Probability reading group: Wednesday 20 Nov

Hi all,

the next meeting of the probability reading group is on Wednesday at
2pm in the Benjamin library.

We'll discuss two short papers: Adam Elga's "Subjective Probabilities
Should be Sharp" (2010),
http://quod.lib.umich.edu/p/phimp/3521354.0010.005/1#, and Sahlin and
Weirich's "Unsharp Sharpness" (2013),
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/theo.12025/full#.

Best,
wo.

Probability reading group: Wednesday 6 Nov, 2pm

Hi all,

at the next meeting of the probability reading group we'll talk about
John Cantwell's "Conditionals in causal decision theory":
http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11229-012-0197-5#. We meet on Wednesday at
2pm in the Benjamin library.

Best,
wo.

Probability reading group: Wed 30 Oct, 2pm

Hi all,

the probability reading group meets as usual on Wednesday at 2pm in
the Benjamin library. This week we'll discuss Arif's "Causal decision
theory: a counterexample":
http://philreview.dukejournals.org/content/122/2/289.full.pdf+html#.

Best,
wo.

Probability reading group: Wednesday 23 Oct, 2pm

Hi all,

the probability reading group meets as usual on Wednesday at 2pm in
the Benjamin library. We will discuss Daniel Rothschild's "Do
indicative conditionals express propositions?":
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1468-0068.2010.00825.x/pdf#.

Best,
wo.

Probability reading group: Wed 11 September, 2pm

Dear all,

this week we will continue discussing Al's, "Probabilities
of Counterfactuals and Counterfactual Probabilities", which you can
temporarily find here: http://umsu.de/temp/hajek.pdf#. As usual, we
meet at 2pm in the Benjamin library!

wo.

Probability Reading Group: Wed 4 September, 2pm

Dear all,

on Wednesday we will discuss a brand-new draft by Al, "Probabilities
of Counterfactuals and Counterfactual Probabilities", which you can
temporarily find here: http://umsu.de/temp/hajek.pdf#.

See you at 2pm in the Benjamin library!

wo.

Probability reading group: Wed 28 Aug, 2pm

Hi all,

next week, we'll discuss another paper on counterfactuals and
probabilities, by Dorothy Edgington (oddly called 'I -
Counterfactuals'):
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1467-9264.2008.00233.x/pdf#

See you on Wednesday at 2pm in the Benjamin library!

Best,
wo.

Probability reading group: Wed 21 August, 2pm

Hi all,

this Wednesday we continue our discussion of Hannes Leitgeb's "A
probabilistic semantics for counterfactuals". Again, the full paper
can be found here:
http://journals.cambridge.org/action/displayIssue?jid=RSL&volumeId=5&seriesId=0&issueId=01#,
but it'll suffice if you read the parts I've extracted in
http://umsu.de/temp/Leitgeb.pdf#, starting at around the triviality
proof in section 2.

(Here, by the way, is the triviality result I wrote on the whiteboard
last week: http://umsu.de/temp/leitgeb-triviality.pdf#.)

See you on Wednesday at 2pm in the Benjamin library!

wo.

Probability reading group: Wed 14 Aug, 2pm

Hi all,

the probability reading group meets as usual on Wednesday at 2pm in
the Benjamin library. Next time we'll look at Hannes Leitgeb's "A
probabilistic semantics for counterfactuals". You can find the full,
2-part, 95-page paper here:
http://journals.cambridge.org/action/displayIssue?jid=RSL&volumeId=5&seriesId=0&issueId=01#,
but I've also created an abridged version with (what I took to be) the
most important and/or interesting parts:
http://umsu.de/temp/Leitgeb.pdf#. It's still 40 pages long, but you
can mostly skim the first nine pages up to the little triviality
proof. See you on Wednesday!

wo.

Probability reading group: Wed 7 August, 2pm, Benjamin library

Dear all,

the probability reading group will meet again on Wednesday (7 Aug) at
2pm in the Benjamin library to discuss Richard Bradley's
"Multidimensional Possible-World Semantics for Conditionals":
http://philreview.dukejournals.org/content/121/4/539.full.pdf+html#.

Best,
wo.

Probability reading group: Wed 31 July, 2pm, Benjamin library

Hi all,

conditional on the absence of further unforeseen events, the
probability reading group meets next Wednesday at 2pm in the Benjamin,
to discuss my paper "No interpretation of probability":
http://umsu.de/papers/nochance.pdf#. (If you read the earlier version:
there are a few minor changes, mainly in section 2, but the substance
is the same.) We'll also talk about what to read for future sessions.

Best,
wo.

Re: Probability reading group: Wed 17 July, 2pm, Benjamin library

Hi again,

turns out that the reading group clashes with Robbie's pre-talk this
week, and with the MSPT graduate workshop next week. Since other
candidate slots are also taken, I suggest that we postpone the next
meeting by two weeks to the 31st. So, no probability reading group
this week.

Apologies for the confusion.

Best,
wo.


On 14 July 2013 13:54, Wolfgang Schwarz <wo@umsu.de> wrote:
> Hi all,
>
> the probability reading group is back. We begin with a short piece by
> myself, called "No interpretation of probability":
> http://umsu.de/papers/nochance.pdf#. See you on Wednesday at 2pm in
> the Benjamin library!
>
> Best,
> wo.

