Forskningsetik i samfundsvidenskab

Forum for Samfundsvidenskabernes Videnskabsteori
Foredragsrækken efterår 2011: Forskningsetik

Efterårets foredragsrække ser nærmere på to forskningsetiske forhold. Det første er samfundsforskerens pligt til at følge normerne for god videnskabelig praksis. Det andet er samfundsforskerens pligt til etisk hensyntagen over for de mennesker, hvis liv og færden gøres til genstand for forskningen.

Claus Emmeche (Center for Naturfilosofi og Videnskabsstudier, KU)
”Normer for samfundsvidenskab i videnskabspolitisk lys”
Tirsdag d. 27. september kl.15.15 – 17.00
Det Samfundsvidenskabelige Fakultet, Østerfarimagsgade 5, lokale 22.0.19

Steffen Jöhncke (Institut for Antropologi, KU)
”Etik i anvendelsesorienteret forskning – mellem nytteværdi og samfundskritik”
Tirsdag d. 18. oktober kl. 15:15 – 17:00
Det Samfundsvidenskabelige Fakultet, Østerfarimagsgade 5, lokale 7.0.34

Svend Kreiner (Institut for Folkesundhedsvidenskab, KU)
”Om forskningsetiske udfordringer for kvantitativ forskning illustreret med eksempler fra erfaringer med komparative studier af resultater af pædagogiske testresultater i forskellige lande”
Tirsdag d. 8. november kl. 15:15 – 17:00
Det Samfundsvidenskabelige Fakultet, Østerfarimagsgade 5, lokale 2.1.36

Tine Tjørnhøj-Thomsen (Statens Institut for Folkesundhed, SDU)
“Forskningsetiske udfordringer i kvalitativ forskning”
Mandag d. 5. december kl. 15:15 – 17:00
Det Samfundsvidenskabelige Fakultet, Østerfarimagsgade 5, lokale 2.0.63


Der står mere om de enkelte foredrag på www.samfil.dk. Kommentarer er som altid meget velkomne!

Sanselige objekter i tilfælde af afbud

En international workshop på temaet The Sensuous Object afholdes på Medicinsk Museion torsdag 29. - fredag 30. september:

http://www.corporeality.net/museion/2011/09/15/the-sensuous-object-workshop-29th-30th-september-programme/

Desværre er workshoppen nu helt fuldtegnet, men der findes en venteliste i tilfælde af afbud.

For adgang til abstracts, kontakt postdoc Lucy Lyons, lucyly [at] sund.ku.dk eller +45 5194 8068.

Thomas Söderqvist
Medicinsk Museion

Biosemiotikkens kulturvidenskabelige implikationer

Guest lecture at the Department of International Culture and Communication Studies

Paul Cobley, London Metropolitan University

A new paradigm for communications and culture: the implications of biosemiotics

Human agents are today commonly conceptualized as the sites of sometimes competing identities which are constituted by gender, class, ethnicity, sexuality, nation, region, occupation, economy, mode of production, and other bases for power relations. But is it possible to see human agency as constituted by a wider set of determining forces than those discerned in the Polis? This paper will focus on the cultural implications of biosemiotics, considering the extent to which biosemiotics amounts to an “epistemological break” with modern modes of conceptualizing the world. To some extent, the paper will offer a series of footnotes to points made in the work of Jesper Hoffmeyer. It will be argued that the move towards ‘agency’ represented in biosemiotics represents the potential for one of the most thoroughgoing shifts that cultural analysis has yet seen. In particular, the paper will consider the reconfiguration of the role of the subject and its consequences for understanding ethics, communication and the crisis in contemporary capitalism.

Paul Cobley is Professor of Semiotics and Communications at London Metropolitan University. His recent books include The Media: An Introduction (2009), Realism for the 21st Century: A John Deely Reader (2009), The Routledge Companion to Semiotics (2010) and “Semiotics Continues to Astonish”: Thomas A. Sebeok and the Doctrine of Signs (2011) among others. He co-edits two journals, Subject Matters and Social Semiotics, and is associate editor of Cybernetics and Human Knowing. He is the series editor of Routledge Introductions to Media and Communications, co-series editor (with Kalevi Kull) of Semiotics, Communication and Cognition (Mouton de Gruyter) and co-editor (with Peter J. Schulz) of the 22-volume Handbook of Communication Sciences (de Gruyter). He was elected Vice-President of the International Association for Semiotic Studies in 2009.

