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Spring Conference 2004
‘Peirce-pectives’ on Metaphysics
and the Sciences
Humanities Symposium
Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, Virginia
April 23-25 2004
Room: McBryde 113
Free and open to the public
Our annual Spring Conference is “’Peirce-pectives’ on Metaphysics and
the Sciences,” scheduled for April 23-25 2004. There are several anniversaries
that we as a department are celebrating in 2004: the 20th anniversary of the
founding of the joint philosophy department, and the 10th anniversary of our
Master’s program. It is also the 90th anniversary of Charles Sanders Peirce’s
death, the philosopher whom we have chosen to focus on for our 2004 conference.
Peirce (1839-1914) plays a unique role in the history of American philosophy, and
of American scholarship in general. Although mistakenly identified as merely a
background figure in the development of Pragmatism, his role as founder of this
distinctively American movement is now beginning to be recognized. A true genius,
the implications of his ideas have not yet been fully developed. It is only in the past
decade or two that his brilliant contributions to practically all academic disciplines
(physics, astronomy, topology, criminology, optics, metaphysics, logic, architecture,
anthropology, economics, linguistics, psychology, education, religion, law, politics,
business and management, computer science, to name a few) have been discovered.
His ideas have so pervaded our lives, that the term “pragmatist” is now part of our
everyday vocabulary.
FRIDAY APRIL 16:
2:00 *Pre-Conference talk by Hans Rott, Professor, College of Architecture
and Urban Studies, Virginia Tech, Lane Hall:
“Architecture and Pragmatism: An Uneasy Relationship”
FRIDAY APRIL 23:
3:30 P.M. Refreshments
4:00- 5:00 P.M. “Not Cynicism but Synechism: Lessons from Classical
Pragmatism” - Susan Haack, Professor of Law, Cooper Senior Scholar in
Arts and Sciences, and Professor of Philosophy at University of Miami
SATURDAY APRIL 24:
8:30 A.M. Coffee and Donuts
9:00- 10:00 A.M. “Diamonds are a Pragmaticist’s Best Friend” -
Rosa Mayorga, Assistant Professor, Virginia Tech
10:15- 11:15 A.M. “The Classification of the Sciences and Cross-Disciplinarity” -
Jaime Nubiola, Associate Professor of Philosophy at Universidad de Navarra, España (Spain)
11:30- 12:30 P.M. “Mathematics, Logic and Metaphysics in Peirce’s Division of
the Sciences” -Cornelis de Waal Assistant Professor, Department of
Philosophy of Indiana University and Assistant Editor of the Peirce Edition Project
2:30- 3:30 P.M. “Induction as Error Correction” - Deborah Mayo, Professor of
Philosophy and Economics, Virginia Tech
3:45- 4:45 P.M. “Probability and Peirce’s Blackberries” - Robert Meyers, Professor,
State University of New York Albany
SUNDAY APRIL 25:
9:00 A.M. Coffee and Donuts
9:30- 10:30 A.M. “Peirce, the Puzzle of Determinism, and the A Priori”
Randall Dipert, Charles S. Peirce Professor of American Philosophy, SUNY Buffalo
10:45- 11:45 A.M. “Pragmatism at the Crossroads” - Nicholas Rescher,
University Professor of Philosophy, University of Pittsburgh
SPEAKERS:
· “Mathematics, Logic, and Metaphysics in Peirce’s Division of the Sciences”
Cornelis de Waal is Assistant Professor, Department of Philosophy of Indiana
University and Assistant Editor of the Peirce Edition Project, the ongoing
recompilation of Peirce’s original manuscripts into a chronological version.
His latest publications include: On Peirce (Wadsworth, 2001), American New Realism
1910-1920 (Thoemmes, 2001), On Mead (Wadsworth, 2002), On Pragmatism
(Wadsworth, forthcoming), Susan Haack: Replies to Critics, (Vanderbilt University Press, forthcoming).
