Archives: 1981-1982

Boston Colloquium for Philosophy of Science
22nd Annual Program

Rationality and Social Theory: Beyond Objectivism and Relativism

October 6th, 1981

  • Albrecht Wellmer, Philosophy, University of Konstanz

    Commentator: Thomas McCarthy, Philosophy, Boston University

  • Chair: James W. Schmidt

Universals, Nature, and Culture: Some Remarks on the Epistemology of the Human Sciences

October 13th, 1981

  • Sergio Moravia, Philosophy, University of Florence

    Commentator: Marx W. Wartofsky, Philosophy, Boston University

  • Chair: Robert S. Cohen

Relevance of History to the Philosophy of Science

October 20, 1981

  • John Passmore, History of Ideas, The Australian National University, Canberra

    Commentator: Joseph Agassi, Philosophy, Boston University and Tel-Aviv University

  • Chair: Richard M. Martin

Medical Spirits: 4 Lectures

D.P. Walker, The Warburg Institute, London

[In association with the University Professors Program]

I. Spirits and Magic

October 27, 1981
Terrace Lounge

  • Commentator: Laurence Breiner, English, Boston University

  • Chair: Robert S. Cohen

II. Spirits in Procreation and Embryology

October 29, 1981
GSU 315

  • Commentator: Diana Long Hall, History of Biology, Boston University

  • Chair: Anthony Leeds

III. Spirits in Francis Bacon

November 12, 1981
Terrace Lounge

  • Commentator: Joseph Agassi, Philosophy, Boston University and Tel Aviv University

  • Chair: Robert S. Cohen

IV. Spirits and God and the Soul

November 19, 1981
Terrace Lounge

  • Commentator: Katherine Park, History of Renaissance Science and Philosophy, Wellesley College

  • Chair: Rodolfo Cardona

Backward Causation: Causes After Their Effects

November 3, 1981

  • Bob Brier, Philosophy, HC.W. Post Center of Long Island University

    Commentator: Michael Martin, Philosophy, Boston University

  • Chair: Kenneth Brecher

Psychologism and the Methodology of Science

November 10, 1981

  • John Wettersten, Philosophy, Hochschule Siegen

    Commentator: Martha Herbert, Philosophy and Psychology, Boston University Center

  • Chair: Joseph Agassi

Humor on a Winter’s Eve: Oppression and Liberation

November 17, 1981

  • Joseph Boskin, History, Boston University

    Commentator: Marx W. Wartofsky, Philosophy, Boston University

  • Chair: Richard Sens

The Unity of Physics

November 24, 1981

  • C. F. V. Weizsacker, Physics and Philosophy, Max-Planck-Institut für Sozial-wissenschaften, Starnberg

    Commentator: John Stachel, Physics, Boston University and the Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton

  • Chair: Marx W. Wartofsky

Risks of Risk Assessment

December 1, 1981

  • Kristin Shrader-Frechette, Philosophy, University of Louisville

    Commentator: Sheldon Krimsky, Urban and Environmental Policy, Tufts University

  • Chair: Robert S. Cohen

One Way Mirror: Market as Social Structure

December 8, 1981

  • Harrison C. White, Sociology, Harvard University 

    Commentator: S. M. Miller, Sociology, Boston University; Ralph Miliband, Sociology, Brandeis University

  • Chair: Robert S. Cohen

The Quincunxial Resolution of Lattice Imperfections: A Universal Metaphor?

December 15, 1981

  • Cyril Stanley Smith, Metallurgy and History of Science, Massachusetts Institute of Technology 

    Commentator: F.J. Zucker, System Theory and Philosophy, KGHW Research and Development Associates, Belmont

  • Chair: Joseph Agassi

    Two Lectures – Thomas Kuhn

    Thomas Kuhn, Philosophy and History of Science, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

    I. What are Scientific Revolutions?

    January 19, 1982

    • Commentator: Joe D. Van Zandt, Philosophy of Science, University of Kansas and Boston University Center

    • Chair: Robert S. Cohen

    II. Linguistic Concomitants of Revolutionary Change

    January 21, 1982

    • Commentator: Marx M. Wartofsky, Philosophy, Boston University

    • Chair: Robert S. Cohen

    Aristotle’s ‘Common Explanation’ of Animal Motion

    January 26, 1982

    [In association with the Greater Boston Colloquium for Ancient Philosophy]