Time and place:

22 September, 2011

14.00 - 15.30

Copenhagen Business School

Room SV.052

Dalgas Have 15,

2000 Frederiksberg

Organized by:

The Department of International Culture and Communication Studies

and

The Center for Language, Cognition and Mentality

Registration: All are welcome, no registration

Further information: Please contact Søren Brier

sb.ikk@cbs.dk

Ph.D.-job i Uppsala: Videnskabs- og idehistorie

[fra DASTS]

The Department for History of Science and Ideas, Uppsala University, announces two 4-year PhD positions.

The origins of the department go back to the inauguration of the first chair in Idé- och lärdomshistoria in 1932. Since then the department has expanded enormously and meanwhile an additional chair in History of Science with its own research unit, Office for History of Science has been established. Currently the whole department employs 20 teachers/researchers and 11 Ph.D.-students. History of science and ideas is taught at the undergraduate level, master’s level and at Ph.D. level. Moreover as to research, members currently undertake a broad range of research topics including History of Science, History of Philosophy, History of Medicine, Cultural History and Media History.

Research proposals in any of these fields are most welcome. Successful candidates will pursue their doctoral studies full-time and are expected to participate actively in departmental activities, by attending seminars, etc. The position might also entail teaching and other assignments. The working language in the Department is Swedish, in the Office it is English, however reading understanding and oral knowledge of Swedish is expected within the first year. Hence research could be conducted in both languages. The positions are available from 2012-02-01.

During the first year, the successful candidates will receive “utbildningsbidrag”, which represents a salary of currently 15 500 sek/month. During the following years, s/he will hold a “doktorandanställning” where the starting salary currently is 21 700 sek/month. The latter position is a proper employment the holder of which qualifies for the standard Swedish social benefits, such as paid parental leave.

Please note that admission for the PhD at Uppsala University is highly competitive and that a Masters Degree in the Humanities or Sciences or equivalent at the time of application is a prerequisite for a successful application.

Local guidlines (in Swedish) and more information about the studies can be found on http://regler.uu.se and http://www.idehist.uu.se/FoUplanmaj2007.pdf.

Your application should include (a) a brief CV, outlining your academic progress to date; (b) a statement (of no more than 3000 words) outlining your proposed research;
(c) a copy of your MA thesis; and (d) the name and address (including e-mail address) of two referees that are familiar with your work. Deadline for submitting an application is September 30th, 2011.

For further information contact Head of Department Torbjörn Gustafsson Chorell +46-18-4717677 e-mail: torbjorn.gustafsson-chorell@idehist.uu.se, Director of graduate studies Professor Sven Widmalm +46-18-4711581 e-mail: sven.widmalm@idehist.uu.se or Professor of History of Science Otto Sibum phone +46-18-4711480 e-mail Otto.Sibum@idehist.uu.se. The trade union representatives are Anders Grundström, Saco (the Swedish Confederation of Professional Associations), phone +46-18-4715380 and Carin Söderhäll, TCO/ST (the Swedish Confederation of Professional Employees), phone +46- 18-4711996, Stefan Djurström, Seko (the Union of Service and Communication Employees), phone +46-18-471-3315.

You are welcome to submit your application no later than 30th September 2011, UFV-PA 2011/2221. To apply visithttp://www.personalavd.uu.se/ledigaplatser/2221PhD.html

Forum Teologi Naturvidenskab - afsluttende møde og afskedsreception

Afsluttende møde den 7. oktober
Forum Teologi Naturvidenskab har eksisteret siden 1980 og har igennem årene gennemført en lang række foredrag og symposier. Derudover har Forum udgivet mange skrifter. Den seneste kan hentes her på hjemmesiden.

Igennem længere tid har Forums planlægningsgruppe overvejet, hvordan Forums arbejde kan fortsætte fremover, da der ikke længere er ansatte ved teologi, der kan tage sig af foredragsrækkerne og de øvrige arrangementer. Det blev derfor besluttet, at foredragsrækken indtil videre vil fortsætte i Folkeuniversitet Aarhus-regi. Det betyder, at der både dette efterår og næste forår vil være foredrag, der omhandler temaer som dem, Forum har haft på programmet. Det betyder samtidig, at man skal melde sig til hos Folkeuniversitetet, hvis man er interesseret i foredragsrækkerne, og at man skal betale for foredragsrækkerne hos dem. På den måde bliver det muligt fortsat at tilbyde interessante foredrag inden for vores emneområde. Her i efteråret hedder rækken: ’Videnskaben eller Gud?’. Foredragene holdes på seks mandag aftener (se mere på www.fuau.dk).

