The Zukunftskolleg is warmly welcoming the Senior Fellows Prof. Valerie Shafer and Prof. Joseph Y. Halpern, who are our guests since 3rd June.

Valerie Shafer has been nominated by our Alumna Tanja Rinker and will stay until 26th July. She is dedicating this time period to her project “The relationship between speech-perception and language development in bilingually exposed preschoolers“. We are also happy to announce her workshop „Studies on normal and impaired language acquisition in monolingual and bilingual children and adults“, which will take place on 12th and 13th July and is organized together with Tanja Rinker.

Joseph Y. Halpern, nominated by the Zukunftskolleg Fellow Franz Huber, resumes his last stay in Konstanz in 2011 and will hold the lecture “Intransitivity and Vagueness“ on Monday, 18th of June, within a workshop of the Department of Philosophy (15.00-20.00, V 1001) .
On 21st June he will be honored by the Zukuftskolleg Lecture and give a presentation on the topic „Knowledge and common knowledge in multi-agent-systems“(A 702, 17.00-18.30 Uhr). Joseph Y. Halpern will remain in Konstanz until 20th July.

The Zukunftskolleg Senior Fellow Bernard D. Frischer, Professor of Art History and Classics at the University of Virginia (USA), will visit the Zukunftskolleg in May again to report on progress of the Virtual Hadrian's Villa Project, which was already in focus of his work during his stay at the Zukunftskolleg from October 2010 to July 2011. Together with a team of specialists Bernard Frischer succeeded in creating a 3D digital model of the archaeological site of Hadrian's Villa along with a project related website. The virtual world provides a restoration of the villa as it appeared and functioned in antiquity and shows the terrain, gardens, buildings, people, animals, and furnishings recreated in 3D. Another goal of the project was to see whether Problem-Based Learning (PBL) could be made more effective in the field of Archaeology by using virtual world technology as an educational resource. With the help of experts on PBL and educational assessment, Prof. Frischer deployed  The Virtual Hadrian’s Villa in an undergraduate class at the University of Virginia. In his talk

on Monday, 21st May 2012, 6.45 – 8.15 p.m., in A 704

Bernard Frischer will present the website, the virtual world, and preliminary results from the educational experiment.

The event takes place in cooperation with the Centre of Exzellence „Cultural Foundation of Social Integration“ and will be chaired by Ulrich Gotter, Professor of Ancient History at the University of Konstanz.

Abstract

Quantum mechanics is arguably the most puzzling physical theory we have ever had. On the one hand, it makes excellent empirical predictions; on the other, we know that it cannot be the whole truth and nothing but the truth. Trying to understand quantum mechanics while keeping its predictive success has led to alternative formulations of the theory. One of the most suggestive of these, Hugh Everett III’s pure wave mechanics, describes a quantum universe constantly evolving into many parallel, also-splitting universes, each containing copies of every observer and object.

Let's consider such possibilities in the conversation between Jeffrey Alan Barrett, Professor of Logic and Philosophy of Science at the UC Irvine School of Social Sciences in California (USA) and Senior Fellow at the Zukunftskolleg, and Guido Burkard, Professor for Physics at the University of Konstanz, chaird by Dominik Wöll, Fellow of the Zukunftskolleg in Chemistry.

The last event of our event series Philosophy Beyond Borders will take place under the heading:

"Reality and Quantum Information:A Conversation between a Theoretical Physicist and a Philosopher."

Wednesday, 16th of May 2012
5.00 p.m. - 6.30 p.m.
in V 1001 (Senatsaal)

followed by a modest reception

On Saturday, the 5^th of May, the second „Konstanzer Geistes Slam“ was a great success. For one hour within the “Lange Nacht der Wissenschaft” five young scientists from varying institutions presented their subjects. Although the well established PowerPoint presentation was a useful help, this event was stamped by the motto: anything goes, as long as it serves a better understanding. The participants had eight minutes time to bring across their message, afterwards presenter Mario Müller („Theater mit beschränkter Hoffnung“) drew attention to himself by a threatening tapping with his foot. In the end he did not manage to impose his measures since the cheerfully protesting audience had the last word granting everyone to finish their presentations. More than 280 people formed a large and enthusiastic audience, applauding and cheering the event and its participants.

