders

  Yakov Rabkin, Universite de Montreal

• Judaism Faces Up to AIDS

  Gad Freudenthal, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique

Topics in French Philosophy of Science: A Franco-American Dialogue

May 6-7, 1996
Terrace Lounge, George Sherman Union
776 Commonwealth Ave.
Cosponsored with the Cultural Service of the French Embassy

May 6th

Afternoon Session, 1:00pm – 5:00pm

• Mathematics and Rationality in the Works of Jean Cavaillès

  Gilles Gaston Granger, Collège de France

• Jean Cavaillès: Spinozist or Bourbakist?

  Gèrard Jorland, Ècole des Haute Ètudes en Sciences Sociales

• Cavaillès’s Philosophy of Mathematics

  Hourya Sinaceur, Universitè de Paris I and Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique

  Commentator: Santiago Ramirez, UNAM Mexico

Evening Session, 7:00pm – 10:00pm

• Epistemological Issues in the 1930s and Current Resonances

  Claude Imbert, Ècole Normale Supèrieure

• National Contrasts in Cotemporary Philosophy of Science

  Pierre Jacob, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique

  Commentator: Stanley Rosen, Boston University

May 7th

Morning Session, 9:00am – 12:00pm

• Canguilhem and the Idea of Life

  Henri Atlan, Hôpital de l’Hotel-Dieu and Hadassah Medical Center, Jerusalem

• Canguilhem’s Conceptions on the Normal and the Pathological

  Claude Debru, Institute de Recherche sur les Fondemonts et les Enjeux de Sciences et des Techniques

• To Be Announced

  Jean Grayon, Universitè de Bourgogne

  Commentator: Arthur Goldhammer and Arthur Kleinman, Harvard University

Afternoon Session, 2:00pm – 6:00pm

• Foucault: A Paradoxical Link Between Canguilhem and SSK

  François Balibar, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique

• The French Foucault and the American One

  Christian Delacampagne, French Consulate

• Text Archaeology in French History and Philosophy of Science

  Catherine Chevalley, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique

  Commentator: Jeffrey Mehlman, Boston University and Louis-Georges Schwartz, University of Iowa

Evening Session, 8:00pm – 10:00pm

• Foucault, l’èpistemologie et l’histoire

  François Delaporte, Universitè de Picardie

  Commentator: Arnold Davidson, University of Chicago