A Mini-Conference
Perspectives on the Question
of
Extraterrestrial Intelligent Life
Sponsored by Notre Dame's Graduate
Program in History and Philosophy of Science, Program of Liberal
Studies, and Departments of Theology and Psychology
July 1, 1999
McKenna Hall (Center for Continuing Eduction), University of Notre
Dame
Free and Open to the Public
Morning Session
9:00 Welcoming: Don Howard, Chair, History and Philosophy of Science,
Univ. Of Notre Dame
9:10-10:00 George S. Howard: "What Do UFO Abductees Tell
Us about Human Nature?"
10:15-11:15 Thomas F. O'Meara: "Christian Theology and Extraterrestrial
Intelligent Life"
11:15-12:00 Discussion by Panel: Ernan McMullin and Douglas Vakoch
Afternoon Session
1:30-2:30 Michael J. Crowe: "The Place of the Extraterrstrial
Life Debate in the History of Astronomy"
2:45-3:45 Steven J. Dick: "The Twentieth-Century Extraterrestrial
Life Debate: Past, Present, and Future"
4:00-5:00 Discussion by Panel: Sofie Lachapelle, Joseph Ross,
and David Strauss
Speakers
- George S. Howard, Professor of Psychology
at Notre Dame, is co-author with Robert Bartholomew of UFOs
and Alien Contact: Two Centuries of Mystery (Amherst, New
York: Prometheus Books, 1998).
- Thomas F. O'Meara, O.P., who hold the William
K. Warren Chair in Theology at Notre Dame, is the author of "Christian
Theology and Extraterrestrial Intelligent Life" which appeared
in the March 1999 issue of Theological Studies.
- Michael J. Crowe, Professor in Notre Dame's
Program of Liberal Studies and Graduate Program in History and
Philosophy of Science, is the author of The Extraterrestrial
Life Debate 1750-1900: The Idea of a Plurality of Worlds from
Kant to Lowell (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1986);
reprinting in 1999 by Dover Publications as The Extraterrestrial
Life Debate 1750-1900.
- Steven J. Dick, an Astronomer/Historian at
the U.S. Naval Observatory, has authored Plurality of Worlds:
The Origins of the Extraterrestrial Life Debate from Democritus
to Kant (1982); The Biological Universe: The Twentieth-Century
Extraterrestrial Life Debate and the Limits of Science (1996),
and Life on Other Worlds: The 20th-Century Extraterrestrial
Life Debate (1998), all published by Cambridge University
Press.
Panelists
- Ernan McMullin, John Cardinal O'Hara Professor
Emeritus of Philosophy at Notre Dame, has numerous publications,
some dealing with the methodology of the search for extraterrestrial
life.
- Douglas A. Vakoch, whose Ph.D. in Clinical
Psychology is from the State University of New York at Stony
Brook, is a psychologist on the staff of the SETI Institute and
has published various essays on methods and difficulties of communicating
with extraterrestrials.
- Sofie Lachapelle, an advanced graduate student
in History and Philosophy of Science, is planning a doctoral
thesis on Nicholas Camille Flammarion, the prominent French astronomer
and advocate of ideas of extraterrestrial life.
- Joseph Ross, who is a librarian at Notre
Dame, holds master degrees in Theology, Library Science, and
History and Philosophy of Science. His MA thesis for HPS was
titled: "Kant's and Hegel's Assessment of Analogical Arguments
for Extraterrestrial Life"
- David Strauss, Professor of History at Kalamazoo
College, is the author of a biography of Percival Lowell, which
is forthcoming from Harvard University Press.
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