We are happy to invite you to our 2nd talk of the Vienna STS Talk Series in 2024W:
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FutureSpace Talk by David Valentine
10.10.2024 16:00 - 17:00
We are thrilled to announce David Valentine's Talk on 10th October 2024, 4:00 pm
When You Look at Earthrise, You Are Seeing the Wrong Thing (Or: An Autobiography of Earth)
You can register for the talk here<https://futurespace-project.eu/futurespace-talk-registration/>
Abstract
Since the photograph Earthrise was taken - specifically, by NASA astronaut Bill Anders during Apollo 8's fourth lunar orbit on (the Earth equivalent of) December 24th, 1968 CE at 16:39:39.3 UTC- it has been analyzed exhaustively to reveal a broad range of general, universalizing, and uncompromising claims about Earth, humanness, and the future. These claims, however, are also often orthogonal to one another or even contradictory. (Here are a few: Earthrise shows a fragile biosphere endangered by human excess... or it demonstrates that human technological ingenuity can solve terrestrial problems with outer space resources... or it masks a militarized, nationalist project as a moment of sublime transcendence... or it shows that humanity is ready to leave Earth's cradle and spread life elsewhere in the cosmos....) This paper's concern, however, is not with these analyses nor with their contradictions, but rather with the curious fact of their common generality and universality despite the spatiotemporal precision and specificity of Earthrise's provenance.
In this paper, I continue my ongoing project of thinking humanness from elsewhere in the cosmos to argue that Earth's fundamental conditions (its gravity, active core, radiation profile, magnetosphere, atmospheric chemistry, solar distance, and more) can sustain multiple-and even contradictory-generalized spatiotemporal analyses of the world, humanness, and the future without the specific autobiography of any individual terrestrial analyst of Earthrise being of relevance. Indeed, I will argue that Earthrise produces the aesthetic and embodied effect, for terrestrial viewers, of looking at Earth as if you were looking at it from Earth by obscuring the specific autobiographical moment of space-based viewing; the specific human-nonhuman assemblages and the simultaneous precision and compromise demanded by the always-contingent conditions of such viewing; and their radical non-equivalence to terrestrial spatiotemporal conditions. To put it another way: Any specific Terran could write an uncompromising and general autobiography of Earth without consequence to the whole world, a possibility that cannot be extended beyond its surface where the specificity of any act can be generally and immediately consequential. I will conclude by arguing that in looking at Earthrise from elsewhere in the cosmos, a non-Terran you would see not a general view of Earth, but rather, a specific example of how terrestrial humans are privileged to look at themselves in the multiple, contradictory, and uncompromising ways that their home world still sustains.
Biography
David Valentine is Associate Professor in the Department of Anthropology at the University of Minnesota Twin Cities.
Organiser
FutureSpace (ERC Starting Grant Project), Department of Science and Technology Studies
Location
online via zoom<https://univienna.zoom.us/j/63251489007?pwd=FBTgiIoQbHPTvmHhnjFwObba9mAGqZ.1>
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Best wishes,
Katrin Hackl
__________
Mag. Katrin Hackl
Drittmittelreferentin
Department of Science and Technology Studies
University of Vienna
Universitätsstraße 7 /II/ 6th floor (NIG)
1010 Vienna / Austria
Tel.: 0043-1-4277-49607
katrin.hackl(a)univie.ac.at<mailto:katrin.hackl@univie.ac.at>
http://sts.univie.ac.at<http://sts.univie.ac.at/>
Dear students, researchers and teachers,
To kick off the new semester we want to invite you to an Opening Event
here at the Philosophy Institute!
When? 17.10.2024, 18:30
Where? Hörsaal 3D, NIG 3rd Floor
First our teachers Nils Güttler, Tarja Knuuttila and Max Fochler will
give us a brief introduction into the idea behind the master’s program
and how it came to be. Then we want to take some time to get to know
each other in a different setting than the traditional classroom. We
also want to hear your ideas about what we, as students, researchers and
teachers, want to happen during the semester outside our classrooms.
After eagerly getting to know each other, we could then move to a bar or
café nearby. Please let me (Vinzenz, a11819352(a)unet.univie.ac.at) know
if you want to join so I know roughly how many we are.
We hope to see you there!
