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Niko Kolodny (Berkeley): “The Problem of the Political” (CANCELLED)
It is widely thought that some relation or treatment, distinctive of “the political” bears a special burden of justification. For instance, "the state" may “coerce" only to prevent "harm to others", or only if it has a “public” justification. If there is anything to this thought, I suggest, it has less to do with liberty and more to do with equality than is often acknowledged. #PopperSeminar
Find out more »The Problem of the Political (CANCELLED)
Is the state’s limiting of our personal freedoms a problem? If so, Kolodny argues, this problem has more to do with equality than with freedom. #LSEComte
Find out more »Society for the History of Recent Social Science 2016 Conference
This two-day conference will bring together researchers working on the history of post-World War II social science. #HISRESS16
Find out more »Sebastian de Haro (Amsterdam, Cambridge), “On Dualities and Emergence of Diffeomorphism Invariance”
Sebastian de Haro is a Senior lecturer in theoretical physics at the Amsterdam University College (AUC) and the Faculty of Science of the University of Amsterdam. His 2001 PhD in physics was under Gerard 't Hooft, and he is currently pursuing a PhD in Philosophy at Cambridge under Jeremy Butterfield. #SigmaClub
Find out more »Workshop: New work on responsibility
Attendance at this one-day workshop is open to University of London Research Students and staff only. To register, please email Alex Voorhoeve.
Find out more »Geoff Brennan (ANU & UNC): “Do Normative Facts Matter… to what is feasible?”
#LSEChoiceGroup
Find out more »Reasons and Mental States in Decision Theory
On 9–10 June this workshop will explore whether, and how, we can make progress in decision theory by modelling a decision-maker’s reasons and/or mental states. Further information is available on the conference website.
Find out more »The Welfare Trait: how state benefits affect personality (CPNSS Public Lecture)
In this lecture Dr Perkins argues that welfare policies which increase the number of children born into disadvantaged households risk proliferating dysfunctional, employment-resistant personality characteristics, due to the damaging effect on personality development of exposure to childhood disadvantage. Adam Perkins is a Lecturer in the Neurobiology of Personality at King’s College London. Kitty Stewart is Associate Professor in the Department of Social…
Find out more »The Hole Shebang: New Perspectives on the Hole Argument
This workshop will bring together philosophers and physicists to discuss a recent debate surrounding interpretations of the Hole Argument. This is a “satellite” workshop being held the day before Foundations 2016, the 18th UK/EU conference on foundations of physics. Further information is available on the conference website.
Find out more »Foundations 2016
The LSE is hosting the The UK and European Conference on Foundations of Physics, to take place this year on 16-17 July 2016. Visit the conference website for more information.
Find out more »Carlo Rovelli: “Why Physics needs Philosophy” (Public Lecture)
Some questions of modern physics cannot be addressed without philosophical awareness. An increasing number of physicists are again reading philosophy. I illustrate the conversation between Physics and Philosophy, which has produced some of the most successful ideas of the history of science, focusing on the nature of space and time. #LSEFoundations
Find out more »Cailin O’Connor (UC Irvine): “The Emergence of Bargaining Inequity”
If you ask someone to divide a pie between two imaginary recipients, they are likely to recommend a 50/50 split. Philosophers like Brian Skyrms and Jason Alexander have employed evolutionary game theory to explain why such "fair" divisions are almost universally observed in experimental work, and to explain the ubiquity of stated norms of fairness in human societies. When one moves away from an idealized lab setting, however, resource division is rarely governed by these stated norms. In this talk, Cailin O’Connor will use evolutionary game theory to show why unequal patterns of division often emerge between social groups.
Find out more »James Owen Weatherall (Irvine): “On Stuff: The Field Concept in Classical Physics”
Discussions of physical ontology often come down to two basic options. Either the basic physical entities are particles, or else they are fields. James Owen Weatherall will argue that, in fact, it is not at all clear what it would mean to say that the world consists of fields.
Find out more »Cailin O’Connor (UC Irvine): “Games and Kinds”
In response to those who argue for "property cluster" views of natural kinds, Cailin O'Connor will use evolutionary models of sim-maxgames to assess the claim that linguistic terms will appropriately track sets of objects that cluster in property spaces.
Find out more »Women in Science: Past, Present, and Future Challenges (the Forum)
Despite progress in recent decades, women remain under-represented in many areas of science. Why is this, and what can be done about it? How do the challenges faced by women in science today differ from those faced by previous generations? Does the neuroscience of sex differences show that science requires a "male brain", or does it debunk that idea? And how might the structure and culture of science be improved to help the next generation of female scientists?
Find out more »Sir Paul Nurse: “How philosophy drives discovery: A scientist’s view of Popper” (Sir Karl Popper Memorial Lecture)
In this talk, the 8th Sir Karl Popper Memorial Lecture, Sir Paul Nurse will discuss how the philosophical works of Karl Popper have informed the practice of his own scientific research activities, indicating where it has helped and where it has required modifications.
Find out more »Roberto Veneziani & Marco Mariotti (QML): “The Liberal Ethics of Non-Interference”
Roberto Veneziani and Marco Mariotti analyse the liberal ethics of noninterference in social choice. A liberal principle, capturing noninterfering views of society and inspired by John Stuart Mill's conception of liberty, is examined. The principle expresses the idea that society should not penalise individuals after changes in their situation that do not affect others. An impossibility for liberal approaches is highlighted: every social decision rule that satisfies unanimity and a general principle of noninterference must be dictatorial. This raises some important issues for liberal approaches in social choice and political philosophy.
Find out more »The Worst Form of Government? (the Forum)
Winston Churchill famously described democracy as "the worst form of government except for all the others that have been tried". While not exactly a resounding endorsement, something like this sentiment is strongly held by most people in Western societies. Those who challenge it are branded "extremists" or "ideologues", with special suspicion reserved for those who incorporate unfamiliar cultural or religious beliefs. However, there have always been those who think alternatives to democracy are possible, and indeed preferable. So what are the philosophical arguments in favour of democracy, and do they stand up to scrutiny?
Find out more »Wendy Parker (Durham): “Scientific Modelling and Limits to the Value-Free Ideal” (BSPS Lecture)
According to the value-free ideal, the internal workings of science, including the evaluation of evidence, should be kept free from the influence of non-epistemic values as much as possible. We identify an underappreciated limit on the extent to which the value-free ideal can be achieved in practice.
Find out more »Reason and Rhetoric: The Ethics of Public Discussion (the Forum)
Even in so-called "mature" democracies, political discussion often turns ugly. Recently we have seen accusations of deception and name-calling in the EU referendum debate, of negative campaigning in the London mayoral election, and of unrestrained personal attacks in the US election. Does such behaviour fall short of an ethical standard for public discussion, or is it an essential feature of political life?
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