Live at the Marsh Berkeley February 16

Philosophy Talk returns to The Marsh Theater in Berkeley on Sunday February 16 for the next two live recordings in our 2013-14 season: Science and Gender with Londa Schiebinger and Risky Business: The Business of Risk with Lara Buchak.

Philosophy Talk returns to The Marsh Theater in Berkeley on Sunday February 16 for the next two live recordings in our 2013-14 season.

• 12:00pm – Science and Gender with Londa Schiebinger
  What does gender have to do with science? The obvious answer is ‘nothing.’ Science is the epitome of an objective, rational, and disinterested enterprise. But given the history of systemic under-representation of women in science, what does it mean that science answers almost exclusively to the methodologies of men? Has male domination contributed certain unfounded assumptions or cognitive biases to the ‘objectivity’ of scientific inquiry? Is there any possibility of achieving a gender-neutral science, and if so, what would that look like? John and Ken make room at the table for Stanford historian Londa Schiebinger, author of Nature’s Body: Gender in the Making of Modern Science. (buy tickets)

• 3:00pm – Risky Business: The Business of Risk with Lara Buchak
  There is an element of risk – either to ourselves or to others – in almost everything we do. By deciding to go to the grocery store, for example, we take a (very small) risk of getting into a car accident. Many risks are acceptable, of course, but how do we know when a risk is worth taking?  The most important decisions, after all, are often risky ones. What about risks to others’ welfare? How do we, and should we, take risk into account when we make decisions?  John and Ken take their chances with Lara Buchak from UC Berkeley, author of Risk and Rationality. (buy tickets)