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Colloquia 2011-12
The colloquium meets 3 times per quarter on, generally on the 3rd, 6th and 9th Thursdays at 4:15 in the Lane History Building, Room 307, unless noted below.
- Andrew Janiak, Duke University Department of Philosophy
February 23rd, 2012
4:15pm - 6pm
"Isaac Newton at the boundary between theology and natural philosophy."
History Building 200 Room 205
Abstract: It is well known that Newton regarded Descartes as his principal philosophical interlocutor when composing the first edition of the Principia. The arguments in the Scholium on space and time, for instance, can be interpreted as focusing specifically on the relativist conception of space and motion in Descartes's Principles. What is less well known, however, is that this Cartesian conception, along with Descartes's attempt to avoid Galileo's fate in 1633, serves as an essential background to understanding Newton's own (poorly understood) view of the theological implications of his theory of space, time and motion. In particular, after withdrawing Le Monde from publication in 1633 because of its Copernican leanings, Descartes later introduced a "fudge factor" into the theory of motion in the Principles, concluding that in one sense the earth does move, but properly speaking, it does not. This background highlights the novelty and originality of Newton's own attempt to indicate how Scriptural passages concerning the motion of the Earth could be reconciled with the philosophical views he developed during the period from 1680-1687. New evidence from archival sources and correspondence supports this argument, shedding new light on the Scholium itself.
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Susan Reverby, Wellesley College
"On the discovery of Guatemalan syphilis experiments in the 1950s and '60s"
Co-sponsored with the Global Health Program of the Medical School
March 14th, 2012
4:15pm
Building 260 Room 008
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Mathematics as Literature Workshop
Organized by Reviel Netz
Tuesday, April 13th, 2012, full day
location: History Building 200, Room 307
Co-sponsored with the Departments of Classics, Math, and Comparative Literature
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Emma Spary, University of Cambridge
"TBA"
Monday, April 16th, 2012, 4:15pm
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Wendy Parker
"TBA"
May 10th, 2012
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Joyce Chaplin, Department of History, Harvard University
"Earthsickness: Circumnavigation and the Terrestrial Human Body, 1520-1800."
May 21st, 2012, 4:15pm
Previously this year
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Structuralism in Philosophy of Physics: Alternatives to Realism
October 6 - 8th, 2011
Stanford Humanities Center, 424 Santa Teresa St., Stanford CA
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Ian Burney, University of Manchester, UK
"Spaces and Traces: The Making of the Modern Crime Scene"
noon, October 10, 2011
location: History 307
Please RSVP for lunch to rrogers@stanford.edu
Abstract
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Richard Healey, Department of Philosophy, University of Arizona
November 10, 2011 4:15pm, Room 217 of History Building 200
"Quantum Theory without Beables: a Desert Pragmatist View"
Abstract: J.S. Bell introduced the term 'beable' to apply to things "which can be described in 'classical terms', because they are there." By 'classical terms', he "refers simply to the familiar language of everyday affairs, including laboratory procedures, in which objective properties—beables—are assigned to objects." Finding contemporary formulations of quantum theory frustratingly vague because these mention local observables but no local beables, Bell proved that predictions of a "serious" theory of local beables meeting a condition of local causality conflict with experimentally confirmed predictions of quantum theory. Some take this to mean that any acceptable account of these experimental results must involve non-local causation that is in serious tension with relativity. I maintain, on the contrary, that quantum theory's lack of beables helps explain these results locally and in harmony with relativity. Neither quantum states nor Born probabilities describe "what is there", while acceptance of quantum theory even undermines Bell's claim that "The beables must include the settings of switches and knobs on experimental equipment, the currents in coils, and the readings of instruments".
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Robert Batterman, Department of Philosophy, University of Pittsburgh
November 17, 2011
4:15pm, Room 217 of History Building 200
"The Tyranny of Scales"
Abstract: This paper examines a fundamental problem in applied mathematics. How can one model the behavior of materials that display radically different, dominant behaviors at different length scales. Although we have good models for material behaviors at small and large scales, it is often hard to relate these scale-based models to one another. Macroscale models represent the integrated effects of very subtle factors that are practically invisible at the smallest, atomic, scales. For this reason it has been notoriously difficult to model realistic materials with a simple bottom-up-from-the-atoms strategy. The widespread failure of that strategy forced physicists interested in overall macro-behavior of materials toward completely top-down modeling strategies familiar from traditional continuum mechanics. The problem of the "tyranny of scales" asks whether we can exploit our rather rich knowledge of intermediate micro- (or meso-) scale behaviors in a manner that would allow us to bridge between these two dominant methodologies. Macroscopic scale behaviors often fall into large common classes of behaviors such as the class of isotropic elastic solids, characterized by two phenomenological parameters—so-called elastic coefficients. Can we employ knowledge of lower scale behaviors to understand this universality—to determine the coefficients and to group the systems into classes exhibiting similar behavior?
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Otávio Bueno, Department of Philosophy, University of Miami
Thursday, December 1, 2011
4:15pm, Room 217 of History Building 200
"Visual Evidence in Scientific Practice"
Abstract: An account of visual evidence is provided and its changing roles in different domains of science are examined. The various roles are discussed in the context of molecular biology, biochemistry, and particle physics.
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Neil Safier, University of British Columbia
as part of "Cultural Synchronization and Disjuncture" series on cultural theory and Latin Americanism of the Division of Literatures, Cultures and Languages at Stanford
Piggot Hall room 216
February 3, 2012, 2pm
Co-sponsored with the Division of Literatures, Cultures, and Languages
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