Probability reading group: Wed 17 July, 2pm, Benjamin library

Hi all,

the probability reading group is back. We begin with a short piece by
myself, called "No interpretation of probability":
http://umsu.de/papers/nochance.pdf#. See you on Wednesday at 2pm in
the Benjamin library!

Best,
wo.

Probability reading group Wed 24 April

Hi all,

Antony Eagle will be here this week and we honour his visit by
discussing his (surveyish) paper "Probability and randomness",
temporarily to be found here:
http://umsu.de/temp/eagle-randomness.pdf#.

Wednesday 24 April 1.30 pm (yes, 1.30), Benjamin library.

Best,
wo.

Science and Metaphysics RG Meeting #10

Science and Metaphysics RG Meeting #10

When: Tuesday April 23rd from 11-12.30

Where: Benjamin Library, Coombs Building

This week we continue our discussion of Daniel Nolan's paper "Platitudes and Metaphysics" from Braddon-Mitchell, D. and Nola, R. (eds) (2009) Conceptual Analysis and Philosophical Naturalism. MIT Press, Cambridge MA.


Please contact Rachael Brown for photocopies if you do not have access to the book.

Science and Metaphysics RG Meeting #9

When: Tuesday April 16th from 11-12.30

Where:  Benjamin Library, Coombs Building

This week we will be reading more from Braddon-Mitchell, D. and Nola, R. (eds) (2009) Conceptual Analysis and Philosophical Naturalism. MIT Press, Cambridge MA. Please read:

Chapter 1: Braddon-Mitchell and Nola "Introducing the Canberra Plan"  and Chapter 12: Nolan "Platitudes and Metaphysics"  (particularly parts 1 and 2)

Contact: Rachael (rachael.brown{at}anu.edu.au)

Probability Reading Group: Wed 17 April

Dear all,

the next meeting of the probability reading group will look at Richard
Bradley's paper "Ramsey and the Measurement of Belief":
http://personal.lse.ac.uk/bradleyr/pdf/Ramsey.Gillies.pdf#. We meet on
Wednesday at 2pm (yes 2pm, not 1pm) in the Benjamin library.

Best,
wo.

Evolution RG

The next meeting of the Evolution Reading Group is 2.30PM, Friday 12th April in the Benjamin Library, Coombs Building, ANU. 

Reading:

Dickins & Barton (forthcoming) "Reciprocal causation and the proximate–ultimate distinction"Biology & Philosophy, online first.

Contact: rachael.brown{at}anu.edu.au

Probability Reading Group: Wed 10 April

Dear all,

next week, we will discuss "Representation Theorems and the
Foundations of Decision Theory" by Chris Meacham and Jonathan
Weisberg: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/00048402.2010.510529

See you on Wednesday at 1pm in the Benjamin library!

Best,
wo.

Evolution RG

The next meeting of the Evolution Reading Group is 2.30PM, Friday 5th April in the Benjamin Library, Coombs Building, ANU. 

Over the coming month or so we will be discussing the usefulness of Mayr's proximate-ultimate distinction. We will begin with:

KN Laland, J Odling-Smee, W Hoppitt & T Uller (2012) "More on how and why: cause and effect in biology revisited" Biology and Philosophy 

(NB: the arguments in this paper expand upon those in a paper discussed by the group at an earlier meeting:  KN Laland, K Sterelny, J Odling-Smee, W Hoppitt and T Uller (2011) Cause and effect in biology revisited: Is Mayr's proximate-ultimate dichotomy still useful? Science 334: 1512-1516.)

In future weeks we will move on to discuss the responses to these papers.

Contact: Rachael (rachael.brown{at}anu.edu.au)

Probability reading group: Wed 3 March

Dear all,

next week the probability reading group will take a brief detour to
look at a question about counterfactual conditionals. The reading is a
forthcoming paper by Lee Walters and Robbie Williams, "An Argument for
Conjunction Conditionalization":
http://users.ox.ac.uk/~some3090/papers/An%20Argument%20for%20Conjunction%20Conditionalization.pdf#.

See you on Wednesday at 1pm in the Benjamin library!
wo.

Science and Metaphysics RG Meeting #6

When: Tuesday 26th March from 11-12.30

Where:  Benjamin Library, Coombs Building

Reading: Chakravartty, Anjan 'Six Degrees of Speculation: Metaphysics in Empirical Contexts', in B. Monton (ed.)Images of Empiricism (2007), Oxford University Press. 

Contact: Rachael (rachael.brown{at}anu.edu.au)

Science and Metaphysics RG Meeting #5

When: Tuesday 12th March from 11-12.30

Where:  Benjamin Library, Coombs Building

Reading: Carrie Jenkins' paper:  "Naturalistic Challenges to the A Priori" (Forthcoming in A. Casullo and J. Thurow (ed.s), The A Priori in Philosophy, Oxford University Press)

Contact: Rachael (rachael.brown{at}anu.edu.au)

Metaphysics and Science Reading Group

When: Tuesday 5th of March from 11-12.30 

Where:  Benjamin Library, Coombs Building

Reading: Ladyman (2012) "Science, Metaphysics and Method" Philosophical Studies160: 31-50. 

Contact: Rachael (rachael.brown{at}anu.edu.au)

Evolution RG

When: 2-3.30pm, Friday 8th March, 2013

Where: Benjamin Library (Coombs Building).

Reading: 

Dickinson (2012) "Associative Learning and Animal Cognition" Phil. Trans. R. Soc. B, 367, 2733-2742.

