ILS CONFERENCE SCHEDULE
Sixteenth Annual
Interdisciplinary Conference
"Science and Culture"
SESSION I
ROOM "A" THURSDAY, APRIL 6 2:30 p.m. - 5:30 p.m.
“Science and Islam”
moderator:
2:30 - 3:15 p.m. Glenn Bottoms “Evolution
and Islam: Sayeed Qutb
School of Business and
Wahabite Theology”
Gardner-Webb
University
3:15 - 4:00 p.m. Mohammed K. Merzaa “Islam,
Science and Politics in the
Physics Dept. Modern
Arab World”
University
of Bahrain
Visiting
Fulbright Scientist
Northwestern
University
“Science in Popular Culture”
moderator:
4:00 - 4:45 p.m. David J. Cook “Science
in Movies: The Good,
& he Bad, and The Ugly”
Garrett
J. McGowan
Division
of Chemistry
Alfred
University
4:45 - 5:30 p.m. Don R. Osborn “Pictorial
Priming Influences on
Dept. of Psychology/Sociology/Criminal Atitudes Toward Global Warming:
Justice Another No-Katrina Effect”
Bellarmine
University
INFORMAL SOCIAL GATHERING ome of
Mark and Diane Garrison
Beginning at
7:00 p.m. 107
East Third Street
Transportation will be provided
CONCURRENT SESSION II
ROOM "A" FRIDAY, APRIL 7 9:00 a.m. - 12:00 Noon
“Ethical and Legal
Issues in Medicine and Medical Research”
moderator:
9:00 - 9:45 a.m. Richard J. McGowan “An
Argument for Roe v. Wade”
Philosophy and Religion Dept.
Butler
University
9:45 - 10:30 a.m. Ryan Chavis Fetal Humanity Theories and State
Pharmacy D. Program Feticide
Laws”
Butler
University
10:30 -11:15 a.m. Sandra S. French “Attitudes
Toward Stem Cell Research:
& he Impact or Religious, Scientific,
and
G. Sam Sloss Political
Values”
Dept. Of
Sociology
Indiana
University Southeast
11:15 a.m. - 12:00 Noon David E.
Armstrong “How
Can We Have Too Much
MacroEthics Medicine?”
Ottawa,
Ontario
CONCURRENT
SESSION III
ROOM
"B" FRIDAY, APRIL 7 9:00 a.m. - 12:00 Noon
“Science and
Practice/Science and Philosophy”
moderator:
9:00 - 9:45 a.m. Aditi
Gowri “Ways
of (Not) Being Anthropocentric”
Philosophy Dept.
Carleton
University
9:45 - 10:30 a.m. Robert H. Silliman Deafness in the Practice of Science:
Dept. of History Leo Lesquereux
(1806-1889), Paleo-
Emory University Botanist
and Bryologist”
“Science, Near-Death
Experiences, and Metaphors of God”
moderator:
10:30 - 11:15 a.m. Charles Don Keyes “The
Near-Death Experience as
Dept. of Philosophy Aesthetic
Spectacle”
Duquesne
University
11:15 - 12:00 Noon Clement Dili Palai “Metaphors
of God and Religious
University of Ngaoundere
(Cameroon) Signs in
Northern Cameroon’s
Fulbright Scholar-in-Residence Orature”
Cheyney
University
LUNCH (ON YOUR OWN) 12:00 Noon - 1:30
P.M.
CONCURRENT
SESSION IV
ROOM
"A" FRIDAY, APRIL 7 1:30 p.m. - 4:30 p.m.
“Critical Thinking,
Evolution, and Intelligent Design”
moderator:
1:30 - 2:15 p.m. Myra Parks “When
Has Science Gone Too Far?”
Whitney
Young School of Honors
and Liberal Studies
Kentucky
State University
2:15 - 3:00 p.m. Russ Jacobs “Does
Darwinism Destroy Morality and
Philosophy Dept. Meaningful Human Life?”
Washburn
University
3:00 - 3:45 p.m. Catherine Sherron “ID,
Science Education, & Philosophy”
Dept.
of Philosophy
Thomas
More College
3:45 - 4:30 p.m. Steve
Davis-Rosenbaum “Interdisciplinary Critical Thinking
Dept. of Art Initiative:
An Infusion Model for
Midway College Midway College”
CONCURRENT
SESSION V
ROOM
"B" FRIDAY, APRIL 7 1:30 p.m. - 4:30 p.m.
“Science, Technology,
and Religious Ideas”
moderator:
1:30 - 2:15 p.m. Curtis Brooks “The
Origins of Modern Science
& Revisited”
William
B. Jones
Dept.
of Philosophy and Religion
Old
Dominion University
2:15 - 3:00 p.m. Harry Lee Poe “The
Reformation and the Rise of
Christian Studies Modern
Science”
Union
University
“Citizenship and the
Social Sciences”
3:00 - 3:45 p.m. Mark Garrison “Re-Imagining
Citizenship: Social
Director of Graduate Studies Responsibility in an Age of Dynamic
Kentucky State University Change”
&
Dennis
R. Rader
Fellow,
Center for Excellence in Creative
Writing
Kentucky
State University
3:45 - 4:30 p.m. Majid
Amini “Is
Social Science Science?”
