A Dialogue on Intelligent Design and the Existence of God
Alex Byrne, Roger White
Wed Jan 28, 02-04:00pm, 32-155
No enrollment limit, no advance sign up
Professors Alex Byrne and Roger White discuss whether the "evidence of intelligent design" really does support belief in the existence of God.
Contact: Bradford Skow, 32-D938, 253-4147, bskow@mit.edu
Sponsor: Linguistics and Philosophy
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Insurgent Science Series
Lee Perlman
Participants welcome at individual sessions (series)
Highlighting challenging developments in the conception of nature and science, these lectures are sponsored by the Experimental Study Group and the Hindu, Baptist (American), Methodist, Presbyterian, United Church of Christ Chaplaincies, in conjunction with the Institute for the Study of Nature. All are welcome!
Web: http://isnature.org/Events/2009/IAP.htm
Contact: Lee Perlman, 24-612, lperlman@mit.edu
Sponsor: Experimental Study Group
A Pattern Language for Animal Form
Stuart Newman New York Medical College
Dr. Newman presents his theory that the main driving force for the origination of multicellular form consists of the physical laws inherent to organisms' mesoscopic materials rather than, as the standard conception of evolution holds, genetic change driven by chance.
Fri Jan 16, 01:30-02:30pm, 68-181
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Insurgent Science Series: A Bigger Physics
Michael Augros, Center for Higher Studies, Thornwood, New York
Wed Jan 28, 01:30-02:30pm, 4-231
No enrollment limit, no advance sign up
Single session event
Erwin Schrödinger warned in 1951 about the vanity of overspecialization and the importance of synthesizing knowledge. What could it mean to 'synthesize' all of natural science? To what extent is such a thing possible or even desirable?Whose job is it? And how would it relate to mathematics? Come join philosopher of science Dr. Augros to explore the possibility of a general theory of nature.
Web: http://isnature.org/Events/2009/IAP.htm
Contact: Lee Perlman, lperlman@mit.edu
Sponsor: Experimental Study Group
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Lecture: The Philosophy of Economic Disaster
Adam Elga Princeton University
Fri Jan 9, 04-05:00pm, 32-D461
No enrollment limit, no advance sign up
Single session event
Under what conditions does the quest for stability in a system lead to an increased chance of disaster? Under what conditions does that quest lead to a less predictable chance of disaster? Which social and technological system meet those conditions? We will build on work by Taleb, Mandlebrot, and Skyrms to spell out and address these questions.
Contact: Bradford Skow, 32-D938, 253-4147, bskow@mit.edu
Sponsor: Linguistics and Philosophy
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MITing of the Minds 2009
5th Annual MIT Philosophy Alumni Conference
Bradford Skow
Thu Jan 29, 10am-05:45pm
Fri Jan 30, 10am-04:15pm
No enrollment limit, no advance sign up
Participants welcome at individual sessions (series)
Prereq: none
This year's MITing of the Minds is the Fifth Annual MIT Philosophy Alumni Conference. The conference will showcase recent work in a variety of areas in contemporary philosophy. Presentations will cover topics in metaphysics, philosophy of language, epistemology, and ethics, and will be accessible to a broad audience. Each day will feature talks by MIT faculty members, current students, and alumni of the graduate program.
Web: http://web.mit.edu/philos/www/mm/
Contact: Bradford Skow, 32-D938, 253-4147, bskow@mit.edu
Sponsor: Linguistics and Philosophy
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MathMod SPQR - Statistics, Probability Theory, Quantitative Methods and R
Peter Graff
Tue Jan 13 thru Fri Jan 16, 02-05:00pm, 32-D461
Enrollment limited: advance sign up required (see contact below)
Limited to 10 participants.
Participants requested to attend all sessions (non-series)
Prereq: No background in Statistics assumed
This mini-course will introduce basic concepts of probability theory and statistical models applicable to the quantitative study of linguistic phenomena. Participants will learn how to implement statistical models and graphically depict data in the statistical programming language R. Concepts that will be covered include: scales, distributions, hypothesis testing, experimental design, random variables, Central Limit Theorem, Bayes' Rule, sampling, t-test, ANOVA, regression, logistic regression, mixed models.
Participants are expected to complete all assigned readings and problem sets.
Web: http://stellar.mit.edu/S/project/mathmod/index.html
Contact: Peter Graff, 32-D866, 452-2444, graff@mit.edu
Sponsor: Linguistics and Philosophy
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Obstacles to the Scientific-Technological Conquest of Nature
Svetozar Minkov
Thu Jan 29, 02-03:00pm, 24-619
No enrollment limit, no advance sign up
Single session event
This one-shot seminar will examine philosophical questions about the relationship between humans and nature. Before a large-scale effort to conquer nature for the good of humanity can be reasonably made, one needs to have attempted to measure the degree of the intelligibility and beneficence of nature and human nature.Is there a natural human good? Is it knowable? Can nature serve as either a theoretical or a practical guide for its own 'conquest'?
Web: http://web.mit.edu/esg
Contact: Lee Perlman, 24-611, lperlman@mit.edu
Sponsor: Experimental Study Group
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