Conferences
Physics, Philosophy, Physiology: Three Paths, One Spirited Product
| Friday, 26 January 2007 Conference day registration: 8:00-9:00 a.m. |
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Speaker Biographies: Keynoters
George L. Farre
Professor Emeritus
George Farre is a physicist turned philosopher. His work in philosophy is largely centered on the philosophy of science and its current developments, viewing science as a structure specific language constructed for the representation of what there is. The chief characteristic of such languages is their mathematical syntax, a specialized tool specifically designed to bring global conceptual structures to bear on local observables in an unambiguous manner. In addition, he also works on Wittgenstein's philosophy of science, on the philosophy of (cosmic) evolution, on recent developments in the philosophy of quantum mechanics and their relevance to consciousness, on questions relating science and values.
In the last few years, his research interests have focused on the phenomenon of evolution viewed as the defining characteristic of the observable universe (the big bang and all that). His current work is focused on the analysis of the emergence of energetically complex systems, including that of consciousness and its physical substrate. In this line of work, he has organized in the last four years several international conferences on the issue of emergence, complexity, hierarchy and self-organization, and edited their proceedings. Some of his most recent papers on these issues include the following: Cybernetics and Evolution: A Philosophical Examination in a Wittgensteinian Light, in Cybernetics and Systems (R. Trappl, ed), Vol I (Vienna Austria: Autrian Soc. for Cybernetic Studiens), 184; Representing Causal Relations in Evolutionary Systems, in Actes du Symposium ECHO, (University of Amiens, 1996); The Energetic Structure of Observation: A Philosophical Disquisition, American Behavioral Scientist,40/6 (1997); Remarks on Information and Consciousness, Informatica (forthcoming 1997); Foreword to W. Schempp: Magnetic Resonance Imaging: Mathematical Foundations and Applications (New York: J. Wiley and Sons) (in press).
A few years ago he established the Interdisciplinary Program in Cognitive Science in Georgetown College and serves as its director. The program is open to upperclass students majoring in certain disciplines, such as computer science, biology, linguistics, mathematics, philosophy, physics and psychology.
Dr. Karl Pribram
Distinguished Research Professor in Psychology and Cognitive Science
Karl Pribram is one of the world’s leading cognitive neuroscientists, and he is viewed as one of the founding fathers of the cognitive revolution in psychology. He received his MD at the University of Chicago during the Hutchins period and went on to become certified in the specialties of neurological surgery and behavioral psychotherapy. However, most of his career over the past five decades has been devoted to brain/behavior research which he pursued at the Yerkes Laboratories of Primate Biology while Karl Lashley was director; at Yale University where Pribram taught neurophysiology and physiological psychology; and for 30 years at Stanford University where he received a lifetime research career award from the National Institute of Health as professor of neuroscience in the Departments of Psychology and Psychiatry. Upon becoming Emeritus at Stanford, Pribram accepted the position of James P. and Anna King Distinguished Professor at Radford University, where he is supported by the Virginia Commonwealth Eminent Scholar Program. He is also adjunct Professor at the University of Tennessee at Knoxville. In 1992, he received an honorary doctorate in psychology from the University of Montreal, and in 1996, he was awarded an honorary doctorate in philosophy from the University of Bremen.
Some of the most renowned of Dr. Pribram’s extensive bibliography, which also contains more than 200 data papers, 210 theory papers, and 65 reviews and commentaries, are Plans and the Structure of Behavior (with George Miller and Eugene Galanter, 1960); Languages of the Brain (1971); and Brain and Perception (1991). He is currently completing an overview of what he has learned during his career.
Among his 100 pre and post-doctoral students are many professors including the (now emeritus) head of the Department of Experimental Psychology at Oxford and two heads of Laboratories at the National Institutes of Health. Pribram has received many awards from psychological, biological, engineering and philosophical societies for his experimental and theoretical contributions -- including the prestigious European Vaclev Havel Prize for “his fundamental contribution to the understanding of science as an integral part of general culture.” His most recent award was presented by the Society of Experimental Psychologists “for his seminal role in the cognitive revolution and for his pioneering contributions to the computational, theoretical and physiological foundations of brain function and behavior.”
He is more publicly known as developing the holonomic theory of the brain, in collaboration with quantum physicist David Bohm, which holds that information is distributed throughout the brain in wave interference patterns. In this way, it operates in a manner according to the quantum principles that govern a hologram. He has also developed these insights as a contribution to a quantum approach to neurophilosophy, which extends his theories on brain/consciousness to notions of human potential and spirituality.
