Archives 2017-2018
58th Annual Program
2017–2018
For the 58th Annual BCPS program the Center will be co-sponsoring the 2017-2018 Mellon Foundation Sawyer Seminar on “Humanities and Technology at the Crossroads” You can learn more about their full program here: MellonPhilEmerge.com
Grappling with the Futures:
Insights from Philosophy, History, and Science, Technology and Society
April 29th – 30th, 2018
Hosted by the Boston University Department of Philosophy and the Harvard University Department of the History of Science. Co-sponsored by the Boston University Center for Philosophy and History of Science, The Mellon Foundation, and the Millennium Project: Global Future Studies and Research
For more information on this event visit: https://grapplingwiththefutures.com/
Keynote Lectures, Sunday 29th 9:00am-12:30pm
Science Center Building, 1 Oxford St., Cambridge
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Tempting Futures
Cynthia Selin, Arizona State University, School for the Future of Innovation in Society
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The Buried Past of the Far Future: Scenario Thought in the Nuclear Age
Peter Galison, Harvard University, History of Science, Physics
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Anticipation the Philosophy of the Future
Roberto Poli, Trento University (Italy), Philosophy of Science
Sunday 2:00pm – 3:30pm
Session 1: Plausible Futures (Philosophy)
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Troping Futures: Applying philosophy of language to examine the prefiguration of continuity and disruption
Nele Fischer and Sascha Dannenberg, Freie Universitat Berlin, Future Studies
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How do we get from now to then? On the merits and limits of explanatory pluralism in future scenarios
Yashar Saghai, Johns Hopkins University, Berman Institute of Bioethics
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A critical realist approach to scenario modeling practice
Eric Kemp-Benedic, Stockholm Environment Institute
Sunday 2:00pm – 3:30pm
Session 2: Global Histories of Futures Studies (History)
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Cold War futures? Political epistemologies and flows of knowledge in transnational futures studies, 1950-1990
Elke Seefried, University of Augsburg, Modern History
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How Cold War anthropology tried (and failed) to decolonize ‘Third World’ futures
Joanna Radin, Yale University, History of Medicine
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Futures as global expertise
Jenny Andersson, Paris Institute of Political Studies
Sunday 2:00pm – 3:30pm
Session 3: Anticipation and Visioning (Interdisciplinary)
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Anticipatory process and social research: going beyond a prescriptive and policy-oriented view of anticipation
Luciano d’Andrea
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Distorting mirrors of the present: Future visions as socio-epistemic practices
Dirk Hommrich and Paulina Dobroc
Sunday 2:00pm – 3:30pm
Session 4: Health and Futures Studies (STS)
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Managing the future: Planning cancer virus research at the National Cancer Institute
Robin Wolfe Scheffler, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Science Technology and Society
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Critical reflections on “futuring” in responsible research and innovation:
the case of Alzheimer’s researchKaren Dam Nielsen and Mariane Boenink, University of Twente (Netherlands), Philosophy
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Understanding the past and rethinking the future of anticipatory bioethics
Ari Schick, Harvard University, Edmond J. Saftra Center for Ethics