Heyes (2012) "Simple minds: a qualified defence of associative learning" Phil. Trans. R. Soc. B, 367, 2695-2703. 

Contact: Rachael rachael.brown{at}anu.edu.au

Probability reading group: Wed 6 March

Hello,

the next meeting of the probability reading group will discuss Jamie
Dreier's (1996) "Rational Preference: Decision theory as a theory of
practical rationality":
http://www.springerlink.com/index/q54k6u2224u35102.pdf#.

We meet on Wednesday at 2pm in the Benjamin library.

Best,
wo.

Evolution Reading Group

When: 2-3.30pm, Friday 1st March, 2013
Where: Benjamin Library (Coombs Building).
Reading: Heyes (2012) "Simple minds: a qualified defence of associative learning" Phil. Trans. R. Soc. B, 367, 2695-2703. 


Contact: rachael.brown{at}anu.edu.au

Probability reading group: Wed 27 Feb

Hello,

the next meeting of the probability reading group will discuss Alan
Hajek's "Unexpected Expectations", which you can temporarily find
here: http://umsu.de/temp/unexpected.pdf#. We meet on Wednesday at 2pm
in the Benjamin library.

Best,
wo.

Probability reading group: Wed 20 Feb 2pm

Hello,

the probability reading group meets on Wednesday at 2pm in the
Benjamin library to discuss Richard Bradley's 'Reaching a consensus':
http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/23866/1/Reaching_a_Consensus_(LSERO).pdf#.
(Apologies for the short notice.)

Best,
wo.

Evolution Reading Group

When: 2-3.30pm, Friday 15th February, 2013

Where: Benjamin Library (Coombs Building).

Reading: Sterelny's 2010 paper "Minds: extended or scaffolded?" (Phenom Cogn Sci (2010) 9:465–481). 

NB: The discussion will assume familiarity with Clark and Chalmers' paper "The Extended Mind" (from Analysis 58:10-23, 1998). 

Contact: Rachael (rachael.brown{at}anu.edu.au)

Metaphysics and Science RG Meeting #3

When: Tuesday 26th of February from 11-12.30 (note: there is no meeting on Tuesday 19th of February)

Where:  Benjamin Library, Coombs Building


Reading: Laurie Paul's "Metaphysics as modeling: the handmaiden's tale" (from Philos Stud (2012) 160:1–29)


Contact: Rachael (rachael.brown{at}anu.edu.au)

Metaphysics and Science Reading Group

The Science and Metaphysics Reading Group focuses on the relationship between metaphysics and science, in particular the similarities and differences between the methodologies of the two fields.

We read a paper each week and the group is open to all graduate students and staff in the School of Philosophy. Others interested in attending should contact the convenor, Rachael Brown (rachael.brown{at}anu.edu.au).

During Semester I, 2013 we will be meeting at 11-12.30 on Tuesdays, in the Benjamin Library  (Coombs Building).

Evolution RG

The first meeting of the Evolution Reading Group for 2013 will be held on Friday 8th of February at 2pm in the Benjamin Library (Coombs Building).

We will be taking a little detour into some philosophy of cognitive science and discussing two short papers:

(1) Clark (1999) "An embodied cognitive science?" Trends in Cognitive Science, 3(9): 345-350.

(2) Taylor et. al (2010) "An Investigation into the Cognition Behind Spontaneous String Pulling in New Caledonian Crows" PLosOne, 5(2): e9435.

- Rachael (rachael.brown{at}anu.edu.au)

Science and Metaphysics RG

When: Tuesday 12th of February from 11am-12noon

Where:  Benjamin Library, Coombs Building

Reading:

Godfrey-Smith, P. (2006), ‘Theories and models in metaphysics’, Harvard Review of Philosophy, 14: 4-19.

Contact: Rachael (rachael{dot}brown{at}anu.edu.au)

evolution reading group

The next meeting of the evolution reading group will be 2 PM Friday 26 October in the Benjamin library.

The reading is Tim Lewens, "Seven types of adaptationism".

Electronic copy of the reading available upon request.

Contact: Stephan Kubicki (stephan.kubicki{at}anu.edu.au)

evolution reading group

The next meeting of the evolution reading group will be 2 PM Friday 19 October in the Benjamin library.

The reading is Grant Ramsey & Anne Siebels Peterson, "Sameness in biology".

Electronic copy of the reading available upon request.

Contact: Stephan Kubicki (stephan.kubicki{at}anu.edu.au)

evolution reading group

The next meeting of the evolution reading group will be 2 PM Friday 12 October in the Benjamin library.

The reading is David Lewis, "Causal explanation".

Electronic copy of the reading available upon request.

Contact: Stephan Kubicki (stephan.kubicki{at}anu.edu.au)

Evolution Reading Group

The next meeting of the Evolution Reading Group is 2.30PM, Friday 15th September in the Benjamin Library, Coombs Building, ANU. The reading is - Sterelny's "From Fitness to Utility"

Contact: Rachael Brown (rachael.brown{at}anu.edu.au)

Evolution Reading Group

The next meeting of the Evolution Reading Group is 2.30PM, Friday 24th August in the Benjamin Library, Coombs Building, ANU.

