[MaFLa] Fw: request to distribute info about the interesting conference "Astronomy and Civilization"

[Laszlo E. Szabo]

Begin forwarded message:

Date: Fri, 8 May 2009 15:30:49 +0200
From: Grandpierre <grandp at iif.hu>
To: leszabo at philosophy.elte.hu
Subject: request to distribute info about the interesting conference
"Astronomy and Civilization"


Dear Colleague,

regarding the financial crisis of this year, which is actually the
International Year of Astronomy, it would be highly useful and timely
if you could help us to distribute the information about the conference
"Astronomy and Civilization", held to celebrate the International Year
of Astronomy 2009.

It would be much appreciated if you could
circulate the enclosed message among
the membership of your institutions and your mail-lists.

Sincerely,

Attila Grandpierre
Co-chair of the SOC of "Astronomy and Civilization" conference
Konkoly Observatory
of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences


**************************************************************************

Dear Colleagues,

it is a pleasure to inform you about a new conference "Astronomy and
Civilization", to be held in Budapest (Hungary), August 10-13, 2009,
http://www.konkoly.hu/AC2009/ 
.

The conference, held to celebrate the International Year of Astronomy
2009, is intended as an exceptional, multidisciplinary event on the most
challenging questions of science, religion, and philosophy. The goal of
the conference is to call attention to the close relations between
astronomy, natural sciences and civilization, first of all to the
foundational, active and renewing role of astronomy in the development
of our civilization and shaping our future. The conference intends to
combine plenary sessions on big questions in an inspiring manner with
minisymposia on cutting-edge research in physics, astrobiology,
complexity sciences, and on the relations between art, religion and
astronomy. Therefore, in addition to the plenary talks, a few
minisymposia could be held: Physical Cosmological Models and the
Astronomically Observed Universe; Complexity, Emergence and
Astrobiological Aspects of the Universe; Astronomy and Philosophy, and
Astronomy, Art and Religion.


The main idea of the conference is to aid and promote the future of
science by enlightening how the pursuit of astronomy has elevated our
civilization and how it can improve the prospects of Homo Sapiens. In
the 21st century, the century of biology and complexity, the widest
range of life (astrobiology) and complexity sciences is the real
Universe, and so it offers the most general and complex context for the
progress of natural sciences. Talks and poster contributions accepted
by the scientific organizing committee of the conference will be
published.


The themes of the Conference will be divided into the following topics:

1. Astronomy and Civilization; History of Astronomy; The Effect of
Astronomy on the Foundations of Civilization

2. Astronomy and Physical Models; Theory of Cosmology and the Observed
Universe

3. Astronomy, Complexity, Emergence and Astrobiology

4. Astronomy, Philosophy, Religion and Art


List of Keynote and Invited Speakers:

Paul Davies, Stephen Wolfram*, Subhash Kak, Nancey Murphy, David Ray
Griffin, John Gribbin*, Joel R. Primack, Nancy Abrams, William R.
Stoeger, N. Chandra Wickramasinghe, Vladimir A. Lefebvre, Hans Köchler,
Anna-Teresa Tymieniecka, Menas Kafatos, Helena Knyazeva, Sisir Roy (all
confirmed, except the two indicated by *).


Important websites:

Homepage:

http://www.konkoly.hu/AC2009/ 

Downloadable flyer of the conference:

http://www.konkoly.hu/AC2009/AC2009.pdf 


Attila Grandpierre, Ph. D.

Co-Chair of the Scientific Organizing Committee

grandp at iif.hu




-- 
L a s z l o   E.   S z a b o
Department of Logic, Institute of Philosophy
Faculty of Humanities, Eotvos University, Budapest
http://phil.elte.hu/leszabo