University of Delaware Conference on the Philosophy of Science 1961-1963

There have been many excellent conferences in philosophy of science, but between 1961 and 1963 the University of Delaware organized a seminar which would prove to be unique in quality of content and assembled speakers. Thanks to the generosity and foresight of Stefan Baumrin, one of the principal organizers of the meeting, Hist-Analytic is posting some of the details of that conference, including a gallery of photos of philosophers that bring the seminar to life. Immediately below the reader will find these photos, including brief descriptions of some of the participants. Following presentation of the photos are a number of reproductions of the fliers distributed in promoting the event. The reader may have some difficulty reading these fliers. Sizing the reproductions presented difficulties making this unavoidable, but later improvements will be introduced. In a couple of instances when I have accessed pages, almost immediately afterwards they have been blocked, such as in the case of McMurrin. I will attempt to add to the list of live links. Hugo Lemes and Chris Sula have been very helpful in this project. Personal comments on Alan Donagan and Shapere are my own - Steve Bayne (Hist-Analytic)


PHOTO GALLERY



Stefan Baumrin (Seminar Organizer)

I left Delaware in 1964 to become the chief ethics professor at Washington Univ. St Louis; I left there to go to Hunter College in 1967 and to chair the future Lehman department. I also entered Columbia Law School at the same time and got my J.D. in 1970. I was tenured in 1970, and made jull professor in 1972. Philosophy of Science: The Delaware Seminar: 2 Vols, Interscience and John Wiley, 1964 I also brought out a new edition of the Selby-Bigge British Moralists, Bobbs-Merrill, 1964; a collection on Hobbes' Leviathan, Wadsworth 1968, and somewhat later with the late Benjamin Freedman a volume called Ethics and The Professions. There were also plenty of papers and APA presentations. I was twice Chair of the APA Committee on Philosophy of Law, and once for an extended period the Chair of the APA Committee on Philosophy and Medicine. In 1975, under the auspices of the NY Chapter of Philosophy And Public Affairs I began clinical medical ethics [at least in NY and probably for the whole country] with the Philosophers in Medical Centers grants which ran for three years and put philosophers in NYU, Bellevue, Montefiore and Albert Einstein teaching hospitals. [There is a book about that editied by William Ruddick which I can send you.] Later, beginning in 1980, under a Mellon Foundation grant I started a similar program at Mt. Sinai Medical School, which continues to this day, and sponsors the Oxford-Mt.Sinai Consortium in Biomedical Ethics which meets annually either at Oxford, Sinai, or Kings College London [Jonathan Glover moved from Oxford to Kings and continued his part of the consortium there]. I am on the editorial boards of Metaphilosophy, Hobbes Studies, and The Journal of Applied Philosophy - I was for most of its history the U.S. Advisory Editor. I have been a professor of philosophy at the CUNY Graduate School since 1967, a member of its Executive Committee. I am also very active in university faculty governance [since 1973].


Robert Bruce Lindsay

Hazard Professor of Physics, Brown University (1936-1971). Author of Lord Rayleigh: The Man and His Work MIT award named in his honor by the Acoustical Society of America. Edited Acoustics: Historical and Philosophical Development Award given in 1963 by the American Association of Physics Teachers. "These citations are presented to persons in recognition of their exceptional contributions (e.g., committee, section, or editorial work) to physics teaching."

Sylvain Bromberger

Prof. Bromberger was born in Belgium on July 7 of 1924. He and his family fled Belgium in 1940. They were assisted by Aristides de Sousa Mendes, a Portuguese Consul. His early interest in philosophy was inspired by Reichenbach and Ernest Nagel. His teachers at Harvard included Quine, Morton White, and Nelson Goodman. He taught at Princeton and U. of Chicago, but mostly at MIT (1968-1993). His most recent work is in the area of phonology. His wife's name is Nancy. He has two sons and two grandchildren. For a bibliography and a very good picture go to: http://web.mit.edu/philos/www/bromberger.html


Robert S. Cohen

Prof. Cohen received his doctorate from Yale. He has been associated with Boston University since the late 1950s, serving both as professor of philosophy and Chairman of the Physics Department. Along with Marx Wartofsky he introduced Boston Studies in the Philosophy of Science. During those years Boston University became a major player in the Philosophy of Science world wide and attracted numerous scholars of renown. Prof. Cohen, throughout his career, has been well known as a quality teacher as well as researcher. He is best known as editor of the series Boston Studies in the Philosophy of Science

For more information see his Faculty Web Page, and Bibliography

E. L. Hill

E. L. Hill was Professor of Physics at the University of Minnesota. He authored numerous articles on relativity and quantum theory in the 1930s and 1940s. Any additional information on Prof. Hill would be much appreciated.