The reading is -

Wagner, A. (2012). The Role of Randomness in Darwinian Evolution*. Philosophy of Science, 79(1), 95–119. doi:10.1086/663239

Contact: rachael.brown{at}anu.edu.au

Evolution Reading Group

The next meeting of the Evolution Reading Group is 2 PM Friday 10th August in the Benjamin library. We will be discussing - 

Kaplan and Winther (forthcoming) "Prisoners of Abstraction? The Theory and Measure of Genetic Variation, and the Very Concept of "Race"", Biological Theory.

Contact: Rachael Brown (rachael.brown{at}anu.edu.au)

Evolution reading group

The next meeting of the evolution reading group will be 2 PM Friday 3 August in the Benjamin library.

The reading is Craig Callender and Jonathan Cohen, "There is no special problem about scientific representation".

Electronic copy of the reading available upon request.

Contact: Stephan Kubicki (stephan.kubicki{at}anu.edu.au)

Evolution Reading Group

The next meeting of the Evolution Reading Group is 2 PM Friday 20th July, Benjamin library. The reading is - 

Honing & Ploeger (2012) 'Cognition and the Evolution of Music: pitfalls and prospects' from Topics in Cognitive Science. 

Contact: Rachael Brown (rachael.brown{at}anu.edu.au)

Evolution RG

The next meeting of the Evolution Reading Group is 2 PM Friday 13th July, Benjamin library. The reading is -

Jay Odenbaugh (2006) "Message in the Bottle: The Constraints of Experimentation on Model Building" Phil. Sci. 73(5): 720-729

Contact: Rachael Brown (rachael{dot}brown{at}anu{dot}edu{dot}au)

Evolution Reading Group

The next meeting of the Evolution Reading Group is 2 PM Friday 29th June, Benjamin library. The reading is - 

John Beatty's "Reconsidering the Importance of Chance Variation" from Pigliucci, M. and G. B. Muller (2010), Evolution, the extended synthesis, (MIT Press).

Contact: Rachael Brown via rachael.brown{at}anu.edu.au

Evolution reading group

The next meeting of the evolution reading group will be 2 PM Friday 22 June in the Benjamin library.

The reading is Robert M. MacCallum, Matthias Mauch, Austin Burt, and Armand M. Leroi, "Evolution of music by public choice".

Electronic copy of the reading available upon request.

Contact: Stephan Kubicki (stephan.kubicki{at}anu.edu.au)

Evolution reading group

The next meeting of the evolution reading group will be 2 PM Friday 15 June in the Benjamin library.

The reading is James Woodward's "Causation in biology: stability, specificity, and the choice of levels of explanation".

Electronic copy of the reading available upon request.

Contact: Stephan Kubicki (stephan.kubicki{at}anu.edu.au)

Evolution Reading Group

We're postponing discussion of Prinz on moral nativism until next week.

Instead, the reading for this week is Collin Rice' "Optimality explanations: a plea for an alternative account".

Date + location haven't changed (2PM Friday 1 June, Benjamin library).

Electronic copy of the reading available upon request.

Contact: Stephan Kubicki (stephan.kubicki{at}anu.edu.au)

Evolution Reading Group

The next meeting of the Evolution Reading Group is Friday 1st June, 2PM, in the Benjamin Library. The reading is Jesse Prinz's "Against Moral Nativism." 

Contact: Rachael Brown via rachael.brown{at}anu.edu.au

Evolution Reading Group

The next meeting of the Evolution Reading Group is Friday 25th May, 2PM, in the Benjamin Library. The reading is Phillip Kitcher's "Biology and Ethics" from the Oxford Handbook of Ethical Theory. 

Contact: Rachael Brown via rachael.brown{at}anu.edu.au

Evolution Reading Group

The next meeting of the evolution reading group will be 2 PM Friday 11 May  in Coombs Seminar Room E.


The reading is Douglas Allchin's "The Evolution of Morality"

Electronic copy of the reading available upon request.


Contact: Rachael Brown (rachael.brown{at}anu.edu.au)

Evolution reading group

The next meeting of the evolution reading group will be 2 PM Friday 27 April in the Benjamin library.

The reading is Peter Gildenhuys' "An explication of the causal dimension of drift".

Electronic copy of the reading available upon request.

Contact: Stephan Kubicki (stephan.kubicki{at}anu.edu.au)

Evolution reading group

The next meeting of the evolution reading group will be 2 PM Monday 26 March in Seminar Rm E.

The reading is Philipp Mitteroecker & Simon Huttegger's "The concept of morphospaces in evolutionary and developmental biology: mathematics and metaphors".

Electronic copy of the reading available upon request.

Contact: Stephan Kubicki (stephan.kubicki{at}anu.edu.au)

Evolution reading group

The next meeting of the Evolution reading group will be 11 AM Friday 16 March, in Seminar Rm F.

George McGhee "Functional and developmental constraint in convergent evolution," chapter 7 from his monograph Convergent Evolution.

Electronic copy of the reading available upon request.

Contact: Stephan Kubicki (stephan.kubicki{at}anu.edu.au)

Foundations: Decision Theory and Game Theory

The first foundations seminar of the year will be taught by Wolfgang Schwarz on decision theory and game theory (with applications to philosophy of science, ethics, political philosophy, biology).  


When: Tuesday March 6, 1:30pm
Where: Benjamin Library

Probability reading group: Wednesday 29 Feb, 2.30pm

The probability reading group will meet again on Wednesday (29 Feb) at
2.30pm in the Benjamin library, to discuss the second half of Lewis's
"Causal Decision Theory", starting with section 6:
http://philpapers.org/rec/LEWCDT#.

