CfP: Biographies in the History of Physics: Actors, Objects, and Institutions

Call for Papers from Nachwuchs (Graduate Students, Post-Docs, and Assistant Professors)

Biographies in the History of Physics: Actors, Objects, and Institutions:

A Workshop for Young Academics from the German Physical Society’s Section for History of Physics

May 22-25, 2018

Physics Center, Bad Honnef, Germany

Accommodation will be provided by the Physics Center. Travel expenses will be reimbursed up to 1,000 Euro for scholars based in the United States, and up to 500 Euro for scholars based in European countries outside of Germany.

Speakers will be asked to submit manuscripts of their talks ahead of time. Each talk will be followed by a prepared commentary by a senior colleague who has read the manuscript. The language of the workshop will be English.

The goal of this workshop is to support younger scholars in the history of physics, both inside and outside of Germany.

Please send a paper title and abstract to:

Dr. Christian Forstner

forstner@em.uni-frankfurt.de

Recordatorio CfP: Congreso Internacional "Ciencia y Exilio (1936-1960)"

Fechas: Del 7 al 11 de Noviembre de 2017

Lugar: Donostia-San Sebastián (País Vasco). Salón de Actos de la Biblioteca Carlos Santamaría de la Universidad del País Vasco. Salón del Trono de la Diputación Foral de Gipuzkoa

Temática: El Congreso se centrará en la labor desarrollada por el exilio republicano en los

campos de las ciencias puras y experimentales: medicina, psiquiatría, veterinaria, biología,matemáticas, física, química, ingenierías, economía y arquitectura.

Contenidos: Las ponencias se podrán centrar en biografías y trabajos de científicos exiliados. Cabe por tanto hablar de aspectos biográficos (siempre que sean novedosos), aportaciones, avances de los exiliados y exiliadas de la república.

Propuestas: El plazo para presentarlas será el 1 de julio de 2017. Constarán de un título

provisional y un breve resumen de los que serán sus contenidos (de 20 a 30 líneas). La

propuesta irá acompañada de una breve presentación de la persona autora y de la entidad enla que desarrolla o ha desarrollado su actividad investigadora (máximo cinco líneas).

A lo largo del mes de julio, previo examen de las propuestas en el Comité Científico, se informará a las personas interesadas de que su propuesta ha sido o no aceptada en el congreso.

Antes de la celebración del congreso, último día, 31 de octubre de 2017, cada persona investigadora presentará un borrador de su ponencia, salvo que por motivos imponderables no pueda ser, supuesto en el que el autor o autora deberá avisar previamente de ello. El texto definitivo deberá entregarse para el 15 de diciembre, cara a su publicación durante el año 2018.

Textos definitivos: no podrán superar los 16 folios, a espacio y medio, escritos en Word, con caracteres Times New Roman 12. Se agradecerá también si se nos proporciona material gráfico que no tenga restricciones de copyright para su publicación.

Los textos deberán ser originales, no publicados previamente ni presentados en otros congresos.

Lenguas del congreso: serán euskara y castellano. Las ponencias podrán estar redactadas, además de en estos idiomas, en francés, inglés, gallego o catalán.

http://www.hamaikabide.eus/2017/02/11/ciencia-y-exilio-nuestro-congreso-para-2017/

VIII ENCONTRO DE ARQUIVOS CIENTÍFICOS De 12 a 14 de setembro de 2017

Url: http://site.mast.br/encontro_arquivos_cientificos_2017/inicio.html

Temas do evento:

Tema 1 - Organização de arquivos de instituições de pesquisa e ensino

Ementa - Organizar os arquivos implica na identificação do produtor e no cumprimento dos princípios arquivísticos da proveniência, da ordem original e do respeito aos fundos. Todos os passos que são tomados após a aquisição de um acervo por uma instituição, não importando por qual forma de aquisição, deveriam levar ao cumprimento desses princípios em busca da representação do produtor. No entanto, as circunstâncias dos cenários institucionais muitas vezes se impõem desafiando de alguma forma o processo de organização dos arquivos. Essa plenária pretende levantar questões em torno das fases da organização dos arquivos e coleções de arquivo, tais como: os documentos provenientes das pesquisas e dos laboratórios estão sendo contemplados nos programas de gestão de documentos? Estes chegam aos arquivos permanentes, ou permanecem sob a custódia dos pesquisadores? Já chegam organizados? Os pesquisadores participam da organização? É importante salientar que a plenária considera a gestão de documentos como o conjunto de ações, procedimentos e operações técnicas envolvendo desde a produção, tramitação, uso e destinação dos documentos visando a sua eliminação ou recolhimento para guarda permanente, e de modo a promover o seu controle continuado.

