News for September 2012
Winner of the Hempel Award for 2012
The Governing Board of the Philosophy of Science Association is pleased to announce that Bas C. van Fraassen is the recipient of the inaugural 2012 Hempel Award, recognizing lifetime scholarly achievement in the philosophy of science.
Bas van Fraassen, the McCosh Professor of Philosophy Emeritus at Princeton University and Distinguished Professor of Philosophy at San Francisco State University, is the chief architect of modern empiricism in the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries. In four volumes -- The Scientific Image (1980) (co-recipient of the 1986 Lakatos Award), Laws and Symmetry (1989), The Empirical Stance (2002), Scientific Representation (2008) -- and dozens of articles, van Fraassen has produced a systematic account of science, constructive empiricism, which advocates a semantic approach to scientific theories and, on that basis, urges skepticism regarding laws of nature, anti-realism regarding unobservables, and pragmatism regarding explanation. In the three decades since its introduction, constructive empiricism has emerged both as a locus of outstanding scholarship in the philosophy of science and as an intellectual monument to Professor van Fraassen's exceptional philosophical insight, clarity and creativity.
Professor van Fraassen has also made foundational contributions to subfields within the philosophy of science, in many cases not merely shaping these areas of research but helping to form them. This will be most evident to contemporary philosophers of physics, many of whom were introduced to the field by van Fraassen's An Introduction to the Philosophy of Time and Space (1970), and who almost certainly have his Quantum Mechanics: An Empiricist View (1991) on the shelf as well. But something similar is true for several other fields, notably the philosophy of probability and the philosophy of logic. Where van Fraassen has focused his attention, the invariable result has been a clearer and deeper understanding of the issues for all.
Professor van Fraassen is a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and has served as President of the Philosophy of Science Association, editor of the Journal of Philosophical Logic, and co-editor of the Journal of Symbolic Logic. In recognition of Professor van Fraassen's record of scholarly achievement and service in the philosophy of science, and in light of the great intellectual energy, generosity, egalitarianism and kindness that he brought to the philosophy of science (including, especially, his mentoring of graduate students and junior scholars in philosophy of science) the Governing Board of the PSA congratulates Professor van Fraassen on the occasion of the inaugural Hempel Award.
The Hempel Award will be given every two years by the Governing Board of the Philosophy of Science Association, and presented at the PSA Biennial Meeting. At the invitation of the Governing Board, Carl Hempel's children, Miranda and Peter Hempel, will announce and present this inaugural Hempel award prior to the PSA Presidential Address at PSA2012 in San Diego, California, November 15-17, 2012.
Correction: The original announcement indicated in error that van Fraassen is a member of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. This should have read that he is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. The above text has been updated to reflect the correct name.
Update of PSA2012 Program and Information Regarding Audio-Visual Equipment
The most recent (9/19) version of the PSA2012 program is now available at the PSA2012 webpage. This version of the program should reflect all corrections submitted to date. A version of the program including the balance of the chairs, room assignments, and PSA-related meetings and receptions will be available next week.
All the presentation rooms at PSA2012 will be equipped with LCD projectors, aka beamers. Presenters in a session are encouraged to share a single laptop to be used for LCD projection, so that transitions between speakers go quickly. Presenters should also have on hand any necessary adapters or additional equipment required for one's own laptop. Presenters may request a white board, slide projector, or overhead projector (none of which will otherwise be present in the room); direct your A/V request to Gary Hardcastle (ghardcas@bloomu.edu) or Greg Macklem at the HSS (greg@hssonline.org). A/V requests must be received be November 1.
PSA2012 Preliminary Program Update Again
The most recent (9/10/12) version of the PSA2012 Program is now available. It differs from the version presently posted only in the addition of several new session chairs.
Please take a moment and confirm that your name, affiliation, and paper title are correct in the program, and let me know as soon as possible if they are not. Symposia organizers, please check that the order of the papers in your session is correctly listed and, again, let me know of any corrections.
We will be able to accept corrections to the PSA2012 program for the next ten days only. Corrections received after September 20 may not appear in the final version of the program. Please note that we are not able to alter the program to accommodate travel plans or preferred session times. As always, don't hesitate to contact me if you have any questions, comments, or suggestions.
See you in San Diego!
Gary Hardcastle
PSA2012 Preliminary Program Update
The latest (September 6) version of the PSA2012 Program is now available. Many thanks to those who alerted us to errors (and typos!). We welcome email regarding additional errors, but please know that the schedule and timing of sessions for PSA2012 is unlikely to change. Stay tuned for an updated version of this document (including times for receptions and committee meetings) shortly.
Be sure to visit the PSA2012 page for conference registration, hotel reservations, and updates on PSA2012 and San Diego!
Gary Hardcastle, PSA Executive Secretary (ghardcas@bloomu.edu)
Andrea Woody, PSA2012 Program Chair (awoody@uw.edu)
