[SydPhil] Update: University of Sydney Philosophy Seminar Series, Jordi Fernandez, (University of Adelaide)
Hi everyone, Please disregard the previously advertised room change for today’s talk. The initially planned works are no longer going ahead. The talk will take place in the usual location, the Philosophy Seminar Room (N494). This week's speaker in the University of Sydney Philosophy Seminar Series is Jordi Fernandez, (University of Adelaide) The title of the talk is "Imagination and the paradox of fiction". Here is an abstract for the talk: When we engage with fiction, we seem to have emotions towards fictional characters. However, one would think that, in order to have an emotion towards someone, it is necessary to believe that they are real. And we do not believe that fictional characters are real. I argue that a solution to this puzzle can be found in a certain view about imaginative content. This is the view that, when one reads about a situation or an event involving some fictional character, and one forms a mental image as a result, what one imagines, strictly speaking, is that if one experienced the relevant situation or event, then that experience would be, for one, like having the mental image that one is entertaining. I motivate this view, and use it to propose a solution to the paradox of fiction. The proposal is that, when we engage with fiction, we do not have emotions towards fictional characters after all. At best, we entertain those emotions by having other higher-order mental states which are about them, namely, our imaginative episodes. The proposed solution, I argue, can explain why it feels to us as if we are having emotions towards fictional characters when we engage with fiction, and why, nevertheless, we are not disposed to behave in any particular way towards those characters. The seminar will take place at 3:30pm on Wednesday Apr 17 in the Philosophy Seminar Room (N494). Enquiries about the seminar series can be directed to ryan@sydney.edu.au Ryan Cox Associate Lecturer in Philosophy Discipline of Philosophy School of Humanities University of Sydney ryan@sydney.edu.au - SydPhil mailing list To unsubscribe, change your membership options, find answers to common problems, or visit our online archives, please go to the list information page: https://mailman.sydney.edu.au/mailman/listinfo/sydphil
[SydPhil] UOW Expanding Minds Seminar Series: Ron Planer and Ian Robertson
Dear all, The School of Liberal Arts at the University of Wollongong would like to take this opportunity to invite you to the following Expanding Minds WIP Showcase. All are very much welcome and there is no need to RSVP. Hope to see you there. Best wishes, Elena -- *EXPANDING MINDS RESEARCH SERIES* Work-In-Progress Showcase Tuesday, 23 April 2024 *Dr. Ron Planer* University of Wollongong *Gricean Metacommunication* 15.00-16.00 In the view of many theorists, Grice’s model of communication offers an intuitively correct characterization of the normal form of human communication. At the same time, it promises to explain some of the most striking features of human communication, such as its expressive richness and flexibility. This has made Grice’s model of special interest to those working on the evolution of human communication and language. And yet, Grice’s model is not without problems. In particular, it has been seen as too cognitively demanding to be a good general model of human communication. In reply, several ways of attempting to finesse the cognitive demands of Gricean communication have grown up in the literature. This article considers three such approaches in light of the phenomenon of human metacommunication. As I explain, metacommunication has been all but absent from foundational discussions of Gricean communication. This is surprising, as metacommunication is a central feature of human communication, including that which very young children engage in. It is argued that metacommunication undermines all but one of these approaches to defending Grice’s model of communication. *Dr. Ian Robertson* Friedrich-Alexander-Universitat Erlangen-Nurnberg *Being and Timing: Habitual behaviours as the basis of skilled performance* 16.00-17.00 In this talk, I consider the famed Dreyfus and Dreyfus model of skilled embodied coping—on which skilled performance, at its pinnacle, unfolds without implicating mental representations of any kind—and defend it against recent caricatures. I then turn to examine the role it assigns to habitual behaviours as a basis for fluid sensorimotor adjustment. Finally, I consider two genuine problems for the Dreyfus and Dreyfus model, both pertaining to content, and suggest that it has the resources to overcome them. There is a short conclusion, where I consider some implications for the Dreyfus and Dreyfus view for explainable AI. Research Hub, 19-2072 University of Wollongong Wollongong Campus All are welcome. This is an in-person event. There is no registration fee and no need to RSVP. The* Expanding Minds Research Series,* hosted by the School of Liberal Arts, is a platform for academics based at and visiting the University of Wollongong to share their latest and ongoing research and scholarship. -- *Dr. Elena Walsh* Lecturer School of Liberal Arts Faculty of the Arts, Social Sciences and Humanities | 94.19 University of Wollongong NSW 2522 Australia *T *+61 2 4220 5692 *W *elenawalsh.squarespace.com - SydPhil mailing list To unsubscribe, change your membership options, find answers to common problems, or visit our online archives, please go to the list information page: https://mailman.sydney.edu.au/mailman/listinfo/sydphil
