Newsletter of The History of Philosophy of Science (HOPOS) Working Group ISSN 1527-9332 deserves the continued support of the Fall 1999 From the Editor philosophy of science community. Volume V, Issue 1 The autumn brings on for most of us Yet another manifestation of our the delights of a new academic year global focus is the ongoing series of and perhaps the pleasant onset of cool HOPOS ‘travelogues’. The weather. Not all of our kindred installment for this issue features a scholarly souls are looking forward to guide to resources of Ireland. Charles a change in the temperature, though. Mollan has assembled a charming Inside this Issue As some three months have passed and useful overview of Ireland’s since the earthquake in Western intellectual assets in history and Turkey, we might do well to recall From the Editor philosophy of science. the destruction wrought upon persons 1 and properties—but also upon This issue closes with two reviews of schools and universities. Stephen books that address relations between Conference News Voss (Bogazici University, Istanbul, early modern philosophy and science 2 [email protected]) has kindly put us on one hand and mystical or hermetic in touch with representatives from traditions on the other. The first News of the Profession Sakarya University, which was looks at recent works in translation of Call For Reports severely damaged in the earthquake. and commentary on Giordano Bruno, 2 Conference and Talk As the winter nears, those in the and the second looks at Lawrence Calendar Sakarya community have a growing Principe’s recent view of Robert need for shelter. Their plea for Boyle as not entirely divorced from Colloquia, Symposia, and assistance appears in this issue of the Seminars alchemical thought. 3 Newsletter, affording us an opportunity to help our fellow Several announcements bear Competitions, scholars in true need. Please do what highlighting. HOPOI who have been 4 Calls for Papers/Proposals you can. concerned about the unavailability of classic HOPOS-related works should Electronic Resources, This appeal is a natural extension of be cheered by a request from the distinctly international character Journals, Books Published Thoemmes Press editor Kirsten 4 the HOPOS Newsletter has taken on Robertson for suggestions and these past few issues. This reflects proposals for publications in this area. Jobs, Fellowships, Grants, the international flavor of the HOPOS Let us also take note of the and Awards, 5 Working Group—rather fitting for a semisequicentennial of the HSS, and Announcements scholarly group whose formative the PSA’s selection of a new Request for Assistance transactions have been through an newsletter editor (Malcolm Forster) electronic mailing list. One sign of —and extend our congratulations. 6 the flowering internationalism of our scholarly work is the upcoming Finally, let us not rest in our efforts to Regional maps of HOPOS HOPOS 2000 conference, to be activity and infrastructure: improve upon the Newsletter. The 6 hosted by the University of Vienna. current format is apparently popular Ireland A reminder concerning this exciting but why not consider other features Book Reviews event appears on page two. for the future, such as notes and 13 comments, bibliographic surveys, or Looking backward, David Spurett syllabi? Please provide feedback! The History of Philosophy of offers a report on the annual Science (HOPOS) Dubrovnik philosophy of science Cheers, Working Group conference. This conference has Saul Fisher http://scistud.umkc.edu/hopos resisted a great deal of manmade havoc and trouble in recent times, and ! . Newsletter of The History of Philosophy of Science (HOPOS) Working Group mortar emplacements in action on For information concerning the 1999 Dubrovnik hills overlooking Dubrovnik, though, conference, contact James Robert and in any event the period passed Brown (University of Toronto) at: Philosophy of without incident in Croatia. [email protected]. Science Conference The conference was a great success. David Spurrett The papers were generally of high Departments of Philosophy A Report quality and covered a wide range of University of Natal, Durban and problems and approaches. Further, in King's College, London. Between April 12 and 17 of this year the all-too-rare absence of parallel [email protected] I attended the annual philosophy of sessions (even though it meant ! science conference at the Inter- hearing two papers on Saturday University Centre in Dubrovnik, morning) the level of discussion was Croatia, for the first time. The Inter- also high, and in time took on the HOPOS 2000 University Centre in Dubrovnik holds quality of a short intense seminar as a range of conferences and courses in we all got to know one another better, University of Vienna many fields every year, but the and had more and more common philosophy of science conference has points of reference and shared debate. The History of Philosophy of Science a special place in the programme. It Finally, it was a pleasure to attend a Working Group will hold its Third