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2005 Bulletin Volume 13 U N I V E R S I T Y OF P I T T S B U R G H B U L AUGUSTL E T 2005I N NOTES FROM THE DIRECTOR 22. It was a great pleasure for Rutgers University) and I joined me to be involved in both. forces to organize a conference October 1-3 celebrating the During my eight years as Cen- contributions of our dear friend ter Director I have had the great Allan Gotthelf to the under- pleasure of working with standing of the philosophy and Gereon Wolters of Konstanz science of classical Greece. The and Peter Machamer of Pitts- program and pictures of the burgh (and their committees) event can be found on the on four Pittsburgh-Konstanz Center's web site among the Colloquia. May 26-30, 2005 Archived Events. Allan is cur- was our seventh, held in rently Visiting Professor of His- BULLETINBULLETIN Konstanz, as is fitting, given tory and Philosophy of Science that one of the architects of this thanks to a fellowship provided Table of Contents warm, multi-faceted coop- by the Anthem Foundation for erative venture, Jürgen the Study of Objectivism. 3 Visiting Fellows 2004-05 Jim Lennox Mittelstrass, retires this year. 6 In Memoriam: Ernst Mayr For the first time the event was October 12-14 we once again 7 Anjan Chakravartty he completion of my staged in the historic heart of co-sponsored the Nagel Lec- second (and final!) Konstanz, in the city's Cultural tures, organized every two years 8 In Memoriam: Eduardo H. Flichman Tterm as Center Director Center. Every aspect of the con- by the Philosophy Department 9 News from Visiting Fellows rapidly approaches. During ference, from the quality of the of Carnegie Mellon University. that second term I worked papers and discussion through This year Professor Terrance 13 News from Resident Fellows closely with two of our former the wonderful cruise down to Sejnowski, director of the Com- 14 Special Events 2004-05 Visiting Fellows to forge Agree- Stein am Rhein, was a true plea- putational Neurobiology Labo- 15 Allan Gotthelf’s Contributions ments of Cooperation between sure. It came as a total surprise ratory at the Salk Institute for their Universities and the Uni- to me that Gereon Wolters had Biological Studies in San Di- 16 Foundations of Physics; Einstein versity of Pittsburgh. As I have planned the conference ban- ego, presented three lectures on 18 7th Meeting Pittsburgh-Konstanz previously reported, these for- quet, at a superb restaurant in recent developments in the neu- mal agreements have now been the countryside near Konstanz, rosciences, drawing out impli- 20 Annual Lecture Series signed with the Università di in my honor. The menu was cations from these develop- 21 Lunchtime Colloquium 2004-05 Catania in Sicily and the entitled "Jim Lennox's Last PK ments for the concept of 'self.' 22 Fellows and Scholars 2005-06 Universidad de A Coruña in Supper," and on the back, As always, the Center was hon- Spain, thanks in no small mea- around the words 'Thank You ored to be involved in sponsor- sure to the hard work of former Jim," all those in attendance ing this event. Capping off the Fellows Giovanni Camardi and signed their names, including month, October 29-30 we Wenceslao Gonzalez respec- Galileo Galilei, who apparently helped John Earman host a tively. This past spring saw con- had taken Paolo Palmieri's workshop at which some of the ferences commemorating these place at dinner! This is a keep- world's leading philosophers of agreements: A conference orga- sake that I will always cherish. physics gathered to discuss nized by Professor Gonzalez on More details about the Seventh their contributions to a forth- current approaches to Evolution Pittsburgh-Konstanz Collo- coming volume on the founda- on the Ferrol campus of quium can be found on p. 18. tions of quantum mechanics. Universidad de A Coruña, March 10-11; and one orga- During the past year the Cen- Sometime during the summer, nized by Professor Camardi on ter staff has been very busy. I began receiving emails from the concept of function in bio- One event, which the Center co- two former Fellows, George logy and language at the sponsored, held special mean- Gale and Fred Kronz, floating Università di Catania, May 20- ing for me. Robert Bolton (of the idea of a Former Center 1 CENTER FOR PHILOSOPHY U N I V E R S I T Y OF P I T T S B U R G H OF SCIENCE Fellows Reunion Dinner at the chair Nicholas Rescher host, as Philosophy of Science Associa- Society President, the annual tion meetings in November in meeting of the Metaphysical MISSION Austin, Texas. I immediately Society of America (March 11- OF liked the idea and Fred agreed 13)–appropriately on the theme to take on the role of