Tema 2 - Acesso a arquivos de instituições de pesquisa e ensino.

Após a etapa da organização dos arquivos ou coleções o desafio do profissional se desloca para tornar o acervo acessível. Cumprir essa função pressupõe um conjunto de procedimentos e atividades fundamentadas em princípios legais, éticos e arquivísticos. A elaboração da descrição dos acervos tem como base o trabalho desenvolvido no momento da organização e um compromisso com a sociedade. Na perspectiva das instituições públicas, ou de produção de arquivos que têm sua origem em projetos e ações com financiamento público, tem-se por base que o princípio é o acesso e a transparência. Mas questões como comprometimento da pesquisa e direitos autorais podem afetar o objetivo do acesso. Essa plenária pretende abordar os aspectos facilitadores do acesso aos acervos e os dificultadores, considerando o cenário atual de demanda da sociedade por transparência, acesso e democracia. O compromisso com o acesso às informações produzidas no âmbito da administração pública assumido pelo estado Brasileiro com a promulgação a Lei 12.527/2011, a Lei de Acesso à Informação, e mais recentemente, com a publicação do Decreto nº 8.777, de 11 de maio de 2016, sobre a Política de Dados Abertos do Poder Executivo Federal implicitamente provoca um desafio, na medida em que o cumprimento dos dispositivos legais fomenta a demanda da sociedade. Mas estão as instituições preparadas para disponibilização de uma descrição acurada de seus acervos? São os sistemas adotados suficientes para potencializar o acesso? As políticas institucionais contemplam os usuários? 

Clique aqui para normas de submissão de trabalhos

CfP: Chemistry in Europe, Oxford Maison Française, September 30, 2017

The Society for the History of Alchemy and Chemistry invites contributions for a one-day workshop to be held at the Maison Française in Oxford on Saturday 30 September, 2017, on the theme of “Chemistry in Europe”. Abstracts of no more than 300 words for presentations lasting twenty-five minutes should be sent to the organizer, Dr. Simon Werrett, at the following email address: s.werrett@ucl.ac.uk no later than July 21, 2017. Abstracts will be considered on the basis of how well they examine chemistry in a European, rather than a national, context. Papers on any period will be considered.

CfA: Metaphysics after the 'Scientific Revolution'

Metaphysics after the ‘Scientific Revolution’ (1687-1781)

October 2-3, 2017

University of Bucharest, Institute for Research in the Humanities and the Faculty of Philosophy

 

Submission deadline: August 1, 2017

Confirmed keynote speakers:

Paola Basso (University of Bucharest)

Andrew Janiak (Duke University)

Anne-Lise Rey (University of Lille)

(further speakers to be announced shortly)

 

Organized by:

Tinca Prunea-Bretonnet (University of Bucharest) and Grigore Vida (University of Bucharest)

 

The purpose of this conference is to investigate the redefinition of metaphysics in the period from Newton’s Principia, marking the apex of the so-called ‘Scientific Revolution’, to Kant’s Critique of Pure Reason. During this time metaphysics underwent significant transformations in response to the radical challenges posed by the new physics and empiricism. The Newtonian paradigm became dominant, but there was growing dissatisfaction with what was regarded as its lack of metaphysical foundation. The German Enlightenment continued to promote a strong speculative metaphysics; elsewhere in Europe, the ‘aversion to Metaphysics’, as it was once called, was gradually counterbalanced by renewed interest in metaphysics. New attempts were made to ‘save’ metaphysics and reconcile Newton and Leibniz (for example) and, more broadly, to accomplish a new philosophical synthesis, which would address both the rejection of traditional metaphysics (understood as metaphysica generalis and metaphysica specialis, the latter comprising three disciplines) and the aspiration to provide a firm and universal foundation for morals and physics.

