VISU/SWC 2001-2006 Organizers: University of Vienna Institute Vienna Circle

VISU/SWC 2001-2006

Organizers:

University of Vienna

Institute Vienna Circle

Aims and Structure of VISU

Since 2001 the University of Vienna and the Institute Vienna Circle have been holding an annual two-week summer program dedicated to major current issues in the natural, cultural and social sciences, their history and philosophy. The name of the program reflects the heritage of the Vienna Circle which promoted interdisciplinary and philosophical investigations based on solid disciplinary knowledge.

As an international interdisciplinary program, VISU-SWC will bring graduate students in close contact with world-renowned scholars. It operates under the academic supervision of an International Program Committee of distinguished philosophers, historians, and scientists. The program is geared primarily to graduate students and junior researchers in fields related to the annual topic, but the organizers also encourage applications from gifted undergraduates and from people in all stages of their career who wish to broaden their horizon through cross-disciplinary studies of methodological and foundational issues in science.

The summer course consists of morning sessions, chaired by distinguished lecturers which focus on readings assigned to students in advance. Afternoon sessions are made up of tutorials by assistant professors for junior students and of smaller groups which offer senior students the opportunity to discuss their own research papers with one of the main lecturers.

International Program Committee

John Beatty (Vancouver), Martin Carrier (Bielefeld), Maria Luisa Dalla Chiara (Florence), Maria Carla Galavotti (Bologna), Malachi Hacohen (Durham/Raleigh), Rudolf Haller (Graz), Rainer Hegselmann (Bayreuth), Michael Heidelberger (Tübingen), Elisabeth Leinfellner (Vienna), James G. Lennox (Pittsburgh), Paolo Mancosu (Berkeley), Paolo Parrini (Florence), Roger Stuewer (Minneapolis), Thomas Uebel (Manchester), Jan Wolenski (Cracow), Anton Zeilinger (Vienna).Chair, Local Committee: Friedrich Stadler (Vienna),Secretary of the PC: Michael Stöltzner (Wuppertal)Secretary of VISU: Karoly Kokai (Vienna)

VISU 2001 - Unity and Plurality in Science

Main lecturers Don Howard (University of Notre Dame)Elliott Sober (University of Wisconsin)

Assistant lecturersChristopher Hitchcock (California Institute of Technology)David J. Stump (University of San Francisco)

Guest lecturer:Brigitte Falkenburg (Universität Dortmund)


A two-week high-level course on questions about unity and plurality in science from a variety of philosophical, historical and institutional perspectives


Topics: i. Theoretical unification in physical scienceii. Vitalism, materialism, and reductionism in biologyiii. Relativity, complementarity, and underdetermination:

Metaphors of multiplicity in twentieth-century science and philosophy

iv. The Unity of Science movement and the Vienna Circlev. The organization of scientific researchvi. Realism, reduction, simplicity, and explanation:

Methodological perspectives on unification


VISU 2002 - Mind and Computation

Main lecturers :Michael Hagner (Max Planck Institute for the History of

Science, Berlin)Brian McLaughlin (Rutgers University)

Assistant lecturers:Güven Güzeldere (Duke University) Paul Ziche (Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften)

Guest lecturer:Anton Zeilinger (University of Vienna) : Observer and Reality in Quantum Physics


A two-week high-level summer course on questions about the relation between mind, brain and computation from a historical and epistomological point of view, with a special focus on quantum physics


Topics:

i. The architecture of the mind

ii. The history of the cerebral localization of the mind

iii. Minds and machines in the age of cybernetics

iv. Metaphors for the brain in the age of cybernetics

v. Reverse optics and the study of color consciousness

vi. Single cells and cerebral architectures

vii. Information, observation and consciousness in quantum physics


VISU 2003 - Biological and Cosmological Evolution

Main lecturers:

Karl Sigmund (University of Vienna)

Robert M. Wald (University of Chicago)

Eörs Szathmáry (Eötvös Loránd University)

Assistant lecturer:

Daniel Holz (University of California, Santa Barbara)


A two-week high-level summer course on questions about evolutionary aspects in physics and genetics from a comparative and interdisciplinary point of view


Our world is not static, as was the prevailing view in the past

- but dynamic. It evolves. This holds for the large-scale

structures in the universe as well as for the biomolecules. The

Summer University 2003 was devoted to the major scientific

aspects of cosmological and biological evolution, the key

ideas of which originated in the early decades of the previous

century.