Forums arbejdsgrupper fortsætter naturligvis i den form, de selv ønsker, og Forums hjemmeside vil også fremover indeholde oplysninger om kontaktpersoner og informationer om Forums historie og udgivelser.

For at markere afslutningen på Forums mangeårige arbejde og overgangen til den nye form vil vi gerne invitere til et sidste møde efterfulgt af en afskedsreception.

Mødet finder sted fredag den 7. oktober kl. 14.00-16 på Aarhus Universitet, bygning 1441, lokale 010. Efterfølgende reception kl. 16.00-17.30 i samme bygnings foyer.

Alle interesserede er hjerteligt velkomne.

Professor Niels Henrik Gregersen holder en forelæsning om ’Teologi i en naturalistisk tidsalder’, og Forums arbejdsgrupper præsenterer de mest interessante emner, de har beskæftiget sig med i deres historie. Derefter følger reception i foyeren. Arrangementet tilbyder en sidste chance for at opleve den på én gang fagligt engagerede og socialt afslappede stemning, som har præget Forums arbejde i hele dets 31-årige eksistens.

På vegne af programudvalget
Kees van Kooten Niekerk og Marie Vejrup Nielsen

PROGRAM

14:00-14:50
Niels Henrik Gregersen, professor i samtidsteologi samt naturvidenskab, Det Teologiske Fakultet, Københavns Universitet:

Teologi i en naturalistisk tidsalder

Igennem mange år har Forum Teologi Naturvidenskab arbejdet med grænsefladerne mellem videnskab og religion. Herunder har naturalismen vist sig som en afgørende udfordring, som allerede Viggo Mortensen tog op i sin disputats. Siden er der udarbejdet mere bløde former for naturalisme, kaldet liberal naturalism i modsætning til strict scientific naturalism. Foredraget vil forholde sig hertil i form af en diskussion af nyere bud på et naturalistisk gudsbegreb og spiritualitet hos filosofferne Mark Johnson og Owen Flanagan

14:50-15:00 Pause

15:00-16:00
Forum Teologi Naturvidenskabs arbejdsgrupper om hhv. fysik, biologi og etik præsenterer hver det mest interessante emne, de har beskæftiget sig med i deres historie.

16:00-17:30
Afskedsreception i foyeren

Det sociologiske samfund

Ny bog:

Steen Nepper Larsen og Inge Kryger Pedersen (red.)

Sociologisk leksikon

Hans Reitzels Forlag

Isbn: 9788741203515

Udgivelsesår: 2011

Sider: 800

Dette alfabetiske opslagsværk er det første af sin art og omfang på dansk og indeholder mere end 2500 opslag fra "abduktion" til "årsagssammenhæng".
Opslagene varierer i længde – fra korte koncise definitioner til omfattende beskrivelser af sociologiens grundbegreber, undersøgelsesområder, metoder, videnskabsteori og betydningsfulde teoretikere. Hvad betyder eksempelvis begreberne magt, modernitet, identitet og sammenhængskraft, og hvad har Weber, Foucault, Bourdieu og Habermas tænkt og skrevet? Værket dækker sociologiens internationale bidrag, traditioner og tilgange med inddragelse af særlige danske forhold og for eksempel biografiske opslag om de første sociologer i Danmark. Der er krydsreferencer mellem opslagene, således at læseren henvises til andre opslag, der kan berige den pågældende term.
Opslagene er skrevet af førende danske sociologer og samfundstænkere og er et uundværligt værk for studerende, undervisere og forskere med interesse for samfundet. Sociologien er en ung videnskab, men med mere end halvandet århundrede på bagen er der tale om et bredtfavnende fag i rivende udvikling.

Redaktion:
Steen Nepper Larsen, lektor ved Gnosis - sind og tænkning, DPU, Aarhus Universitet.
Inge Kryger Pedersen, lektor ved Sociologisk Institut, Københavns Universitet.