We welcome proposals on the European Enlightenment in general on any topic related to the conference theme. Proposals may address (but are not limited to) the following questions:

How did Newtonian physics influence the German speculative metaphysics? Were several metaphysical doctrines in competition in the first half of the 18th century? Can we talk about an epistemological turn in metaphysics during this period? Can we talk about ‘scientific metaphysics’ in the 18th century? Does metaphysics still have an object after the ‘Scientific Revolution’? Is there a specific method for metaphysics ? How does it relate to mathematics and experience ? Can metaphysical truths be certain ? Does natural philosophy need first principles?

 

Presentation time will be 30 minutes + 15 minutes for discussion.

Languages: English and French.

Please send an abstract (of no more than 500 words) in doc(x)word as attachment to:  metaphscirev@gmail.com

Abstracts should be prepared for double-blind review by removing any identification details. The author’s name, institutional position and affiliation, and the paper title, as well as contact information, should be included in the body of the e-mail.

Notification of acceptance by August 18, 2017.

Registration fee: 20 euros. The conference does not provide funding for speakers’ travel or accommodation.

Please contact one of the organisers for further questions: Tinca Prunea-Bretonnet (tinca.prunea@icub.unibuc.ro); Grigore Vida (grigore.vida@gmail.com)

Conference site: https://irhunibuc.wordpress.com/cfa-metaphysics-after-the-scientific-revolution-1687-1781-october-2-3-2017/

Job opportunity: 2-year post-doc, history of astronomy, Paris

Call for Applications: 2-year post-doctoral position in the history of Alfonsine astronomy in Europe

Application deadline: 14 September 2017

Start date: 1 January 2018

https://alfa.hypotheses.org/job-opportunities/alfa-first-post-doctoral-call  

ALFA is an ERC funded project (2017-2022, 60 month, Consolidator grant 2016 agreement 723085) dedicated to the study of Alfonsine astronomy which flourished in Europe from the second half of the 13th to the mid-16th century.  Employing approaches from the history of astronomy, history of mathematics, and history of manuscript cultures to study astronomical tables, instruments, theoretical and mathematical texts, ALFA’s main objectives are to:

• Retrace the development of the corpus of Alfonsine texts from its origin in the second half of the 13th century to the end of the 15th century by following, on the manuscript level, the milieus producing and using these codices;
• Analyse Alfonsine astronomers’ practices, their relations to mathematics, to the natural world, to proofs and justification, and their intellectual and social contexts and audiences;
• Build a meaningful narrative showing how astronomers in different milieus with diverse practices shaped, also from Arabic and Hebrew materials, an original scientific scene in Europe.

ALFA works in a deeply collaborative manner. Matthieu Husson (PI, CNRS- Observatoire de Paris), José Chabás (Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona) and Richard Kremer (Dartmouth College, USA) constitute its advisory board. Around them a local team of 3 post-docs, 3 PhD students and a digital humanities IT expert, based at the Paris Observatory, will work with a team of international scholars comprised of 10 specialists of the history of late medieval astronomy in Europe. Finally a team of external experts from neighbouring fields will consult with ALFA in order to enrich its methodological and theoretical dimensions and to help design the digital tools.

ALFA invites application for a 2-year post-doctoral position expected to start on January 1, 2018 or as soon as possible thereafter (CNRS-contract, salary according to experience following CNRS policy). This position will be hosted at the Observatoire de Paris in the history of astronomy team (dir. Michela Malpangotto) of the SYRTE Laboratory (UMR 8630).

The successful candidate will work as part of the local team and will spend most of his/her working time on his/her research project in the context of this collective, international project. He/she is expected to participate in the publications of the project and will be encouraged to take part in the conception of scientific events relevant to his/her research (workshops and seminars). He/she will have also dedicated research funds especially for travel to relevant European libraries. In line with ALFA’s (first) objective this post-doctoral research project should enhance our understanding of the formation of the corpus of Alfonsine texts. Different approaches are possible to achieve this aim, including the critical edition of key works of Alfonsine astronomy including astronomical tables or an in-depth study of a selected corpus of manuscripts linked to a specific production milieu, a pertinent collector, or the diffusion or teaching of specific Alfonsine works. These studies should be connected to more general questions in the history of astronomy (technical contents of texts and the elements described in them, establishment and connection of different milieus fostering Alfonsine astronomy, specificity and overlap of these milieus in term of manuscript and astronomical practices). Complementary approaches may be considered, such as the history of manuscript cultures (typology of astronomical multiple-text manuscripts, visual organisation of codices, manuscripts as performative objects).