VISU 2004 - The Quest for Objectivity

Main lecturers:

John Beatty (University of British Columbia)

Michael Friedman (Stanford University)

Helen Longino (University of Minnesota)

Guest lecturer:

Helen Longino (Universitiy of Minnesota): Philosophy of Science after the Social Turn


A two-week high-level summer course on questions about objectivity in philosophy, the natural, and social sciences


Topics:

Objectivity in the biological science

Objectivity of the physical sciences

Objectivity in the social sciences


VISU 2005 - Chance and Necessity

Main lecturers :Theodore M. Porter (University of California, Los Angeles)Wolfgang Spohn (University of Konstanz)

Assistant lecturers:Deborah Coen (Harvard University)Franz Huber (University of Konstanz)

Guest lecturer:Maria Carla Galavotti (University of Bologna): Probability and its Interpretations


A two-week high-level summer course on questions related to chance, probability, and necessity from a historical and systematic perspective


Topics:

A Historical Inquiry into Chance and Necessity

A Systematic Inquiry into Chance and Necessity


VISU 2006 - Philosophy and Economics Main lecturers: Hartmut Kliemt (University of Duisburg)Geoffrey Brennan (Duke University)

Assistant lecturer: Bernd Lahno (University of Duisburg)

Guest lecturer: Rainer Hegselmann (Bayreuth): Truth and Cognitive Division of Labor

VISU 2006 - Philosophy and Economics Participants

ASLAM Ali (Duke), BERTTRAM Christoph (Bayreuth), BRANTL Dirk (Tübingen), BREEN Deborah (Duke), BROWN Winter ((Duke), BURKETT Andrew (Duke), CULP Julian (Bayreuth), EIFFE Franz Ferdinand (Wien), ENGLISH William (Duke), FEHLING Jochen (Tübingen), FINK Julian (Bayreuth), GHODDUSI Hamed (Wien), GLASSNER Edwin (Wien), GRINER Shlomo (Duke), HASSOUN Nicole (Duke), HERFELD Catherine (Berlin), JABOLD Nina (Bayreuth), KIRIYANOVA Liliya (Tomsk), LABUDE Markus (Bayreuth), LEE Christine Mingwhey (Duke), MCGRAIN Janette (Manoa), MEDER Zsombor-Zoltan (Budapest), NAKAYAMA Chikako (Tokyo), SARKISSIAN Hagoph (Duke), SCHÄFER Sebastian (Tübingen), SCHLOSSER Joel (Duke), SEPIELLI Andrew (Rutgers), SPENCER Richard (Duke), STANEV Roger (British Columbia), WEINHOLD Nicolas (Bayreuth), WOITZIK Peter (Bayreuth)

VISU/SWC 2007 - Consensus in Science Preview

Main lecturers:Miriam Solomon (Temple University, Philadelphia –

invited)Naomi Oreskes (University of California, San Diego -

invited)Andrzej Wróblewskí (University of Cracow)

Guest lecturer:Keith Lehrer (University of Arizona)

Doctoral Program The Sciences in Historical Context

From 2007 to 2009 VISU/SWC will be part of the recently established Doctoral Program at the University of Vienna

VISU/SWC Preview

VISU 2008: History and Philosophy of Medicine / Biomedical Science

VISU 2009: The Culture of Science and its Philosophy

VISU 2010: Consciousness

Documents

VISU/SWC 2001-2006 Organizers: University of Vienna Institute Vienna Circle