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
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.
PSA Women's Caucus Prize - Call For Nominations
Nominations are now open for the 2012 Philosophy of Science Association Women's Caucus Prize. The Prize is awarded biennially for the best book, article, or chapter published in English in the area of feminist philosophy of science within the five years prior to each PSA meeting. The winner will receive a cash award of $500, which will be presented at the November 2012 PSA meeting in San Diego, California.
The deadline for nominations is May 1, 2012. To be considered, works must have been published between May 1, 2007 and May 1, 2012. Articles posted electronically on journal websites in final (accepted) form prior to May 1, 2012 are eligible for consideration. Self-nominations are allowed but are limited to one per person.
To make a nomination, please provide information about the article, book or chapter you are nominating by clicking on the link below.
https://catalyst.uw.edu/webq/survey/aw26/155671
Kathleen Okruhlik, Co-Chair, PSA Women's Caucus
Department of Philosophy
Stevenson Hall
The University of Western Ontario
London, Canada N6A 5B8
British Society for the Philosophy of Science Annual Conference
BRITISH SOCIETY FOR THE PHILOSOPHY OF SCIENCE
ANNUAL CONFERENCE 5-6 JULY 2012, UNIVERSITY OF STIRLING
The conference programme will consist of both invited and contributed papers.
In addition to the Presidential Address by Prof. John Dupré, plenary talks will be given by Prof. Hasok Chang, Prof. Hannes Leitgeb and Prof. Daniel Little.
Call for Papers
Submissions for the contributed paper sessions are invited from graduate students as well as established researchers. Papers may be on any topic within the philosophy of science and should be suitable for presentation in 20 minutes, which will allow 10 minutes discussion. Abstracts in plain text of no more than 500 words should be received no later than Friday February 3rd 2012. See http://www.thebsps.org/society/bsps/events.html for details of how to submit abstracts to the online server. Abstracts will be refereed, and successful contributors notified during March or April.
For more information please contact the Honorary Secretary at christopher.timpson@bnc.ox.ac.uk
PLEASE NOTE: attendance at the conference is restricted to members of the BSPS only; please therefore join the Society http://www.thebsps.org/society/bsps/membership.html
Join the British Society for the
The purpose of the Society is to study the logic, the methods, and the philosophy of science, as well as those of the various special sciences, including the social sciences. The Society holds an annual conference with invited speakers and contributed papers, as well as ordinary meetings running throughout the year at which invited speakers present a paper. The Society makes small grants to support conferences relevant to research and education in its areas of study, awards an annual doctoral studentship for doctoral work in philosophy of science in a UK university and The British Journal for the Philosophy of Science is published on our behalf by Oxford University Press. Visit http://www.thebsps.org for more information.
To help support the aims of the Society and to be eligible to attend the annual conference and to apply for conference grants, please join the Society http://www.thebsps.org/society/bsps/membership.html. On applying for membership, along with other benefits, one is eligible to subscribe to the British Journal for the Philosophy of Science at a significantly reduced rate more than paying for the subscription itself.
C.G. Timpson
Honorary Secretary
PSA2010 Symposium Papers Reminder
2010 PSA Symposium Participants are reminded symposium papers must be submitted by February 24, 2012, to be considered for publication in a supplementary volume of Philosophy of Science, due out in December 2012.
Please be reminded that Philosophy of Science will publish a collection of original papers derived from symposium sessions at PSA2010. Papers published elsewhere, or containing work published elsewhere, will not be accepted for publication. No papers from author meets critics sessions will be considered for publication (following a decision by the PSA Governing Board). If an author has a contributed paper from PSA2010 accepted to be published in the contributed papers volume of Philosophy of Science for PSA2010, she or he may not submit a paper to the symposium volume. Individual papers from symposium sessions may be submitted. If, for example, one participant presented work that has subsequently been published but others presented original work that has not yet been published, the latter may submit their papers to Philosophy of Science.
All submissions must go through Editorial Manager at Philosophy of Science: http://www.editorialmanager.com/phos/. Make sure that you select the 2010 PSA Symposium Papers option from the pull down menu at Philosophy of Science on Editorial Manager. The system is also set up to accept proposals for 2012 Symposia, do not submit your papers there. All submissions will be refereed. Make reasonable efforts to blind your papers but the editor and referees understand that this work has already been presented, in most cases with the same title, so complete blinding is not always practicable.
There is a hard upper word limit of 5000 words, including notes and references, on all published papers. University of Chicago Press allocates a certain number of pages to supplementary volumes and editors have to strictly enforce word limits.
I hope that I have given you sufficient information to work with. If you have questions about the process, please contact me via email: s.downes@utah.edu.
