The John J. Reilly Center

Program in History and Philosophy of Science

Recent Lectures

The Reilly Center in conjunction with the HPS program supports an active speakers series with talks by scholars invited to campus, as well as by Notre Dame faculty affiliated with the Center's graduate and undergraduate programs. During the last five academic years, lectures were presented by the following visitors:

Peter Achinstein, Johns Hopkins University
"Who Really Discovered the Electron?"

Kenneth Alder, Northwestern University
"Science in the French Enlightenment"

John Beatty, University of Minnesota
"The Evolutionary Contingency Thesis"

William Bechtel, Washington University
"Epistemic Controversy over Research Techniques: The Case of
Cell Biology"

Mara Beller, Hebrew University, Israel
"Complementarity in Context"

James Bono, SUNY at Buffalo
"Language and Interpretation in the History of the Scientific
Revolution"

Jed Buchwald, Dibner Institute, MIT
"How Ether Spawned the Microworld"

Jeremy Butterfield, Cambridge University
"Bell's Theorem: What It Takes"

Tian Yu Cao, Harvard University
"Postmodern Approaches to the History of Science"

Harold Cook, University of Wisconsin
"Medicine and National History in the Scientific Revolution"

Michael Dettelbach, Stanford University
"Reflections on Alexander von Humboldt and Romantic Science"

Steven Dick, United States Naval Observatory
"Historical and Philosophical Perspectives on the Twentieth-century
Extraterrestrial Life Debate"

Michael Dickson, Indiana University-Bloomington
"Empirical Logic and Physical Theory"

Steven Downes, Northwestern University
"The Role of Model Construction in Theorizing: A Deflationary
Semantic View"

Max Dresden, Stanford University
"The Reward System in Science: The Nobel Syndrome"

John Dupre, Stanford University
"Economics Without the Clockwork"

John Earman, University of Pittsburgh
"Hume's Diminution Principle"

Paul Edwards, Stanford University
"The World in a Machine: Origins and Impacts of Early
Computerized Global Systems Models"

Arthur Fine, Northwestern University
"Holism and Causality in the Interpretation of Quantum Mechanics"

Stephen Fuller, Virginia Polytechnic Institute
"Being There with Thomas Kuhn: A Parable for Postmodern Times"

George Gale, University of Missouri
"Philosophy at Work in the Genesis of Modern Cosmology:
Milne and the Snares of Ontology"

Daniel Garber, University of Chicago
"On the Frontline of the Scientific Counter-Revolution: Defending
Aristotle Paris-Style"

Jean Gayon, Universit de Dijon, France
"Models of Neo-Darwinian Selectionism"

Faye Getz, University of Wisconsin
"Development of the Medical Faculty in Medieval Oxford University"

Marjorie Grene, Virginia Polytechnic Institute
"Studying the Life of Science: Some Lessons from Life Sciences"

Fred Grinnell, University of Texas Medical Center
"The Scientific Attitude: Discovery, Credibility and Anonymity"

Gary Hatfield, University of Pennsylvania
"Did the Scientific Revolution Occur?"

Giora Hon, Haifa University, Israel
"Mach's Principle, General Relativity and Godel's Solution"

Don Howard, University of Kentucky
"The Historical Background of the Conception of Space as a Ground
for Individuating Physical Systems: Einstein's Debt to Schopenhauer"

Michael Hunter, Birkbeck College, University of London
"TheReluctant Philanthorpist: Robert Boyle and the Communication
of Receipts in Physik"

Jon Jarrett, University of Illinois, Chicago
"Bell's Theorem: Thoughts About a Few Loose Ends"

Henry Krips, University of Pittsburgh
"Boyle With Lacan: Exploring the Rhetoric of Science"

John Leslie, University of Guelph
"The Doomsday Argument"

Helen Longino, University of Minnesota
"Making Gender Visible in the Construction of Scientific Knowledge"

David Magnus, Grinnell College
"Competing Epistemologies in 19th Century Biology"

James Moore, Cambridge University
"Going Ape Over Eve: Darwin and Femininity"

Ronald Numbers, University of Wisconsin
"The Creationists"

Vivian Nutton, Wellcome Institute
"Galen's Philosophio-Medical Psychology"

Andrew Pickering, University of Illinois
"Making Technoscience: Organic Chemistry, Synthetic Dyes,
and Posthumanist Discourse"

Peter Railton, University of Michigan
"Explanations Involving Rationality: The Possibility of Nomological
Mentalistic Psychology"

Roselyne Rey, Centre Alexandre Koyre, Paris
"Vitalism, Mechanism and the End of the Enlightenment"

Alan Rocke, Case Western Reserve University
"Kekul's Benzene Hypothesis: the Appraisal of Scientific Theories"

Alexander Rueger, University of Oregon
"Bub's ÔSolution' to the Measurement Problem in Quantum Mechanics"

Rose-Mary Sargent, Merrimac College
"Experimental Epistempology: An Alternative Tradition in Modern
Philosophy"

Michael Shank, University of Wisconsin
"Astrological Consulting in Late Medieval Vienna"

Nancy Siraisi, Hunter College
"Egyptian Medicine and Renaissance Physicians"

Elliot Sober, University of Wisconsin
"The Evolution of Psychological Altruism"

Barbara Stafford, University of Chicago
"Virtues and Virtuosity: The Perils of Scientific Demonstration in
19th Century Science"

Kim Sterelny, University of Melbourne
"Science and Selection: The Limits of Evolutionary Epistemology"

Noel Swerdlow, University of Chicago
"The Recovery of the Exact Sciences of Antiquity as Illustrated
in Vatican Manuscripts"

Peter Weingart, University of Bielefeld
"Scientific Expertise and Accountability--Paradoxes of Science in Politics"

Linda Wessels, Indiana University
"The Preparation Problem in Quantum Mechanics"

Richard Westfall, Indiana University
"Patronage, Technology, and Early Modern Science"

John Winnie, Indiana University
"Fractals in Nature: Revolution or Fad?"

Gereon Wolters, University of Konstanz
"Did Ernst Mach Really Reject Relativity?"