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SUMMARY:Pleonexia and the Public/Private Health Systems - Kathryn MacKay (University of Sydney)
DESCRIPTION:Abstract: ‘Pleonexia’ is an ancient Greek term that means taking or wanting to take more than is one’s due\, or avoiding or wanting to avoid contributing what one justly owes. It is often translated as ‘greed\,’ though it is more complex than an idea of greed like uncontrolled appetites\, gluttony\, or avarice. It is also concerned with goods beyond those that are material in nature\, and includes honour\, respect\, and other non-material goods. Importantly\, pleonexia is connected to justice and not just to appetite. It demands to know\, what are you rightly owed\, or what do you rightly owe in turn? \nIn this paper\, I use the idea of pleonexia to interrogate the common practice in Australia whereby physicians and specialists trained in the public healthcare system exit the public system immediately upon completing their training\, for an exclusively private healthcare practice. All doctors are trained in the public system\, and learn from doctors who have chosen to have all or part of their practice in the public side. However\, many doctors choose to exit the public system entirely once their training is completed\, removing their skills from the system and closing off access to both other trainees and the patients who would benefit from their practice. I argue that this is a case of pleonexia but not simply in the positive side of wanting more money or status (though these may be involved). Here\, I will focus on the other side of pleonexia involved in this case\, of not contributing what one justly owes\, and leaving the system worse off as a result. \nBio: Kathryn MacKay is a Senior Lecturer and Program Director of the Master of Bioethics at Sydney Health Ethics. She has a BA in philosophy from the University of Western Ontario (Canada)\, an MA in philosophy from McGill University (Canada)\, and a PhD in bioethics from the University of Birmingham (UK). Kathryn’s research brings a feminist theoretical lens to the field of bioethics\, and especially public health ethics. Her work involves examining issues of human flourishing at the intersection of moral theory\, feminist theory\, and political philosophy. She has recently published a book on institutional virtue for public health\, entitled Public Health Virtue Ethics: Institutions\, Structures\, and Political Virtue for the Good Society (Routledge\, 2025).
URL:https://hps-events.sydney.edu.au/event/pleonexia-and-the-public-private-health-systems-kathryn-mackay-sydney-university/
LOCATION:Carslaw Building Lecture Theatre 275\, Carslaw Building (F07)\, Level 2\, Room 275\, The University of Sydney\, NSW\, 2006\, Australia
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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=UTC:20260330T173000
DTEND;TZID=UTC:20260330T183000
DTSTAMP:20260424T163515
CREATED:20260317T032353Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260317T034039Z
UID:181-1774891800-1774895400@hps-events.sydney.edu.au
SUMMARY:Our Microbial Lives: A Manifesto Against Eradication - Victoria Lee (Ohio University)
DESCRIPTION:Abstract: There is a growing recognition in the twenty-first century of our dependence on microbes for virtually every aspect of the way we live\, including how we grow our food\, heal our bodies\, and sustain our environment. Yet\, microbes are different from other targets of conservation\, such as butterflies and elephants: We feel differently about them. This talk traces the nature of microbial charisma as it has changed between efforts toward global eradication of microbial pathogens such as smallpox in the 1970s and the foregrounding of microbes as the life support system of the planet in climate policy after the 2000s. Drawing on research from her book\, The Arts of the Microbial World: Fermentation Science in Twentieth-Century Japan (Chicago 2021)\, Victoria Lee explores how humans have engaged with charismatic microbes in brewing and food production\, industrial chemistry\, and drug discovery. She invites us to rethink the modern history of human relationships with microbes in light of calls to foster a greater sense of kinship with nonhuman organisms toward a more sustainable future. In particular\, she challenges us to consider alternatives to approaches dominated by the goal of absolute control or eradication\, in line with the gradual discovery that we live inherently microbial lives. \nBio: Victoria Lee is associate professor of history at Ohio University. Her book\, The Arts of the Microbial World (University of Chicago Press\, 2021; awarded the International Convention of Asia Scholars Book Prize for the Best Book in the Humanities\, 2023)\, examined fermentation science in twentieth-century Japan\, a society where microbes were distinctively known and used as living workers as much as pathogens\, as a direct precedent to the more recent recognition of microbial ecologies as an inseparable part of human society in Europe and America. Her current work considers how twentieth-century microbial history offers insights into twenty-first century questions in light of the growing appreciation of microbes’ role in sustaining organisms at every level of life through the microbiome\, mediating climate change (especially in agriculture)\, and contributing to innovations in green chemistry. She has held fellowships at the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science in Berlin and the Paris Institute for Advanced Study\, and her work has appeared in the Los Angeles Review of Books\, NPR’s All Things Considered\, and Mediapart.
