Society for the Metaphysics of Science Events
2010 Central Division APA Meeting
GI-7. Society for the Metaphysics of Science
Thursday, February 18, 9:00 a.m.-Noon
Topic: Degrees of Freedom and Inter-theoretic Relations
Chair: Carl Gillett (Northern Illinois University)
Speakers: Jessica Wilson (University of Toronto)
“The Metaphysical Basis of Emergent Non-linear Phenomena”
Jeffrey Yoshimi (University of California–Merced)
“The Geometry of Inter-theoretic Relations”
Mariam Thalos (University of Utah)
“Nonreductive Materialism without Hierarchies”
2010 Pacific Division APA Meeting
GVIII-G. Society for the Metaphysics of Science, Session 1
Thursday, April 1, 6:00-9:00 p.m.
Topic: Decomposing the Mind: From Functional Analysis to Mechanistic Explanation
Chair: Cory Wright (California State University–Long Beach)
Speakers: David M. Kaplan (Washington University in St. Louis)
“Decomposition, Description, and Explanation in Visual Neuroscience”
Gualtiero Piccinini (University of Missouri–St. Louis)
“Functional Analyses as Mechanism Sketches”
Mark B. Couch (Seton Hall University)
“Mechanisms and Explanatory Relevance”
Daniel Weiskopf (Georgia State University)
“Mechanisms and Models in Psychological Explanation”
Carrie Figdor (University of Iowa)
“What Is a Piece of Mind?”
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GXI-L. Society for the Metaphysics of Science, Session 2
Friday, April 2, 7:00-10:00 p.m.
Topic: The Role of Abstraction in Causal-Mechanical Explanation
Chair: Gualtiero Piccinini (University of Missouri–St. Louis)
Speakers: Stuart Glennan (Butler University)
“Building and Explaining Mechanisms: Some Lessons on the Role of Abstraction”
James Tabery (University of Utah)
“Mechanisms and Difference Mechanisms”
Cory Wright (California State University–Long Beach)
“The Role of Abstraction in Generalizations about Mechanistic Phenomena”
Michael Strevens (New York University)
“Toward a Quantitative Theory of Idealization”
2009 Pacific Division APA Meeting
Times: TBA
Topic: New Waves in Metaphysics I
Chair: Allan Hazlett (Fordham University)
Title: "Ontology and the Domain of Metaphysics"
Speaker: Thomas Hofweber, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Title: "Quantification, Naturalness, and Ontology"
Speaker: Ross Cameron, University of Leeds
Title: "Real and Ordinary Language Metaphysics"
Speaker: Doug Kutach, Brown University
Title: "No Property is Intrinsic"
Speaker: Alyssa Ney, University of Rochester
Title: "The Prince of Wales Problem for Counterfactual Theories of Causation"
Speaker: Carolina Sartorio, University of Wisconsin-Madison
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Topic: New Waves in Metaphysics II
Chair: Alyssa Ney, University of Rochester
Title: "The Metaphysics of Collective Action"
Speaker: Sarah Chant, University of Missouri-St. Louis
Title: "Is Everything Relative? Anti-realism, truth and feminism"
Speaker: Mari Mikkola, Lancaster University
Title: "Another Look at the Reality of Race, by which I Mean RaceF"
Speaker: Joshua Glasgow, Victoria University of Wellington
Title:"Post-Essentialism"
Speaker: Allan Hazlett, Fordham University
2009 Central Division APA Meeting
Thursday, February 19, 5:15-7:15 PM
Group Session: Society for the Metaphysics of Science
Topic: Reduction in the Sciences
Chair: Carl Gillett, Norther Illinois University
Title: "Abstraction and the Shape of Reduction"
Speaker: Colin Klein, University of Illinois, Chicago
Title: "Reductionism Meets Complexity"
Speaker: Robert Bishop, Wheaton College
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Friday, February 20, 5:15-7:15 PM
Group Session: Society for the Metaphysics of Science
Topic: Author Meets Critics: James Ladyman & Don Ross's Every Thing Must Go
Chair: TBA
Critic 1: Andrew Melnyk, University of Missouri, Columbia
Critic 2: D. Gene Witmer, University of Florida
Author: Don Ross, University of Alabama at Birmingham & University of Cape Town)
2008 Central Division APA Meeting
GI-5 Thursday, April 17, 9:00 AM-12:00 PM
Group Session: Society for the Metaphysics of Science
Topic: Metaphysics, Science, and the Social World
Title: "The Folk Concept of Race"
Speaker: Edouard Machery (University of Pittsburgh)
Title: "Normalcy and Sociality"
Speaker: Robert A. Wilson (University of Alberta)
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GIII-10 Thursday, April 17, 7:30 PM-10:30 PM
Group Session: Society for the Metaphysics of Science
Title: "Mechanistic Functionalism"
Speaker: Gualtiero Piccinini (University of Missouri, St. Louis)
Title: "Improving Nonreductive Functionalism by Taking Mechanisms Seriously: Causal Versus Total Nomic Roles"
Speaker: Ronald Endicott (North Carolina State University)
Title: "The Third Way for Functionalists"
Speaker: Carl Gillett (Illinois Wesleyan University)
2007 Pacific Division APA Meeting
Thursday, April 5, 6:00-8:00 p.m.
Carl Craver (Washington University in St. Louis)
"Mechanisms, Modularity, and Natural Kinds"
Karen Neander (Duke University)
"The New Functionalism"
2007 Central Division APA Meeting
SESSION I: Mechanistic Understanding in the Sciences
Thursday, April 19, 5:15-7:15.
Location: Private Dining Room 8
Ernan McMullin, (University of Notre Dame)
"Inferring to Things Unobserved: Historical Notes"
Jonathan Waskan, (University of Illinois–Urbana-Champaign)
"Modeling Counterfactual Interventions"
SESSION II: The Investigation of Concepts: Getting Out of the Armchair?
Friday, April 20th, 7:00-10:00
Location: Private Dining Room 5
Andrew Melnyk (University of Missouri-Columbia)
"Conceptual Analysis: A Two-Step Program"
Shaun Nichols (University of Arizona)
"Intuitions about Agency: Experimental Approaches"
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2006 Central Division APA Meeting
Thursday, April 26, 2006, 5:15-7:15
Ken Aizawa, (Centenary College of Louisiana)
"Biochemistry and Multiple Realization"
Robert A. Wilson, (University of Alberta)
"Meaning Making and the Mind of the Externalist"