A new book underscores the pioneering work being done at Western in the philosophy of astrophysics and in the training of experts shaping the emerging field. The Philosophy of Astrophysics: Stars, Simulations, and the Struggle to Determine What is Out T …
Rotman Institute of Philosophy
New chair embraces ‘meeting of minds’
Tim Bayne’s research can be described as the flipside of Adrian Owen’s neuroscience coin. And that’s just one reason he’s here. “Adrian (Owen) and his collaborators are using neuroimaging to look at brain activity in (vegetative) patients, and what they’re really...
Davenport: Relation to Relativity
Dear Professor Christopher J Smeenk, I greatly enjoyed your short piece in Western News, Empty out the drawer: Following Einstein’s path to General Relativity, and those of your colleagues, in the section last month which marked the 100th anniversary of the...
Construction set to begin on new research building
University planners hope a new campus facility will provide researchers across varied disciplines an environment conducive to confronting the biggest questions facing society.
Of Space, Time and The Mind
A century ago this month, Albert Einstein achieved his long-sought theory of gravitation, the General Theory of Relativity, by publically debuting it during presentations to the Prussian Academy in November 1915. A seminal text, this paper led to a scientific...
Dice Capades: Einstein and quantum mechanics
Einstein has become such a cultural touchstone that the internet is full of dubiously sourced quotations attributed to him. One of the most famous usually appears as “I refuse to believe that God plays dice with the universe” – or more simply “God doesn’t play dice.”...
Celebrating Einstein
A popular picture of scientific revolutions, such as Einstein’s overthrow of Newtonian physics, paints them as involving something like a gestalt shift; they involve a sudden reorientation of the perspective through which we see the world. The perspective, through...
Relics of a life: Einstein museum exhibit brings an interactive twist
In December 2014, Stathis Psillos, former Rotman Canada Research Chair in Philosophy of Science at Western, suggested the idea of Einstein @ Rotman, a series of events culminating with a museum exhibit with manuscripts related to Einstein’s theory of general...
Games God plays: Einstein, God, dice and the interpretation of quantum mechanics
To most of us, Albert Einstein is known as one of the most original thinkers of the 20th century - perhaps even of all time. He introduced new ways of thinking about space and time in the Special and General Theories of Relativity, and these were not even the...
‘Hole’ lotta force: Punching holes in the theory of General Relativity
Einstein’s Theory of General Relativity was a new way of describing gravity, and it had some unexpected consequences. One of these regarded the description of an object collapsing under its own gravitational pull. If the object is sufficiently dense, no force is...
Appreciating Einstein’s bridge between philosophy and science a century after Relativity
Albert Einstein was more than one of the 20th century’s greatest scientists; he was one of its greatest minds. That’s a distinction not lost on members of the Western’s Rotman Institute of Philosophy. “Einstein fills so many roles for us today,” said Philosophy...
Rotman Institute director building new bridges
Once people discover what philosophers are working on, Christopher Smeenk believes they’ll see that these scholars are exploring the fundamental questions of everyday life.
The Big Ideas Issue
Join members of the Rotman Institute of Philosophy in this special edition of Western News as they offer up their BIG IDEAS on the questions you’ll be facing tomorrow – and beyond. Better we understand science, better we understand ourselves. By Stathis Psillos;...
New chair embraces ‘meeting of minds’
Tim Bayne’s research can be described as the flipside of Adrian Owen’s neuroscience coin. And that’s just one reason he’s here. “Adrian (Owen) and his collaborators are using neuroimaging to look at brain activity in (vegetative) patients, and what they’re really...
Davenport: Relation to Relativity
Dear Professor Christopher J Smeenk, I greatly enjoyed your short piece in Western News, Empty out the drawer: Following Einstein’s path to General Relativity, and those of your colleagues, in the section last month which marked the 100th anniversary of the...
Construction set to begin on new research building
University planners hope a new campus facility will provide researchers across varied disciplines an environment conducive to confronting the biggest questions facing society.
Of Space, Time and The Mind
A century ago this month, Albert Einstein achieved his long-sought theory of gravitation, the General Theory of Relativity, by publically debuting it during presentations to the Prussian Academy in November 1915. A seminal text, this paper led to a scientific...
Dice Capades: Einstein and quantum mechanics
Einstein has become such a cultural touchstone that the internet is full of dubiously sourced quotations attributed to him. One of the most famous usually appears as “I refuse to believe that God plays dice with the universe” – or more simply “God doesn’t play dice.”...
Celebrating Einstein
A popular picture of scientific revolutions, such as Einstein’s overthrow of Newtonian physics, paints them as involving something like a gestalt shift; they involve a sudden reorientation of the perspective through which we see the world. The perspective, through...
Relics of a life: Einstein museum exhibit brings an interactive twist
In December 2014, Stathis Psillos, former Rotman Canada Research Chair in Philosophy of Science at Western, suggested the idea of Einstein @ Rotman, a series of events culminating with a museum exhibit with manuscripts related to Einstein’s theory of general...
Games God plays: Einstein, God, dice and the interpretation of quantum mechanics
To most of us, Albert Einstein is known as one of the most original thinkers of the 20th century - perhaps even of all time. He introduced new ways of thinking about space and time in the Special and General Theories of Relativity, and these were not even the...
‘Hole’ lotta force: Punching holes in the theory of General Relativity
Einstein’s Theory of General Relativity was a new way of describing gravity, and it had some unexpected consequences. One of these regarded the description of an object collapsing under its own gravitational pull. If the object is sufficiently dense, no force is...
Appreciating Einstein’s bridge between philosophy and science a century after Relativity
Albert Einstein was more than one of the 20th century’s greatest scientists; he was one of its greatest minds. That’s a distinction not lost on members of the Western’s Rotman Institute of Philosophy. “Einstein fills so many roles for us today,” said Philosophy...
Rotman Institute director building new bridges
Once people discover what philosophers are working on, Christopher Smeenk believes they’ll see that these scholars are exploring the fundamental questions of everyday life.
The Big Ideas Issue
Join members of the Rotman Institute of Philosophy in this special edition of Western News as they offer up their BIG IDEAS on the questions you’ll be facing tomorrow – and beyond. Better we understand science, better we understand ourselves. By Stathis Psillos;...