URL:https://hps-events.sydney.edu.au/event/our-microbial-lives-a-manifesto-against-eradication-victoria-lee-ohio-university/
LOCATION:Carslaw Building Lecture Theatre 275\, Carslaw Building (F07)\, Level 2\, Room 275\, The University of Sydney\, NSW\, 2006\, Australia
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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=UTC:20260323T173000
DTEND;TZID=UTC:20260323T183000
DTSTAMP:20260424T163515
CREATED:20260311T072601Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260311T072601Z
UID:178-1774287000-1774290600@hps-events.sydney.edu.au
SUMMARY:Colonization Resistance and the Gut Microbiota ca 1960-1990: Persistence of an Ecological Paradigm in Medical Microbiology - Nicolas Ramussen (UNSW)
DESCRIPTION:Abstract: In the 1950s an alarming response to technocratic medicine emerged: patients were suffering severe\, often fatal gut infections as a result of antibiotic treatment. This talk describes how in the 1960s-1970s\, research into the problem revealed that the indigenous microbial flora of the gut play a major role in protection from disease\, and thus established one of the foundations of microbiome science.  It also relates the ideas guiding these postwar investigations to much earlier microbiological thought dating to the turn of the 20th century\, and explores the relationship of this research field to the politics of the long 1960s. \n\nBio: Nic Rasmussen is Professor Emeritus of history of science at UNSW\, and presently serving as Chief Editor of Journal of the History of Biology. His research interests include the Cold War and the rise of molecular biology\, pharmaceutical development and its relationship with nonmedical drug use\, and the influence of commercial sponsorship on biomedical research.  Publications have included Picture Control:  The Electron Microscope and the Transformation of Biology in America\, 1940-1960 (Stanford 1997); On Speed: From Benzedrine to Adderall (NYU 2008); Gene Jockeys: Life Science and the Rise of Biotech Enterprise (Johns Hopkins\, 2014); Fat in the Fifties: America’s First Obesity Crisis (Johns Hopkins 2019). He is currently working with philosopher Maureen O’Malley (Sydney University)  and historian Claas Kirchhelle (INSERM\, France) on an ARC-funded historical epistemology study of the microbiome concept.
URL:https://hps-events.sydney.edu.au/event/colonization-resistance-and-the-gut-microbiota-ca-1960-1990-persistence-of-an-ecological-paradigm-in-medical-microbiology-nicolas-ramussen-unsw/
LOCATION:Carslaw Building Lecture Theatre 275\, Carslaw Building (F07)\, Level 2\, Room 275\, The University of Sydney\, NSW\, 2006\, Australia
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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=UTC:20260309T173000
DTEND;TZID=UTC:20260309T183000
DTSTAMP:20260424T163515
CREATED:20260303T053052Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260303T053311Z
UID:171-1773077400-1773081000@hps-events.sydney.edu.au
SUMMARY:Jim Crow in the Asylum: Psychiatry and Civil Rights in the American South
DESCRIPTION:Abstract: “Jim Crow in the Asylum: Psychiatry and Civil Rights in the American South” documents the impact of racial segregation and the fight for medical civil rights in the state psychiatric hospitals in Georgia\, Alabama\, and Mississippi between 1948 and 1972. Drawing on extensive archival and legal records\, as well as first-hand accounts\, Kylie Smith explores the ways that local Black communities and families negotiated mental health care in the context of white supremacy and fought for their rights as citizens. By placing the history of these hospitals in the context of the Civil Rights movement\, the book adds to both the history of psychiatry and the history of Civil Rights\, demonstrating the multiple terrains on which activists fought to end segregation. In doing so\, Smith argues that psychiatry itself was deeply entwined with the Southern racial project\, and that Black patients were particularly vulnerable to populist politics. This combination of political expediency and scientific racism created hospitals which operated as little more than prisons in the wake of the plantation\, and laid the foundation for racist approaches to mental health care today. \nBio: Dr. Kylie Smith was until recently Associate Professor in the Nell Hodgson Woodruff School of Nursing and Associate Faculty in the Department of History at Emory University in Atlanta. While in the US\, Kylie taught courses on race and health in US history and authored two monographs in the history of psychiatry.  \nHer first book\, Talking Therapy: Knowledge and Power in American Psychiatric Nursing\, published by Rutgers University Press in 2020\, won the Lavinia L. Dock Award from the American Association for the History of Nursing and the American Journal of Nursing’s Book of the Year Award in the area of History and Public Policy. \nHer new book\, Jim Crow in the Asylum: Psychiatry and Civil Rights in the American South was published by the University of North Carolina Press in January 2026. Initial research for the book was supported by the National Library of Medicine (NIH) G13 Grant\, and thanks to a grant from the Mellon Foundation’s Digital Publishing in the Humanities program\, the book has been released in print\, as a free downloadable E-book\, and an Open Access Digitally enhanced monograph on the Manifold Scholar platform. \nIn between monographs\, Kylie co-edited\, with Courtney Thompson\, the collection “Do Less Harm: Ethical Questions for Health Historians”. Published by Johns Hopkins University Press in 2025\, the book contains 28 essays on the challenges of developing an ethics of care for historical work at the intersection of health\, medicine\, and justice. \nKylie received her PhD (a study of history of juvenile delinquency in Australia) from the University of Wollongong and has returned to Australia to continue her work on a history of forensic psychiatry and juvenile detention in colonial regimes.