Adolf Grunbaum

Professor Grunbaum has been an enormous influence on the philosophical foundations of relativity and more general themes centered on scientific explanation and psychoanalysis. His paper, "Temporally-Asymmetric Principles, Parity Between Explanation and Prediction, and Mechanism vs. Teleology" is perhaps one of his most influential papers. In addition, there is a brief biography and bibliography at: Hist-Analytic.


Dudley Shapere

Since information on Prof. Shapere is not easy to come by, I'm posting, here, some bibliographical information. I was a student of Prof. Shapere in 1969 at the University of Chicago, where he taught many of the courses in philosophy of science. Always punctual, he would enter the classroom with a stack of books containing place markers. Never unprepared he would supplement his lectures with numerous quotes, including, as I recall, frequent citations from Newton's Optics. His approach was historical, for the most part, and he earned a reputation as an exponent of the notion of a "logic of scientific discovery." One day in the middle of the class a nervous student interupted a somewhat annoyed Prof. Shapere with news that there was a fire - the book store was ablaze and smoke was wafting into the building. A fireman soon burst through the door, announcing the need to evacuate. Shapere continued to lecture with virtually no break. We all remained and some of us even forgot the fire. Shapere, currently working on a book in philosophy of science remains devoted to his craft and the profession.
His teaching has been distributed largely between Wake Forest College and U. of Chicago.

A good representative sampling of his work will include:
Galileo: A Philosophical Study University of Chicago Press. 1974.

Shapere, D. (1966) ?Meaning and Scientific Change?, in Colodny, R. (ed.), Mind and Cosmos, Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press, pp. 41-85.

Shapere, D. (1982) ?Reason, Reference and the Quest for Knowledge?, Phil.Sci., 49, pp. 1-23.

Shapere, D. (1989) ?Evolution and Continuity in Scientific Change?, Phil.Sci., 56, pp. 419-437.

There is one document at present available on the internet: Building on What We Have Learned:The Relations between Science and Technology first published in Techn�4 (2) Winter 1998


Norwood Russell Hanson

Norwood Russell Hanson was born in 1925 and died in 1967 doing what he loved doing when not doing philosophy, flying a plane. In 1957 he arrived at the University of Indiana where he founded the Department of the History and Philosophy of Science. His most well known works are Patterns of Scientific Discovery and The Concept of the Positron. Following his death, a volume in his memory was published by Reidel, Boston Studies in the Philosophy of Science (Vol III, 1967) containing brief statements of reflection and recollection by numerous philosophers of science, including Popper, Feyerabend, Hempel, Toulmin, and numerous others of note.


Sterling McMurrin

Sterling McMurrin (1914-1996) was a U.S. Commissioner of Education in the Kennedy administration, envoy to Iran, Mormon theologian, Academic Vice-President and Dean of the Graduate School as well as Professor of History at the University of Utah. McMurrin has been very influential in certain theological circles


Ernest C. Pollard (1906-1997)

Pollard was a biophysicist of enormous technical ability and colorful life. For more biographical information

Hilary Putnam

Hilary Putnam was born in Chicago in 1926 and received his doctorate in 1951, working under Hans Reichenbach. His main works include: "The Meaning of 'Meaning'" (1975), "Models and Reality" (1979), Meaning and the Moral Sciences and Reason, Truth and History (1981). A brief sketch of his career can be found at www.fas.harvard.edu/~phildept/putnam.html A fine bibliography of his works can be had at: www.pragmatism.org/putnam/

Nicholas Rescher

Nicholas Rescher has written on practically everything under the sun, if not the sun itself. An informative website detailing his background and publications can be viewed at: Pittburgh's Official Website. He received his doctorate from Princeton in 1951 at age 22. A list of his books alone is breathtaking, which is not, of course, to detract from his accomplishments. His work on time, Leibniz, and idealism are, perhaps, especially worthy of mention.

Wesley Salmon

Adolf Grunbaum's obituary of Wesley Salmon may be accessed at: U of Pittsburg Wesley Salmon's Foundations of Scientific Inference. 1967. is a very lucid treatment of issues having to do with probability. Not only for the beginner who is searching for a clear exposition of Bayes's Theorem but also, technically, an original bit of philosophy of science this book will remain worthwhile reading within the foreseeable future. Salmon died in 2001 in an auto accident.


