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Foerster Lectures on the Immortality of the Soul
Charles M. and Martha Hitchcock Lectures
Howison Lectures in Philosophy
Jefferson Memorial Lectures
Bernard Moses Memorial Lecture
Carl O. Sauer Memorial Lecture
Barbara Weinstock Lectures on the Morals of Trade
October 27, 2010
— 4:10 PM
Berkeley City Club, Ballroom, 2315 Durant Avenue, Berkeley
(Relocated from Wheeler Hall)
In this lecture, Professor Ian Hacking will explore how our innate sense of symmetry has enabled us to probe the most hidden secrets of nature and also to get along with each other.
A distinguished philosopher, Ian Hacking combines attention to anecdotal details about our experiences with very general conceptions of the place of human beings in the world. He likes to think of himself as a philosophical anthropologist. In this lecture he will present a new development in his philosophy, one which remains in the spirit of what has established his reputation as a "Philosopher of the Particular Case." His early work, represented by The Emergence of Probability (1975) and The Taming of Chance (1990) brought a new understanding of how statistics changed the world and how we think about it, from sociology to physics, not omitting sports and our sex lives. His Representing and Intervening (1983) returned philosophers of science to their roots, namely experimental science. It began what he calls a "back to Francis Bacon movement," which has changed the history, philosophy, and sociology of the sciences.