Archives 2018-2019
59th Annual Program
2018–2019
- October 19th, 2018 | Emergence, Effectiveness, and Equivalence in Physics
- October 29th, 2018 | A Processual Revolution in Biology
- November 30th, 2018 | 100 Years of Emmy Noether’s Theorems
- February 3rd – 4th, 2019 | The Future of Liberal Naturalism: The Legacies of Hilary and Ruth Anna Putnam
- February 27th, 2019 | 6th Annual Silas Pierce Lecture: Henry David Thoreau’s Legacy of Resistance and Hope
- March 29th, 2019 | W. E. B. DuBois and History & Philosophy of Science
- April 12th, 2019 | Perspectivalism in Philosophy of Mind & Philosophy of Science
- April 25th, 2019 | Evolution and Ethics
Emergence, Effectiveness, and Equivalence in Physics
Friday, October 19th, 2018
Photonics Center, Room 901, 8 St. Mary’s Street
1:00 pm – 5:00 pm
Towards a Theory of Emergence for the Physical Sciences
Sebastian De Haro, Philosophy, University of Cambridge, U.K.
Emergence in Effective Field Theory and Quantum Gravity
Karen Crowther, Philosophy, University of Geneva, Switzerland
Equivalence and Emergence within Dualities in Physics
Jeremy Butterfield, Trinity College, University of Cambridge, U.K.
Formal Analogies and Theoretical Equivalence
Doreen Fraser, Philosophy, University of Waterloo, Canada
A Processual Revolution in Biology
Monday, October 29th, 2018
Kilachand Center, Room 101, 610 Commonwealth Ave
1:00 pm – 5:00 pm
Why There Are No Living Things
John Dupré, Philosophy, University of Exeter, U.K.
Abstractions from Time in Biological Methodologies
Katherine Valde, Philosophy, Boston University
Stem Cells, Lineages, Processes
Melinda Fagan, Philosophy, University of Utah
It’s the Song, Not the Singer
W. Ford Doolittle, Biochemistry & Molecular Biology, University of Dalhousie, Canada
100 Years of Emmy Noether’s Theorems
Co-Sponsored by Physics Department
Friday, November 30th, 2018
Kilachand Center, Room 101, 610 Commonwealth Ave
1:00pm – 5:00pm
How It All Began: The Puzzle That Led to Noether’s Theorems
Katherine Brading, Philosophy, Duke University
The Conservation Theorems as Integral to Noether’s ‘True Mathematical Path’
Colin McLarty, Mathematics & Philosophy, Case Western Reserve University
Conserving Color Charge
Marian Gilton, Logic & Philosophy of Science, University of California Irvine
Noether’s Theorem and Quantum Gravity
Daniel Harlow, Physics, MIT
The Future of Liberal Naturalism: The Legacies of Hilary & Ruth Anna Putnam
Co-sponsored by BU Center for Humanities and Philosophy Department
Sunday, February 3rd, 2019
Kilachand Center Room 101, 610 Commonwealth Ave
1:00pm – 5:30pm
Brief Remembrances:
Patricia Herzog and Anat Biletzki
Putnam’s Liberal Naturalism About Truth, Reference, and Language Use
Gary Ebbs, Philosophy, Indiana University Bloomington
Putnam’s Problem of Realism
David Macarthur, Philosophy, The University of Sydney, Australia
The Non-conceptual and Non-propositional Nature of Perception
Ned Block, Philosophy, Psychology, & Center for Neural Science, New York University
Monday, February 4th, 2019
Kilachand Center Room 101, 610 Commonwealth Ave
1:00pm – 6:00pm
Putnam’s Philosophies
Mario De Caro Philosophy, Tufts University & Università Roma Tre, Italy
Necrology of Ontology: Putnam, Ethics, Realism
Sandra Laugier, Philosophy, Universite Paris 1 Pantheon Sorbonne
Intended Interpretations in Mathematics
Zeynep Soysal, Philosophy, University of Rochester
Putnam on Conceptual Truths
Jean-Philippe Narboux, Philosophy, University of Bordeaux Montaigne, France
Other People and the World: The Legacy of Putnam’s Externalism
Henri Wagner, Philosophy, University of Bordeaux Montaigne, France
Silas Peirce Lecture
Sponsored by Silas Peirce Fund
Wednesday, February 27th, 2019
Tsai Performance Center, 685 Commonwealth Ave
6:00 – 7:30pm
Henry David Thoreau’s Legacy of Resistance and Hope
Laura Dassow Walls, English, University of Notre Dame
W. E. B. DuBois and History & Philosophy of Science
Co-sponsored by African American Studies Program and Gotlieb Archival Research Center
Friday, March 29th, 2019
Richards-Roosevelt Room, 1st floor Mugar Library, 771 Commonwealth Ave
1:00pm – 6:00pm
W. E. B. Du Bois and the Challenge to Scientific Racism
Evelynn Hammonds, History of Science, Harvard University
W. E. B. Du Bois and Evolution, 1885–1909
Trevor Pearce, Philosophy, UNC Charlotte
Out of His Dogmatic Slumber: Du Bois’s Critique of Euromodern Human Science
Lewis Gordon, Philosophy, University of Connecticut
Du Bois’ Plan for Scientific Inquiry
Liam Kofi Bright, Philosophy, Logic & Scientific Method, LSE, U.K.
Visualizing Scientific Data on Race: Du Bois and the 1900 Exhibit
Whitney Battle-Baptiste, Anthropology, University of Massachusetts Amherst
Perspectivalism in Philosophy of Mind & Philosophy of Science
Friday, April 12th, 2019
STH B24 (Oxnam Room), 745 Commonwealth Ave.
1:00 pm – 5:00 pm
The Perspectival Nature of Scientific Representation
Michela Massimi, Philosophy, University of Edinburgh, Scotland
Models in Understanding
Catherine Elgin, Philosophy, Harvard Graduate School of Education
Perspectival Computational Models
Mark Sprevak, Philosophy, University of Edinburgh, Scotland
Views from Nowhere: Problems of Perspective in Contemporary Predictive Processing Accounts of Mind & Life
Maria Brincker, Philosophy, University of Massachusetts Boston
Evolution and Ethics
Co-sponsored by BU Center for Humanities and Philosophy Department
Thursday, April 25th, 2019
The Terrace Lounge, George Sherman Union, 775 Commonwealth Ave
9:00am – 12:30pm
Mammalian Morality?
Kristin Andrews, Philosophy, York University, Canada
The Evolution of Norms and Institutions
Victor Kumar, Philosophy, Boston University
Right and Good: On the Doxastic and Ecological Rationality of Deontic Rules
Shaun Nichols, Philosophy, University of Arizona
2:00 – 5:30
The Co-evolution of Moral Norms and Human Knowledge
Richmond Campbell, Philosophy, Dalhousie University, Canada
An Evolutionary Argument for Ethical Pluralism
Allen Buchanan, Philosophy, Duke University
Language, Food, and Morals
Alexandra Plakias, Philosophy, Hamilton College