· “Peirce’s Contributions to Logic”
Randall Dipert is Charles S. Peirce Professor of American Philosophy at
SUNY Buffalo. He has published extensively on the history and philosophy
of logic, especially on Peirce and the 19th century. His latest articles include
“Peirce’s Two Contributions to the Philosophy of Mind” (conference in November
1999), and "The Varieties of Realism Worth Wanting," (conference in honor of Peter Hare Oct. 2000).
· “Not Cynicism But Synechism: Lessons from Classical Pragmatism”
Susan Haack is Professor of Law, Cooper Senior Scholar in Arts and
Sciences, and Professor of Philosophy at University of Miami. Dr. Haack is
the author of several well-known books, including Evidence and Inquiry (Blackwell,
1993), Deviant Logic, Fuzzy Logic: Beyond the Formalism (Chicago, 1996), and
Manifesto of a Passionate Moderate: Unfashionable Essays (Chicago, 1998), as well
as of numerous articles. Internationally known, Prof. Haack's work has been translated
into a dozen languages. She is often invited to speak to general audiences.
· “Induction as Error Correction”
Deborah Mayo is Professor of Philosophy at Virginia Tech. Dr. Mayo's work is
in the epistemology of science and the philosophy of statistical inference. Dr.
Mayo has co-edited, Acceptable Evidence: Science and Values in Risk Management
(with Rachelle Hollander). She received the Lakatos Prize, the world’s premier
award for the study of the philosophy of science in 1998 for her book Error and
the Growth of Experimental Knowledge (University of Chicago Press, 1996). Dr.
Mayo and Dr. Spanos (Economics, see below) have worked together on several
projects implementing Peirce’s ideas on empirical modeling.
· “Diamonds are a Pragmaticist’s Best Friend”
Rosa Mayorga, Assistant Professor, is a new member of the Philosophy Department
at Virginia Tech. Dr. Mayorga's academic interests lie in the general area of metaphysics.
She is currently working on a book that explores Peirce’s contributions to this field. Her
conference for the Symposium explores Peirce’s seemingly contradictory positions of
scholastic realism and “pragmaticism.” She will also be speaking at the Local Seminar
Series, on “Pragmatism and Ethics.”
· “Peirce’s Conception of Science”
Robert Meyers, Professor in the Department of Philosophy at State University of
New York Albany, is interested especially in American pragmatism. His publications
include: “The Likelihood of Knowledge” (Dordrecht, 1988), "Early Influences on Peirce:
A letter to Samuel Barnett," (Journal of the History of Philosophy, 1993), and "The
Marvelous and the Miraculous: A defense of Hume" (forthcoming).
· “The Classification of the Sciences and Cross-disciplinarity”
Jaime Nubiola, Associate Professor of Philosophy at Universidad de Navarra,
España (Spain), is Director of “Grupo de Estudios Peirceanos” (Peirce Studies Group)
and Director of Anuario Filosófico, an international journal of philosophy. He has
published extensively in Europe, South America, as well as in the United States. Lately
he has been working on Pragmatism and its effects on Spanish literature and philosophy.
· “Peirce and Hume on Belief”
Joseph Pitt, Department Head, Professor of Philosophy at Virginia Tech, is the author of
several books and numerous articles in the history and philosophy of science and technology.
He is Founding Editor of the journal Perspectives on Science, Historical, Philosophical, Social (MIT Press).
Recent publications include The Production and Diffusion of Public Choice:
Reflections on the VPI center (Blackwell, forthcoming 2003), Thinking About Technology,
(Seven Bridges Press, 2000), "What Engineers Know" (Techne, 2001).
· “Pragmatism at the Crossroads”
Nicholas Rescher is University Professor of Philosophy at the University of Pittsburgh. He is a
former president of the Eastern Division of the American Philosophical Association, and of the
C. S. Peirce Society. Author of some hundred books ranging over many disciplines including
Pascal's Wager: An Essay on Practical Reasoning in Philosophical Theology (University of
Notre Dame Press, 1985), Validity of Values (Oxford, 1993) and Luck (Farrar, Straus & Giroux,1995),
over a dozen of them translated into other languages, he was awarded the Alexander von Humboldt
Prize for Humanistic Scholarship in 1984.
For further information on the conference, please contact Dr. Rosa Mayorga at rmayorga@vt.edu.
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