To qualify for the position, candidates are required to have completed their PhD in either history of sciences, medieval history or scientific disciplines such as astronomy and exact sciences. Acquired competences in Latin philology, codicology, palaeography, history of astronomy and history of mathematics will be appreciated. The will to work with and contribute to the development of digital humanities tools will be a positive element. A good control of spoken and written English is also important in order to be able to interact fruitfully with the international team of the project.

CfP: Colloquium: "What is a physical entity?" (Lisbon, Portugal)

Centro de Filosofia das Ciências da Universidade de Lisboa (CFCUL)

Centro de Filosofia da Universidade de Lisboa (CFUL) - Linha de Pensamento Fenomenológico

Scientific board

José Croca

Pedro Alves

Rui Moreira

Call for Papers

 

For understanding Nature, modern science has turned to mathematical and physical models that dramatically simplified the complexity of natural phenomena and processes. This was the very key for its long-lasting success. Nevertheless, as Husserl wrote regarding Galileo, this move was simultaneously a discovering and a concealing one. In a sense, the modern understanding of Nature was caught in mathematical formulae. Galileo's geometrization of Physics, and then the grow of analytical and linear methods in mathematical techniques, set the stage where Nature should be addressed from now on: a realm of idealized material essences, like mass points, perfect trajectories, exact positions, and so on, suitable for mathematical formalisms. However, the development of this realm was more and more oblivious of the original sense of Nature, and of the pieces of creative thinking that originally instituted all these idealized essences where modern Physics found out its objects. Locked-up in a realm consisting of material and formal essences, developing a more and more blind manipulation of symbols in formulae and calculations, Physics could now dream of an exact Nature as the simple correlate of this mathematical science of Nature. As a result, at least since the scientific revolution of the 17th century till the beginning of the last century, Physics will assume the perfect absolute localization in time and space, the identity, and the separability of all physical systems. 

Now, at the beginning of our century, a kind of counter-reaction is emerging, due to the severe changes that the 20th century brought to classical Physics. What was really new in the science of Nature in the last century was but forth by Quantum Physics. It is no longer a classical theory, while Relativity continues to be to a certain extent classical, and can be viewed as the cul­mi­nat­ing point of Mechanics (reframing Newton’s gravitation law) and Electromag­netism (with­out the ether-hypothesis). Classical Me­chanics, Relati­vity and Electromagnetism conveyed a clear and unambiguous ontology, respectively centered on the concepts of mass, distributed over space and time, of field, as an extended, non-punc­tual reality, and of space-time “curvature”, in its interactions with the stress-energy ten­sor. The mathematical formalisms they developed prompted by themselves, as their correlates, a clear con­ception of what the (exact) physical reality should be in and by itself.

The other way around, Quantum Mechanics developed a mathematical formalism which was largely undecided about the very nature of the en­tities to which it referred. This problem plagued Quantum Mechanics since its very beginnings, and still continues today. In addition, there are many other difficult aspects of Quantum Physics regarding both the depiction of the physical reality, and what should be accounted for as “physical”. Thus, concern­ing Quan­tum Mechanics, we are not in a somewhat Kantian situation. We have not a full-fledged, uncontroversial “fact of science” with its fixed ontology. In its place, we have an accurate mathematical formalism (perhaps, the most accurate science has ever created), and a problem regarding its ontological inter­pretation in order to characterize what is “physical”. The modern philosophy of Nature was written in math­ematical for­mulae; now, with Quantum Physics, the mathematical formalism only prom­ises a phi­­losophy of Nature.

Quantum Mechanics is, thus, the opportunity to return to a renewed debate about Nature itself. By virtue of its baffling results, the classical constraints have felt-down. Every new approach to understand Reality must assume that physical beings are complex and have both properties of localization and non-localization, that physical entities share a certain degree of individuality and, at the same time, some degree of non-separability, and also that determinism and indeterminism are only extreme ideal boundaries in between of which physical beings generate and evolve.

