Philosophy in an Age of Science A Conference in Honor of Hilary Putnam's 85th Birthday

Harvard University Emerson Hall 25 Quincy Street Cambridge MA 02138 May 31 and June 3 Hassenfeld Conference Center Brandeis University 415 South Street Waltham, Massachusetts 02453 June 1 and 2

PROGRAM
TUESDAY, MAY 31 Emerson Hall, Harvard University
9:00-10:00am Registration, Breakfast Coffee and Continental

10-10:10am

Opening remarks: Alan Berger

10:15am-12:15pm

Session 1 Skepticism

Truth,

Ontology

and

Richard Boyd, Cornell University Epistemic values, true sentences and accurate maps: How not to be afraid of correspondence truth Gary Ebbs, Indiana University How to Think About Whether We Are Brains in Vats Steve Wagner, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign Consistent, integrated systems of the world: pragmatism, relativity, and Quine's ideals of reason

12:1512:30pm

Stanley Cavell, Harvard University, On Remembering Hilary

12:30-2:00pm

Lunch Break

2:00-4:00pm

Session 2 - Ethics and Science

Mario de Caro, University of Rome 3, Italy Putnam's Liberal Naturalism and Ethics Thomas Scanlon Jr., Harvard University Facts and Values, Distinctions and Dichotomies 4:00-4:15pm Coffee Break

4:15-6:15pm

Session 3 Philosophy of Perception and Mind

Ned Block New York University Attention and Perception Hilla Jacobson, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev Against Perceptual Conceptualism Sydney Shoemaker, Cornell University Functionalism and Causal Theories of Properties 6:15-9:00pm Reception for Registrants and Participants at the Inn at Harvard

WEDNESDAY, JUNE 1 Hassenfeld Center, Brandeis University

9:15am

Bus to Brandeis leaves from The Inn at Harvard

9:30-10:00am

Coffee and Continental breakfast

10:00-10:15am

Welcoming Remarks: President Lawrence of Brandeis University

Fred

10:15-12:30pm

Session 4 Philosophy of Mathematics

Geoffrey Hellman, University of Minnesota On the Significance of the Burali-Forti Paradox Harvey Friedman, Ohio State University Putnams Contributions to Logic after Gdel Charles Parsons, Harvard University (moderator) Brief remarks on Putnam on realism in mathematics 12:30-1:45 pm Lunch

1:45-3:45pm

Session 5 - Philosophy of Language

Nathan Salmon, University of California, Santa Barbara How Things Have to Be Alan Berger, Spring 2011 Brandeis University, Visiting Harvard

What does it mean to say, Water is necessarily H2O?

3:45-4:00pm

Coffee Break

4:00-6:00pm

Session 6 Philosophy of Religion

Anat Biletzki, Tel Aviv and Quinnipiac Universities Ethics without Religion Paul Franks, University of Toronto, Yale University Liberal Naturalism and Putnam's Atheistic Theology Martha Nussbaum, University of Chicago Does a Decent Society Need a Civil Religion? John Stuart Mill and Rabindranath Tagore Lynne Baker, UMASS Amherst (moderator) 6:15pm Bus back to Cambridge

THURSDAY, JUNE 2 Hassenfeld Center Brandeis University

9:15am Bus to Brandeis leaves from The Inn at Harvard

9:30-10:00am

Coffee and Continental Breakfast

10:00-12:00pm

Session 7 Philosophy of Physics: Interpreting Quantum Mechanics

David Albert, Columbia University TBA Richard Healey, Arizona University Quantum Theory: Realism or Pragmatism? Tim Maudlin, Rutgers University Quantum Theory and Metaphysical Realism

12:00-1:30pm

Lunch

1:30-3:30pm

Session 8 Part A Reductionism, and Naturalism

Realism,

Maximilian de Gaynesford, University of Reading, UK Faces of Realism: Some nips and tucks David Macarthur, University of Sydney, Australia Anti-reductionism and Liberal Naturalism Maria Baghramian, (moderator) 3:30-3:45pm University College, Dublin

Coffee Break

3:45-5:45pm

Session 8 Part B Reasoning and Its Foundations (tentative title)

Charles Travis, Philosophy Department, King's College London & The Institute of Philosophy, University of Porto Overflowing Bounds: Can We Naturalize Representation and Reason? Carl Posy, Hebrew University, Jerusalem, Israel "Realism, Reference and Reason: On Kant and Putnam Warren Goldfarb, Harvard University (moderator) 6:00pm Bus back to Cambridge

FRIDAY, JUNE 3 Emerson Hall, Harvard University

9:00-10:00am Coffee and Continental Breakfast

10:00-10:15am

Ben-Ami Scharfstein, University, Israel Poem about analysis Hilary

Tel and

Aviv its

Putnam

10:15-12:00pm

Hilary Putnam, TBA

12:00-2:00pm

Lunch Break

2:00-5:00pm

Plenary Session 9 Hilary Legacy of Hilarys Work: Ethics, Ontology, Twin Doppelgangers to Brains in

Putnam: The from Truth, Earth and Vats.

Panel: Paul Benacerraf, Hilary Putnam, Tim Scanlon, Charles Travis (tentative), with Q & A from audience