Vinzenz and Philipp
Liebe Studierende des MA HPS/EST,
am 18.Oktober 2024 findet an der Uni Wien ein Methodenworkshop auf Deutsch statt, der von der sehr profilierten und viel zitierten Wissenshistorikerin Andrea Westermann (Zürich) geleitet wird. Es ist ein großer Gewinn, dass Westermann unserer Einladung gefolgt ist, um Wiener Studierenden den von ihr entwickelten Ansatz der “erdzugewandten Geschichte” zu vermitteln. Die Teilnehmendenzahl ist begrenzt, deshalb wollen wir euch an dieser Stelle persönlich einladen. Die Teilnahme ist kostenlos. Wir bitten um eine kurze Anmeldung bzw. Interessenbekundung bis 25. September per Email (sebastian.felten(a)univie.ac.at <mailto:sebastian.felten@univie.ac.at>). Eine ausführliche Beschreibung findet ihr unten.
Mit herzlichen Grüßen,
Anna Echterhölter, Sebastian Felten, Nils Güttler
—————
Erdzugewandte Geschichte: Methodenworkshop mit Andrea Westermann
Ort: TBC
Zeit: 18. Oktober 9:30-14:00
Kann Geschichte «erdzugewandter» als bisher üblich geschrieben werden? Also so, dass die Erde nicht nur als historischer Akteur Einzug in geschichtswissenschaftliche Analysen erhält, sondern auch als eine Kraft, die mehr als bloss historisch wirkt – nämlich erdsystemisch bzw. erdhistorisch? Dieser Workshop bietet ein close reading von historischem Quellenmaterial und Forschungszweigen, die in meinen Artikel „Enrichment and dilution in the Atacama mining desert: Writing History from an Earth-Centered Perspective” eingeflossen sind. Im zweiten Teil der Veranstaltung stehen dieser Aufsatz sowie sein Folgeartikel „Entirely new and very old water: Elemental shifts in the Atacama mining desert’s relations with the Pacific, the Andes, and Chile” im Mittelpunkt der Aufmerksamkeit. Die Diskussion der Texte und ihrer Machart ist schliesslich der Ausgangspunkt, um eigene und weitere Ideen für eine erdzugewandtere Geschichtswissenschaft vorzustellen oder zu entwickeln. Methodengeber und Untersuchungsgegenstand meiner Forschung zur Atacama Rohstoffwüste sind die Wissensfelder Ressourcenökonomie, Literatur, Geologie, Bergbaugeschichte, Geopolitik sowie Umwelt- und Gesellschaftsgeschichte.
Andrea Westermann ist Sekundarschullehrerin in Zürich. Sie promovierte in Geschichte an der Universität Bielefeld mit einer Dissertation über Plastik und politische Kultur in Westdeutschland. Von 2017 bis 2020 war sie wissenschaftliche Mitarbeiterin und Leiterin des Pacific Regional Office des Deutschen Historischen Instituts Washington in Berkeley. Ihre Forschungsschwerpunkte sind die Geschichte der Geowissenschaften, Umweltgeschichte, Umweltmigration und die Geschichte der materiellen Kultur. Aktuell: https://www.deutschlandfunk.de/geschichte-eines-materials-wie-plastik-zum-p…
Der Workshop wird organisiert von den Professuren für Wissenschaftsgeschichte (Anna Echterhölter, Sebastian Felten, Nils Güttler) an der Universität Wien und richtet sich an MA- und PhD-Studierenden in der Wissens- und Wissenschaftsgeschichte sowie verwandten Disziplinen.
We are happy to invite you to our 1st talk of the Vienna STS Talk Series in 2024W:
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FutureSpace Talk by Juan Francisco Salazar
19.09.2024 12:00 - 13:00
We are thrilled to announce Juan Francisco Salazar's Talk on 19th September 2024, 12:00 pm
Critical imaginaries of outer space: futures otherwise
You can register for the talk here<https://futurespace-project.eu/futurespace-talk-registration/>
Abstract
This presentation offers an overview of critical perspectives and methods that are crafting space futures otherwise. Against the backdrop of ongoing militarization and commercialization of outer space, it reflects on what might be the urgently needed ethical compasses for how such space futures can be imagined and put into practice at the intersection of climate emergencies and decolonization processes, and across speculative fiction and engaged social research.
Biography
Juan Francisco Salazar is a Sydney-based Chilean transdisciplinary researcher and filmmaker and currently Professor of Communications, Media and Environment at Western Sydney University.