[SydPhil] HPS Research Seminar, Monday 22, April 2024 at 5:30pm
School of History and Philosophy of Science RESEARCH SEMINAR [The University of Sydney] [https://d31hzlhk6di2h5.cloudfront.net/20240416/a1/8c/a4/9f/84602c72f4c731609c6d3e61_1276x850.jpg] Brownian motion, theory confirmation and the stratification of scientific knowledge Alan Chalmers Dates: Monday, 22 April 2024 Time: 5:30pm Venue: New Law Building (F10), Level 3, Room 344 How to register: Free, no registration required. Abstract: Jean Perrin’s experiments on Brownian motion are typically seen as providing especially decisive evidence for the reality of molecules. Research in the area has been raised to a new level of sophistication by George Smith and Raglan Seth in their book Brownian motion and molecular reality. In this paper I draw out and elaborate on key consequences of that work that are of general interest. I use the case of Brownian motion to argue (i) That there is more to the confirmation of scientific theories than the validation of their predictive and explanatory power. The concordance of alternative measures of a physical quantity offers a stronger kind of confirmation. Those scientists who saw Perrin’s and associated research as bringing an end to the hypothetical status of molecular-kinetic theory had a point. (ii) Perrin established knowledge of Brownian motion at various levels, some involving no theory, some assuming that the motions of Brownian granules is governed by Newton’s laws of motion and some invoking the molecular-kinetic theory. Knowledge at each level was vindicated by appeal to concordant measures of physical quantities, implying that knowledge at each level has a similar epistemological status. It is not the case that knowledge necessarily gets more speculative the further it gets from what is directly observable to the senses nor is it the case that knowledge at the atomic and molecular level is superior to that at the observable level because it can in principle explain the latter and render it redundant. Knowledge at the various levels and the relationship between them are all key elements of scientific knowledge and its mode of progress. (iii) An appreciation of the various levels of knowledge of Brownian motion helps to dispel any puzzles that arise from an alleged clash between the time asymmetry of many physical processes and the time symmetry of the laws governing the micro-processes that give rise to them. Bio: Alan Chalmers received a PhD in HPS from the University of London in 1971. He then came to the University of Sydney as a Post-doctoral Fellow in the Department of Philosophy . He remained at that institution until his 'retirement' in 1999. In 1985 he took up the position of Senior Lecturer in HPS in the Science Faculty and started the process of converting the one-person outfit it then was into the School of History and Philosophy of Science that it has now become. His most important books are What is this thing called science? The scientist's atom and the philosopher's stone and One hundred years of pressure: Hydrostatics from Stevin to Newton. He is the author of some 70 or so articles in history and philosophy of the physical sciences. [https://images.e2ma.net/0/images/templates/spacer.gif] [The University of Sydney] Keep in touch [Facebook]<https://t.e2ma.net/click/gaoy7v/090r5ucb/sn2reye> [Twitter]<https://t.e2ma.net/click/gaoy7v/090r5ucb/8f3reye> [Instagram]<https://t.e2ma.net/click/gaoy7v/090r5ucb/o83reye> [LinkedIn]<https://t.e2ma.net/click/gaoy7v/090r5ucb/404reye> [YouTube]<https://t.e2ma.net/click/gaoy7v/090r5ucb/kt5reye> Copyright © 2024 The University of Sydney, NSW 2006 Australia Phone +61 2 9351 ABN 15 211 513 464 CRICOS Number: 00026A Please add hps.ad...@sydney.edu.au to your address book or senders safe list to make sure you continue to see our emails in the future. Manage<https://app.e2ma.net/app2/audience/signup/1976084/1957350/1326354918/83979948518/?s=5SzsVan12TjbLA1KdV5eMANDOQ7Tm8EBZbsgjaX_Bac> your preferences | Opt out<https://t.e2ma.net/optout/gaoy7v/090r5ucb?s=40pfe1bX4WFqQ7kYVFY-O8qCCbrh_CoV_pMCfpmhJNY> using TrueRemove® Got this as a forward? Sign up<https://app.e2ma.net/app2/audience/signup/1976084/1957350.1326354918/> to receive our future emails. View this email online<https://t.e2ma.net/message/gaoy7v/090r5ucb>. Disclaimer<https://t.e2ma.net/click/gaoy7v/090r5ucb/0l6reye> | Privacy statement<https://t.e2ma.net/click/gaoy7v/090r5ucb/ge7reye> | University of Sydney<https://t.e2ma.net/click/gaoy7v/090r5ucb/w67reye> - SydPhil mailing list To unsubscribe, change your membership options, find answers to common problems, or visit our online archives, please go to the list information page: https://mailman.sydney.edu.au/mailman/listinfo/sydphil
