Philosopher's Cafe: Resources
Randall Pyke rpyke@sfu.ca





Why is There a Universe? And Why This One? April 23, 2013

There are many features of our universe that seem “accidental”, like the charge of the electron, the strength of gravity, and the fact that we live in three spatial dimensions and not two or four. 20th-century scientists discovered that many of these features are absolutely necessary for the creation of life and the tiniest change would make the universe inhospitable to life as we know it. Is this a satisfying answer to why the universe is the way it is? Or is there another explanation? Could there be “alternative” universes where intelligent life exists? Or is our universe the only universe that can support life?

  • Why Anything? Why This? essay by Oxford philosopher Derek Parfit.

  • The Cosmologocal Anthropic Principle, John D. Barrow and Frank Tipler, Oxford University Press.

  • What is Life?, Erwin Schrodinger, Cambridge University Press.

  • Jim Holt interview;
    http://thoughtcast.org/philosophy/the-puzzle-of-existence-with-jim-holt/



    Art and Science. May 29, 2013

    Some art is derived and motivated from science (ie. images from deep space or exotic geometric shapes). Conversely, many scientists consider parts of their scientific work to be art, and many scientists have stated that they are motivated by the beauty they see in their work. How are art and science connected?

    “Much of my work is driven by my desire to see and conceptualize the world. I strive to find intuitive answers to the puzzles that appear in the complexities that surround us”
    Artist or scientist?

  • Art and Science interview with David Swan, CJSF, July 2013.



    Where Does Mathematics Come From? Oct 21, 2013
    Co-hosted with Tom Archibald

    Mathematicians have long discussed whether mathematics exists in nature or whether we create it and impose it onto nature. Is mathematics invented or discovered? If we ever made contact with another intelligent species, would they have developed mathematics that we would recognize?

  • The Unreasonable Effectiveness of Mathematics in the Physical Sciences, Eugene Wigner, 1959.

  • Solving Wigner's Mystery: The Reasonable (Though Perhaps Limited) Effectiveness of Mathematics in the Physical Sciences, Ivor Grattan-Guiness.

  • Is math invented or discovered?, Mario Livio, Scientific American, 2011.

  • James Robert Brown, Philosophy of Mathematics: An Introduction to the World of Proofs and Pictures, (Routledge 1999, second edition 2008)
    Note: Jim Brown will be speaking at SFU Jan 24, 2014.

  • Bob Batterman, On the Specialness of Special Functions (The Nonrandom Effusions of the Divine Mathematician)
    Available on the University of Pittsburg Philosophy of Science preprint archive:
    http://philsci-archive.pitt.edu/2629/1/special-functions.pdf

  • Quote by Erwin Schrodinger on objectivication of science, from Nature and the Greeks.



    Food: The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly. March 3, 2014
    Co-hosted with Preet Marwaha

    In the war between companies who spend hundreds of millions on marketing food products and growing grassroots movements toward better choices, whose side should we be on? Food is one of the most important relationships we have and yet so little is known about the industry, its practices and how people—and the planet—are being affected.

    Audio recording of the event



    Ethical Commerce: Fact or Fiction. April 7, 2014
    Co-hosted with Preet Marwaha

    Commerce means a whole system that treats all the people and processes involved as one interconnected environment. In today’s commerce practice, the “whole” has, for the most part, been dropped, and the environment disconnected. What would it take to create a system that treats the entire process and people—from producers of raw materials to the consumers of the finished goods—with respect and integrity? Is this idealistic or an absolute necessity?

    Audio recording of the event




    Stop Making Sense. June 1, 2015

    One approach to understanding the world around us is through our rational faculty. However, what is the “quality” of the knowledge that we, as humans, are accumulating this way? Are we just talking heads, without any connection to our hearts? What is our relation to nature? These are difficult questions about what we can know of the world and how we may go about doing this.

    • Some points:

    Audio recording of the event


    Purpose of Art. June 18, 2015

    What does it mean for art to be “alive”? What is the spiritual in art? Let's discuss what art does for us or what it is supposed to do for us. Why does music affect us so deeply compared to other art forms? What role does rationality (logic) play in the creation of art? Why is art often ambiguous?

    Some quotes;