URL:https://hps-events.sydney.edu.au/event/jim-crow-in-the-asylum-psychiatry-and-civil-rights-in-the-american-south/
LOCATION:Carslaw Building 450\, Carslaw Building (F07)\, Level 4\, Room 450\, The University of Sydney\, New South Wales\, 2006\, Australia
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=UTC:20260302T173000
DTEND;TZID=UTC:20260302T183000
DTSTAMP:20260424T163515
CREATED:20260219T034758Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260223T215003Z
UID:157-1772472600-1772476200@hps-events.sydney.edu.au
SUMMARY:Planetary Health beyond Spaceship Earth? - Warwick Anderson
DESCRIPTION:Abstract \nFor more than ten years\, concern about the impacts on human health of degradation of the earth’s life-support systems has been expressed in terms of ‘planetary health’. The current and future effects of climate change on health and well-being thus come under the rubric of planetary health. We realise now that the health of all species depends on ecosystem health\, now scaled up to encompass the planet. But what ideas shaped this understanding of our dependence on the planet as a semi-closed feedback system? Many of the concepts of planetary health – including ‘life-support systems’\, ‘safe operating systems\,’ and even ‘planetary boundaries’ – derive from 1960s systems theories and cybernetics\, as developed in the NASA space program. Planetary health is still largely confined by our sense of living on spaceship earth. How might we come to imagine planetary health otherwise\, beyond the limits of a closed system? \nBio \nWarwick Anderson is Janet Dora Hine Professor of Politics\, Governance and Ethics in the Discipline of Anthropology and the Charles Perkins Centre at the University of Sydney. He was formerly an ARC Laureate Fellow in the History Department at Sydney. A co-conspirator in postcolonial studies of science\, he has written extensively on science\, race\, and colonialism; medicine and white masculinity; kuru\, cannibalism\, and sorcerer scientists; and autoimmunity and tolerance of self. His current research is focused on disease ecology and planetary health. In 2023\, he was awarded the John Desmond Bernal Prize of the Society for Social Studies of Science\, in recognition of lifetime achievement in science and technology studies. In 2025\, he received the Arthur J. Viseltear Prize for lifetime achievement in public health history from the American Public Health Association.
URL:https://hps-events.sydney.edu.au/event/planetary-health-beyond-spaceship-earth-warwick-anderson/
LOCATION:Carslaw Building Lecture Theatre 275\, Carslaw Building (F07)\, Level 2\, Room 275\, The University of Sydney\, NSW\, 2006\, Australia
CATEGORIES:Seminar,Seminars
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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=UTC:20251117T173000
DTEND;TZID=UTC:20251117T183000
DTSTAMP:20260424T163515
CREATED:20251110T225616Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20251110T230059Z
UID:150-1763400600-1763404200@hps-events.sydney.edu.au
SUMMARY:The Ian Langham Memorial Lecture - Uncle Rob Cooley\, Gamay Rangers
DESCRIPTION:Bio: Uncle Rob Cooley is a saltwater man with connections to Gamay-Botany Bay and the NSW South Coast. Currently\, Uncle Rob is Senior Ranger and Leader of the Gamay Rangers\, a group of Indigenous Rangers who undertake natural and cultural resource management activities on cultural areas within Gamay and on conservation land owned by the La Perouse Local Aboriginal Land Council. In this role Uncle Rob leads the coastal management of Gamay\, and has promoted co-design and co-leadership in coastal management\, bringing public awareness to Indigenous Knowledge of Coastal and Marine systems. \nIan Langham (1942-1984) was one of the pioneers of the academic study of HPS in Australia. Ian was an active exponent of the view that historians of science must examine the political\, social and economic implications of scientific change\, and believed it was essential for science students in particular to have their attention directed to these implications in order more fully to understand their own work and career choices. This Memorial Lecture aims to sustain and encourage this particular form of critical inquiry at the University of Sydney.
