SFU Philosophy profs have been travelling recently, taking part in academic philosophy across the globe. 

Undergraduate chair, Dai Heide recently gave a talk entitled “Kant on Real Predication and the Ontological Argument: An Interpretive Dilemma” to the Philosophy Department at Gothenburg University in Sweden.

Graduate chair, Holly Andersen will travel to Toronto for a Logic and Philosophy of Science Group presentation on December 6. Her talk, titled "Patterns in data versus phenomena" will offer an account of causal as informational relations between pattern instantiated in the rich causal nexus. Andersen will offer a new definition of patterns, drawing on Dennett’s original (1991) definition and incorporating more contemporary examples of pattern recognition from computer science. She will also address a series of philosophical concerns that have arisen about the role that patterns play in identifying causal relationships and relata by drawing on the distinction between data and phenomena offered by Bogen and Woodward (1988).

"Existing philosophical discussions of patterns tend to implicitly or explicitly focus on patterns in data. In contrast, I want to emphasize the role of patterns in individuating phenomena. ‘Pattern’ is useful ambiguous between types and tokens, allowing for an illuminating connection between individual pattern tokens and the variables in approaches to causation such as interventionism. Constraints of coherence and completeness on pattern identification conditions provide the joints in theories or models that can be tightened through iteration."