PSA Mission
The Philosophy of Science Association promotes research, teaching, and free discussion of issues in the philosophy of science from diverse standpoints. To this end, the PSA engages in activities such as: the publishing of periodicals, essays and monographs; sponsoring conventions and meetings; and awarding prizes for distinguished work in the field.
PSA Announcements
Nominations being Accepted for the Inaugural Hempel Award
The Hempel Award
Recognizing Lifetime Scholarly Achievement in the Philosophy of Science
The Governing Board of the Philosophy of Science Association is pleased to announce the Hempel Award, a biennial award recognizing lifetime scholarly achievement in the philosophy of science. The Hempel Award is named in honor of Carl Gustav Hempel (1905-1997), one of the twentieth century's leading philosophers of science and an active PSA member for over fifty years. At the invitation of the Governing Board, Carl Hempel's children, Miranda and Peter Hempel, will announce and present the inaugural Hempel Award prior to the PSA Presidential Address at PSA2012 in San Diego, California, November 15-17, 2012.
The Prize Committee for the Hempel Award will consist of the current PSA Governing Board or its designated subcommittee. Nominations for the Hempel Award should include a CV and between three and five letters of support; the latter should address the nominee's scholarly achievements, construed broadly to include not only the specific research of the nominee but also the nominee's larger impact on the scholarly community of philosophers of science (including training and mentorship, public outreach, professional work for the Philosophy of Science Association, and other community-building activities). Self-nominations will be accepted. Nominees and nominators should be members of the Philosophy of Science Association.
Nominations for the Hempel Award should be postmarked no later than June 1, 2012 and sent to:
- Gary Hardcastle, PSA Treasurer and Executive Secretary
- Department of Philosophy, Bloomsburg University
- 400 East 2nd St.
- Bloomsburg, PA 17837
- USA
Nominations cannot be accepted electronically. Questions about the Hempel Award may be directed to Gary Hardcastle at ghardcas@bloomu.edu.
Nominees and nominators are requested to bear in mind that since this is a new prize, it is likely that there will be a number of highly qualified nominees; re-nomination is welcome if the first nomination is unsuccessful.
Interface Focus: Top-Down Causation
Royal Society Publishing is offering the most recent issue of Interface Focus: Top-Down Causation, organized by George F.R. Ellis, Denis Noble and Timothy O'Connor, free for download at http://rsfs.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/2/1 until 31st March 2012.
SPSP Newsletter Released
PSA members are invited to enjoy the first newsletter from the Society for the Philosophy of Science in Practice (SPSP), featuring conference listings, a report from the 100 Year Starship Symposium, and an interview with PSA Giverning Board member Nancy Nersessian.
Call for Nominations: American Philosophical Association Joseph B. Gittler Award
The APA committee on Lectures, Publications, and Research invites nominations for the American Philosophical Association Joseph B. Gittler Award.
Next deadline: March 15, 2012
Summary
This prize is awarded for "an outstanding scholarly contribution in the field of the philosophy of one or more of the social sciences." The range of the social sciences will be construed broadly so as to include anthropology, economics, education, government, history, psychology, sociology, and any other field that is normally located within the social science division in contemporary colleges and universities.
Background
This prize was established in 2007 with funds donated by the estate of Joseph B. Gittler.
Eligibility
A contribution may be a book, a single article, or a connected set of articles. All nominated contributions must have been published within five years before the deadline. Nominated contributions may be co-authored, but a single individual must be designated as the proposed recipient of the award. Contributions will be limited to three articles or books per nominee. At least one of the submissions should be single authored. The nominated author must be a member in good standing of the APA.
Nominations
Each nomination must be made by an APA member other than the author. Each member may submit only one nomination. Nominations should include complete publication information and may include a statement in support of the nomination. The APA will contact nominated authors to confirm willingness to be considered and to secure copies of the nominated contributions and the author's CV. Nominations must be submitted by email on or before the deadline of March 15, 2012. Email nominations to: Linda Nuoffer at lnuoffer@udel.edu.