"Sociologisk leksikon", med 2.270 opslag, skrevet af 94 danske sociologer og samfundstænkere.
800 sider. 498 kr. Hans Reitzels forlag. Udkommer 1. september 2011.

Læs også omtale her: sprogmuseet.dk

ingen videnskabsteori uden også et sociologisk perspektiv

Læs i leksikonet om bl.a.:

... - viden - vidensdeling - videnskab - videnskabelig revolution - videnskabsetik - videnskabssociologi - videnskabsstudier - videnskabsteori - videnspolitik - videnssamfund - videnssociologi - vidensøkonomi - viljen til viden - virkelighed - ...

Evolution: Hvorfor tror vi på Darwin?

Golden Days festival foredrag:

Evolution: Hvorfor tror vi på Darwin?

Et foredrag om evolutionsteorien - hvordan Darwin fik inspirationen til sin teori, og hvilke strømninger i datidens videnskab, der påvirkede ham.

Den 13. september 2011, kl 20:00
Adresse: LiteraturHaus, Møllegade 7, 2200 København N.

T: 33 32 98 18
Pris:
50 kr. Billetter købes ved indgangen fra kl 19.30

Fysiker og biokemiker Peder Worning vil fortælle, hvordan evolutionen virker, og hvorfor forskere tror så fast på evolutionsteorien. Darwin var meget bevidst om modsætningen mellem evolutionsteorien og skabelsesberetningen, og i "Arternes Oprindelse" beskrev han flere ting i naturen, som han ikke mente kunne forklares med en bibelsk skabelse. Worning vil vise eksempler på, hvordan evolutionen påvirker vores hverdag og forklare, hvorfor nogle arter tilsyneladende udvikler sig meget hurtigere end andre.

Darwin og evolutionsteorien, er det stærkeste eksempel på en modsætning mellem de bibelske tekster og videnskaben. Den står meget klarere end kampen mellem Kopernikanske verdensbillede og pavemagten, fordi Darwins teori er i direkte modstrid med teksten i 1. mosebog.

Evolutionsteorien er stadig til debat i vor tid, i visse amerikanske stater undervises der i bibelhistorie i biologitimerne.

Peder Worning er uddannet som fysiker og biokemiker, og forsker i resistente stafylokokkers DNA på Klinisk Mikrobiologisk Afdeling, Hvidovre Hospital.

Ch. Darwin og P. Worning (Fra Golden Days website)

Det er Worning til højre.

Latouristisk STS italesætter miljøprojekt

Fra DASTS-site : Seminar by Claire Waterton, Centre for Science Studies, Lancaster University

Title:

Purity and Danger:

Re-working and re-framing a polluted lake

through an STS-informed ‘New Collective’.

Seminar at Technologies in Practice, IT University, Tuesday 20 September, 16.00 – 17.30, Room 2A18.

This paper describes research that has emerged from nearly a decade of grassroots activity in a small catchment in the North West of England aimed at improving problems of lake eutrophication. A local forum currently being developed by the local community, members of some relevant institutions, and natural and social scientists was conceived as a ‘new collective’ (Latour 2004), supporting at the same time what Callon and Rabeharisoa (2007) call ‘research in the wild’. This forum, called by its members the ‘Loweswater Care Project’, is made up of local residents, businesses, farmers, ecologists, sociologists, agronomists, environmental agencies and other interested parties. In the paper I will describe it as a social/research technology through which representations of the natural and the social, and their interrelationships in relation to water quality in the lake, can be thickened up and can proliferate, forming the beginnings of future actions.
The research is partly facilitating this new collective, partly examining its unfolding dynamics, partly brokering relationships between different actors, partly aiming to create a forum in which all form of knowledge and expertise are encouraged as valid, without stripping the acutely felt politics of local pollution from debate. The paper highlights the way that the Loweswater Care Project has emerged as a body acutely conscious of the many strong and valid critiques of participation’ in areas of public policy. The project has tried to build upon and even move beyond these critiques. In doing so, it has opened out some new questions and challenges concerning the nature of collective action for the improvement of socio-natural lives.
All are welcome. Please circulate this post to interested friends and colleagues.