So, the colloquium will be led by a twofold interest. On the one hand, in a kind of retrospective, historical reflection, it will try to shed light on the original insights that constituted modern Physics. On the other hand, looking forward, it will address the problems a new understanding of Nature imposes on us in the quantum, post-classical age of Physics.

EPSA Fellowships

The European Philosophy of Science Association (EPSA) announces 12 EPSA Fellowships for junior philosophers working in Central and Eastern Europe to visit a leading research institution in Western Europe. The fellowship covers travel, accommodation and living expenses for approximately one month (details can be found on the website) in the academic year 2017/18. During their visit, successful candidates will be members of the host institution and take part in its research activities.

In alphabetic order, the participating institutions are:

• Centre for Philosophy of Natural and Social Science (CPNSS), London School of Economics, U.K.
  
• Department of Philosophy, University of Bergen, Norway
  
• Descartes Centre for the History and Philosophy of the Sciences and the Humanities, University of Utrecht, The Netherlands
  
• Duesseldorf Center for Logic and Philosophy of Science (DCLPS), Germany
  
• Egenis - the Centre for the Study of Life Sciences, University of Exeter, U.K.
  
• Erasmus Institute for Philosophy and Economics (EIPE), Faculty of Philosophy, Erasmus University of Rotterdam
  
• Faculty of Philosophy, University of Groningen, The Netherlands
  
• Center for Ethics and Philosophy of Science (CEPS), Institute of Philosophy, University of Hannover, Germany
  
• Institute Vienna Circle, University of Vienna, Austria
  
• LOGOS Group and Department of Logic, History and Philosophy of Science, University of Barcelona, Spain
  
• Munich Center for Mathematical Philosophy (MCMP), LMU Munich, Germany
  
• Unit for Applied Philosophy of Science and Epistemology (ERC AG Project "Relativism"), University of Vienna

For further information about the EPSA Fellowships, please have a look at the EPSA website.

Latest issue of Theoria

THEORIA. An International Journal for Theory, History and Foundations of
Science has just published its latest issue. We invite you to review the
Table of Contents here and then visit our web site to review articles and
items of interest.

http://www.ehu.eus/ojs/index.php/THEORIA/issue/view/1544

TABLE OF CONTENTS

ARTICLES

On a logical argument against the naturalizability of reference
Andrea Bianchi
145-160

Pluralistic Mechanism
Abel Wajnerman Paz
161-175

Conventionality in Einstein's practical geometry
Mario Bacelar Valente
177-190

La metodología de la abducción en el caso del descubrimiento del megaterio
Antonio Duarte Calvo
191-209

Socioeconomic processes as open-ended results. Beyond invariance knowledge
for interventionist purposes
Leonardo Ivarola
211-229

Molyneux’s Question in Berkeley’s Theory of Vision
Juan R. Loaiza
231-247

Postdoctoral Fellowshipship in the History of Knowledge

Lund University was founded in 1666 and is repeatedly ranked among the world’s top 100 universities. The University has 42 000 students and 7 400 staff based in Lund, Helsingborg and Malmö. We are united in our efforts to understand, explain and improve our world and the human condition.

The Department of History at Lund University is a large institution with two sections, History and Human Rights Studies. There are about 50 permanent teachers and researchers. The Department of History hosts the National Graduate School in Historical Studies. At the moment (2017) the department has 28 Ph.D. students employed.

Human Rights Studies is a multidisciplinary research environment focusing on the historical writing of human rights in the early modern period, and on rights in political philosophy, religious affairs, military and humanitarian interventions, nationalism and women’s movements around the world.

A common denominator in the research at the section of History is a focus on cultural history in a broad sense. Chronologically, the research covers the period from the Middle Ages to the present, with a certain emphasis on the early modern period and the twentieth century. Part of the research is directed towards uses of history and the history of knowledge. The department is leading in the fields of historical culture and history didactics.

Lund University invites applications for a Two-Year Postdoctoral Fellowship in the History of Knowledge at the Department of History.

Ref. no: PA 2017/1818

Starting date: 1 January 2018

Url: https://lu.mynetworkglobal.com/en/what:job/jobID:153500