Selection
A committee appointed by the Chair of the Committee on Lectures, Publications, and Research, in consultation with LPR committee members, will consider submissions and select a winner.
Details
Frequency: Annually
Amount: $4,000. The winner will be presented with the award at the Eastern Division meeting of the Association.
Next Deadline: March 15, 2012
Sally J. Scholz, Ph.D.
Professor
Chair, APA Committee on Lectures, Publications and Research
Lakatos Award 2012
The Lakatos Award is given for an outstanding contribution to the philosophy of science, widely interpreted, in the form of a book published in English during the previous five years. It was made possible by a generous endowment from the Latsis Foundation. The Award is in memory of the former LSE professor, Imre Lakatos, and is administered by an international Management Committee organised from the LSE. The Committee, chaired by John Worrall, decides the outcome of the Award competition on the advice of an international, independent and anonymous panel of Selectors.
Nominations can now be made for the 2012 Lakatos Award, and must be received by Friday 20th April 2012. The 2012 Award will be for a book published in English with an imprint from 2007-2012 inclusive. A book may, with the permission of the author, be nominated by any philosopher of science.
For further details of the nomination procedure or more information on the Lakatos Award 2012, contact the Administrator, Chris Thompson at c.j.thompson@lse.ac.uk.
Imre Lakatos, who died in 1974 aged 51, had been Professor of Logic with special reference to the Philosophy of Mathematics at LSE since 1969. He joined the Department of Philosophy, Logic and Scientific Method in 1960. Born in Hungary in 1922, he graduated (in Physics, Mathematics and Philosophy) from Debrecen University in 1944. He then joined the underground resistance. (His mother and grandmother perished in Auschwitz.) After the War, he was active in the Communist Party and had an influential position in the Ministry of Education. In 1950 he was arrested and spent the next three years as a political prisoner. After his release, he was given refuge in the Hungarian Academy of Science where he translated western works in science and mathematics into Hungarian. After the suppression of the Hungarian uprising he escaped to Vienna and from there, with the aid of a Rockefeller fellowship, on to Cambridge, England. He there wrote his (second) doctoral thesis out of which grew his famous Proofs and Refutations (CUP, 1976). Two volumes of Philosophical Papers, edited by John Worrall and Gregory Currie, appeared in 1978, also from CUP.
HSS 2012 Annual Meeting: Call for Papers
San Diego, CA, USA
15-18 November 2012
(Joint meeting with PSA)
The History of Science Society will hold its 2012 Annual Meeting in the Sheraton San Diego Hotel and Marina. We will be meeting with our colleagues from the Philosophy of Science Association and will open our conferences with a joint plenary on Kuhn's Structure of Scientific Revolutions, 50 years later. Registration for one conference will entitle the registrant to attend the sessions for both conferences. There will be an administrative fee for any individual who appears on more than one program.
All proposals (sessions, contributed papers, and posters) must be submitted by 2 April 2012 to the History of Science Society's Executive Office (short abstract, up to 250 words). Poster proposals must describe the visual material that will make up the poster. The HSS will work with organizers who wish to precirculate papers.
Submissions on all topics are encouraged. All proposals must be submitted on the HSS Web site (http://www.hssonline.org) or on the annual meeting proposal forms that are available from the HSS Executive Office. HSS members are asked to circulate this announcement to non-HSS colleagues who may be interested in presenting a paper or poster at the Annual Meeting (all participants must register for the meeting). Applicants are encouraged to propose sessions that include diverse participants: a mix of men and women, and/or a balance of professional ranks (i.e., mixing senior scholars with junior scholars and graduate students). Strong preference will be given to panels whose presenters have diverse institutional affiliations. Only one proposal per person may be submitted. An individual may only appear once on the HSS program (see the guidelines for exceptions). Prior participation at the 2010 (Montréal) or the 2011 (Cleveland) meetings will be taken into consideration.
