<html xmlns:o="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" xmlns:w="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:word" xmlns:m="http://schemas.microsoft.com/office/2004/12/omml" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40"><head><meta http-equiv=Content-Type content="text/html; charset=utf-8"><meta name=Generator content="Microsoft Word 15 (filtered medium)"><style><!--
/* Font Definitions */
@font-face
{font-family:"Cambria Math";
panose-1:2 4 5 3 5 4 6 3 2 4;}
@font-face
{font-family:Calibri;
panose-1:2 15 5 2 2 2 4 3 2 4;}
/* Style Definitions */
p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal
{margin:0in;
font-size:11.0pt;
font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;}
a:link, span.MsoHyperlink
{mso-style-priority:99;
color:blue;
text-decoration:underline;}
.MsoChpDefault
{mso-style-type:export-only;}
@page WordSection1
{size:8.5in 11.0in;
margin:1.0in 1.0in 1.0in 1.0in;}
div.WordSection1
{page:WordSection1;}
--></style></head><body lang=EN-US link=blue vlink="#954F72" style='word-wrap:break-word'><div class=WordSection1><div><div><p class=MsoNormal><a href="https://www.centerphilsci.pitt.edu/" target="_blank" title="https://www.centerphilsci.pitt.edu/">The Center for Philosophy of Science</a> at the University of Pittsburgh invites you to join us for our upcoming events. </p></div><p class=MsoNormal>Attend in person in the Cathedral of Learning at the University of Pittsburgh or </p><p class=MsoNormal>visit our live stream on YouTube at <a href="https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCrRp47ZMXD7NXO3a9Gyh2sg" target="_blank">https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCrRp47ZMXD7NXO3a9Gyh2sg</a>. </p><p class=MsoNormal> </p><p class=MsoNormal><a href="https://www.centerphilsci.pitt.edu/fellows/dasgupta-deepanwita/" target="_blank" title="https://www.centerphilsci.pitt.edu/fellows/dasgupta-deepanwita/">Deepanwita Dasgupta</a> </p><p class=MsoNormal>Friday, March 17th @ 12:00 pm - 1:00 pm EST </p><p class=MsoNormal>Cathedral of Learning -Room 1117 on the 11th Floor </p><p class=MsoNormal>Title: Replacing STEM with Natural Philosophy: Reconfiguring the Science/Philosophy Relationship </p><p class=MsoNormal> </p><p class=MsoNormal>Abstract: The idea of this project is to seek to replace the current notions of STEM with the classical ideal of natural philosophy and to see if a contemporary form of natural philosophy could be evolved in our present-day teaching and research contexts. The broad idea here is to cultivate an interface that is neither just STEM nor just Humanities but something in between. I claim that STEM is more a function of our current need for big capital in scientific research and the urgency to create a professional workforce rather than science per se in the sense of curiosity and understanding. STEM thus thrives on its separation from other houses of thought but produces in the end only short-term projects focused on expertise. Such projects need to be supplemented by wisdom-based projects. </p><p class=MsoNormal>This replacement ideal is next articulated under three different heads – first, by creating some teaching modules that follow a hybrid pattern, spreading between the arts and the sciences. I try this approach in Chemistry, which is currently taught mainly via physics. Instead, I think Chemistry should be seen as an interface to understand all change and transformation phenomena in nature, thus appealing to our practical as well as to our aesthetic instincts. It also links Chemistry with its origins in many craft traditions and with many traditional bodies of knowledge. The second is to see if ethical and responsible conduct in research (ERCR) courses could be taught by using projects of creative imagination. The third, and the most difficult part, is to try to build alliances with various traditional bodies of knowledge, which might hold different ontologies but perhaps could co-operate in the contexts of creating sustainable ways of life. I end by giving some examples of such sustainability from the work of Sonam Wangchuk, an Indian engineer and innovator, currently active in Ladakh, India. </p><p class=MsoNormal> </p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><a href="https://www.sfu.ca/philosophy/people/faculty/profiles/holly-andersen.html" target="_blank" title="https://www.sfu.ca/philosophy/people/faculty/profiles/holly-andersen.html">Holly Andersen</a> </p><p class=MsoNormal>Friday, March 24th @ 3:30 pm EST </p><p class=MsoNormal>Cathedral of Learning -Room 1008 on the 10th Floor </p><p class=MsoNormal>Title: Starting Points in Ohio: A pragmatist account of the asymmetry of explanation</p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>Abstract: Recent discussions around explanation have concerned the issue of asymmetry, an issue dating back at least to the well-known example of the shadow of a flagpole. What is the source of the directionality in explanation such that it should go one direction, and not the other? One common approach is to locate the directedness of explanation in the relation(s) that figure in an explanation: in causal explanations, for example, the direction of the causal arrow yields the asymmetry of the explanation in which the causal relation figures. I will first criticize this outsourcing of the directedness of explanation to bits of the world being directed, illustrated with the Quinean point about starting points in Ohio. I then offer an alternative, pragmatist, account of explanation on which explanation is itself already directed, regardless of the relation(s) that figure in any explanation. We don’t need the parts of the world highlighted in an explanation to be intrinsically directed for explanation to nevertheless be directed. I illustrate how this accommodates the plurality of explanations in the sciences that don’t involve straightforwardly asymmetric relationships, distinguishing ways in which explanans and explanandum can be connected that are not fully asymmetric in at least some sense, such as undirected relations, bidirectional relations, or pairs of undirected relations. Only reflexive loops fail to be explanatory on this account.</p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>Please Register Here: <a href="https://forms.gle/NFwuo7BR2HvARWtF8" target="_blank">https://forms.gle/NFwuo7BR2HvARWtF8</a></p><p class=MsoNormal> </p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><a href="https://www.centerphilsci.pitt.edu/event/spacetime-functionalism-conference/" target="_blank" title="https://www.centerphilsci.pitt.edu/event/spacetime-functionalism-conference/">Spacetime Functionalism Conference </a></p><p class=MsoNormal>Cathedral of Learning 1008, April 1st-2nd<br><br></p><p class=MsoNormal><br>Spacetime Functionalism holds that spacetime is spacetime by virtue of the role it plays with respect to other physics. It promises to help with certain interpretational puzzles, including some of those arising in quantum gravity. But the exact kind of functionalism involved, the extent to which it is helpful and the role itself are all contested. This conference aims to make progress on these questions. </p><p class=MsoNormal> </p><p class=MsoNormal>Keynote Speakers: </p><p class=MsoNormal>Christian Wuthrich (Geneva)<br>David Albert (Columbia)<br>Tushar Menon (Cambridge)<br>Dave Baker (Michigan Ann Arbor)<br>Eleanor Knox (King’s College London)<br>Jim Weatherall (UC Irvine)<br>Katie Robertson (Birmingham) </p><p class=MsoNormal> </p><p class=MsoNormal>Please Register Here: <a href="https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1RnR1EwQzhBakOMQ--heOFUFLbgQgDOiX0xz7nKMQRaA/edit" target="_blank">Spacetime Functionalism Conference Registration – Google Forms</a> </p><p class=MsoNormal>Will not be streamed but some lectures will appear on the site after the conference. </p><p class=MsoNormal> </p></div><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p></div></body></html>