Probability reading group: Wednesday 22 Feb, 2.30pm

the probability reading group emerges from hibernation next Wednesday
(22 Feb) at 2.30pm in the Benjamin library. We will discuss the first
half (sections 1-6) of David Lewis's classic paper "Causal Decision
Theory": http://philpapers.org/rec/LEWCDT#.

Our tentative plan for future sessions is to chaotically jump between
all sorts of topics, including decision theory, triviality results for
conditionals, and the semantics of probability operators (unless Paolo
wants to run "Modality and Probability" as a separate event; we'll
figure that out when he's back). Further suggestions are of course
welcome as well.

Evolution reading group - on hiatus

The Evolution reading group is on hiatus. We will reconvene in early February.

Contact: Stephan Kubicki (stephan.kubicki{at}anu.edu.au)

Evolution reading group, meeting 9

The next meeting of the Evolution reading group will be 2 PM Friday 2 December, in Seminar Rm E.

The reading is Craig Callender and Jonathan Cohen "Special sciences, conspiracy, and the Better Best System account of lawhood".

Electronic copy of the reading available upon request.

Contact: Stephan Kubicki (stephan.kubicki{at}anu.edu.au)

Evolution reading group, meeting 8

The next meeting of the Evolution reading group will be 2 PM Friday 25 November, in Seminar Rm E.

The reading is Robert Brandon and Grant Ramsey's "What's wrong with the emergentist statistical interpretation of natural selection and random drift?"

Electronic copy of the reading available upon request.

Contact: Stephan Kubicki (stephan.kubicki{at}anu.edu.au)

Evolution reading group, meeting 7

The next meeting of the Evolution reading group will be 2 PM Friday 18 November, in Seminar Rm E.

The reading is Derek Turner's "Local underdetermination in historical science"

Electronic copy of the reading available upon request.

Contact: Stephan Kubicki (stephan.kubicki{at}anu.edu.au)

Evolution reading group, meeting 6

The next meeting of the Evolution reading group will be 2 PM Friday 11 November, in Seminar Rm E.

The reading is Michael Krutzen's, Erik Willems', Carel van Schalk's "Culture and geographic variation in orangutan behaviour".

Electronic copy of the reading available upon request.

Contact: Stephan Kubicki (stephan.kubicki{at}anu.edu.au)

Evolution reading group, meeting 5

The next meeting of the Evolution reading group will be 2 PM Friday 4 November, in Seminar Rm E.

The reading is Samir Okasha's "Fisher's fundamental theorem of natural selection---a philosophical analysis".

Electronic copy of the reading available upon request.

Contact: Stephan Kubicki (stephan.kubicki{at}anu.edu.au)

Ethics & International Public Policy - Fri 4 Nov (Anderson)

Next meeting: Friday 4 November, 12.30-1.30pm

Location: Coombs Seminar Room F.

Reading: Elizabeth Anderson (2010), 'The Imperative of Integration' - chapters 6 ('The imperative of integration') and 7 ('understanding affirmative action').

Contact: jonathan [dot] pickering [at] anu [etc]

Evolution reading group, meeting 4

The next meeting of the Evolution reading group will be 2.30 PM Friday 28 October, in Seminar Rm E.

The reading is Richard Byrne's and Anne Russon's "Learning by imitation: a hierarchical approach".

Electronic copy of the reading available upon request.

Contact: Stephan Kubicki (stephan.kubicki{at}anu.edu.au)

Marx's Capital - Seminar 10 - 21 October

Seminar 10 is on this Friday 21 October.

It will be on in Seminar room F in the Coombs building at 3pm as usual. We will be discussing Chapter 3 part 2.

Evolution reading group, meeting 3

The next meeting of the Evolution reading group will be 2 PM Friday 21 October, in Seminar Rm E.

The reading is Mohan Matthen and Andre Ariew's "Selection and causation".

Electronic copy of the reading available upon request.

Contact: Stephan Kubicki (stephan.kubicki{at}anu.edu.au)

Ethics & International Public Policy - Fri 21 Oct (Anderson)

Next meeting: Friday 21 October, 12.30-1.30pm

Location: Coombs Seminar Room F.

Reading: Elizabeth Anderson (2010), 'The Imperative of Integration' - chapters 5 ('democratic ideals and segregation') and 6 ('the imperative of integration')

Contact: jonathan [dot] pickering [at] anu [etc]

Foundations meeting: Tuesday October 18, 12 noon

Meeting of the foundations reading group, students only.

Where: Benjamin Library
When: Tuesday October 18, 12 noon - 2pm

Reading: MacFarlane's forthcoming "Relativism and Knowledge Attributions"

Ethics & International Public Policy - Fri 14 Oct (Anderson)

Next meeting: Friday 14 October, 12.30-1.30pm

Location: Coombs Seminar Room F.

Reading: Elizabeth Anderson (2010), 'The Imperative of Integration' - chapters 4 ('racial segregation today: a normative assessment') and 5 ('democratic ideals and segregation).

Contact: jonathan [dot] pickering [at] anu [etc]

Foundations meeting: Tuesday October 11, 12 noon

Meeting of the foundations reading group, students only.

