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"Who Won the Scientific Revolution?"
2008
Summer Seminar Plan and Schedule
 The Summer Seminar ran from Monday
afternoon, June 9th, through Friday afternoon, June 13th. The
schedule of lectures, discussions, events, and related readings
were as follows. Sessions were held in MIT room 1-371.
Monday
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3:00-3:30pm
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Preliminary Discussion (tea). |
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3:30-4:30pm
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Welcome and Introduction by Mark Ryland:
Plan and Purpose of the Summer Seminar
Outline of Mark's overview talk [zipped PowerPoint format].
Readings:
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Alexander Koyre, "The Significance of the Newtonian
Synthesis," Newtonian
Studies, Chapter 1 [4.6MB
PDF].
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(optional) Hans Jonas, "On the
Practical Uses of Theory," The Phenomenon of Life,
essay 8, 188-210 [PDF]
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4:30-5:00pm
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Break
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5:00-6:20pm
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Session 1, Seminar led by Lee Perlman:
What is Nature in Aristotle?
Reading: Aristotle, Physics II.1-3 [PDF].
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7:00pm
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Dinner gathering for fellowship and
discussion in location TBA.
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Tuesday
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9:00-10:20am
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Session 2, Lecture by Lee Perlman:
Greek Mathematics and Plato's
Conception of Knowledge
Reading: Plato, Theaetetus
142a-148c, 196d-end [PDF]. |
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10:20-10:40am
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Break
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10:40-12:00n
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Session 3, Seminar led by Michael Augros:
What is a Cause? What is an
Explanation?
Reading: Aristotle, brief selections and Physics II.3
[PDF].
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12:00n-3:00pm
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Lunch and study break.
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3:00-3:40pm
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Pre-session discussion (tea).
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3:40-5:00pm
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Session 4, Seminar led by Bernhardt Trout:
How Do Bacon and Descartes Conceive
Nature?
Readings:
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Bacon, selections from The Great
Instauration [PDF].
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Descartes, Discourse on Method, part
6 [PDF].
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5:00-7:30pm
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Dinner break and unstructured discussions.
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Wednesday
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9:00-10:20am
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Session 5, Seminar by Lee Perlman:
How Do Galileo and Newton Depict
Motion?
Reading: selections from Newton, Principia
[PDF]. |
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10:20-10:40am
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Break
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10:40-12:00n
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Session 6, Lecture by Michael Augros:
The Science of Common Experience:
Limits and Perennial Truths within
Classical Thought
Reading: Decartes, Heraclitus, Aristotle [PDF].
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12:00n-3:00pm
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Lunch and study break.
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3:00-3:40pm
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Pre-session discussion (tea).
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3:40-5:00pm
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Session 7, Lecture by James Barham:
Whispers of Aristotle: Emergentism
from Physics to Biology
Reading: Margaret Morrison, "Emergence,
Reduction, and Theoretical Principles: Rethinking
Fundamentalism,"
Philosophy of Science, 73 (December 2006): 876–887 [PDF
and
zipped PDF versions].
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5:00-7:30pm
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Dinner break and unstructured discussions.
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Thursday
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9:00-10:20am
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Session 8, Lecture by Mark Ryland:
Standard Neo-Darwinism and Intelligent
Design Theory:
A Thoroughly Modern Debate
Reading: Hans Jonas, "Philosophical Aspects of
Darwinism," The Phenomenon of Life, essay 2, 38-63 [PDF].
 |
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10:20-10:40am
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Break
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10:40-12:00n
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Session 9, Lecture by Joseph Audie:
Natural Specified Complexity: The
Curious Case of Nylonase
Readings:
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Thwaites, "New
Proteins without God's Help," Creation/Evolution 5:2
(Summer 1985), 1-3 [PDF].
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Batten, "The
Adaptation of Bacteria to Feeding on Nylon Waste," TJ
17:3 (December 2003), 3-5 [PDF].
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Negoro, "Biodegradation of Nylon Oligomers
(Review),"
Appl Microbiol
Biotechnol. 2000 Oct;54(4):461-6. [PDF].
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Negoro, et al. "X-ray Crystallographic Analysis
of 6-Aminohexanoate-Dimer
Hydrolase: Molecular Basis for the Birth of a Nylon Oligomer-Degrading
Enzyme," Journal of Biological Chemistry 280:47
(November 25, 2005), 39644–39652 [PDF].
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Prijambada, et al. "Emergence of Nylon Oligomer
Degradation Enzymes in Pseudomonas aeruginosa PAO through Experimental
Evolution," Applied and Environment Microbiology 61:5 (May
1995), 2020–2022 [PDF].
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12:00n-3:00pm
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Lunch and study break.
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3:00-3:40pm
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Pre-session discussion (tea).
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3:40-5:00pm
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Session 10, Lecture by James Barham:
Lessons from Slijper's Goat:
On the Convergence of Classical and Modern Biology
Reading: West-Eberhard, "Phenotypic
Accommodation: Adaptive Innovation Due to Developmental
Plasticity," Journal of Experimental Zoology (2005) [PDF].
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6:30-9:30pm
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Group dinner at local restaurant.
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Friday
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9:00-10:20am
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Session 11, Lecture by Mark Ryland:
Do Laws of Nature Really Govern
Material Reality?
Readings: Cartwright, selections
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"Introduction," How the
Laws of Physics Lie (1983) [PDF],
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"Essay 2: The Truth Doesn't Explain Much,"
How the
Laws of Physics Lie (1983) [PDF].
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(optional) "No God, No Laws"
(unpublished draft) [PDF]
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10:20-10:40am
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Break
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10:40-12:00n
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Session 12, Lecture by Joseph Audie:
Prediction and Explanation in Science:
A Scientist's View
Readings:
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Grygiel, (2001) "Quantum
Mechanics: A Dialectical Approach to Reality," The
Thomist 65 (2): 223-238 [PDF].
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Brody, (1972) "Towards an Aristotelean Theory of Scientific
Explanation," Philosophy of Science 39 (1): 20-31 [PDF].
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12:00n-1:30pm
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Lunch and discussion break.
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1:30-2:50pm
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Concluding Session led by ISN Staff
Closing Remarks and Discussion
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Summer Conference
The
Summer Conference follows the Summer
Seminar at 3:30pm on Friday, June 13th, continuing through Saturday,
June 14th (schedule).
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