URL:https://hps-events.sydney.edu.au/event/the-ian-langham-memorial-lecture-uncle-rob-cooley-gamay-rangers/
LOCATION:Michael Spence Building\, F23\,Level 5\, Room 501\, University of Sydney\, New South Wales\, 2006\, Australia
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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=UTC:20251103T173000
DTEND;TZID=UTC:20251103T183000
DTSTAMP:20260424T163515
CREATED:20251019T220024Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20251019T220024Z
UID:142-1762191000-1762194600@hps-events.sydney.edu.au
SUMMARY:GenAI and mental health - Elena Walsh - University of Wollongong
DESCRIPTION:Human beings are social and dependent creatures. We rely on friends\, romantic partners\, family\, communities\, therapists\, and other confidantes for support\, insight\, and understanding. And yet\, we have recently entered an era in which many now seek support from artificial agents powered by generative AI. These AI agents are increasingly used — by design or request — to simulate roles we once thought only human beings could play. Among the most rapidly growing applications is the use of large language models (LLMs) to provide emotional support or to simulate certain types of therapeutic dialogue. The talk first places this development in context of a brief characterisation of psychotherapy as a ‘living tradition’ in the sense of MacIntyre (1981): not a rigid and fixed set of practices\, but a set of goals and methods that are continually critiqued and reinvented over time. Two aspects of therapeutic dialogue are singled out for comparison against LLM-based emotional or therapeutic dialogue. The first is the role of empathy in treatment. The second is the capacity of dialogue to restore ‘hermeneutical justice’ (Fricker\, 2007) — that is\, the restoration of vocabularies that allow experience to be accurately named and understood. The dimensions of empathy and hermeneutical justice are used as a framework to compare traditional human-to-human therapy against LLM-based dialogue or support. The talk concludes by linking the rise of LLM use for emotional or therapeutic support to globally under-resourced mental health care systems and significant barries to accessing mental health care\, especially for vulnerable populations. \nBio: Elena Walsh works across the Philosophy of Psychology\, the Philosophy of Science\, and the Philosophy of AI. She has expertise in the study of emotion and emotional dispositions\, drawing especially on dynamical systems theory\, life history theory\, and predictive processing models of mind. Her current research places contemporary research on emotion in dialogue with the rapidly-developing approaches to machine learning coming to define 21st-century notions of both artificial and biological intelligence. She is interested in how norms and values may be embedded into decision-making processes undertaken by AI and data-driven technologies\, and how human interaction with new technologies can impact our characters and regulate our attentional and emotional capacities. \nShe has expertise in related areas including Moral Psychology (especially the relationship between emotion and reason) and Epistemology. She has a longstanding interest in Buddhist\, Asian and comparative approaches to philosophy. Her other philosophical interests include the role of emotion and motivation in intelligent systems\, and the opacity and ethical governance of emerging AI. Elena completed her PhD in 2019 at the University of Sydney. Her dissertation adopted a broadly naturalistic approach to provide a theoretical framework that explains how emotional dispositions are constructed in individuals over time. \nShe has previously worked for the Department of Premier and Cabinet as a policy advisor\, and as a researcher at the Practical Justice Initiative at the University of New South Wales.