To encourage and aid the creation of panels with strong thematic coherence that draw upon historians of science across institutions and ranks, the conference organizers have created a wiki at http://hssmeeting.wikia.com. Anyone with a panel or paper idea seeking like-minded presenters should post and consult the postings there to round out a prospective session. Instructions are available on the site. Before sending a proposal to the HSS Office, we ask that everyone read the Committee on Meetings and Programs' "Guidelines for Selecting Papers, Posters, and Sessions." The 2012 program co-chairs are Janet Browne (Harvard University) and Dave Kaiser (MIT).
For further information please visit the HSS website at: http://www.hssonline.org. For information about proposal guidelines please visit: http://www.hssonline.org/Meeting/2012HSSMeeting/2012_Guidelines.pdf
Best,
Manuela Fernandez
Graduate Assistant
History of Science Society
2011 PSA Election: Call for Nominations for the PSA Governing Board and PSA Nominating Committee
On December 31, 2011, the terms of two of the eight members of the current PSA Governing Board -- Nancy Nersessian and Andrea Woody -- came to an end, as did the terms of the three members of the PSA Nominating Committee: Margaret Morrison, C. Kenneth Waters, and Alison Wylie. In this, its 2011 Election, the PSA will elect two members of its Governing Board, each to serve a four-year term through December 31, 2015, and three members of its Nominating Committee, each to serve a two-year term ending December 31, 2013.
Per PSA By-Laws (Art. IV, §§5, 7), nominations to run for the PSA Governing Board or the PSA Nominating Committee may be made jointly by any fifteen or more full members of the PSA. Accordingly, the PSA Nominating Committee solicits nominations from the PSA membership for the PSA Governing Board. Nominations for PSA Governing Board should be submitted by e-mail to Margaret Morrison (mmorris at chass.utoronto.ca). In addition, the PSA Governing Board solicits nominations from the PSA membership for the PSA Nominating Committee. Nominations for the PSA Nominating Committee should be submitted by email to Gary Hardcastle (ghardcas at bloomu.edu).
Nominations for either position from any fifteen Full members of the PSA will appear on the ballot of the 2011 PSA Election, provided they are received by February 14, 2012.
PSA members are reminded that only Full or retired Full (as opposed to Student or Associate) members of the PSA are eligible to run for PSA office, nominate candidates for PSA office, and vote in PSA elections. Full members of the PSA are PSA members with "a doctoral degree or its equivalent in any philosophical or scientific field, in the broadest sense of those terms; a professional position (assistant professorship or above, or the equivalent) in any of these fields; [or] a professional research position in any of these fields" (PSA By-Laws, Art. II, §2). In addition, PSA members are reminded that PSA Governing Board members may not serve two consecutive terms.
NSF Science, Technology and Society Program Seeking Program Director
The US National Science Foundation Science, Technology and Society Program is currently seeking a Program Director. Duties include:
- Allocating program resources to maintain a balance of support to meet the field's needs;
- Assessing trends and opportunities in the field with assistance of advisory panel;
- Pursuing affirmative action and EEO goals in selection of reviewers, panelists, and grantees;
- Representing the program to the scientific community and the public;
- Facilitating the transfer of funds from other agencies;
- Establishing contacts and maintain active involvement in the program field through participation in meetings and conferences and by undertaking other relevant activities;
- Pursuing a personal scholarly agenda, with results presented at professional meetings and published in academic journals, as workload permits;
- Participating in interagency meetings, coordinating groups, special task groups, staff meetings and site visits;
- Interview and recommend selection of support staff.
Applicants must have a Ph.D. or equivalent experience in a scientific discipline supported by NSF. In addition, applicants must have six or more years of successful research, research administration, and/or managerial experience pertinent to the program of interest. Ideal candidates will also have expertise in the social studies of science, science policy, and/or ethics in science.
Closing Date: 02/29/2012
USAJOBS Link: http://www.usajobs.gov/GetJob/ViewDetails/308181400
You may also contact Kelly Moore kmoore@nsf.gov or Fred Kronz fkronz@nsf.gov for more information.
