{"id":4711,"date":"2024-03-21T16:05:27","date_gmt":"2024-03-21T20:05:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/cphs\/?page_id=4711"},"modified":"2024-08-20T21:15:08","modified_gmt":"2024-08-21T01:15:08","slug":"2023-2024","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/cphs\/colloquium\/2023-2024\/","title":{"rendered":"Archives 2023-2024"},"content":{"rendered":"

62nd Annual Program
\n2023\u20132024<\/h2>\n

THE NATURE OF DEVOTION: PHILOSOPHICAL AND SCIENTIFIC PERSPECTIVES<\/h3>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The Nature of Devotion: Philosophical and Scientific Perspectives
\n<\/strong>Presented by the Boston Center for the Philosophy and History of Science
\nCo-Sponsored by the John Templeton Foundation,\u00a0<\/span>grant #62871,\u00a0<\/span><\/a>and the\u00a0<\/span>Boston University Center for the Humanities<\/a>\u00a0<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Workshop Topic<\/strong>
\nWhen people speak of devotion or devoted agents, they seem to have in mind firm, unwavering commitments to an ideal, cause, relationship, or activity. The devoted parent cares for his child, perhaps making sacrifices and setting aside other competing goods so as to help his child flourish. The devoted teacher won\u2019t compromise on her goals of educating her students. Or, to pick a less agreeable case: the devoted member of a hate group organizes his life around his cause, fomenting violence and discord. Devotion seems to involve a particularly robust form of commitment, which might differ from standard forms of commitment in its intensity, stability, resistance to compromise, epistemic status, or deliberative weight. But how, exactly, should we understand devotion?<\/p>\n

This workshop aims to explore the way in which existing scientific literatures and philosophical discussions can be integrated with the study of devotion. We will invite proposals that draw on psychological research on devotion and other forms of wholehearted commitment; sociological case studies of the devoted and non-devoted; and philosophical analyses that connect devotion to topics in philosophical psychology. Participants might explore these literatures to ask questions including: How should we understand devotion? Does devotion involve a form of grit? Does it require a particular epistemic stance toward the objects of devotion? Does it involve loyalty? Which kinds of communities, activities, and relationships provide opportunities for manifesting devotion? What are the different objects and forms of devotion? Are some forms of devotion more stable than others? Might devotion be a basic motivation in human beings? If so, why? What are the consequences of failing to satisfy this motivation? What are the most natural targets for devotion?<\/p>\n

Schedule
\nThursday, May 9<\/strong>
\nAll events to take place at the Photonics Center, Room 906
\n8 St. Mary\u2019s Street, Boston, MA 02215<\/strong><\/p>\n

11:00am-11:15am Coffee and Introduction<\/b><\/p>\n

11:15am-12:30pm
\n<\/b>\u201cThe Politics of Salvation,\u201d David Livingstone Smith (University of New England, Philosophy)<\/p>\n

12:30pm-2:00pm\u00a0<\/span><\/b>Lunch break<\/p>\n

2:00pm-3:00pm
\n<\/b>\u201cTrying is Good,\u201d Zo\u00eb Johnson King (Harvard University, Philosophy)<\/p>\n

3:15pm-4:30pm
\n<\/b>\u201cDevotion, Striving, and Surrender,\u201d Sarah Paul (New York University Abu Dhabi, Philosophy)<\/p>\n

4:45pm-5:45pm
\n<\/b>\u201cDevotion, Faith, and Grit,\u201d Paul Katsafanas (Boston University, Philosophy)<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Friday, May 10<\/strong><\/p>\n

10:30am-11:45am
\n<\/b>\u201cExistential Motivations for Religious Devotion,\u201d Daryl Van Tongeren (Hope College, Psychology)<\/p>\n

12:00pm-1:00pm
\n<\/b>\u201cDevotion and Gracious Love,\u201d Justin White (Brigham Young University, Philosophy)<\/p>\n

1:00pm-2:45pm\u00a0<\/span><\/b>Lunch break<\/p>\n

2:45pm-4:00pm
\n<\/b>\u201cThe Evolution of Faith,\u201d Joseph Henrich (Harvard University, Human Evolutionary Biology)<\/p>\n

4:15pm-5:30pm
\n<\/b>\u201cDevotion, Attachment, and Moral Risk,\u201d Monique Wonderly (University of California San Diego, Philosophy)<\/p>\n

5:30pm-7:00pm\u00a0<\/b>Reception<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

MATHEMATICS WITH A HUMAN FACE<\/h3>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Mathematics with a Human Face
\n<\/strong>Presented by the Boston University Center for Philosophy & History of Science
\nCo-Sponsored by the University of Bergen\u2019s Norwegian Research Council Grant<\/strong><\/p>\n

