Many thanks,
Rob Koons (Assoc. Prof. of Philosophy & ASA member)
CALL FOR PAPERS
Naturalism, Theism and the Scientific Enterprise
An Interdisciplinary Conference at the University of Texas -- Austin
Feb. 20-23, 1997
Sponsored by the UT Philosophy Dept. Invited speakers include Michael Ruse
(Philosophy, University of Guelph, author of Darwinism Defended), Alvin
Plantinga (Philosophy, University of Notre Dame, author of Warrant and
Proper Function), Frederick Grinnell (UT Southwestern Medical Center,
author of The Scientific Attitude), and Phillip Johnson (Law School,
UC-Berkeley, author of Darwin on Trial and Reason in the Balance).
The conference is dedicated to fostering dialogue between naturalists and
theists on the impact of social and philosophical predispositions on the
development, interpretation and presentation of scientific knowledge. Our
goal is to have a program balanced between defenders and critics of
naturalism in science.
We encourage submissions from all of the natural sciences, as well as from
philosophy, history and sociology of science. Suggested topics:
* Does the scientific method exclude appeals to supernatural agency?
* Is there a distinction between methodological and ontological naturalism?
* What do case studies in the history of science reveal about the role of
naturalism or theism in advancing or retarding the progress of science?
* Does the plausibility of Darwinism and of naturalistic theories of the
origin of life depend on a prior commitment to naturalism? Can the
scientific merits of naturalistic and theistic explanations be compared?
*Can theistic (directed) evolution or the appeal to cosmic design be
testable scientific hypotheses? If so, does the available evidence weigh
for or against such conjectures?
* What social, political and educational factors influence the direction of
research and the presentation of science to the public?
Abstracts should be less than 500 words and should be submitted
electronically to Prof. Robert Koons (koons@phil.utexas.edu) in one of the
following formats:
* RTF or ASCII
* PostScript
* LaTeX
Deadlines:
Nov. 1 -- submission of abstracts
Dec. 1 -- notification of authors.
Jan. 15 -- submission of full papers.
Abstracts, papers, and conference information will be posted on our web site:
http://www.dla.utexas.edu/depts/philosophy/faculty/koons/ntse/
Abstracts and inquiries can be sent to Prof. Robert Koons at:
koons@phil.utexas.edu
Philosophy Department
University of Texas
Austin TX 78712-1180