has been held every year without fail International Conference at the th conference where every single paper since 1974, making this year the 25 was heard in a full 90 minute session, University of Vienna, in July 2000. anniversary. The original conference allowing plenty of time for questions, The conference is being organized was opened by Werner Heisenberg. discussion and debate. together with the Institute Vienna There were times when it was the Circle and the Center for largest annual philosophy of science Given my own interests and International and Interdisciplinary conference in Europe. specializations, I found these papers Studies (ZIIS) of the University of to be especially stimulating and Vienna. This year the themes of the memorable: ‘What's Right about conference were (1) Rationality, and Formalism’ (James Robert Brown, For further information, contact (2) The Sciences: Natural and Social. Toronto), ‘Balancing Acts: Rational Michael Heidelberger Conference participants came from a Agency and Efficacious Action’ ([email protected] wide range of countries and (Mary Tiles, Hawaii), ‘Nativism, berlin.de) or Friedrich Stadler institutions, including Canada, the Defeasability and A Priori ([email protected]). The US, Sweden, Poland, Romania, Knowledge’ (Ben Young, conference website is at: Slovenia, Singapore, the Netherlands, Edinburgh), ‘Historicism and http://hhobel.phl.univie.ac.at/wk Russia, South Africa, the UK and, of Philosophy of Science’ (Andrew course, Croatia itself. ! Reynolds, Harvard), ‘Rational Mathematical Change’ (Jean-Pierre For those who haven’t been, Marquis, Montreal), and ‘Living in News of the Dubrovnik is an astonishingly the “Space of Reasons”: The beautiful city, the old part of which is “Rationality Debate” Revisited’ profession. a charming stone haven with no (David Davies, McGill). The vehicular traffic and a disarming majority of the papers focused, Call for Reports. charm. This year’s conference fell broadly, on rationality. A wider The Newsletter features occasional, near the beginning of the NATO debate ensued over the course of concise reports on conferences of bombardment of parts of former conference regarding excesses of interest to HOPOI. If you are Yugoslavia, which resulted in a great relativism and claims for rationality interested in writing such reports, deal of cancelled trips on the part of or realism. A selection of papers please contact the Editor. nervous tourists. In fact, at least at from the conference is forthcoming in the beginning of the week it seemed the journal “International Studies in like the conference was the only the Philosophy of Science”. Conference and Talk activity in town which involved visitors, except for journalists en I left with a firm resolve to attend Calendar. route to or from other parts of the next year, when the themes will be • region. It takes more than a war two (1) Causality, Laws, and Explanation, October 1-2, 1999, University of countries away to stop a conference (2) Philosophy of Biology and, given Oklahoma which has been held with snipers and the timing, (3) 100 Years of Quanta. 2 Newsletter of The History of Philosophy of Science (HOPOS) Working Group 18th Annual Mephistos Conference. The Rutgers Center for Cognitive • August 25-28, 2000, Cardiff The annual MePHiSToS graduate Science and the Hang Seng Centre for University. student conference focuses on the Cognitive Studies (University of ‘The Demarcation Socialised: Or, history, philosophy, and sociology of Sheffield) will sponsor the first of 2 How Can We Recognise Science science, technology, and medicine. conferences on The Cognitive Basis When We See It?’. For information, For information on Mephistos of Science. For information go to go to conferences, follow these links: http://philosophy.rutgers.edu/cbs- http://www.cf.ac.uk/socsi/research/ke 1996—University of Toronto— conference or contact Stephen Stich s/milquin.html or contact Robert http://www.chass.utoronto.ca/~mephi ([email protected]) or Gary C. Evans at [email protected]. sto/meph96/ Bartlett ([email protected]). 1997—UCLA— Colloquia, Symposia, and http://scow.gslis.ucla.edu/students_m • November 26-27, 1999, Institut -z/mephisto/HTML/home.html Henri Poincaré, Paris Seminars. 1998—University of Minnesota— “Journées Ernest Coumet: Histoire http://home.att.net/~Olorin/mephistos des jeux, jeux de l’histoire”. • Centre Alexandre Koyré /meph2.htm Organized by the Centre Alexandre Research seminar “Formation des 1999—Univ. of Oklahoma— Koyré, EHESS and Centre savoirs au début de l’époque http://aftermath.math.ou.edu/~jjwhite international de Synthèse. For moderne: Humanistes, Géomètres, /Mephistos/index.html information, contact Sophie Roux Mécaniciens”. Pavillon Chevreul, 57, ([email protected]). rue Cuvier 75231, Paris, France. For • October 31-November 2, 1999 information, contact Sophie Roux Université de Genève, • December 2-4, 1999, Max ([email protected]); or Switzerland Planck Institute for the History of Hélène Vérin International Colloquium on Bolzano Science, Berlin ([email protected]).