Abstract<\/strong>
\nHow important are creativity and the human element to mathematics? In an age of AI and progress in automating proofs, these questions arise. To ask philosophically, we need to include a characterization of actual mathematical practice, and not exclude the cultural, linguistic, pedagogical, computational and conceptual development of mathematics within wider historical and social contexts. The question of the human as mathematician is emblematic for our time, when larger philosophical and cultural questions about the automation of human labor become increasingly central. Is human bias something to be celebrated or eradicated? What is the relation of mathematics to cultural concerns and values? Can we learn from confronting its history in terms of the present?<\/p>\n

In 1947, in his Lecture to the London Mathematical Society, Alan Turing raised the question explicitly:<\/p>\n

The Masters [i.e., mathematicians] are liable to get replaced because as soon as any technique becomes at all stereotyped it becomes possible to devise a system of instruction tables which will enable the electronic computer to do it for itself. It may happen however that the masters will refuse to do this. They may be unwilling to let their jobs be stolen from them in this way. In that case they would surround the whole of their work with mystery and make excuses, couched in well-chosen gibberish, whenever any dangerous suggestions were made. I think that a reaction of this kind is a very real danger.<\/p>\n

There are many philosophical questions embedded in Turing\u2019s remark, which was not simply a throwaway, but a prescient observation about what he elsewhere called \u201cThe Cultural Search\u201d, which he believed would become increasingly important over time, and include \u201cthe human community as a whole\u201d (1948, \u201cIntelligent Machinery\u201d). In this one-day event philosophers, mathematicians, logicians, historians and computer scientists will take stock of the issues.<\/p>\n

Schedule
\n<\/strong>Monday, April 22
\nAll events to take place at Barristers Hall, BU Law School
\n765 Commonwealth Ave, Boston, MA 02215
\n<\/strong><\/p>\n

9:30am-10:00am <\/b>Breakfast<\/p>\n

Part I: Mathematics: Concepts, Languages, Arts and Cultures <\/b><\/p>\n

10:00am-10:55am
\n<\/b>\u201cInnate Arithmetical Knowledge: A Look at the Empirical Evidence,\u201d Sorin Bangu (University of Bergen)<\/p>\n

11:00am-11:50am
\n<\/b>\u201cMax Dehn and Mathematical Late Modernism,\u201d Philip Ording (Sarah Lawrence College)<\/p>\n

12:00pm-1:00pm <\/b>Lunch<\/p>\n

1:00pm-1:55pm
\n<\/b>\u201cMathematical Hygiene,\u201d Andy Arana (Universit\u00e9 de Lorraine, Archives Henri-Poincar\u00e9)<\/p>\n

2:00pm-2:55pm
\n<\/b>\u201cThe Technological Sublime,\u201d Juliette Kennedy (University of Helsinki)<\/p>\n

3:00pm-3:15pm <\/b>Tea break<\/p>\n

Part II: Automating Mathematics
\n<\/b>Moderator: Assaf Kfoury (Boston University)<\/p>\n

3:15pm-4:00pm
\n<\/b>\u201cWill AI\u2019s Ever \u2018Do Math\u2019?\u201d
\nDavid Mumford (Brown University & Harvard University)<\/p>\n

4:00pm-4:45pm
\n<\/b>Comments: Michael Harris (Columbia University)<\/p>\n

4:45pm-5:15pm
\n<\/b>Closing discussion<\/p>\n

Please click here<\/a> for a recording of the colloquium.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

LISE MEITNER AND THE DISCOVERY OF FISSION<\/h3>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Tuesday, March 26th, 2024
\n4:00pm-5:30pm
\nKilachand Center, Eichenbaum Colloquium Room (101)<\/p>\n

Lise Meitner and the Discovery of Fission
\n<\/strong>Tuesday, March 26, 2024<\/p>\n

Presented by the Boston Center for Philosophy & History of Science<\/strong><\/p>\n

In this lecture by Anthea Coster (MIT), we will learn how Lise Meitner’s important contributions to atomic physics were overlooked both in history and in the recent film Oppenheimer<\/em>. Please click here<\/a> for a recording of the lecture.
\n<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

62nd Annual Program 2023\u20132024 THE NATURE OF DEVOTION: PHILOSOPHICAL AND SCIENTIFIC PERSPECTIVES The Nature of Devotion: Philosophical and Scientific Perspectives Presented by the Boston Center for the Philosophy and History of Science Co-Sponsored by the John Templeton Foundation,\u00a0grant #62871,\u00a0and the\u00a0Boston University Center for the Humanities\u00a0 Workshop Topic When people speak of devotion or devoted agents, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16661,"featured_media":0,"parent":101,"menu_order":1,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/cphs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/4711"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/cphs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/cphs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/cphs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/16661"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/cphs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4711"}],"version-history":[{"count":22,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/cphs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/4711\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5033,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/cphs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/4711\/revisions\/5033"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/cphs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/101"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/cphs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4711"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}