Spring Break
Harvard professor to speak on philosophy, nuclear waste disposal
By: Romy Misra
Issue date: 11/10/08 Section: News
Peter L. Galison, the Joseph Pellegrino University Professor of the History of Science and of Physics at Harvard University will speak about the difference between "nuclear wastelands" and "clear wilderness" as the topic of the second lecture in the university distinguished lecture series. The lecture series is a forum to present distinguished scholars from an array of disciplines. Galison is the second speaker in this series.
Galison is considered to be one of the premier historians and philosophers of science in the world. Science historians are scholars who study the history of science and are interested in making historical sense of the natural sciences. Philosophers of science are interested in how science is done and in how it affects society.
Galison's lecture will focus on how we think about and regulate nuclear waste disposal rather than focusing on the practical issues related to nuclear waste storage. Galison will be discussing the social implications of what mankind is doing by showing us intriguing similarities between nuclear wasteland and wilderness. Removing parts of the earth in perpetuity - for reasons of sanctification or despoilment - alters a central feature of the human self, presenting us in a different relation to the physical world, and raising irreducible questions about when land can be classified, forever, as not for humans.
Galison's lecture is not limited to people of the sciences.
Nancy Sawtelle, director of communication for the provost office, said, "Students studying the sciences - particularly physics and chemistry - as well as students studying engineering, philosophy and history would probably be the most interested in Dr. Galison's lecture. Students in the visualization program in the College of Architecture may also be interested because he is a filmmaker and teaches a class on filming science."
The lecture will be at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday in the auditorium of the Annenberg Presidential Conference Center. Free tickets are available from the MSC Box Office in Rudder Tower.
Galison is considered to be one of the premier historians and philosophers of science in the world. Science historians are scholars who study the history of science and are interested in making historical sense of the natural sciences. Philosophers of science are interested in how science is done and in how it affects society.
Galison's lecture will focus on how we think about and regulate nuclear waste disposal rather than focusing on the practical issues related to nuclear waste storage. Galison will be discussing the social implications of what mankind is doing by showing us intriguing similarities between nuclear wasteland and wilderness. Removing parts of the earth in perpetuity - for reasons of sanctification or despoilment - alters a central feature of the human self, presenting us in a different relation to the physical world, and raising irreducible questions about when land can be classified, forever, as not for humans.
Galison's lecture is not limited to people of the sciences.
Nancy Sawtelle, director of communication for the provost office, said, "Students studying the sciences - particularly physics and chemistry - as well as students studying engineering, philosophy and history would probably be the most interested in Dr. Galison's lecture. Students in the visualization program in the College of Architecture may also be interested because he is a filmmaker and teaches a class on filming science."
The lecture will be at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday in the auditorium of the Annenberg Presidential Conference Center. Free tickets are available from the MSC Box Office in Rudder Tower.
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