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::: center home >> news >> 50 Years |
2010-2011 Fifty years ago, the Center for Philosophy of Science was founded. Over the ensuing fifty years, it has been swept along by the strong currents of modern philosophy of science; and it has played its part in turn in generating those currents. (A more detailed history can be found on the Center Web site). We thought a fitting tribute to the longevity and flourishing of the Center would be to solicit contributions from the extended Center Family in whatever form you thought fitting. Below are remembrances, anecdotes, before and after pictures, and more. They are listed alphabetically. -----------
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----------- Here is an anecdote from Olden Times. In the sixties, each Center lecture attracted an auditorium-sized collection of people from throughout the University and the City. Among the many regular attendees, there was one that we called "Death-ray Dan." He always asked a question, usually on an irrelevant topic taken from the morning newspaper. One time, DD buttonholed Adolf, and asked him to purchase a directional microphone to point at persons asking questions. "But," said DD, "don't get the kind that have a built-in death-ray." ---------- Lindley Darden of the University of Maryland in College Park has fond memories of being a fellow at the Center in 1997. She enjoyed discussing the history of molecular biology with Bob Olby. Especially fruitful was the collaboration that began with Peter Machamer and Carl Craver on the topic of biological mechanisms. Their MDC paper ("Thinking about Mechanisms" published in Philosophy of Science in 2000, after many trips back and forth on the Penn turnpike) is now, to their amazement, referred to as a "classic." It has, for several years, been listed as the "Most Cited" article in Philosophy of Science, although no one, including the editor of the journal, knows exactly to what that refers. She and Carl Craver have received a National Endowment for the Humanities Collaborative Research Grant for work on their prospective book, In Search of Biological Mechanisms. She enjoys being an Associate of the Center and coming over for conferences once or twice a year, with lots of intellectual stimulation, good food, and good company.
---------- Philip Ehrlich
Here are pictures then (2001) and now (2010). The first was taken right before I arrived at the Center. It is the picture OU took of me when I was named Ohio University Research Scholar in Arts and Humanities and the second picture was taken today. As to a humorous anecdote regarding the center, I really got a great kick out of Adolf coming up to me before a talk I gave at the Center on Zeno's Paradox of Extension and asking me: "Phil, what was my view on the subject?" Of course, despite the fact that Adolf's treatment was, and perhaps still is, regarded, as the received view, it had been decades since he had written on the matter. ---------------- Chris, Erik, Flavia and Laura were fellows in Pittsburgh during the year Chris and Tansel's wedding was celebrated on the 10th of July, 2010 in ---------------
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---------- Malcolm Forster is now living in China as a result of his meeting another ---------
Photos from 1989 and 2010 with Pat Suppes ---------
Adolf Grünbaum has drawn our attention to his recent autobiography:
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One of my first days in the Center. Malcolm Forster is talking with John Norton in the lounge room. This day I learned the lesson: if you need a rest and want to chat, go to the Center lounge - you’ll find somebody there, or somebody will find you soon. more . . .
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----------- About two years ago I found under my name in Google a link to a new site named "Strange Wondrous Quotes & Quotations" which includes a huge collection of quotes on just about every topic imaginable, such as philosophy, science, politics, books, discovery, genius, madness, reality, truth, reason and wisdom. Two quotations from my book Scientific Discovery: Logic and Tinkering (State University of New York Press, Albany, NY, 1993) appear there. Due to the alphabetical order my name appears immediately after Immanuel Kant. And how this is related to CPS? I started writing the book while I stayed at the Center in 1989. I was pleased to see myself in the company of figures such as Plato, Kant and Einstein. To my regret, I could not find any other names from the Center cited in this site. I would be very glad if someone will tell me that he/she found such names. For those of you who are interested, the address of the site is: "strangewondrous.net". --------
I'm sending the attached photo, which shows me (standing between the outgoing and incoming Provosts) being presented the Provost's Excellence in Mentoring Award, in recognition of my successful mentoring of doctoral students over the years. -------
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--------- Eve and I first came to Pittsburgh in the summer of 1983. We were guided only by a letter from Peter Machamer with the return address, Cathedral of Learning, University of Pittsburgh. As we drove down Route 376, wondering where to turn, we saw a big Gothic spike on the horizon. "Cathedral of Learning" suddenly made sense. We navigated through the back streets of Oakland simply turning towards that spike whenever it emerged from behind the buildings. My first year in Pittsburgh was spent as a Visiting Fellow in the Center. In the offices around me was a new generation of then young scholars: David Malament, Richard Healey, Paul Humphreys, Nancy Cartwright and more; and some senior sages, including Roberto Torretti and the Director, Nicholas Rescher. It was an intellectually intense experience that I will never forget and that, as Director, I now seek to replicate for present visitors. Here's a photo from those early days, taken a few years later, but still in the 1980s.
