UoR Virtual Reality workshop 11/06/18

Please see details below regarding a CINN-funded multidisciplinary VR event taking place at the Henley Business School (Whiteknights) on Monday 11 June, 2018.

Virtual technologies have become increasingly prevalent in the modern world. The affordability of such technologies have made them accessible across disciplines and we continue to see a growing interest in using virtual tools and simulated realities, not only in the playground of game-related development but now across several research divisions.

This interdisciplinary symposium will explore applications of Virtual Reality (VR) and Augmented Reality (AR) in various fields across the arts, the humanities, and the social sciences. The event will include talks exploring the philosophy of virtual reality, digitally-constructed ancient worlds, virtual morality, the history of virtual reality, and much more!

There are three main aims for the day:
1) To introduce the concept of VR
2) To explore the value, impact, and contribution of using VR in various fields
3) To provide hands-on and interactive experiences for individuals who are interested in utilising these technologies

Please see the poster (attached) and visit https://uorevent.wixsite.com/vrsymposium for more information. The event is FREE but spaces are limited so please register attendance via the website or following link: https://goo.gl/forms/MukLZ0CqMMb81WVT2  (by June 7th).

If you are interested in showing/presenting any of your own work (on VR/AR or 3D Visualisation) at the event, please get in touch: kathryn.francis@reading.ac.uk

 

Summer Seminar 2018: Pain and belief

In the run up to our ‘Pain and Belief: from meaning to modulation’ conference (12-13th June), the CCR summer seminar this will be on the same topic, looking at papers by the external speakers. Timetable is below and all are very welcome!

All meetings are: Tuesdays 2-3.30pm

Readings available at:

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/hee8d50i207kwr6/AAD-gTTLmoaTqPgZQvcUg6iaa?dl=0

DATE TITLE LOCATION PRESENTER
8th May Williams: What can evolutionary theory tell us about chronic pain? G79 Psych Tim Salomons
15th May Aydede: ‘Pain: perception or introspection?’ (8 pages), ‘Is the experience of pain transparent?’ Sec. 6 Edith Morley G73 (Philosophy) Emma Borg
29th May Wiech: Deconstructing the sensation of pain G79 Psych Wiebke Gandhi
5th June Bain: ? G79 Psych Nat Hansen
12th & 13th June PAIN AND BELIEF CONFERENCE https://sites.google.com/site/readingemotions/  

 

Conscientious objection in healthcare?

Healthcare professionals, or those with links to practitioners, might be interested in this piece on conscientious objection in healthcare, from Reading philosopher Prof. David Oderberg, ahead of the 2018 Committee Stage for the Conscientious Objection (Medical Activities) Bill in the House of Lords:

http://theconversation.com/why-we-should-let-healthcare-professionals-be-conscientious-objectors-93685

 

Reading Emotions: Pain and Belief

The annual University of Reading: Reading Emotions conference will take place on Tuesday 12th June and the morning of Wednesday 13th June 2018. This year the theme will be:

“Pain and Belief: From Meaning to Modulation”
 
Details of the programme and other information is on the conference website:
 
Registration is now open, using the link below:

 
The conference is open to all and we hope to see you there!

Philosophy PhD funding: Open Day, 4th December 2017

On 4 December 2017, the University of Reading will host an Open Day to provide an opportunity for those interested in applying to the AHRC SWW DTP for a PhD studentship to learn more about postgraduate research and training at Reading. Funding is available for pursuing interdisciplinary projects at the interface of philosophy and psychology.

This Open Day will enable you to learn more about the AHRC SWW DTP and the University of Reading. It will provide:

  • a workshop on developing and writing an AHRC SWW DTP PhD research proposal and application
  • an opportunity to meet current SWW DTP students and academic staff, as well as prospective supervisors by prior arrangement by e-mail with them
  • and a tour of related Departments and facilities.

 

This Open Day will be held at the Graduate School, University of Reading from 2.15-4pm on Monday 4 December. If you wish to attend please contact elena.bedisti@reading.ac.uk

For more information on the wide range of Doctoral research and training opportunities and AHRC funded studentships offered by the South West and Wales Doctoral Training Partnership please see the SWW DTP web-site: http://www.sww-ahdtp.ac.uk.

Speaker: 14th Sept, Dr. Kristen Syrett

CCR members may well be interested in the forthcoming talk in Psychology:
Speaker: Dr. Kristen Syrett (Rutgers University) 
Date: Thursday 14th September 
Time: 12:30-2pm 
Location: Psychology (Harry Pitt Building) G79. 
 
Evaluating truth and speaker knowledge when statements aren’t entirely true:
Experimental evidence from children and adults
 
Kristen Syrett
Rutgers University ØC New Brunswick
 
While there is robust evidence that young children can assess the truth value of individual propositions, much less is known about how they evaluate conjoined propositions in which only one of the conjuncts is unobjectionably true (either because the other is clearly false, or is not maximally true of a plurality and therefore violates homogeneity). Even less is known about how children take such information to be a reflection of what a speaker knows. In this talk, I will present experimental work from a modified truth value judgment task accompanied by a ternary scale probing what preschoolers and adults know about such linguistic situations. The results demonstrate that children compute truth values of [TӀF] conjunctions as predicted by propositional logic (a false proposition renders the conjunction false, or in some cases, gappy), and further, take such utterances to indicate degraded speaker knowledge. However, children (unlike adults) do not display sensitivity to the presence or absence of definiteness marking in the grammatical subject. I situate these findings against others coming out of my lab and independent research, which reinforce these conclusions. Thus, whereas the rules of propositional logic (a universal aspect of semantics) are engrained early on, and serve as a window into speaker knowledge, the semantic force of certain morphosyntactic features (which vary cross-linguistically) remains to be learned.

ESPP Poster Award

CCR is delighted to announce that Sarah Fisher was awarded the Poster Prize at the 25th Annual Meeting of the European Society for Philosophy and Psychology, held at the University of Hertfordshire, 14-17th August. Her award-winning poster can be seen in an earlier post to this blog. Well done Sarah!