URL:https://hps-events.sydney.edu.au/event/genai-and-mental-health-elena-walsh-university-of-wollongong/
LOCATION:Michael Spence Building\, F23\, Ground Floor\, Auditorium 1\, The University of Sydney\, 2006\, Australia
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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=UTC:20251013T173000
DTEND;TZID=UTC:20251013T183000
DTSTAMP:20260424T163515
CREATED:20251009T004425Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20251009T004425Z
UID:138-1760376600-1760380200@hps-events.sydney.edu.au
SUMMARY:Quantifying the Human? – Dr Cristian Larroulet Philippi – The University of Melbourne
DESCRIPTION:Abstract: Quantitative measurement in the human sciences remains both widespread and controversial. Are depression scales\, intelligence tests\, etc. valid measurement instruments? Do they deliver quantitative or merely ordinal information? I discuss two approaches for understanding practices of quantitative measurement of theoretical attributes in the early stages of research. One uses causal notions to characterize dispositional attributes and to understand how they relate to measurement indications. It aims at standard epistemic desiderata in science (discovery\, explanation\, prediction) and offers good answers to traditional worries about human attributes (namely\, are they really quantitative?) and about their measurement instruments (namely\, are they valid?). A second approach uses the notion of value (as worked out in Dan Hausman’s 2015 Valuing Health) to make sense of quantification practices. This approach does not resemble what scientists think of their measurement practices: it is not designed for the testing of tentative concepts but rather to standardize political decision making. Yet\, I argue\, this approach is the most plausible candidate for making sense of some human sciences’ measurement practices as quantifying anything. Such is the case for measurements that (i) combine distinct dimensions of the phenomena at stake and (ii) for which we don’t observe serious efforts aiming at embedding such measurements in predictive and explanatory networks. I illustrate with two examples: depression severity (HAMD) and the Human Development Index (HDI). \nBio: Cristian Larroulet Philippi is the inaugural RW Seddon Fellow in Philosophy of Science at the University of Melbourne. He obtained his PhD in History and Philosophy of Science from the University of Cambridge in 2023. His research in philosophy of science has a strong emphasis on methodological questions pertinent to the social sciences (including economics\, psychology\, and parts of medicine). Both his PhD dissertation and much of his current research focus on the challenges around quantitative measurement in the social sciences. He also works on values in science\, and has previously worked on causal inference. Before turning to philosophy of science\, Cristian studied and did research in applied micro-economics.
URL:https://hps-events.sydney.edu.au/event/quantifying-the-human-dr-cristian-larroulet-philippi-the-university-of-melbourne/
LOCATION:Michael Spence Building\, F23\,Level 5\, Room 501\, University of Sydney\, New South Wales\, 2006\, Australia
ORGANIZER;CN="School of History and Philosophy of Science":MAILTO:hps.admin@sydney.edu.au
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=UTC:20250922T173000
DTEND;TZID=UTC:20250922T183000
DTSTAMP:20260424T163515
CREATED:20250916T053935Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20250916T053943Z
UID:134-1758562200-1758565800@hps-events.sydney.edu.au
SUMMARY:A Defence of Minimal-Rewrite Counterfactuals in the History of Science - Prof Gregory Radick - University of Leeds
DESCRIPTION:Abstract: What if\,  at the 1927 Solvay conference\, the causal interpretation of quantum mechanics had received a more sympathetic hearing?  What if Charles Darwin had died on the Beagle voyage and so had never lived to write On the Origin of Species?  What if the Oxford biologist W. F. R. Weldon hadn’t died of pneumonia in the spring of 1906 but instead lived to finish and publish his Mendelism-challenging book on inheritance?  The might-have-been pasts evoked by such questions are known as “minimal-rewrite counterfactuals\,” because they invite us to suppose that just one element which could plausibly have been different in the actual past was different\, with the consequences of that difference then reasoned through in the light of the evidence of what in fact happened.  In this talk I want to defuse two worries about the preference for minimal-rewrite counterfactuals among the historians of science prepared to “go there.”  The first worry is that there’s no justification for the preference; that is\, there’s no good reason to ignore the wider range of possibilities opened up once one begins asking about alternative pasts.  The second worry is that the preference neutralizes the potential for criticism of present-day science from counterfactual reasoning\, making it inherently conservative. \nBio: Gregory Radick is Professor of History and Philosophy of Science at the University of Leeds.  He has published widely on the history of the modern life and human sciences\,  with books including The Simian Tongue: The Long Debate about Animal Language (2007)\, Disputed Inheritance: The Battle over Mendel and the Future of Biology (2023) and\, as co-editor with the late Jonathan Hodge\, The Cambridge Companion to Darwin (2003\, 2nd edition 2009). A former President of the British Society for the History of Science and the International Society for the History\, Philosophy and Social Studies of Biology\, he is currently the Editor-in-Chief of the journal Metascience\, which originated in New South Wales.