    • Martha Craven Nussbaum, Classics and Philosophy, Harvard University 

      Commentators: Marjorie Grene, Philosophy, Boston University; Deborah Modrak, Ancient Philosophy, Center for Hellenic Studies, Washington, D.C., and Rice University

    • Chair: Scott Austin

    The Science and Politics of the Origin of Life

    February 2, 1982

    • Everett Mendelsohn, History of Science, Harvard University

      Commentator: Lynn Margulis, Biology, Boston University

    • Chair: Thomas Glick

    Some Notes for a History of Quantum Field Theory: 1940-1950

    February 9, 1982

    • S. S. Schweber, Physics, Brandeis University

      Commentator: Peter Galison, History of Physics, Harvard University

    • Chair: Abner Shimony

    Scientific Instruments as Artificial Revelation

    February 16, 1982

    • Derek de Solla Price, History of Science, Yale University

      Commentator: Robert S. Cohen, Physics and Philosophy, Boston University

    • Chair: Marx W. Wartofsky

    Is a Realist Interpretation of Quantum Theory Possible?

    February 23, 1982

    • Henry Krips, History and Philosophy of Science, University of Melbourne

      Commentator: Abner Shimony, Physics and Philosophy, Boston University

    • Chair: Robert S. Cohen

    Folk Psychology and Scientific Psychology: Friends or Enemies?

    March 2, 1982

    • Myles Brand, Philosophy, University of Arizona

      Commentator: Ned J. Block, Philosophy of Psychology, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

    • Chair: Marjorie Grene

    You are What You Eat?

    March 16, 1982

    • Leon Kass, Biochemistry and Human Biology, University of Chicago

      Commentator: Barbara Rosenkrantz, History of Science, Harvard University

    • Chair: Diana Long Hall

    Symposium: Conceptual Problems in Geology

    March 23, 1982

    I. The Logic of Geological Discovery

    • David B. Kitts, Geology and History of Science, University of Oklahoma

    II. Natural Philosophy or Natural History? Tensions in the Concept of Geology

    • Rachel Laudan, History and Philosophy of Science, Virginia Polytechnic Institute

    • Chair: Mohamed Gheith

    A Mathematical Model of Continuous Discrete Behavior

    March 30, 1982

    • Anatol Holt, Logic and Computer Science, Massachusetts Computer Associates, Inc.

    • Commentator: Rohit Parikh, Mathematics, Boston University

    • Chair: Richard M. Martin

    The Borrowing of the Concept of Energy in Freudian Psychoanalysis

    April 6, 1982

    • Yehuda Elkana, Philosophy and History of Science, Tel-Aviv University and Van Leer Jerusalem Foundation

      Commentator: Richard Sens, Psychiatry, Boston Psychoanalytic Institute and Boston University Center

    • Chair: Robert S. Cohen

    Kant’s Epistemology as a Theory of Alienated Knowledge

    April 13, 1982

    • Gernot Bohme, Philosophy, Technische Hochschule, Darmstadt

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

    • Chair: Seyla Benhabib

    Formal Versus Efficient Causation in General Relativity

    April 20, 1982

    • Roberto Torretti, Philosophy, University of Puerto Rico

      Commentator: John Stachel, Physics, Boston University and the Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton

    • Chair: Kenneth Brecher

    Symposium: Centenary of P. W. Bridgman

    [In association with the American Academy of Arts and Sciences]

    I. Thermodynamics, Geophysics, and Physics at High Pressures

    April 23, 1982

    • Chair: Gerald J. Holton

    II. Operationalism and Philosophy of Science

    April 24, 1982

    • Chair: Robert S. Cohen

    Abraham Robinson: Infinitesimals, Non-Standard Analysis and the Foundations of Mathematics

    April 27, 1982

    • Joseph W. Dauben, History of Science, Harvard University

      Commentator: Rohit Parikh, Mathematics, Boston University

    • Chair: Stephen Grossberg

    From Boole to Popper: Truth Functions and Probability Functions

    May 4, 1982

    • Hugues Leblanc, Logic and Philosophy, Temple University

      Commentator: Judson Webb, Philosophy, Boston University

    • Chair: Richard M. Martin