I look forward to your submissions.
Yours,
Steve Downes
2012 Cushing Memorial Prize -- Call for Nominations
The family, students, friends, and colleagues of Jim Cushing are pleased once again to solicit nominations for the James T. Cushing Prize in the History and Philosophy of Physics. In recognition of Jim’s well-known role as a nurturer of new talent in the profession, this annual prize is intended to recognize and reward the work of younger scholars. The next winner will receive $1,000 and an invitation to deliver a paper in the University of Notre Dame's History and Philosophy of Science Colloquium series during the 2012-2013 academic year.
Work is eligible by nomination only. Eligible are all papers in the history and philosophy of physics published by a younger scholar within the three years prior to the current call for nominations (i.e., published no earlier than October 2008). Without defining "younger scholar," our intention is to favor work produced by scholars who are no more than five years or so beyond completion of the Ph.D. or, in a comparable way, new to the fields of the history and philosophy of physics.
Nominated work will be evaluated by a committee drawn from the members of the Advisory Committee. A nomination should consist of a brief description of the significance of the nominated work and such information about the author as the nominator might think helpful to the evaluation committee (e.g., an abbreviated c.v.). The deadline for receipt of nominations is 15 March 2012. The winner will be announced in May 2012.
Nominations will be accepted by mail, fax, and email.
By mail:
- Cushing Memorial Prize Nominations
- History and Philosophy of Science Graduate Program
- 346 O’Shaughnessy
- University of Notre Dame
- Notre Dame, IN 46556
By fax:
574-631-7418 ("Cushing Memorial Prize Nomination" on cover sheet)
By email:
Please be sure to include the following information:
- The name, institutional affiliation, phone number, fax number (if available), mailing address, and email address for both the nominator and the nominee.
- A full reference to the published work (i.e., journal name, volume, page numbers, URL or pdf if available, etc.).
For more information:
- Phone: Darrin Snyder Belousek at 419-221-1856 or Don Howard at 574-631-7547.
- Email: Cushing.Prize.1@nd.edu
- Website: http://www.nd.edu/~cushpriz/
Lakatos Award 2011
The London School of Economics and Political Science announces that the Lakatos Award, of £10,000 for an outstanding contribution to the philosophy of science, will not be awarded in 2011.
The Management Committee for the Lakatos Award has considered the reports from the Selectors on the books shortlisted for the 2011 prize. While there is no doubt that all of the shortlisted books have their virtues, and that some make weighty contributions to the field, the overall view taken by the Management Committee on the basis of the Selectors' reports is that none quite meets the level of impact and significance required to merit the Award; and consequently no Award will be made this year.
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 person of recognised standing within the profession.
For further details of the nomination procedure or more information on the Lakatos Award 2011, 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 (Cambridge University Press, 1976). Two volumes of Philosophical Papers, edited by John Worrall and Gregory Currie, appeared in 1978, also from Cambridge University Press.
HOPOS 2012 Call for Papers
The International Society for the History of Philosophy of Science (HOPOS) is pleased to announce:
HOPOS 2012
June 21-24, 2012
Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada
Call for Papers
The program committees for HOPOS 2012 invites scholars to submit paper and symposium proposals for its ninth meeting which will be held in Halifax, June 21-24, 2012.
Keynote Speakers:
- Ian Hacking (University of Toronto)
- Penelope Maddy (University of California, Irvine)
- Heinrich von Staden (Institute for Advanced Study)
In order to encourage scholarly exchange across the temporal reach of HOPOS, the program committee especially encourages submissions that take up philosophical themes that cross time periods.
Submissions should be sent as an email attachment directly, either as a Word document or PDF file, to the following email address: hopos2012.submissions@gmail.com
The conference language is English.
Proposals for papers should include:
- title and abstract of the paper (maximum 500 words)
- address of the participant, including e-mail, phone, and institution
Proposals for symposia should include:
- title of symposium
- symposium summary statement (maximum 500 words)
- titles and abstracts of papers (maximum 500 words for each paper)
- address of each participant, including e-mail, phone, and institution
- identification of symposium organizer, who will serve as contact person
DEADLINE: January 15, 2012
Program Committees
- Eric Schliesser (Ghent), "Kant and Before" Subcommittee Chair
- Sylvia Berryman (UBC)
- Brad Inwood (Toronto)
- Gideon Manning (Caltech)
- Katherine Dunlop (Brown)
- Alan Richardson (UBC), "Post-Kant" Subcommittee Chair
- Uljana Feest (TU-Berlin)
- Melanie Frappier (U of King's College)
- Lisa Gannett (St Mary's U)
- Alex Klein (CSU, Long Beach)