For more on Dr. Pribram’s holonomic theory of the brain, please see the interview at http://twm.co.nz/pribram.htm.
A selection of Dr. Pribram's papers, suggested as background reading for the conference, are available here.
Patrick A. Heelan, S.J.
William A. Gaston Professsor of Philosophy
A member of the Jesuit Order, Patrick Heelan has a doctorate in theoretical physics specializing in geophysics and high energy physics, having studied with Schroedinger (Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies) and Wigner (Princeton), as well as a doctorate in philosophy (at the University of Louvain in Belgium) specializing in the study of natural science from the perspective of Husserl, Merleau-Ponty, and Heidegger. He also has an interest in questions relating to science and religion. Fr. Heelan taught for many years at SUNY at Stony Brook where at times he filled several major positions in the administration of the University. He came to Georgetown University in 1992 as Executive Vice President for the Main Campus and in 1995 became the William A. Gaston Professor of Philosophy.
Fr. Heelan's research interests are interdisciplinary with a concentration
on the philosophy of modern physics with a novel approach from the perspective
of phenomenology and hermeneutics. He has published about a hundred papers
on the philosophy of the quantum theory, contextual logic, the hermeneutics
of theory and experiment, and the geometric structure of pictorial and
other visual spaces. Most of his interests are to be found in his book:
Space-perception and the Philosophy of Science (Berkeley: University of
California Press 1983/1987).
Fr. Heelan has participated in many international and national conferences
on the philosophy of modern physics and perceptual psychology.
For publications and a more detailed listing of Fr. Heelan's past and current work, consult www.georgetown.edu/heelan.
A selection of Fr. Heelan's papers, suggested as background reading for the conference, are available here.
Speaker Biographies: Discussants
John Albright
Dr. John Albright is visiting professor of religion and science at the Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago. Dr. Albright retired in 2004 from Purdue University Calumet (Chicago area campus) where he was head of the Chemistry and Physics department since 1995. Prior to his position at Purdue, Dr. Albright spent more than thirty years at Florida State University. At FSU he not only taught physics courses, but also graduate courses in the humanities that bridged the “two cultures” gap. Dr. Albright was also Southeast Regional Director of the Templeton Course Program in 1994 and he continued in this capacity (1995-1999) after moving to Chicago.
Michael Kremer
Michael Kremer is Professor of Philosophy at the University of Chicago. He received his PhD from the University of Pittsburgh in 1986. Prior to joining the University of Chicago department he taught at the University of Notre Dame for sixteen years. His chief research interests are in logic, the philosophy of language, and the history of analytic philosophy. He also has a strong interest in issues concerning the relationship between reason and religious faith.
Philip Hefner
Dr. Hefner directed the Zygon Center for Religion and Science (http://zygoncenter.org/)
from its beginnings in 1988 until 2003. Hefner received his PhD in theology
from the University of Chicago. He is currently an ordained minister in
the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA), professor emeritus
of systematic theology, Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago, and editor-in-chief
of Zygon: Journal of Religion and Science. Hefner has written
eight books and more than 150 articles. His most notable book, The
Human Factor: Evolution, Culture, Religion (Fortress Press, 1993)
received the Templeton Foundation’s Best Books in Religion and Science
Award. He has also given many lectures over the years, with his most recent
appearances being a series of lectures for the Metanexus Institute in
2003-2004 centering on the theme of created co-creator, and the 2006 Goshen
Conference on Religion and Science, where he was the featured speaker.
Ken A. Paller
Ken Paller is a cognitive neuroscientist and professor in the Department of Psychology at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois. At Northwestern he serves as Director of an NIH-Funded Training Program in the Neuroscience of Human Cognition. He is also a Fellow at the Cognitive Neurology and Alzheimer’s Disease Center at Northwestern’s Feinberg School of Medicine. His research focuses on human memory, and particularly on the distinction between conscious and nonconscious memory. A key driving force in his work has been a desire to understand relationships between neural activity in the human brain and conscious awareness. Experiments run in his laboratory contrast conscious memory and perception with circumstances when people are unaware of information that can nevertheless influence their behavior. These effects of implicit memory and of subliminal perception are investigated in conjunction with various methods for monitoring brain activity, including electroencephalography and functional magnetic resonance imaging. Recent studies conducted with his students have identified specific neural signals that accompany instances of aware memory versus instances of unaware memory. Such contrasts can be used to shed light on the unique neurocognitive processes associated with conscious experience. He also holds the view that building connections between neuroscience and relevant concepts from Buddhist contemplative traditions can enhance scientific explorations of conscious experience.
For more information, see http://www.northwestern.edu/people/kap/home.
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