Download the poster: http://itu.dk/tip/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/tipseminar_clairewaterton.pdf
Event website: http://itu.dk/tip/?p=1741
Contact: Laura Watts (lauw@itu.dk)
Event information: September 20, 2011, 4:00 pm to 5:30 pm

(For et lignende arrangement, se her )

Et videnskabssociologisk blik på syntetiske samarbejder

Organizing collaborations:

Synthetic biology, social science, art and design

Dr. Jane Calvert gives a seminar on ‘Organizing collaborations: Synthetic biology, social science, art and design’, September 22, 3PM – 5PM in room K4.41, Kilen, Kilevej 14A., CBS
For registration, please send an e-mail to cf.ioa@cbs.dk before 19 September.

Something that makes the emerging field of synthetic biology particularly interesting is that diverse groups including social scientists, ethicists, lawyers, policy makers, artists, designers and publics are becoming involved in the field from the outset. In this presentation, Jane Calvert explore the opportunities and challenges provided by these new forms of collaboration, drawing both on her own experiences as a social scientist studying synthetic biology, and on the Synthetic Aesthetics project, which brings synthetic biologists together with artists and designers.

Event information: September 22, 2011, 3:00 pm to 5:00 pm

Hugin og Munin nr. 265

Hugin og Munin nr. 265, den 31. august, 2011.

Kære ravne-læsere,

der dukkede hurtigt ekstra arrangementer op i tillæg til forrige nummers meddelelser, så hermed et delvist nyt nummer, sendt direkte til Jeres hjerners Odincenter:

• 2. sept.: Engineering Life Philosophical and Societal Perspectives on Synthetic Biology
• 13. sept.: Umulighed i Matematik: Fra meta-udsagn til matematiske sætninger
• 21. sept.: Konference om om behovet for proaktivisme i uddannelsessystemet
• 23. sept.: Cybersemiotics and other Transdisciplinary Studies of Distributed Cognition and Communication - i anledning af Søren Briers 60 års dag
• 11. okt.: David Bloor om Philipp Frank's relativism.
• 13.-14. dec.: Science and Politics at War: New Relations in the Post War Era (cfp)
• Nyt om nordiske STS-møder
• Oplæg om syntesebiologi fra Etisk Råd
• Kollokvier ved Inst. f. Videnskabsstudier på ÅU
• Nyt fra ISSP - videnskab og politik

Redaktionen modtager også gerne bog- og artikelomtaler.

Nyhedsbrevet læses på nettet på odinsravne.blogspot.com

Med venlig hilsen Red.

Saml dig et liv - møde om syntesebiologi

Engineering Life

Philosophical and Societal Perspectives on Synthetic Biology

Date: Friday, September 2, 2011, 9.00-16.00
Venue: Building 23, room 23.4.39 at Ny KUA, Njalsgade 76

Program:

9.00-10.00: Mette Ebbesen (AU),
Does the creation of new biological functions require a new ethics?
10.15-11.15: Sune Holm (KU),
Do environmentalists have reason to worry about synthetic biology?
11.30-12.30: Janus Hansen (CBS),

Synthetic biology in the public sphere: What do we know about the roots of public controversies and what is to be done about them?
12.30-13.30: Lunch
13.30-14.30: Maja Horst/Cecilie Glerup (CBS),
Scientific Social Responsibility: Tracing efforts to socialize science
14.45-15.45: Steen Rasmussen (ISSP/SDU),

TBA

Synthetic biology is guided by a vision about a future in which humans are routinely engaging in large-scale design and engineering of living systems. While the development of this emerging area of research promises to bring about extremely beneficial applications in areas such as energy, medicine, and agriculture, it is also widely recognized that the field may have a significant impact on the future of humans, society, and the environment.

This workshop brings together researchers from synthetic biology, philosophy, and the social sciences in order to explore some of the important questions that synthetic biology raises from the point of view of ethics, social responsibility and public engagement.

Registration is free, but please e-mail Sune Holm if you would like to attend: suneh@hum.ku.dk

Den cybersemiotiske stjerne fylder rundt

On the occasion of Søren Brier’s 60th birthday, the Department of International Culture and Communication Studies and the Center for Language, Cognition and Mentality are hosting a one-day conference. The theme of the conference is the transdisciplinary input and theories for the area of information, cognition and communication sciences (including semiotics and linguistics) inspired by the suggestions made by Søren Brier's work on the Cybersemiotic framework and the questions it raises.

