Perspectives on the Question of Extraterrestrial Intelligent Life - July 1, 1999
Mini-Conference Program
| Thursday, July 1 | Mini-Conference Opens |
| 9:00 - 9:10 am | Welcoming: Don Howard, Chair, History and Philosophy of Science, Univ. Of Notre Dame |
| 9:10 am - Noon | Morning session talks and panel discussion: - George S. Howard: “What Do UFO Abductees Tell Us about Human Nature?” - Thomas F. O'Meara: “Christian Theology and Extraterrestrial Intelligent Life” Panel: Ernan McMullin and Douglas Vakoch |
| 1:30 - 5:00 pm | Afternoon session talks and panel discussion: - Michael J. Crowe: “The Place of the Extraterrstrial Life Debate in the History of Astronomy” - Steven J. Dick: “The Twentieth-Century Extraterrestrial Life Debate: Past, Present, and Future” Panel: Sofie Lachapelle, Joseph Ross, and David Strauss |
| Mini-Conference Closes |
Mini-Conference speakers:
- George S. Howard, Professor of Psychology at Notre Dame, is co-author with Robert Bartholomew of UFOs and Alien Contact: Two Centuries of Mystery (Amherst, New York: Prometheus Books, 1998).
- Thomas F. O'Meara, O.P., who hold the William K. Warren Chair in Theology at Notre Dame, is the author of “Christian Theology and Extraterrestrial Intelligent Life” which appeared in the March 1999 issue of Theological Studies.
- Michael J. Crowe, Professor in Notre Dame's Program of Liberal Studies and Graduate Program in History and Philosophy of Science, is the author of The Extraterrestrial Life Debate 1750-1900: The Idea of a Plurality of Worlds from Kant to Lowell (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1986); reprinting in 1999 by Dover Publications as The Extraterrestrial Life Debate 1750-1900.
- Steven J. Dick, an Astronomer/Historian at the U.S. Naval Observatory, has authored Plurality of Worlds: The Origins of the Extraterrestrial Life Debate from Democritus to Kant (1982); The Biological Universe: The Twentieth-Century Extraterrestrial Life Debate and the Limits of Science (1996), and Life on Other Worlds: The 20th-Century Extraterrestrial Life Debate (1998), all published by Cambridge University Press.
Mini-Conference panelists:
- Ernan McMullin, John Cardinal O'Hara Professor Emeritus of Philosophy at Notre Dame, has numerous publications, some dealing with the methodology of the search for extraterrestrial life.
- Douglas A. Vakoch, whose Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology is from the State University of New York at Stony Brook, is a psychologist on the staff of the SETI Institute and has published various essays on methods and difficulties of communicating with extraterrestrials.
- Sofie Lachapelle, an advanced graduate student in History and Philosophy of Science, is planning a doctoral thesis on Nicholas Camille Flammarion, the prominent French astronomer and advocate of ideas of extraterrestrial life.
- Joseph Ross, who is a librarian at Notre Dame, holds master degrees in Theology, Library Science, and History and Philosophy of Science. His MA thesis for HPS was titled: “Kant's and Hegel's Assessment of Analogical Arguments for Extraterrestrial Life”
- David Strauss, Professor of History at Kalamazoo College, is the author of a biography of Percival Lowell, which is forthcoming from Harvard University Press.
Sponsored by Notre Dame's Graduate Program in History and Philosophy of Science,
Program of Liberal Studies, and Departments of Theology and Psychology