Where: Benjamin Library
When: Tuesday October 11, 12 noon - 2pm

The group read two chapters (Chs. 1&7) from Cappelen & Lepore's Insensitive Semantics.

Ch.1 will give you a nice overview of the way C&L lay out the debate over contextualisms.
Ch. 7. is the material to focus on. C&L offer three tests for context sensitivity and maintain that virtually no expressions beyond the most obvious indexicals, pronouns, and demonstratives pass the tests.
What's nice about this from our perspective is that C&L are looking at the whole range of debates over contextualisms (and not approaching each individual expression piecemeal), offering fairly clear tests, and also coming to a *very very extreme* conclusion (all in an entertainingly opinionated way)!

Happy Birthday ... Blog Turning One

Dear All,

In a couple of weeks, this blog is turning one. With more than 8,500 views, and visits from all continents, something appears to be going right. But no doubt, there are things that can be done to improve the blog.

Comments and suggestions are hereby invited. You can either leave a comment below, or email me directly, at ole dot koksvik thatsign gmail dot com.

(The blog's purpose is described on the 'About this Blog' page, linked on the right. Suggested amendments to that are of course also welcome.)

Foundations meeting: Tuesday October 4, 12 noon

The foundations reading groups are for postgraduate students in philosophy only.
This group is lead by Jonathan Schaffer.
Place: Benjamin Library
Time: 12 noon - 2pm, Oct 4
Reading: Lewis's "Index, Context, and Content" (contact Jonathan for a copy if required)

Foundations: Philosophy of Language (Schaffer)

Time: 12noon - 2pm, Tuesdays
First Meeting: October 4
Place: Benjamin Library
Topic: Invariantism / contextualism /relativism. For the first two meetings we will set up a background semantic framework, and for the last three meetings we will look at specific debates concerning predicates of personal taste, epistemic modals, and knowledge ascriptions.

Ethics & International Public Policy - Fri 7 Oct

* Note updated details *

Next meeting: Friday 7 October, 12.30-1.30pm

Location: Coombs Seminar Room F.

Reading: Elizabeth Anderson (2010), 'The Imperative of Integration' - chapter 1.

Contact: jonathan dot pickering at anu etc

==========

A few colleagues have recommended Elizabeth Anderson’s recent book on ‘The imperative of integration’, and we thought we could devote a few sessions of the Ethics and International Public Policy reading group to the book in October. In case you’re not familiar with the book, here are a few impressions from fellow reading group member Scott Wisor:

‘The specific focus is on racial integration in the U.S., and specifically integration of blacks and whites. While that narrow topic may not be of particular interest to many of you, her book bears on, and brings new insights to, a host of standard philosophical topics, including ideal and non-ideal theory, feasibility, methodology and political philosophy, justice, responsibility, legal philosophy, democratic theory, equality, citizenship, and more. The philosophy is top notch, but at least as impressive is her ability to engage in interdisciplinary research. She doesn’t just draw on other fields, she has a command of them. Her range over other disciplines, from social psychology to economics to constitutional law, is as good as or better than almost any contemporary philosopher. I think it nicely demonstrates the possibilities of interdisciplinary, applied philosophy.’

We’re planning to meet over three consecutive weeks, beginning on Friday 7 October with chapter 1. At our first session a couple of people who have already read the book can recap some of the empirical work in chapters 2 and 3, and we can confirm the timing of some or all of the remaining chapters (4-9).

Marx's Capital - Seminar 8 - 30 September

Seminar 8 will be on Friday 30 September at 3pm in Seminar Room F in the Coombs Building.

We will be discussing Chapter 2 and possibly the beginning of Chapter 3. It would be good if we have read up to at least the end of the first part of Chapter 3.

Evolution Reading Group, meeting 2

The next meeting of the Evolution reading group will be 2 PM Friday 30 September, in Seminar Rm E.

The reading is Denis Walsh's, Tim Lewens', and Andre Ariew's "The trials of life: natural selection and random drift".

Electronic copy of the reading available upon request.

Contact: Stephan Kubicki (stephan.kubicki{at}anu.edu.au)

Marx's Capital - Seminar 7 - 23 September

Seminar 7 this Friday 23 September at 3pm in Seminar Room F in the Coombs Building.

We will be continuing our discussion of the first chapter of Capital, 'The Commodity', with a focus on the final section on the commodity fetish.

Marx's Capital - Seminar 6 - 16 September

There will be no seminar this Friday 9/9/11.

We will reconvene for Seminar 6 next Friday 16/9/11 in Seminar Room F of the Coombs Building.

We will be discussing the last section of Chapter 1, the 'commodity-fetish.'

Marx's Capital Volume 1 Reading Group

The focus of this group is Karl Marx’s Capital Volume 1. The group is open to anyone who has an interest in Marx’s critique of political economy. Regarding participation in the group it would be helpful to have at least a passing familiarity with Marx’s work and his relationship to German Idealist philosophy – in particular Hegel. Even though Capital Volume 1 is the focus of the group we often post supplementary readings in order to illuminate both different sections of the text and different interpretations. Hopefully we will finish volume 1 by mid 2012. Some of us may then embark on volumes 2, 3 and 4. We meet every Friday 3pm to 5pm in Seminar Room F of the Coombs Building.
For more information please contact Anthony Hayes email: antyphayes [at] gmail [dot] com

Moral and Political Philosophy - 14 September

The MPP reading group's next meeting will be Wednesday 14 September, to discuss the first part of Chapter 4 ("Wrongness and Reasons") of the Scanlon text. We will be reading up to and including Section 5. A scheduling conflict with a CAPPE postgrad confirmation seminar this week mean that we will again have no reading group this week.