John Wheeler

John Wheeler is a well known physicist who has done a great deal on the nature of black holes and gravitation. He is a distinguished teacher and lucid writer. Philosophers who are not specialists in physics may be interested in his "Beyond the Black Hole" in Somer Strangeness in the Proportion edited by Harry Woolf. 1980. An informative, albeit brief, of Wheeler's life can be viewed at:
www.usd.edu/phys/courses/phys300/gallery/clark/wheeler.html


Alan Ross Anderson

Probably best known for his 1975 work (co-authored with N. Belnap), Entailment: The Logic of Relevance and Necessity. Vol. 1. Princeton: Princeton University Press, Anderson is a recognized champion of "relevance logic." There is a fascinating interview with the wife of the late A. N. Prior making useful reference to Anderson, and a brief amusing story on Kripke at:
http://www.kommunikation.aau.dk/prior/on_prior/transcipt.htm#f10

Correspondence between A. N. Prior and Anderson has been preserved at:
http://www.kommunikation.aau.dk/prior/boxes/box1_11/box1/Box1.htm

Theodorius Dobzhansky

Born in the Ukraine in 1900 (then part of Russia) Dobzhansky's interest in biology was in full bloom by age 12. Never completing an advanced degree, Dobzhansky became an intrepid researcher into the theory of evolution, pursuing the genetics of lady bug beetles he drew enduring significant conclusions pertinent to population genetics. Dobzhansky Archives An excellent biographical sketch can be found at: http://www.mnsu.edu/emuseum/information/biography/abcde/dobzhansky_theodosius.html>
In addition, there is a somewhat more detailed account of his scientific work at: http://www.stephenjaygould.org/people/theodosius_dobzhansky.html

Alan Donagan

Alan Donagan was a very popular teacher and lucid writer on difficult issues. The picture above is the image most likely to be retained by anyone who met Prof. Donagan during those years. Not only was he a philosopher of great breadth and penetration, but he possessed a sensitivity to the difficulties of students and struggling young faculty members. I recall in the early 1980s expressing misgivings about my presence in philosophy. He was reassuring and noted that "Philosophy is basically a middle aged man's game." I (Steve Bayne) never forgot that but was quite surprised to find these sentiments in C. D. Broad's concluding remarks in the Schilpp volume devoted to his (Broad's) work. He exhibited an infectuous enthusiasm for philosophy and clearly felt that it was important enough for a lifetime of devotion. One book very worth the while is his The theory of morality University of Chicago Press, 1977. In additon there is not only an early work of note, The later philosophy of R.G. Collingwood Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1962, but a number of interesting essays, including: "Wittgenstein on Sensation" in Wittgenstein: The Philosophical Investigation edited by George Pitcher. Notre Dame 1968
For a bibliography of Prof. Donagan's work on Spinoza take a look at: www.cerphi.net/bbs/alpha/dona.htm">www.cerphi.net/bbs/alpha/dona.htm">www.cerphi.net/bbs/alpha/dona.htm


Alfred Lande

Lande was made assistant to David Hilbert's at Gottingen. He and Max Born knew each other well and frequently exchanged ideas. Using what would be called the Land�-formula, Lande provided an explanation of the Zeeman effect. Much of interest on Lande can be found at:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alfred_Lande


Richard Rudner

Born in 1921 and died 1979, Richard Rudner spent most of his career at Washington University in St. Louis. He served as editor of the journal Philosophy of Science from 1959 to 1975. Archived material


Julian Schwinger

In 1965, Schwinger shared the Nobel Prize in Physics with Sin-Itiro Tomonaga and Richard Feynman for "their fundamental work in quantum electrodynamics, with deep-ploughing consequences for the physics of elementary particles." Nobel Prize 1965
A charming profile by the Nobel organization: http://nobelprize.org/physics/laureates/1965/schwinger-bio.html
There is a brief bibliography: www-history.mcs.st-and.ac.uk/References/Schwinger.html


Wilfred Sellars

For many who tied their fate to the serious study of metaphysics there were, to use an expression from Fodor, dark days during the 1960s, Wilfred Sellars was a guiding star. He produced works of considerable originality on everything from time to volition. He once remarked that metaphysical issues were hydra-headed: that as soon as you lob off one head two more appear. His "Empiricism and the Philosophy of Mind" continues to be essential reading in epistemology. Perhaps one of the best philosophical websites on the internet contains details on Sellars's life and work, including essays by former students and other distinguished philosophers can be found at: www.ditext.com/sellars

Patrick Suppes

Born in Oklahoma in 1922 Patrick Suppes has been at Stanford University since 1950. For the official website containing a complete bibliography: www.stanford.edu/~psuppes/
There is also a brief biography at: www.stanford.edu/~psuppes/autobio1.html
For those of us who cut our philosophical teeth in the 60s, Suppes is, perhaps, most memorable as the author of Introduction to Logic Van Norstrand. [1957] Clear and rigorous, the book is hard to beat (to this day).

For a good brief sketch of Scriven's life: http://epaa.asu.edu/epaa/board/scriven.html
For an online document by Scriven concerning certain of his views on education: www.knowledgewave.org.nz/forum_2003/speeches/Scriven%20M.pdf
A good, although short, bibliography can be had at: www.wmich.edu/philosophy/scriven.html
One of the most memorable, as well as influential, works by Scriven was his paper, "Definitions, Explanations, and Theories," published in one of the early volumes of Minnesota Studies in the Philosophy of Science (Vol. II). 1958.



Home