URL:https://hps-events.sydney.edu.au/event/a-defence-of-minimal-rewrite-counterfactuals-in-the-history-of-science-prof-gregory-radick-university-of-leeds/
LOCATION:Michael Spence Building\, F23\,Level 5\, Room 501\, University of Sydney\, New South Wales\, 2006\, Australia
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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=Australia/Sydney:20250915T170000
DTEND;TZID=Australia/Sydney:20250915T180000
DTSTAMP:20260424T163515
CREATED:20250804T014709Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20250909T231204Z
UID:97-1757955600-1757959200@hps-events.sydney.edu.au
SUMMARY:If peer review is broken\, what can fix it? Some suggestions from the repliCATS project (Collaborative Assessments for Trustworthy Science) - Prof Fiona Fidler
DESCRIPTION:Abstract \nIn many scientific fields\, post-publication surveys of the literature find that peer reviewers routinely overlook methodological flaws and statistical errors\, avoid reporting suspected instances of fraud\, and commonly reach a level of agreement barely exceeding what would be expected by chance. Other studies expose the extent of gender bias in peer review\, and questionable editorial protocols that lack transparency. Anecdotally\, editors also report increasingly difficulty in recruiting reviewers. What can be done about these well-known problems? This talk proposes an alternative model of peer review\, drawing from expert elicitation\, deliberation and decision-making literature and our experience running the repliCATS project. There is perhaps a limited role for AI in an overhaul of peer review\, but that is not the focus of the talk. \nNow in its seventh year\, the repliCATS project has evaluated over 4\,000 published social science articles across 8 disciplines\, including psychology\, economics\, and education\, as well as hundreds of preprints on PsyArXiv. For each paper\, a diverse group of experts discuss and forecast the likely replicability of the research findings and make a variety of other judgements about the credibility of the evidence presented using a structured deliberation protocol. This talk will present our approach to evaluating research\, and for cases where we have the outcome of actual replication studies\, data about the accuracy of our forecasts. \nSpeaker \nFiona Fidler is Professor and Head of the History & Philosophy of Science (HPS) Program at the University of Melbourne. She is broadly interested in how experts\, especially scientists\, make decisions and change their minds. Her past research has examined how methodological change occurs in different disciplines\, including psychology\, medicine and ecology. She is also interested in methods for eliciting reliable expert judgements to improve decision making\, including peer review decisions. She has been active in establishing the Metascience community in Australia\, and was the founding president of the Association for Interdisciplinary Metaresearch and Open Science (AIMOS). She is co-director of the MetaMelb Research Initiative at the University of Melbourne\, and lead PI of the repliCATS project (Collaborative Assessments for Trustworthy Science). \n 
URL:https://hps-events.sydney.edu.au/event/if-peer-review-is-broken-what-can-fix-it-some-suggestions-from-the-replicats-project-collaborative-assessments-for-trustworthy-science/
LOCATION:Michael Spence Building\, F23\,Level 5\, Room 501\, University of Sydney\, New South Wales\, 2006\, Australia
ORGANIZER;CN="School of History and Philosophy of Science":MAILTO:hps.admin@sydney.edu.au
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=UTC:20250908T173000
DTEND;TZID=UTC:20250908T183000
DTSTAMP:20260424T163515
CREATED:20250903T052548Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20250903T053045Z
UID:122-1757352600-1757356200@hps-events.sydney.edu.au
SUMMARY:Weaving Genetics with Silk in Japan - Lisa Onaga
DESCRIPTION:Abstract \nWhen the history of raw silk is traced by following the thread of commodity formation and trade\, our capacity to fully grasp the interactions among the insects\, plants\, and humans responsible for silk-making can become limited. The enormous economic significance of export-bound raw silk manufactured and directly traded from Japan mainly to US American consumers since the mid-1800s until its peak in the 1930s is a case in point. The volume of raw silk unraveled from the cocoons of silk moths had peaked just before the Pacific War to over 40\,000 tonnes per year (around 400 times the mass of a blue whale!). On the one hand\, the low barrier to participation in sericulture—cocoon cultivation––spurred this scale of production in Japan\, which enabled experts\, bureaucrats\, and industry leaders to organize an unruly multiplicity of cocoon-spinners strains and nationally reform sericultural practices. On the other hand\, another negotation was taking place at the site of cocoon-spinners’ bodies. In this talk\, I highlight key scientific and technological developments that took place as biologists and sericulturists strove to control the reproduction and diversity of kaiko (蚕 / Bombyx mori) at every stage of their metamorphosis—egg\, larvae\, pupae\, moth. Tracing how sericulturists and scientists sought to improve the material properties of cocoons and silk\, and importantly\, the means to rear kaiko more than once a year\, sheds light upon the new forms of value ascribed to cocoon spinners’ hereditary information. Archival materials and scientific papers are analyzed in this reconstruction of the institutional development of genetic research in Japan\, enabled through attentiveness to a range of sericultural improvement efforts. Ultimately\, diverse forms of kaiko represented more than problems to solve; they had become tools and above all\, biological resources for the archipelagic nation to protect. \nSpeaker \nLisa Onaga is a Senior Research Scholar at the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science\, where she leads the “Proteins and Fibers: Scaffolding History with Molecular Signatures” Working Group.
