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<b><i><span style="font-size: 13.5pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; ">St. Jerome's University</span></i></b><b><span style="font-size: 10.5pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; "><o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<b><i><span style="font-size: 13.5pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; ">Bridges Lecture</span></i></b><b><span style="font-size: 10.5pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; "><o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<b><span style="font-size: 10.5pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; "><br>
Friday, November 22 2013 @ 7:30 p.m.</span></b></div>
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<b><span style="font-size: 10.5pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; ">Siegfried Hall - St. Jerome's University <br>
FREE ADMISSION - OPEN TO THE PUBLIC</span></b><o:p></o:p></div>
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<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; "><b style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt; "><span style="font-size: 10.5pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; ">FREE PARKING</span></b><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10.5pt; "><br>
<b>FOLLOWED BY A RECEPTION</b><br>
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<div style="text-align: center; "><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 18px; "><b><i><u>What is science and why should we care?</u></i></b></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-size: 10.5pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; ">Speakers</span></b><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="font-size: 10.5pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; ">: </span></span><i><span style="font-size: 10.5pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; ">Alan
Sokal, New York University and University College London</span></i><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="font-size: 10.5pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; "> (Physics)</span></span><b><span style="font-size: 10.5pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; "><o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<i><span style="font-size: 10.5pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; "><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre; "></span><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre; "></span><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre; "></span>James
Robert Brown, University of Toronto </span></i><span style="font-size: 10.5pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; ">(Philosopy)</span></div>
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<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; "><a href="http://sju.ca/news-events/public-events/bridges-lecture-series/2013-2014-bridges-1">http://sju.ca/news-events/public-events/bridges-lecture-series/2013-2014-bridges-1</a></div>
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<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; "><font face="Arial"><span style="font-size: 14px; ">We are concerned with two related issues: What is good science, that is, what are reason and evidence?, and how can we be most effective in putting it to good use in
society? One of us (Sokal) will attempt to answer the question posed in his title, stressing the importance of adopting an evidence-based worldview. He will discuss several groups of adversaries of this worldview: academic postmodernists and radical social-constructivists,
advocates of pseudoscience, and advocates of religion. The other (Brown) will stress the difficulty in approaching some issues armed with reason and evidence as the only tools. The way to deal with some views, especially when social and political matters
are at issue, is with mockery, ridicule, and hoaxing in addition to reason and evidence. Tactics matter. Dramatic confrontations are sometimes the handmaid of reason and evidence. This should be clear when dealing with topics as diverse as global warming,
religion, and commercialized pharmaceutical research, where ideology and interests often prevail.</span></font></div>
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<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; "><font face="Arial" style="font-size: 14px; "><u><b>Speakers:</b></u><o:p></o:p></font></div>
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<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; "><b>Alan Sokal </b>is Professor of Physics at New York University and Professor of Mathematics at University College London. His main research interests are in statistical mechanics and quantum field theory. He is co-author
with Roberto Fernández and Jürg Fröhlich of <i>Random Walks, Critical Phenomena, and Triviality in Quantum Field Theory</i> (Springer, 1992) and co-author with Jean Bricmont of <i>Intellectual Impostures: Postmodern Philosophers' Abuse of Science</i> (Profile
Books, 1998). His most recent book is <i>Beyond the Hoax: Science, Philosophy and Culture</i> (Oxford University Press, 2008). </div>
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<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; "><span style="font-weight: bold; ">James Robert Brown</span> is a Professor of Philosophy at the University of Toronto. His interests include a wide range of topics in the philosophy of science and mathematics: thought
experiments, foundational issues in mathematics and physics, visual reasoning, and issues involving science and society, such as the role of commercialization in medical research. He has written and edited a number of books on these topics.</div>
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<span style="font-size: 10.5pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; ">This event is part of the <b>Bridges lecture series </b>sponsored<b> </b>by<b> St. Jerome's University, </b>the<b> uWaterloo Faculty of Mathematics, </b>and<b> </b>the<b> uWaterloo Faculty of
Arts.</b> Each of the series' public lectures is delivered jointly by a mathematician and a non-mathematician. More informations about the series can be found at <a href="http://sju.ca/bridges" style="color: purple; ">sju.ca/bridges</a></span></div>
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<div><font face="Arial"><b>Coming up next:</b></font></div>
<div><font face="Arial"><b>February 28th, 2014: </b> <i>Mathematics and what it means to be human</i> with Michele Osherow (English) and Manil Suri (Math)</font></div>
<div><font face="Arial"><b>March 14th, 2014: </b><i>Damn Lies, Truths, Statistics and History </i>with Douglas Peers (History) and Don McLeish (Statistics)</font></div>
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