Dept.
of History and Philosophy
Virginia
State University
CONFERENCE BANQUET 6:00
P.M. - 7:15 P.M.
PLENARY ADDRESS 7:30 p.m.
(Kentucky I & II)
Dr.
Timothy Eastman “Our
Cosmos, From Substance to
Group
Manager of Space Science Process
and Plasmas”
NASA Goddard Space Flight Center
CONCURRENT SESSION VI
ROOM "A" SATURDAY, APRIL 8 9:00 a.m. - 12:00 Noon
“Interactions: Science,
Technology, Literature and the Arts”
moderator:
9:00 - 9:45 a.m. Rebecca K. Conn “Belonging
Dead: Hybrids, Difference
University of Wisconsin, Eau Claire and Perfection in The Bride of Frankenstein”
9:45 - 10:30 a.m. Richard Hall “Thomas Cole’s The Oxbow as
an Example
Dept. of Social Sciences of
Aesthetic Typology”
Fayetteville
State University
10:30 - 11:15 a.m. Howard Giskin “Turing,
Gödel, Zen, and Borges’ ‘The
Dept. of English Library of Babel’: Literary World
Making
Appalachian State University and the Impossibility of Knowing What
We Know”
11:15 - 12:00 Noon Nancy R. Bottoms “Technological
Influences in the Work
Department of Art & English Of Romare Bearden”
Gardner-Webb
University
&
Laura
Gibson
Senior
Fine Arts Student
Gardner-Webb
University
DESCRIPTIONS
OF CONFERENCE PAPERS*
(Presented
in Alphabetical Order by Author’s Last Name)
MAJID
AMINI
Department
of History & Philosophy, Virginia
State University
“Is social science science?”
After a period of latency, the
philosophy of social science is reappearing as a vibrant field of inquiry. However, the question over the relationship
between social and natural science still remains. This paper is thus organized around three
questions. (1) What exactly is accorded
by the appellation “scientific”? (2) Are there methodological and/or theoretical assumptions in
social science that render it “unscientific”?
(3) Can these two cognitive endeavors be morphed into one single
coherent system?
DAVID
ARMSTRONG
MacroEthics,
Ottawa, Canada
“How
can we have too much medicine?”
Medicine is widely presumed to be a
social good desired by all yet unattainable.
But all forms of medical care carry negative externalities including
harm to individual patients, net negative results in social planning, harm to
future generations, and damage to other species. The over-application of medicine creates a
morally unsupportable personal and social delusion that short-term personal
gain of a few extra years of life is worth bartering away others’ present and
future health and well-being.
NANCY
R. BOTTOMS
Department
of Art & English, Gardner-Webb
University
&
LAURA
GIBSON
Senior
Fine Arts Student, Gardner-Webb
University
“Technological
influences in the work of romare bearden”
“You should always respect what you
are and your culture because if your art is going to mean anything, that is
where it comes from” (Romare Bearden). Romare Bearden’s
respect for his culture is essential in his work, and his use of collage
enables him to give his viewers an understanding of the complexities of the
life of people who are blessed with belonging to strong communities, but cursed
with being prohibited from moving into the world that surrounds these
communities.
*Includes only those presenters who submitted abstracts in
time for printing. Consult the schedule
for a complete list of presentations.
CURTIS
BROOKS
Department
of Philosophy & Religious Studies,
Old Dominion University
&
WILLIAM
B. JONES
Department
of Philosophy & Religious Studies,
Old Dominion University
“The origins of modern
science revisited”
The scientific revolution of the sixteenth and
seventeenth centuries stands as one of the great watersheds in human
thought. While earlier attempts to
account for this signal development have proven less than satisfactory, recent
advances in several disciplines provide the basis for real insight into the
matter. These relate to three crucial
elements of modern science: patterns of thought that seem to emerge only in
literate cultures, the technological resources essential to scientific work,
and the kind of intellectual/social milieu that, over time, makes it possible
for a tradition of inquiry to exist.
REBECCA
K. CONN
University
of Wisconsin, Eau Claire
“Belonging dead: hybrids, difference and perfection in bride
of frankenstein”
In Bride of Frankenstein, Dr. Frankenstein and
his mentor Dr Pretorius undertake the construction of a female creature to be
the perfect mate and match of the Frankenstein Monster. However, the two scientists do not replicate
the experiment that birthed the Monster.
Instead, drawing on traditional social and scientific concepts of female
difference, they perform a new one culminating in a plant-human hybrid
woman. Thus, she fails to be a perfect
mate, with catastrophic results.
ADITI
GOWRI
Philosophy
Department, Carleton University
“Ways of (not) being anthropocentric”
Anthropocentrism is considered a hopelessly ambivalent
idea by many scholars, who would replace it with other concepts such as human
racism or speciesism.
I propose the term can and should be rehabilitated it we recognize four
important, distinct dimensions of anthropocentrism: axiological, teleological, agentic and existential.
