Where Does It Begin? Saturday, May 5th 4:30 - 6:30PM Past Event Watch the video » Why are we curious about beginnings, whether that of the cosmos or our own? What can we discover from each other’s curiosity about beginnings? What are the organizational properties necessary to call something a beginning? Might similar processes apply to both individual consciousness and the universe at large? Free and open to the public. Participants: Chris Impey University Distinguished Professor, Astronomy, University of Arizona Chris Impey is a University Distinguished Professor of Astronomy at the University of Arizona. He has over 220 refereed publications on observational cosmology, galaxies, and quasars, and his research has been supported by $20 million in NASA and NSF grants. He has won eleven teaching awards and has taught three online classes with over 350,000… read more » Joseph J. Kohn Professor Emeritus of Mathematics, Princeton University Joseph Kohn is Professor Emeritus of Mathematics at Princeton University. He is a winner of the Mathematical Society Steele Prize and the Bergman Prize and is a member of the United States National Academy of Sciences and of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He has also received the Bolzano Prize of the Czechoslovak Union… read more » Tim Maudlin Professor of Philosophy, New York University Tim Maudlin is Professor of Philosophy at New York University. He received his B. A. in Physics and Philosophy from Yale and his Ph.D. in History and Philosophy of Science from the University of Pittsburgh. His work centers on the interpretation of physical theory: how the mathematical structures used in physics may be understood as… read more » Mark A. Norell Chairman of the Department of Paleontology, American Museum of Natural History Mark A. Norell was born July 26, 1957, in St. Paul, Minnesota and spent most of his formative years (from 1964) in southern California. He received a Bachelor of Science in 1980 from Long Beach State University and a Masters of Science from San Diego State University in 1983. In 1988, he was awarded the John… read more »
Chris Impey University Distinguished Professor, Astronomy, University of Arizona Chris Impey is a University Distinguished Professor of Astronomy at the University of Arizona. He has over 220 refereed publications on observational cosmology, galaxies, and quasars, and his research has been supported by $20 million in NASA and NSF grants. He has won eleven teaching awards and has taught three online classes with over 350,000… read more »
Joseph J. Kohn Professor Emeritus of Mathematics, Princeton University Joseph Kohn is Professor Emeritus of Mathematics at Princeton University. He is a winner of the Mathematical Society Steele Prize and the Bergman Prize and is a member of the United States National Academy of Sciences and of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He has also received the Bolzano Prize of the Czechoslovak Union… read more »
Tim Maudlin Professor of Philosophy, New York University Tim Maudlin is Professor of Philosophy at New York University. He received his B. A. in Physics and Philosophy from Yale and his Ph.D. in History and Philosophy of Science from the University of Pittsburgh. His work centers on the interpretation of physical theory: how the mathematical structures used in physics may be understood as… read more »
Mark A. Norell Chairman of the Department of Paleontology, American Museum of Natural History Mark A. Norell was born July 26, 1957, in St. Paul, Minnesota and spent most of his formative years (from 1964) in southern California. He received a Bachelor of Science in 1980 from Long Beach State University and a Masters of Science from San Diego State University in 1983. In 1988, he was awarded the John… read more »
Professor Chris Impey, at the May 5, 2012 roundtable, “Where Does It Begin?” observed the widespread myth among major world cultures of endless cycles of time, myths which do not posit beginnings or endings, but, in fact, share a predilection for avoiding such notions. Professor Impey asserted that it is “a bogus reassurance to say you have a story that has beginnings and endings, because as soon as you have a boundary, you have to ask…if there’s an edge to the universe, what’s beyond the edge? If there’s a beginning to time, what started that, or what’s before it? So, you’ve not really finessed anything of the infinities by declaring that you have a beginning and an end…” Reply
Regarding the psychological importance of beginnings and origins, Professor Tim Maudlin, at the May 5, 2012 roundtable, “Where Does It Begin?” suggested that in narratives, the beginning functions to organize, rationalize, and explain everything that comes after, but “if we’re expecting that of the universe, we may be sorely disappointed.” Should we expect that beginnings are necessarily explanatory? What does this say about causality? Can (should) we apply what we interpret and sensorially experience locally as beginnings (birth, sunrise, etc.) more universally, figuratively and literally? Reply