In the end it was the beaming Dr. Julia Everke (from the Department of History and Sociology, specializing in Sport Sciences, alumna “Zukunftskolleg”) who climbed the winner’s podium. Her subject “Motor Activity and Cognition – Bored Neurons Say Goodbye” enthralled the audience although the final decision was a narrow win. The event was held in cooperation with the Faculty of Humanities.

The popularity is spreading across Konstanz‘ boarders. L.I.S.A., the science platform of the Gerda Henkel Foundation, shows interest in the Konstanzer Geistesslam by having done an interview with Alexandra Zinke and Benjamin Biesinger where the two participants talk about their experiences. On top of that, the Gerda Henkel Foundation is even planning its own Science Slam following the example given by Konstanz.

The complete Interview can be read here:

http://www.lisa.gerda-henkel-stiftung.de/content.php?nav_id=3721

On Monday, 30th April 2012, another workshop of the Department of Philosophy will take place from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. in V 1001. All Members of the Zukunftskolleg are invited to join this workshop. Among others Jeffrey A. Barrett will discuss about "Logic".

Program

Franz Huber, Fellow at the Zukunftskolleg, accepted a tenure-stream position in the Department of Philosophy at the University of Toronto, Canada, downtown campus (St. Georg), at the rank of Assistant Professor, starting 1st January 2013. The Zukunftskolleg congratulates Franz Huber on the new position!

On Monday, 19th March 2012, a workshop of the Department of Philosophy will take place from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. in V 1001. All Members of the Zukunftskolleg are invited to join the workshop with Jeffrey A. Barrett dealing with "Philosophy of Science".

Program

Academic philosophy is closely associated with the individual sciences in that as a science theory, it contributes to the analysis of hypothesis formulation and theory development. Viewed formerly as a universal, today as a basic science, the question arises as to how philosophy can be positioned within the spectrum of university research, and how other disciplines can enter into a fruitful discourse with it. The Zukunftskolleg would like to set a discourse of this kind in motion. After an introductory lecture by two speakers, in which each will present their position on a topic, a moderated discussion between them will follow. Questions and remarks from the audience are also taken into consideration.

Let us start exploring philosophy and let us go beyond the borders in a conversation between Wolfgang Spohn, Professor for Philosophy and Philosophy of Science at the University of Konstanz, and David Leep, Professor for Mathematics at the University of Kentucky, Lexington (USA) and Senior Fellow at the Zukunftskolleg. Chaired by Thomas Voigtmann, Post-Doc-Researcher in Physics and Research Fellow at the Zukunftskolleg, the first event of a new lecture series is titled:

"The Nature of Mathematical Thinking. A conversation between a philosopher and a mathematician"

and will take place on:

Monday, 13th February 2012
6 p.m. - 7.30 p.m.
in Y 311

followed by a modest reception

Presseinformation Nr. 19 vom 10. Februar 2012

On Monday December 12^th, 2011, Jeffrey A. Barrett will chair a first workshop taking place 3 p.m. to 6 p.m. in room V 1001. Following topics are intended:

15:00-16:00: Jeff Barrettt (UC Irvine/Senior Fellow): Pure Wave Mechanics and the Very Idea of Empirical Adequacy

16:15-17:15: Mathias Frisch (Maryland/Munich): Incantations of Causation and Other Philosophical Sins

17:30-18:30: Carl Hoefer (Barcelona): A Humean Looks at Quantum Probability

18:45-19:45: Charlotte Werndl (London School of Economics): Evidence in Climate Science and the Problem of Double-Counting and Future Uncertainty

The Zukunftskolleg welcomes Prof. Jeffrey Alan Barrett who arrived in Konstanz today. He will stay as Senior Fellow at the Zukunftskolleg until July 31^st, 2012. Jeffrey A. Barrett comes from the University of California in Irvine (USA) where he is Professor of Logic and Philosophy of Science at the School of Social Sciences. He was nominated by the Fellow of the Zukunftskolleg Franz Huber. During his stay he will work on the project „Modeling the coevolution of descriptive language and physical theory“.