ISN Conference Report

A good conference, and I hope it is the first of many for the Institute for the Study of Nature.


The flight down wasn't bad, no bumps or turbulence. Champaign is rather rural--I was surprised to see so many farms while flying over Illinois. There are some ugly strip malls, and the university itself is a prominent part of the town. I don't know if there are a lot of small farmers in Champaign, though I saw a lot of small farms on the flight over. I couldn't believe how hot it was--on Saturday it hit the mid-90s.


After checking into the hotel, I went to McDonald's for lunch, because I had a craving. Bad idea... I felt sick after eating the food there, and drinking too much soda is not a good idea for me. I should have picked some better places to eat, since I would have been reimbursed. Ah well...
I think I'm ready to swear off McD's (again).


Most of the papers were good, even though not all of them were written from an "Aristotelian" viewpoint. I think everyone appreciated the discussion of math and measurement, and I did like Dr. Lundberg's paper on Leonhard Euler and the vocation of the mathematician.



Euler 2007
Leonhard Euler - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
LEONHARD EULER
The Euler Archive - the works of Leonhard Euler online
The Euler Society
Euler's Formula
The Prime Glossary: Euler's constant
Project Euler


Dinner the first night was at a pizza joint in the second downtown, the downtown that served the college. Papa Del's, I think. Chicago-style pizza is good, but it's very unhealthy--thick crust, lots of cheese... Definitely better than what I had at Uno. Dr. Augros talked about talked a little about his dissertation and how he chose it--basically something that he would be interested i, but not so controversial and could slip in under the radar, without having to read a lot of secondary literature that would be forced upon him by faculty who thought itould be necessary to make it more "scholarly."


Someone brought up the GREs and standardized testing, along with IQ. Dr. Joe Audie (one of the tutors for the seminar) told us how he used to have faith in IQ and the Bell Curve, but then he read Thomas Sowell; the Flynn effect entered the conversation.




Race and IQ by Thomas Sowell -- Capitalism Magazine
The Inequality Dogma by Thomas Sowell -- Capitalism Magazine
Townhall.com::Race and IQ: part II::By Thomas Sowell


Dr. Mike Augros teaches for the Legionaries in New York. He is very very impressive, a true successor to the Laval school. I'm glad I got a chance to talk with him briefly. He did his grad work at BC, and I hope to get a copy of his dissertation. (I will have to e-mail him, since he said he would get me an e-copy, if it's not available through the microfilm service.) He also described himself as pessimistic at dinner, and I'm intrigued--what is he pessimistic about?


He also said he disliked writing merely to get published. He enjoys writing about things that he is interested in, and focusing on primary sources. Too many academic journals are concerned with staying up-to-date, and addressing issues raised in secondary literature, all in the name of "scholarship," when in fact what does get published is often very bad scholarship. Really--it's publishing for the sake of maintaining the appearance of being relevant. Since he doesn't have to write for the sake of his livelihood, he doesn't bother to "try to get published."


If the Legionaries in the U.S. are getting their training in philosophy from him, they are in good hands. I had been worried about their intellectual formation, but this is a good sign.


I sat next to Dr. Dougherty during dinner, and he mentioned that he had thought that I was a priest or a Benedictine, so he was tempted to say "Father" when he saw me. Scary. Though I do not think I have a vocation to the priesthood, comments like these do prompt me to re-consider, though not to much. As for the monastic life, I do see the appeal, but I don't think I would enter a monastery any time soon.


He has an article about culture at pensarecristiano? He likes Nicolas Sarkozy's book Testimony, and believes Sarkozy will help re-Christianize France.


Dr. Tom McLaughlin is currently the... president (or is it vice-president) of the Society for Thomistic Natural Philosophy--there should be some overlap between the missions of the two groups. His paper on inertia was thought-provoking, though I don't agree with his conclusion that inertia is something real. The Jacques Maritain Association also has some people interested in natural philosophy. Where is Dr. Marie George? Dr. Carrroll gave a paper on creation and modern-day cosmologies, and reiterated the point that Aquinas thought creation was a demonstrable doctrine, and that the metaphysical definition of creation is not the same as the theological definition.


Dr. Ryland mentioned the Westchester Institute. Just found out that it was founded by a Legionary, Fr. Thomas Berg.


I didn't get a chance to chat much with James Barham; he was also a tutor for the seminar, and seems to be surviving at ND, from what I hear. He seems to know a lot of the work done in biological structuralism, he mentioned Ho and some others. He's also written on emergentism, which I need to read more about.


After the last day of the conference, we went to Biaggi's for dinner. The food there was rather good. Probably should have gotten lunch there the next day. I think it's better than Olive Garden--I got the chicken marsala (as usual), and the chicken was not overdone.


Having gone to the vigil at the Newman Center, I was planning on getting some other things done on Sunday morning. Didn't happen. I went to lunch at Steak and Shake. The food there is probably overpriced, I'd prefer In and Out. There was a Hooters next to it, but I decided not to go there. Imagine trying to get reimbursed for that. hahaha



Several of the participants came up to tell me that they enjoyed the paper, which surprised me. (I wonder if they took it personally when I didn't return the compliment--not that it was appropriate since not all gave papers, but some of them did. I was a bit struck by the fact that they thought so well of the presentation, and then I wasn't so quick as to think of something positive to say about their paper.) Perhaps I should be reassured but instead I need to work even harder...