URL:https://hps-events.sydney.edu.au/event/weaving-genetics-with-silk-in-japan-lisa-onaga/
LOCATION:Michael Spence Building\, F23\,Level 5\, Room 501\, University of Sydney\, New South Wales\, 2006\, Australia
ORGANIZER;CN="School of History and Philosophy of Science":MAILTO:hps.admin@sydney.edu.au
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=Australia/Sydney:20250901T173000
DTEND;TZID=Australia/Sydney:20250901T183000
DTSTAMP:20260424T163515
CREATED:20250808T011912Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20250827T063206Z
UID:104-1756747800-1756751400@hps-events.sydney.edu.au
SUMMARY:A Cultural History of the Vagus Nerve
DESCRIPTION:Abstract \nFrom the Latin vagus\, meaning wanderer or vagrant\, the vagus nerve – also known as the vagal nerve – is the tenth cranial nerve. The vagus nerve is a pair of nerves that acts as a key connector of brain\, heart\, lungs\, and abdominal organs. It is the main component of the parasympathetic nervous system\, as well as a central part of the microbiome-gut-brain axis. The nerve has emerged as an object of fascination in recent years. The production of discourses on this nerve extends from scores of self-help books that promise to help readers ‘activate’\, ‘unleash’\, and ‘soothe’ the vagus nerve\, to wellness accounts on social media that aim to coach users through exercises and movements that can reset and balance the vagus nerve\, and online media articles on the possibilities of the nerve. Achieving mental wellness or mental balance is positioned as a significant capability of the vagus nerve. However\, despite its importance in the medical practice and its circulation in popular culture\, less is known about the vagus nerve’s trajectories in medical and health history. This paper aims to sketch a cultural history of the vagus nerve and its connections to mental health. It draws on a range of archival and popular sources to critically examine the recent interest in the vagus nerve and its implications for understandings of mental health. \nSpeaker \nJacinthe Flore is a Lecturer in History and Philosophy of Science at the University of Melbourne\, where she also leads the Medical Humanities Research Lab.
URL:https://hps-events.sydney.edu.au/event/a-cultural-history-of-the-vagus-nerve/
LOCATION:Michael Spence Building\, F23\,Level 5\, Room 501\, University of Sydney\, New South Wales\, 2006\, Australia
ORGANIZER;CN="School of History and Philosophy of Science":MAILTO:hps.admin@sydney.edu.au
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=UTC:20250818T173000
DTEND;TZID=UTC:20250818T183000
DTSTAMP:20260424T163515
CREATED:20250808T011120Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20250813T070540Z
UID:92-1755538200-1755541800@hps-events.sydney.edu.au
SUMMARY:Trust\, Explainability and AI
DESCRIPTION:Abstract \nIt is commonly claimed that explainability is necessary for trust in AI\, and that this is why we need it. I argue that for some notions of trust it is plausible that explainability is indeed a necessary condition. But that these kinds of trust are not appropriate for AI. For notions of trust that are appropriate for AI\, explainability is not a necessary condition. I thus conclude that explainability is not necessary for trust in AI that matters. I draw out some implications of this for both trust and explainability for AI. \n\nSpeaker \nSam Baron is an associate professor of philosophy at the University of Melbourne and convenor for AI research. His research lies within metaphysics and philosophy of science. He has particular interests in the metaphysics of quantum gravity\, in explanation within mathematics and in explananability in artificial intelligence. He has held positions at the University of Sydney (2013-2014)\, the University of Western Australia (2014-2019) and the Australian Catholic University (2020-2023). He is the recipient of two large grants from the Australian Research Council to study the nature of time in philosophy and physics\, and currently holds a grant with the Icelandic Research Fund to study the nature of philosophical progress. He is an executive member of the Australasian Association of Philosophy and a member of the Centre for Time at the University of Sydney.