local or- of metaphysics and science. THE CENTER ganizer. Virtually every Fellow The program for this event may in attendance at the meetings be viewed on page 17. And came to the dinner, at Carmelo's looking forward, the program The Center for Philoso- Ristorante Italiano–over 30 in committee for the next Athens- phy of Science exists to attendance! I have urged upon Pittsburgh Symposium is al- promote scholarship and my successor, the esteemed ready moving ahead with plans research, to encourage Einstein Scholar and all around to host a conference in June of scholarly exchanges, and bon vivant John Norton, that 2006 on the topic of Atomism to foster publications in this should be a tradition, and in–where else?–the city of the philosophy of science thus we need a local host for Abdera, Democritus' home as well as in philosophi- 2006 in Vancouver. Alas, we town. cally informed history of have no former Fellows in science and related fields. Vancouver, but rumor has it Pittsburgh-Konstanz VII was The Center is dedicated to Keith Benson is willing to be- the last official Center event of bridging the gulf between come an honorary former Fel- my 8 years as Center Director. the sciences and the hu- low for the weekend! On August 31, I will walk out the doors of 817 Cathedral of manities, and to helping On February 12th, Pittsburgh Learning to begin a year of re- to develop and dissemi- became one of the first of many search leave. On September 1, nate a philosophical un- places to host a centenary cele- John Earman will walk in as derstanding and apprecia- bration of Einstein's three Interim Director for the remain- tion of the sciences. The ground-breaking 1905 papers der of 2005. And on January 1, Center pursues its mission that, with hindsight, set the 2006, John Norton will begin not only locally and re- agenda for much of 20th cen- his first term as Director of the gionally, but also nation- tury physics. John Norton and Center for Philosophy of Sci- ally and internationally. the stellar team of philosophers ence. It gives me very great Like other centers at of physics at the University of pleasure to know that the insti- the University of Pitts- Pittsburgh worked with the tution that means so much to burgh, the Center for Phi- Center staff to put together a me will be in such good hands. wonderful one-day workshop losophy of Science is a devoted to Einstein's annus unit for research rather mirabilis. The program can be than teaching. Neverthe- viewed on our web site at: less, through its many un- www.pitt.edu/~pittcntr/Events/ dertakings and initiatives, Upcoming_Special_Events/ the Center substantially Einstein. A brief report of the enriches the graduate pro- day's events can be found on grams in the Department page 16. of History and Philosophy of Science and in the De- While I was in Spain giving two partment of Philosophy. lectures on thought experi- Some of these Center ac- ments in evolutionary biology tivities also enrich the un- as part of our cooperation with Universidad de A Coruña, the dergraduate programs of Center was helping Center Co- the University. 2 B U L L E T I N 2004-2005 VISITING FELLOWS AND SCHOLARS Radu Dudau Jason Grossman Pawel Kawalec Dominic Murphy Radu Dudau (PhD, Konstanz, Jason Grossman specializes in Having identified the pitfalls of Dominic Murphy is an assistant 2002) is lecturer in philosophy contemporary scientific meth- Carnap’s immense attempt at a professor of philosophy at the at Al. I Cuza University of Iasi odology, concentrating on two formal construction of episte- California Institute of Technol- (Romania). He works on phi- related areas: philosophy of sta- mology of science in his book ogy, before which he was a losophy of science and philoso- tistics, and the meanings and Structural Reliabilism, Pawel postdoctoral fellow in the Phi- phy of language. While visiting uses of evidence in health Kawalec is now focused on the losophy-Neuroscience-Psychol- the Center from September policy. He is also interested in nature of causal discovery and ogy program at Washington 2004 to February 2005 as a other aspects of philosophy of modeling. A close study of para- University, St. Louis. His work Fulbright scholar, his research mathematics, philosophy of sci- digmatic cases of actual causal concentrates on the fallout from topic was the ontology of social ence more generally, and epis- discovery in nonexperimental collisions between our unscien- entities - that is, of things and temology. In the future he in- research (esp. the causes of tific understanding of human facts depending for their exist- tends to become more interested cholera in the 19th c.
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