3rd Annual CMM Graduate Conference Leeds

The Centre for Metaphysics and Mind at the University of Leeds is hosting the 3rd Annual CMM Graduate Conference on Thursday 4th September. This is will run immediately before the metaphysics conference, Perspectives on Ontology, that is being held at the University from Friday 5th to Sunday 7th September.

Submissions are welcome from current graduate students on any area of metaphysics. Metaphysics should be broadly construed to include not only traditional metaphysical topics, but also the metaphysical aspects of e.g. philosophy of mind, philosophy of physics, philosophy of religion, and aesthetics.

Submissions of any length up to 5,000 words will be considered.

Each paper presented at the conference will be followed by a response from a member of academic staff from the University of Leeds Department of Philosophy.

As with last year's conference we hope to be able to pay some or all of the travel and accommodation costs for those people whose papers are accepted. (This is dependent on successful funding applications.)

Please submit complete papers, preferably by e-mail, to Sarah Grant, phl2skg@leeds.ac.uk. Please mark your submission clearly as such. Receipt will be acknowledged asap. Submissions will also be accepted by mail:

Sarah Grant
School of Philosophy
University of Leeds
Woodhouse Lane
LS2 9JT

All papers should be suitable for blind review (we cannot guarantee anonymised refereeing if your paper is not suitably anonymised). Please include a cover page with title, abstract and contact details. Mailed submissions should include two copies.

Deadline for receipt of submissions is Friday 18th July 2008.

Decisions will be made by Friday 8th August 2008.

For more general details on the conference please consult:

http://www.personal.leeds.ac.uk/~phsk/cmmgc08/index.htm

or e-mail Duncan Watson at phl5dw@leeds.ac.uk Messages

Modelling Matter Symposium - Durham

St Chad's College, Durham University
26-28 March 2008
Sponsored by Durham University's Institute of Advanced Study
www.dur.ac.uk/i.j.kidd/Modelling_Matter.htm

Organisers: Dr R F Hendry & Dr M D Eddy
This interdisciplinary two-day symposium will investigate the different strategies and methods of modelling and representing across the physical and life sciences, and the ways in which models relate to their subject matter and to the empirical evidence. Scientists represent the world using a wide variety of media, including mathematical and physical models, equations, graphs and visual diagrams, and of course language, analogy and metaphor. Historians and philosophers of science have examined the traditions and modes of representation across different sciences, and in particular when different scientific disciplines interact. Particular traditions of representation employ different media together, so that one medium can take over when the expressive power of another runs out. Thus, for instance, in theoretical physics and chemistry, visual arguments are sometimes employed when more formal mathematical derivations are intractable. Traditions develop so that the modes of representation are implicit, and transparent to the practitioners. Their particular origins and status are unquestioned, and the medium of representation itself is essentially invisible to the practitioner.
Modelling Matter Symposium
26-28 March
St Chad’s College, Durham University
Wednesday, 26 March
Perspectives on Models and Representation
2pm (1) ‘Models: Parables versus Fables’
Prof Nancy Cartwright FBA, Professor of Philosophy, London School of Economics and University of California, San Diego.
3pm (2) ‘A Hierarchical Account of Theories and Models’
Prof Ronald Giere, Emeritus Professor of Philosophy, University of Minnesota
4pm Tea/coffee
Perspectives on Models and Representation (continued)
4.30pm (3) ‘Modelling Matter with Paper Tools’
Professor Dr Ursula Klein, Research Scholar, Max Planck Institute for the History of Science, Berlin
5.30pm (4) ‘Physics and the Philosophy of Scientific Modeling’
Dr Eric Winsberg, Associate Professor of Philosophy, University of South Florida
6.30pm Bar
7.30pm Dinner
Thursday, 27 March
Biology and Models
9.30am (5) ‘Tables for Models: Medicine and Mineralogy during the Enlightenment’
Dr Matthew D Eddy, Lecturer in History of Science, Durham University & Caltech
10.30am (6) ‘Models in Molecular Biology, and their Present Evolution’
Prof Michel Morange, Professor of Biology, ENS and University of Paris 6, Director, Cavailles Centre for the History and Philosophy of the Sciences, ENS
11.30am Tea/coffee
12noon (7) ‘Models for Modelling Matter’
Dr Michael Weisberg, Assistant Professor of Philosophy, University of Pennsylvania
1pm Lunch
Chemistry and Models
2pm (8) ‘Modelling Chirality’
Professor Seymour Mauskopf, Professor of History, Duke University
3pm (9) ‘Modelling Molecules: from Wollaston to Hofmann’
Professor David Knight, Emeritus Professor of the History of Science, Durham University