Each of these dimensions may be independent of the others. Many ecocentric
philosophers have adopted the last two dimensions; however the possibility of
transcending them is explored here.
RUSS
JACOBS
Department
of Philosophy, Washburn University
“Does darwinism destroy morality and
meaningful human life?”
Some religious people believe that the theory of
evolution by natural selection - “Darwinism” to its foes - entails that “true”
morality and a meaningful human life are impossible. For many, this, and not some strong
scientific objection, is the primary reason to reject Darwinism. I argue that this belief is false, and that
objective morality and meaningful human lives are quite compatible with the
theory of evolution by natural selection.
CHARLES
D. KEYES
Department
of Philosophy, Duquesne University
“The near-death experience as
aesthetic spectacle”
NDEs have redemptive power because they are aesthetic
spectacles, “aesthetic” because of their sublimity, “spectacles” since their
narratives have great magnitude. They
are brain events, but their meaning transcends the causal mechanisms that immediately
produce them. Neither side of Susan
Blackmore’s distinction between the “after life” and “dying brain” hypotheses
fit this argument. Furthermore, NDEs might be explained as biological, cosmic, or
supernatural archetypes, but cannot be reduced merely to social constructions.
RICHARD
J. MCGOWAN
Department
of Philosophy & Religion, Butler
University
“A
defense of roe v. wade”
Our current abortion policy is inconsistent both with
Roe v. Wade and with classic philosophical argument favoring abortion. After briefly reviewing major court decisions
on abortion, I examine philosophical argumentation defending abortion, namely,
the classic arguments from Thomson and from Warren. I suggest that current abortion policy needs
revision consistent with Roe v. Wade and with early arguments defending
abortion.
MOHAMMED
K. MERZAA
Dept.
of Physics, University of Bahrain,
Fulbright Visiting Scientist,
Northwestern University
“Islam, science and politics in the
modern arab world”
Islam
has always been the major factor in every aspect of all Muslims’ lives. Muslim scholars’ contributions to the
advancement of scientific discoveries and applications during the prime of the
Islamic Empire are well documented in the literature. In spite of their vast natural resources,
most Arab countries at present are underdeveloped,
suffer from high rate of illiteracy, poverty and the inability to contribute
positively to the current advances in technology and basic science. Is Islam the reason for that? How does Islam look at science and
innovation? The Big
Bang Theory? The
Theory of Evolution and creation of life? What is the influence of Islam on the
scientific thinking in the modern Arab world?
And what is its influence on the political development of the Arab
regime?
DON
R. OSBORN
Dept.
of Psychology/Sociology/Criminal Justice Studies, Bellarmine
University
“Pictorial priming influences on attitudes
toward global warming:
another
no-katrina effect”
This study was a follow-up to a pre-Katrina 2005 study
that found pictures of polar animals led people to rate global warming as a
more important problem than pictures of flooded towns. Participants in this post-Katrina study in
the flooded town
conditions did not rate global warming as a more important
problem to solve than the pre-Katrina respondents and furthermore polar animal
conditions respondents’ ratings were not significantly different than the
flooded town condition.
CLEMENT
DILI PALAÏ
Dept.
of French, University of Ngaoundere (Cameroon)
Fulbright
Scholar in Residence, Cheney University
“Metaphors of god and religious signs in northern cameroon’s orature”
In Northern Cameroon, orature
is a rich and composite unit of myths, folktales, proverbs and songs. These are parts of daily life of the people
who are living in this area. From this orature, many signs are used as representations of God, and
determine local religious knowledge.
Then, God is symbolized by mythical characters, abstracted ideas or
objects. Anyway, each representation of
God is a guideline of the traditional life of the people. This article uses semiotical
approach to isolate signs of God and to interpret them as objects which offers
variety of significations.
HARRY
LEE POE
Christian
Studies, Union University
“The reformation and the rise
of modern science”
In Science and the Modern World, Alfred North
Whitehead suggests that the Christian worldview contributed greatly to the
emergence of modern science in the West, but that Protestantism played no
significant part in its emergence. This
paper will argue that the theological method of the reformers in rejecting
tradition in favor of an examination of the biblical text was precisely the
method adapted by Francis Bacon to the examination of creation.
CATHERINE
SHERRON
Department
of Philosophy, Thomas More College
“Id, science
education, & philosophy”
Recently Kentucky Governor Fletcher reinforced his
position that it is appropriate to teach intelligent design (ID) in our public
school science courses. I suggest that
this is not a good idea. Instead,
students can “explore the controversy” within philosophy. In this paper, I give reasons for including
ID in philosophy rather than biology courses.
Part of that work will include examining the definition of science, as
well as the purpose of public education.
ROBERT
H. SILLIMAN
Department
of History, Emory University
“Deafness in the
practice of science:
leo lesquereux (1809-1889),
paleo-botanist and bryologist”
This paper examines the life and career of a prominent
Swiss-American naturalist as an instance of how profound deafness may hugely
impede the practice of science, but not be a crushing obstacle to a determined
researcher. Lesquereux,
in fact, was triumphantly successful as a scientist and occasionally felt that
deafness, albeit a terrible affliction, was a definite
asset to his work.