So, this week there is no meeting.

Next week there is a meeting at the usual time and place (Seminar Room F, 2:30pm Wednesday)

Jon H

Evolution Reading Group, meeting 1

The Evolution of Cognition reading group has descended with modification into the Evolution reading group. The theme for a while will be on the recently resurrected debate between dynamical and statistical conceptions of evolution.

We will meet this week at Friday 2 PM in Seminar Room D (just for this week, following weeks will be in Seminar Room E).

The reading is the first chapter "Natural Selection and Fitness" from Massimo Pigliucci & Jonathan Kaplan's Making Sense of Evolution.

Electronic copies of the reading available upon request.

Contact: Stephan Kubicki (stephan.kubicki{at}anu.edu.au)

Moral and Political Philosophy - 31 August

The MPP reading group's next meeting will be Wednesday 31 August, to discuss Chapter 3 ("Well-being") of the Scanlon text. It is over 40 pages so we are taking two weeks to read it thoroughly.

So, this week there is no meeting.

Next week there is a meeting at the usual time and place (Seminar Room F, 2:30pm Wednesday)

Jon H

Metaphysics RG

The Metaphysics Reading Group is active again. It is currently reading Laurie Paul's forthcoming manuscript on causation. The group may continue after finishing that manuscript.

Jonathan Schaffer leads the group. He says that not much is background is required, but the group is now about 100 pages in to Paul's manuscript, so anyone wishing to join the group now would do well to read that first.

The group typically meets on Wednesdays in the Benjamin Library (in the department), between 11am and 1pm.

Probability meeting

2pm on Wednesday 27 July, in Coombs seminar room E, discussing:

Donald Gillies, The Propensity Interpretation (available here).

Moral and Political Philosophy - Scanlon's What we owe to each other

The MPP reading group will be starting its reading of TM Scanlon's What We Owe To Each Other next week with the first eight section of Chapter One. The Introduction will be assumed reading, but won't be discussed.

Wednesday 3 August

2:30-4pm

Seminar Room F, Coombs Building

Please email Jonathan Herington for the reading

Probability meeting

Next meeting: 2pm Wednesday 20 July in Coombs seminar room E.

We'll be discussing: Richard Johns, A Subjective Theory of Objective Chance, available here.

Probability meeting

Despite popular demand, the probability reading group returns next week!

2pm Wednesday 13 July, Coombs seminar room E

James M. Joyce (2007). Epistemic Deference: The Case of Chance. Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society107 (2):187--206.

The reading is available here.

Moral and Political Philosophy - 29 June

The MPP reading group will be continuing its reading of Hursthouse. We will covering Chapter 11(the last one!) of the book, on "Objectivity".

Wednesday 29 June

2:45-4pm

Seminar Room F, Coombs Building

Please email Jonathan Herington for the reading

Moral and Political Philosophy - 22 June

The MPP reading group will be continuing its reading of Hursthouse. We will covering Chapter 10 of the book, on "Naturalism for Rational Animals".

Wednesday 22 June

2:45-4pm

Seminar Room F, Coombs Building

Please email Jonathan Herington for the reading

Ethics & International Public Policy - Tue 21 June

Next meeting: Tuesday 21 June, 1-2pm

Location: Coombs Seminar Room B.

Informal presentation: Jonathan Pickering: 'Climate Finance: aid, compensation or neither?'

Contact: jonathan dot pickering at anu etc

Moral and Political Philosophy - 15 June

The MPP reading group will be continuing its reading of Hursthouse. We will covering Chapter 9 of the book, on "Naturalism" in virtue ethics (i.e. the telos of humans etc etc)

Wednesday 15 June

2:45-4pm

Seminar Room F, Coombs Building

Please email Jonathan Herington for the reading

Foundations Meeting 14/06/2011

Tuesday 14 June at 1.30pm in Coombs seminar room D.

Topic: The relationship between the representational states posited by cognitive science and the intentional mental states featured in folk-psychology.

The reading is Kathleen Akins' 1996 JPhil paper, 'Of Sensory Systems and the Aboutness of Mental States'. See also Dennett on 'True Believers' for more on the ontological issue.

Contact Zoe Drayson for the reading.

Foundations Meeting

Tuesday June 7, Seminar Room D

Focus on non-mental representation, mainly the notion of representation involved in computation.

 

Key reading for Frances Egan's 'Computation and Content', in which she argues (against the orthodoxy) that there's nothing essentially 'representational' about computational states. I'll be expecting everyone to have read at least this paper in full.

For a defence of the orthodox 'received view' and a response to Egan, see Mark Sprevak's 2010 paper. Bill Ramsey's 1997 Mind & Language paper is a nice exploration of the explanatory role of representations in cognitive science, with a focus on connectionist systems.

 

Contact Zoe Drayson for the readings.

Probability meeting

We'll meet at 2pm on Wednesday 8 June 2011 in Coombs seminar room E, to discuss:

Elliott Sober, Evolutionary Theory and the Reality of Macro Probabilities (temporarily available here).

Ethics & International Public Policy - Tue 7 June

Next meeting: Tuesday 7 June, 1-2pm

Location: Coombs Seminar Room B.