Time and place:

23 September, 2011

08.30 - 18.30

Copenhagen Business School

Room SØ.041

Dalgas Have 15,

2000 Frederiksberg

See adress on map — See room on floor plan

Organized by:

The Department of International Culture and Communication Studies

and

The Center for Language, Cognition and Mentality

Registration: If you wish to participate in the conference, send an e-mail to Merete Borch, mb.iadh@cbs.dk.

Deadline for registration is 12 September 2011.

Participation is free of charge. Tea/coffee is provided and lunch can be purchased in the cafeteria.

Further information: Please contact Søren Brier sb.ikk@cbs.dk

Cybersemiotics and other

Transdisciplinary Studies of

Distributed Cognition

and Communication

For further details see the programme for the conference attached to this invitation. The programme will be updated on IKK’s website.

Søren Brier is Professor MSO of the semiotics of information, cognition and communication in the Department of International Culture and Communication Studies at CBS. His primary research fields include transdisciplinary philosophy and theory of science, in the area of information, computation, cognition and communication. He works primarily with system and information science, cybernetics and semiotics. He has contributed to the development of bio-semiotics and the Foundation of Information Science group and has created the field of Cybersemiotics, which integrates Peircean semiotics, system theory, autopoiesis and cybernetic information theory.
Søren Brier has published widely. Much of his work is collected in the book Cybersemiotics: Why Information is not enough, Toronto University Press 2008 and 2010. He is the Editor-in-Chief of the academic journal Cybernetics & Human Knowing, A journal of Second Order Cybernetics, Autopoiesis & Cyber-Semiotics. Søren Brier received the Warren McCulloch award from the American Society of Cybernetics in 2008.

Søren Brier på CBS har aldrig forsøgt at skjule, at han

oprindeligt er biolog. Fra Søren Briers hjemmeside på CBS.

(Klik på billedet for at forstørre).

Nordiske STS-møder hvert andet år

fra DASTS-hjemmesiden
Fra 2013 vil der blive holdt nordiske STS-møder hvert andet år. Det første løber af stablen 24-26 April 2013 på NTNU i Trondheim. Initiativet til nordiske møder er taget af Jane Summerton og Knut Sørensen og er drøftet med repræsentanter for STS-organisationer i de nordiske lande, heriblandt bestyrelsen for DASTS som har givet sin fulde opbakning til idéen. Start-tidspunktet 2013 er valgt af hensyn til 4S/EASST konferencen i København i 2012. Den to-årige kadence er valgt for fortsat at give rum til nationale konferencer. Indbydelsen fra Jane Summerton kan læses nedenfor.
/Mvh. Torben Elgaard Jensen


Dear STS colleagues in Sweden, Finland, Denmark and Norway,

As many of you already know, the Norwegian STS environments at the University of Oslo/UiO and the Norwegian University of Science & Technology/NTNU would like to suggest that we develop STS-meetings on a Nordic basis.

The purpose of such meetings is to present and exchange the results of our on-going work, provide an opportunity for primarily doctoral students and young researchers to develop networks with their Nordic colleagues, and strengthen intellectual contacts between our respective environments. Pending a successful first meeting and a joint commitment to continue this initiative, our preliminary idea is that such meetings could be organized every other year.

Toward this end, we would like to invite you to a first "Nordic STS meeting" as follows:

Date: April 24-26, 2013
Place: NTNU in Trondheim

The meeting will be jointly organized by Department of Interdisciplinary Studies of Culture/NTNU (contact person: Knut Sørensen) and the Center for Technology, Innovation and Culture/UiO (contact person: Jane Summerton). We will have a conference organizing committee where we would like each of the national environments to be represented (we will get back to you later about details).

We know that 2013 sounds far away at the moment, but we would like you to SAVE THE DATE now and spread the word widely among all colleagues, departments and interested others within your networks. If we all work to ensure that this date is reserved for the event, there will be a great potential for a strong participation from many different areas in our part of the world!
Please do not hesitate to contact me for more information. Looking forward!
Best, Jane

Jane Summerton
Professor
Director,
Centre for Technology, Innovation and Culture/TIK
University of Oslo
Postboks 1108, Blindern
N-0317 Oslo
Norway

tel +47 - 930 00 870

Rettidig tidsforståelse

... you may be interested in an event we will host at the Tycho Brahe Planetarium in Copenhagen, at 19:00, 30 August---

Setting Time Aright:

Understanding How Time Works,

From Cosmology to Cognition.