URL:https://hps-events.sydney.edu.au/event/trust-explainability-and-ai/
LOCATION:New Law Annex (F10A) Seminar Room 100\, New Law Building Annex (F10A)\, The University of Sydney\, NSW\, 2006\, Australia
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=Australia/Sydney:20250804T173000
DTEND;TZID=Australia/Sydney:20250804T183000
DTSTAMP:20260424T163515
CREATED:20250729T062316Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20250808T011846Z
UID:66-1754328600-1754332200@hps-events.sydney.edu.au
SUMMARY:Limitations of 'Natural Function' Concepts for the Ethics of Environmental Ethics - Prof James "Jack" Justus
DESCRIPTION:Abstract \nMany approaches to environmental aesthetics appeal to biological science. The appeals are intended to achieve a variety of ends: pinpoint which aesthetic considerations are appropriate for natural entities\, establish that those considerations are ethically significant\, and show that the resulting ethical valuations yield defensible judgments. I cast doubt on appeals utilizing ‘natural function’ concepts. The main goal of such appeals is to underwrite a kind of objectivity in the aesthetic evaluation of natural objects and systems\, one reflecting the indispensable contribution ecology and evolutionary biology make to understanding them. But that objective outstrips what those sciences can deliver. In some cases\, the conceptual work required––e.g. distinguishing different types of natural functions or individuating the bearers of these functions––is simply not supplied by the science. In other cases\, scientific findings seem to challenge the aesthetic judgments natural functions are claimed to support\, particularly the aesthetic value of some evolutionary outcomes. Perhaps most importantly\, the ‘natural function’ concept does not seem to further the aim of securing a suitably objective\, non-anthropocentric basis for environmental ethics. \nSpeaker \nJames “Jack” Justus is professor of philosophy at Florida State University. Besides philosophy of science (esp. biology) and history of analytic philosophy (esp. Carnap and logical empiricism generally)\, his research interests include environmental philosophy\, formal epistemology\, metaphilosophy\, and philosophy of mathematics. Thus far he has published in numerous philosophical and scientific journals\, and been unjustly rejected from even more. He recently authored Philosophy of Ecology: An Introduction with Cambridge University Press.
URL:https://hps-events.sydney.edu.au/event/limitations-of-natural-function-concepts-for-the-ethics-of-environmental-ethics/
LOCATION:Madsen Room 331\, Madsen Building F09\, The University of Sydney\, NSW\, 2006\, Australia
CATEGORIES:Seminars
ORGANIZER;CN="School of History and Philosophy of Science":MAILTO:hps.admin@sydney.edu.au
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=UTC:20250501T080000
DTEND;TZID=UTC:20250501T170000
DTSTAMP:20260424T163515
CREATED:20250413T224731Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20250725T050747Z
UID:20-1746086400-1746118800@hps-events.sydney.edu.au
SUMMARY:Join Us for an Enlightening Workshop on the Intersection of History and Philosophy of Science!
DESCRIPTION:The History and Philosophy of Science Department at the University of Sydney is excited to invite you to our upcoming workshop\, “Exploring the Nexus of Knowledge: Historical and Philosophical Perspectives on Science.” This engaging event will delve into the rich tapestry of scientific development\, examining how historical contexts and philosophical inquiries have shaped our understanding of the natural world. \nParticipants will have the opportunity to: \n\nEngage with leading scholars in the field.\nParticipate in thought-provoking discussions and interactive sessions.\nExplore case studies that highlight the dynamic interplay between science\, history\, and philosophy.\n\nWhether you’re a student\, academic\, or simply a curious mind\, this workshop promises to offer valuable insights and foster a deeper appreciation for the complexities of scientific knowledge. Don’t miss this chance to broaden your horizons and connect with a community of like-minded individuals!
URL:https://hps-events.sydney.edu.au/event/join-us-for-an-enlightening-workshop-on-the-intersection-of-history-and-philosophy-of-science/
LOCATION:Eastern Avenue Auditorium\, University of Sydney\, Camperdown\, NSW\, 2006\, Australia
CATEGORIES:Conferences,Seminar,Seminars,Workshops
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://hps-events.sydney.edu.au/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/AdobeStock_1344778770_Preview.jpeg
ORGANIZER;CN="HPS":MAILTO:jayne@ioncreative.com.au
END:VEVENT
END:VCALENDAR