Informal presentation: 'Ethical and Philosophical Considerations of Nuclear Energy: Lessons From Fukushima'

Contact: jonathan dot pickering at anu etc

Evolution of Cognition reading group, meeting 12

The next meeting of the Evolution of Cognition reading group is Friday 3rd June, 2:30 PM, in Seminar Rm F.

The readings are chapter 14, "Learning to Network", from Brian Skyrms' Signals, and Kim Sterelny's critical notice of Signals.

Electronic copies are available upon request.

The group will be taking a break for at least a couple of weeks after that. We may resume later in June.

Contact: Stephan Kubicki (stephan.kubicki{at}anu.edu.au)

Evolution of Cognition reading group, meeting 11

The next meeting of the Evolution of Cognition reading group is Friday 27th May, 2:30 PM, in Seminar Rm F.

The reading is chapters 13 & 14, "Networks II: Teamwork" and "Learning to Network", from Brian Skyrms' Signals.

Electronic copies are available upon request.

Contact: Stephan Kubicki (stephan.kubicki{at}anu.edu.au)

Probability meeting

We'll meet at 2pm on Wednesday 25 May, in Coombs seminar room E to discuss:

Michael Strevens, 'Bayesian Confirmation Theory: Inductive Logic, or Mere Inductive Framework?'

The paper is available here.

Ethics & International Public Policy - Tue 24 May

Next meeting: Tuesday 24 May, 1-2pm

Location: Coombs Seminar Room B.

Paper: Terry Nardin on 'Middle-ground ethics: Can One Be Politically Realistic Without Being a Political Realist?'

Contact: jonathan dot pickering at anu etc

Evolution of Cognition reading group, meeting 10

Due to the "Thursday" seminar being on Friday this week, the next session of the joint Formal Semantics and Evolution of Cognition reading group will be Thursday 19th May, 4 PM, Benjamin Library.

The reading is chapters 11 & 12, "Networks 1: Logic and Information Processing" & "Complex Signals and Compositionality", from Brian Skyrms' Signals.

Electronic copies are available upon request.

Contact: Stephan Kubicki (stephan.kubicki{at}anu.edu.au)

Probability meeting

4pm Wednesday 18 May 2011, in the Benjamin library (Coombs building, nearish seminar room E, on the same level).

We'll discuss sections 1,2,3 and 6 of Williamson, Very Improbable Knowing, available here.

Evolution of Cognition reading group, meeting 9

The next meeting of the Evolution of Cognition reading group is Friday 13th May, 2:30 PM, Seminar Rm F.

The reading is chapter 10, "Inventing New Signals", from Brian Skyrms' Signals.

Electronic copies are available upon request.

Contact: Stephan Kubicki (stephan.kubicki{at}anu.edu.au)

Moral and Political Philosophy - 11 May

Just a reminder that the MPP reading group will be continuing this week. We will be starting 15 minutes later than usual to accommodate an employment workshop for CAPPE students. We will covering Chapters 4 and 5 of the Hursthouse reading

Wednesday 11 May

2:45-4pm

Seminar Room F, Coombs Building

Please email Jonathan Herington for the reading

Probability meeting

We'll meet at 2pm on Wednesday 11 May 2010, in Coombs seminar room E, to discuss:

Alan Hajek, Is strict coherence coherent? (The paper is available here.)

Foundations Meeting

Foundations Seminar resumes next Tuesday, May 10, at 1330 in SR D.

The topic for Tuesday is intentionalism. These are the readings: 

- Gilbert Harman, "The Intrinsic Quality of Experience" - http://www.jstor.org/stable/pdfplus/2214186.pdf

- Fred Dretske, "Experience as Representation" - http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/1533-6077.00005/pdf

Evolution of Cognition reading group, meeting 8

The next meeting of the Evolution of Cognition reading group is Friday 6th April, 2:30 PM, Seminar Rm F.

The reading is chapter 9, "Generalizing Signaling Games: Synonyms, Bottlenecks, Category Formation", from Brian Skyrms' Signals. Useful additional reading on this material is Donaldson, Lachmann, Bergstrom (2007), "The evolution of functionally referential meaning in a structured world," Journal of Theoretical Biology 246: 225–233

Electronic copies of both texts are available upon request.

Contact: Stephan Kubicki (stephan.kubicki{at}anu.edu.au)

Ethics & International Public Policy - Tue 10 May

Next meeting: Tuesday 10 May, 12-1pm

Location: Coombs Seminar Room F.

Informal presentation: Alejandra Mancilla on ''Does the Old Duty of Humanity Assist or Harm the Global Justice Debate?'

Contact: jonathan dot pickering at anu etc

Probability meeting

We'll meet at 2pm on Wednesday 4 May 2011 in Coombs seminar room E to discuss:

Michael Strevens (1995). A Closer Look at the 'New' Principle. British Journal for the Philosophy of Science 46 (4):545-561.

The paper is available here.

Moral and Political Philosophy - 11 May

The MPP Reading Group will be taking a short hiatus over the next two weeks and will return on Wednesday 11 May.

It will continue its discussion of On Virtue Ethics with discussion of Chapters 4 and 5: "Aristotle and Kant" and "Virtue and the Emotions. Details are, as usual:

Wednesday 11 May

2:30-3:45pm

Seminar Room F, Coombs Building

Please email Jon Herington if you have not received the reading.