It is a free event aimed at the public, featuring a panel of researchers discussing the nature of time in science and philosophy, including Paul Davies, Tim Maudlin, Raissa D'Souza and David Eagleman.

Please attend if you're interested. You are also welcome at a reception at the planetarium from 17:30.

[...] a website with a bit more info is

http://fqxi.org/setting-time-aright.html

Please also share this invitation with anyone else you feel may be interested.

Sincerely,

Brendan Foster

FQXi

"This is a free panel discussion, open to the public. Tickets are not required, but seating is limited, and available on a first come, first served basis."

Matematisk umulighed

Foredrag i Videnskabshistorisk Selskab, København:

1.

professor Jesper Lützen,
Institut for Matematiske Fag, Københavns Universitet:
Umulighed i Matematik: Fra meta-udsagn til matematiske sætninger

En række af de mest kendte sætninger i matematikken siger at noget er umuligt: Det er umuligt at konstruere cirklens kvadratur, vinklens tredeling og terningens fordobling med passer og lineal (de klassiske problemer); Det er umuligt at løse femtegradsligningen med radikaler; Det er umuligt at bevise parallelpostulatet; Det er umuligt at bevise aritmetikkens konsistens (Gödel); Fermats store sætning; . . . I foredraget skal jeg diskutere sådanne sætningers rolle. Spiller umulighedssætninger en anden rolle i matematik end de gør i andre områder? Har de en anden status end andre matematiske sætninger? Har deres rolle ændret sig gennem tiden? Er der forskellige typer af umulighedssætninger? Specielt vil jeg argumentere for at umulighedssætninger i historiens løb har udviklet sig fra at være meta-udsagn om den matematiske problemløsnings-proces til at være fuldgyldige matematiske sætninger, som kan bevises med matematiske metoder. På denne måde er det lykkedes at gøre grænserne for den matematiske virksomhed til genstand for matematikken selv. Til slut i foredraget vil jeg diskutere de klassiske konstruktionsproblemer i lidt større detalje.

tirsdag, den 13. september 2011, kl. 17.00
i auditorium 10, på H. C. Ørsted Instituttet,
Universitetsparken 5, København

2.
Professor David Bloor,
University of Edinburgh:
Philipp Frank, 1884–1966
Philipp Frank and the Definition of Relativism

tirsdag den 11. oktober 2011, kl. 17
Tuesday 11 October 2011 at 5 p.m.
Auditorium 10, H. C. Ørsted Instituttet,
Universitetsparken 5, 2100 Copenhagen Ø

Relativism is a topic that causes much dispute. I shall offer a defence of relativism using the definition adopted by the physicist Philipp Frank, namely, that relativism is best defined as the rejection of absolutism. The rejection of absolutism is a necessary and a sufficient condition for relativism. Many philosophers are deeply hostile to relativism but claim that they are free to adopt a position that is neither relativist nor absolutist. I shall examine some of the results of this claim, and identify the definitions of relativism that lie behind it. I shall argue that the alleged middle ground, or third way, between relativism and absolutism is untenable and confused.

Kl. 16.30 inviterer Selskabet på kaffe, te og frugt i Institut for Matematiske Fags frokoststue, rum 04.4.19 på 4. sal.
Efter foredraget vil der blive lejlighed til at spise middag med foredragsholderen for egen regning.
Jesper Lützen, Sekretær

Læs mere om selskabet og foredragene på http://www.math.ku.dk/videnskabshistorie/

Hugin og Munin nr. 264

Hugin og Munin nr. 264, den 23. august, 2011.

Kalender

• 26. aug.: To universitetspolitiske ph.d.-afhandlinger
• 13. sept.: Umulighed i Matematik: Fra meta-udsagn til matematiske sætninger
• 21. sept.: Konference om om behovet for proaktivisme i uddannelsessystemet
• 11. okt.: David Bloor om Philipp Frank's relativism.
• 13.-14. dec.: Science and Politics at War: New Relations in the Post War Era (cfp)
• Oplæg om syntesebiologi fra Etisk Råd
• Kollokvier ved Inst. f. Videnskabsstudier på ÅU
• Nyt fra ISSP - videnskab og politik
• Nye Bøger
• Nye artikler og proceedings
• Thorbjørn Lausten om Orbit

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