I love this school already
I don’t know how many of you guys follow Piled Higher and Deeper, a comic by Jorge Cham that is the most accurate portrayal of graduate life I’ve ever seen*, but they’re making a live-action movie of it and it’s screening here at UWO on the 23rd.
How freaking cool is that?!
Also, I’m TA-ing PHIL 2020, Basic Logic, class this semester, which is pretty snazzy considering we have to pass a logic competencey exam in our first year of PhD and this will do for a good refresher. Shout-out to Dr. O’Rourke for being an amazing teacher and making logic accessible to me, someone who had no intuitive grasp of proofs prior to the course.
Yay!
*examples from UBC: trying to teach correlation to undergrads, explaining what you’re studying, emailing, and “this might as well have been a screenshot of my compy”
Yes, it took me this long to find my camera cord
Hey!
I walked around campus a bit more this afternoon and got some pics. Then I walked south, though not far enough to get to downtown, and captured a few more pics. Observe London and UWO! Clicky for large size.
Outside the front of my dorm.
The library.
The main drag, Oxford Lane.
The other main drag, Western Road.
Coat of Arms
.
Downtown on Oxford Street.
My new place
WOO, apartment completely unpacked and organized! Want to see some pics? Of course you do!
Keep in mind that this is technically a dorm room.
Also this:
You gotta love Canada.
We’re in ON!
WOOHOO, we finally made it!
My mom and I got to London this afternoon (no trouble at the border, though my student visa is going to be a pain), drove around, found my dorm, unloaded all my crap in seemingly record time, experienced the wonder that is the Real Canadian Superstore yet again, got a desk at WalMart, and are now hanging out in my dorm room. Which, by the way, seems nothing like a dorm room and more like my old apartment.
I like it here so far.
Pictures to come whenever I get everything organized and find my camera cable.
SO EXCITED
SO!
Here are the classes I’m probably going to take at Western this semester and next. The MA is only a year-long thing there, so at the end of next summer I’ll be done with that and going onto the PhD, assuming everything goes well. For the MA, we need to take six half-courses in total.
Here are the ones I’m wanting:
Fall semester:
Philosophy 9276A: Philosophical Foundations of Modern Physics
“This seminar will examine the background to contemporary physics, particularly emphasizing two aspects: the philosophical views of space, time, and matter that were part of classical physics, and the views of the nature of scientific theory in general– in particular, of the roles of theory and experience, and the relations between mathematical structure and physical reality– that informed, and were informed by, developments in physics. Authors to be discussed include Newton, Leibniz, Euler, Kant, Helmholtz, Maxwell, Duhem, Mach, Poincaré, Einstein, Heisenberg, Schlick, Carnap, and others.”
Philosophy 9606A: Hume and Reid on Mental Representation
“This course will focus on Hume’s and Reid’s contrasting accounts of the foundations of knowledge and the workings of the mind.”
Philosophy 4993F/9889A: Environmental Philosophy
“This course in environmental philosophy explores some ethical and epistemological issues that arise in the contexts of conservation and restoration ecology. We commonly ear that we ought to preserve biodiversity. What are the moral justifications for such a widely accepted normative claim? Finally, this course will also look into the issue of unpredictability. Scientific and applied ecology were for a long time deeply influenced by an equilibrium paradigm in which nature was conceived of as balanced and predictable. But in the 1970s, ecologists started challenged this view and now endorse what some call a “non-equilibrium” view of nature. We will reflect on this new ecology and how it can affect the way in which policy makers and ecologists approach ecological management.”
Spring semester:
Philosophy 9277B: Philosophy of Probability
“This course is an introduction to philosophical issues connected with probability. Emphasis will be on the strengths and limitations of a probabilistic approach to confirmation in science. Topics will include interpretations of probability, Bayesian reasoning and its relation to classical statistical inference, how to understand conditional probability, and application of probabilistic reasoning to case studies in science.”
Philosophy 9279B: Science and Values
“This seminar considers the roles of values in science from four angles: (1) Values in scientific epistemology: heuristics and pragmatics; (2) Whose science is it?: authority, governance and ownership in science; (3) Scientific communication and moral life: trust, testimony, and obligation; (4) Choices: goals, risks, and the aims of science.”
Philosophy 9608B: Consciousness
“We will consider several philosophical theories of consciousness, including the HOT theory, AIR theory, multiple drafts, and dual aspect theory. We will also consider the role of science in explaining consciousness.”
Cool, huh?
