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Saint Louis Area
Philosophy of Science
Association

About SLAPSA

SLAPSA is an organization intended to promote collaboration and cooperation among St. Louis area philosophers of science. It hosts an annual workshop for graduate students and faculty. It encourages the development and exchange of educational materials and curricula for the history and philosophy of science. It exhibits the relevance of history and philosophy of science to the broader academic community and to communities beyond.

SLAPSA Conferences

SLAPSA sponsors an annual conference on philosophy and history of science. The second conference, SLAPSA Two, was held on Saturday, 30 January 2010 at Saint Louis University.
Schedule
  • 9:30
    Coffee and General Congregation
  • 10:00
    George Terzis , Saint Louis University
    The Role of Anticipatory Imagery in Vision-Related Creative Insight
  • 11:00
    Sarah Robins , Washington University
    Memory, Engrams, and the Personal/Subpersonal Distinction
  • 12:00
    Lunch
  • 1:30
    Dennis Des Chene, Washington University
    Lange on Laws
  • 2:30
    Coffee
  • 2:45
    Anna Alexandrova, University of Missouri—Saint Louis
    Values and the Science of Wellbeing: How Should They Mix?
  • 3:45
    Coffee
  • 4:00
    Scott Crothers, Saint Louis University
    Models and Analogy in the Discovery of X-ray Diffraction by Crystals
  • 5:00
    Coffee
  • 5:15
    Mariska Leunissen, Washington University
    How to build animals. Teleology and the problem of design in Aristotle's biology

SLAPSA Mailing List

To receive messages from the SLAPSA mailing list, click this link. It should open a new message in your email program. In that message, change “YourFirstName” to your first name and “YourLastName” to your last name. Doing so will automatically add you to the list (the listserv greeting will tell you how to remove yourself from the list).
If that fails, or if there is some problem with the mailing list, write to .

SLAPSA Coordinators

The coordinators for SLAPSA are:

SLAPSA Archive

Program for the 2009 SLAPSA Conference.

About the flag

The flag used on this page is the Saint Louis City flag. Here is the relevant section of the Revised Code of the City of Saint Louis.
The design submitted by Professor Emeritus Theodore Sizer, Pursuivant of Arms at Yale University, and now on file in the office of the City register is approved, adopted and designated as the official flag of the City. The flag with a solid red background has two broad heraldic wavy bars, colored blue and white, extending from the left top and bottom corners toward left center where they join and continue as one to the center right edge. This symbolizes the confluence of the Missouri and Mississippi rivers. Over the point of confluence a round golden disk upon which is the fleur-de-lis of France (blue) calling attention to the French background of the early city and more particularly to St. Louis of France for whom the City is named. The golden disk represents the City and/or the Louisiana Purchase. (Heraldically, the disk is a “bezant” or Byzantine coin signifying, money or simply purchase.)
The flag’s colors recall those of Spain (red and yellow or gold), Bourbon France (white and gold), Napoleonic and Republican France (blue, white and red), and the United States of America (red, white, and blue). (Ord. 52322 § 2, 1964: 1948 C. Ch. 1 § 5: 1960 C. § 6.020.)

HPS events in &
around St. Louis

  • 10 February, 12 noon, Life Sciences 202, WU
    History of Science Brown Bag
    Edward J. Larson (Pepperdine University School of Law)
    “Haldane, Fisher and the emergence of modern population genetics”
    Professor Larson will also deliver the Thomas S. Hall Lecture at 4:00PM (location TBA): “From Dayton to Dover: A brief history of the evolution teaching controversy in the United States”
  • 24 Feb, 4pm, Whitaker Hall 100 (Forest Park Parkway and Hoyt Drive), WU
    Special event
    Donna Haraway (University of California, Santa Cruz)
    “Staying with the trouble: becoming worldly with companion species”
  • 25 Feb, 4pm, Alumni House (off Wallace Drive, from Forsythe), WU
    Special event
    Donna Haraway (University of California, Santa Cruz)
    Conversations with Donna Haraway”
  • 3 March, 12 noon, Life Sciences 202, WU
    History of Science Brown Bag
    Tara Abraham (University of California, Davis)
    “Scientific styles in American brain research of the mid-twentieth century”
  • 17 March, 4pm, Rebstock 322, WU
    History of Science Brown Bag
    William Wimsatt (University of Chicago)
    “Re-engineering philosophy for limited beings as natural agents in a real world” (also sponsored by the Hall & Hurst Lecture Funds)
  • 26–27 March, SLU (see web page)
    Henle Conference on Experimental and Theoretical Knowledge
    Friday, March 26
    • 1:15
      Welcoming Remarks
    • 1:30
      Deborah Mayo (Virginia Tech), “Learning From Error: The Theoretical Significance of
      Experimental Knowledge”
      Comments: Willi Harper (University of Western Ontario)
    • 3:15
      Peter Achinstein, (Yeshiva University)
      “What to do if you want to defend a theory you can’t experimentally prove: a method of physical speculation” (Wade Memorial Lecture)
    Saturday, March 27
    • 9:00
      Kyle Stanford, (University of California at Irvine)
      “Getting real: The hypothesis of organic fossil origins”
      Comments: Derek Turner (Connecticut College)
    • 10:45
      Michael Weisberg, (University of Pennsylvania)
      “Three-sex mating (and other biological models without targets)”
      Comments: Isabelle Peschard (San Francisco State University)
    • 2:15
      Wendy Parker, (Ohio University)
      “Models, Adequacy & Scientific Knowledge”
      Comments: Anna Alexandrova (University of Missouri at St. Louis)
    • 4:00
      Alan Musgrave, (University of Otago)
      “Empiricism and Explanation”
      Comments: Malcolm Forster (University of Wisconsin)
  • 21 April, 12 noon, Life Sciences 202, WU
    History of Science Brown Bag
    Roberta Millstein (University of 
California, Davis)
    “The Concept of ‘Population’ and ‘Metapopulation’ in Evolutionary Biology”
  • If you would like to add a St. Louis HPS event to this list, send the information (date, place, time, series, speaker, affiliation, title, and abstract, if there is one) to .
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