Organiser
FuturSpace (ERC Starting Grant Project), Department of Science and Technology Studies
Location
online via zoom<https://univienna.zoom.us/j/63251489007?pwd=FBTgiIoQbHPTvmHhnjFwObba9mAGqZ.1>
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Best wishes,
Katrin
__________
Mag. Katrin Hackl
Drittmittelreferentin
Department of Science and Technology Studies
University of Vienna
Universitätsstraße 7 /II/ 6th floor (NIG)
1010 Vienna / Austria
Tel.: 0043-1-4277-49607
katrin.hackl(a)univie.ac.at<mailto:katrin.hackl@univie.ac.at>
http://sts.univie.ac.at<http://sts.univie.ac.at/>
*Call for Abstracts:*
*Workshop I: Adverse Allies: Logical Empiricism and Austrian EconomicsThe
FWF ESPRIT research project “Adverse Allies: Logical Empiricism and
Austrian Economics”, the Institute of Philosophy and Scientific Method (JKU
Linz), the Institute Vienna Circle (University of Vienna), and the Vienna
Circle Society host two workshops in 2025. The organizers seek submissions
for contributed talks for the first workshop now.Deadline for Submissions:
31.10.2024*
Notification: 30.11.2024
*Workshop I in Vienna: 12.02.-14.02.2025*
Save the date for workshop II in Linz: 23.09.-25.09.2025
---
Logical empiricism and Austrian economics are arguably the two
internationally most influential intellectual movements with Viennese
roots. The Vienna Circle and the Austrian School have shaped the
development of philosophical, scientific, and political debate in the 20th
century. In the 21st century, logical empiricism has undergone extensive
re-evaluation, while the Austrian School experiences another revival.
Yet, despite numerous connections and interactions between the two
movements, their relationship has captured surprisingly sparse attention in
the historical and philosophical literature. If an account is provided at
all, logical empiricists and Austrian economists are portrayed as
philosophically, scientifically, and politically antithetical groups. Among
the most frequently mentioned contrastive pairs of catchwords are
empiricism vs apriorism, formal methods vs verbal reasoning, and socialism
vs classical liberalism.
Acknowledging the existence of disagreements between logical empiricism and
the Austrian School, recent scholarship has challenged the received view of
antithetical opposition by reconstructing hitherto neglected
compatibilities and similarities between the two movements.
This workshop aims to advance historical as well as systematic discussions
on the relationship between logical empiricism and Austrian economics.
Contributions that fruitfully inform contemporary debates in philosophy,
methodology, politics, or the sciences are particularly welcome.
*Topics for talks in workshop I include but are not limited to: *
· pros and cons of formal methods in the social sciences (index numbers,
models, …)
· counterfactual reasoning and thought experiments (imaginary
constructions, scientific utopianism, Robinsonades, …)
· the socialist calculation debates
· assessments of social welfare and universal basic income
· notions of rationality, irrationality, and pseudorationality
· justifications of praxeology
· explications of the fundamental axiom of praxeology
· the quest for certainty and fallibilism
· origins and methodology of game theory
· methodological reflections: rational reconstructions, …
*The second workshop in Linz will focus on: · Karl Menger and Felix
Kaufmann as mediators between LE and AE · common influences: Frege,
Husserl, Kant, Mach, Wittgenstein · non-cognitivism, the fact/value
distinction, and the ideal of value-neutrality · the principle of tolerance
and polylogism · logical tolerance, methodological tolerance, political
liberalism · logicism and the logic of action · naturalism vs
antinaturalism, unity vs disunity of science, scientific pluralism and
pseudorationality · essentialism and its discontents (Menger, Wieser,
Neurath, Popper, Rothbard,…) · defenses of democracy in Viennese Late
Enlightenment · expertise, education, and democracy*
*Abstracts should be 300-400 words (including references, if needed) and
submitted here: *
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSd5Mg7ThW9ufbzUkJcEk7ZodNnraJ7PuiZ…
*Confirmed Speakers:* Erwin Dekker, Catherine Herfeld, Karl-Friedrich
Israel, Reinhard Neck, Elisabeth Nemeth, Edoardo Peruzzi, Lukas Starchl,
Richard Sturn, Adam Tamas Tuboly, Sophie Veigl, Igor Wysocki
*Scientific Committee: *Alexander Linsbichler, Julian Reiss, Georg
Schiemer, Friedrich Stadler
*Queries:* Alexander Linsbichler (alexander.linsbichler(a)jku.at)
We are happy to invite you to our talk series of the winter term 2024/25!
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Best wishes,
Katrin Hackl
__________
Mag. Katrin Hackl
Drittmittelreferentin
Department of Science and Technology Studies
University of Vienna
Universitätsstraße 7 /II/ 6th floor (NIG)
1010 Vienna / Austria
Tel.: 0043-1-4277-49607
katrin.hackl(a)univie.ac.at<mailto:katrin.hackl@univie.ac.at>
http://sts.univie.ac.at<http://sts.univie.ac.at/>