There are fewer photos of me today. I am usually the one taking the photos. In that spirit, here's one of me taking photos of Fellows.
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Photos from 1982 and 2010 -------------
2009 ----------
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Here's philsci-archive in 2001 shortly after its launch and in 2010, just before its major upgrade. ---------
Here are two pictures of me. One when I was Center Director (1980). The other more current (2007). ---- I spent two semesters at the Center for the Philosophy of Science in 2001. What drew me to the Center was Professor Adolf Günbaum. In Warsaw I worked with Freudian psychoanalysis and was influenced by the hermeneutical interpretation of Freud’s work. Grünbaum’s interpretation of Freud evoked ambivalent reactions, of respect and admiration on the one hand, and criticism and rejection on the other. Because of this I wanted to learn about Grünbaum’s work first hand, participate in his seminars, and meet him personally. The result of my stay was the translation of his book The Foundation of Psychoanalysis. A Philosophical Critique into Polish by a former student of mine. Currently, in Poland, the book belongs to the canon of readings for the courses in philosphy of science. I particularly enjoyed the social interactions with my colleagues, dinners, parties, drinks. Once, to reciprocate, I invited my friends for pierogis (stereotypical Polish dish). Someone brought wine, but not one bottle, as is customary, but several dozen. We did not leave off 'til it was all gone. My English had never been this fluent before. ---------
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I have sent three photos: the first from the time before the Center, because I took part to the Center Fellows' meeting in Athens, Greece, on 21-28 May 1992, and there is a photo on me in Delphi, where we made an excursion. In connection with this, I may tell you that in Delphi there was an ancient stadium where John Earman and I took a running competition - in the spirit of the ancient Greek Olympic games. We were quite even at the goal - John slightly in front. The second picture is from Pittsburgh; I am in front, and my family is replicated in the mirrors at the rear. We were in Pittsburgh between the 1st of September 1992, until the 27th of June 1993. The third photo shows my present self at our home library; it was taken two days ago. We had a good time in Pittsburgh. I liked the lunchtime colloquia and other meetings, where I learned a lot and where I gave my own presentation ("On Reichenbach's Philosophy"), September the 29th 1992. I learned to know Wenceslao Gonzalez, who came to the Center in Spring 1993 and with whom I still cooperate. I often had a lunch meeting with Nicholas Rescher, and our whole family received an invitation to his home. We were invited guests also at Adolf Grünbaum's home. At the end of February 1993, we enjoyed downhill skiing in Hidden Valley. On March the 5th and 6th, I followed the friendly invitation of Jay F. Rosenberg to Chapel Hill, where I gave a visiting lecture on the theme 'Exploration of space and time: Kant and Reichenbach'. In April the 5th, I had the opporuntiny to meet Maria Reichenbach at Los Angeles. -------------- Drossi was appointed Vice Dean for International Affairs in 2009 and holds the position of associate professor and Chair of Medical Psychology in the Faculty of Public Health, University of Medicine, Plovdiv. He published and/or edited over 90 papers, three monographs and a textbook of psychology and received a number of awards for his research such as Hippocratic Medal from the International Hippocratic Foundation for his contributions in philosophy of medicine. Drossi’s latest publications are on the convergent trans-disciplinary validity of the methods and categories in psychology and psychiatry. Drossi has married in 2009 to Ilyana, scientific research fellow in cardiology. --------------
Photos from 1991, with Arthur W. Burks, and 2006. ------------
It was during my 82-3 year at Pitt that, courtesy of George Gale, I was christened 'John Wesley Worrall' (George and sometimes Ron Giere still write to me as ' Dear John Wesley'). This was caused by the fact that eventually I managed to learn my lesson and say that I had work to do when George, Ted, and Peter insisted that there was a new bar somewhere on the South Side or whatever that we simply had to go to. I was so often called JWW in that year, that Wes Salmon turned out to think that it was really my name (I don't have a middle name at all in fact) - he was Wesley Charles after John's brother Charles Wesley because (in fact like me) he had devout Methodist parents. |
This event was co-organized with Rob Clifton, who was also an Associate Director of the Center. His kind and gentle heart stopped beating in 2002 at the age of 39.
