http://embodiedknowledge.wordpress.com/

Embodied knowledge is a theme that has recently generated much
discussion in the humanistic study of science, medicine, and
technology. In response to accounts of science that focus on science
as the product of minds and ideas, historians, philosophers, and
sociologists of science have started focusing on the role that the
body and material practices play in producing, transmitting, and
acquiring knowledge. Examining the embodied practices of those
involved in scientific research has allowed science studies scholars
to paint a rich portrait of the processes involved in knowledge
production. Attention to bodies and to material practices has been a
way for historians and sociologists to uncover the social and cultural
history of science, and for philosophers to explore the epistemology
of experimental practice. Although this is an interesting and welcome
turn, the concept of "embodied knowledge" itself has not received much
direct scrutiny and raises a series of questions:

    * What are the relations between embodied knowledge and
propositional knowledge?
    * Can certain kinds of knowledge be transmitted only through
embodied practices?
    * Is embodied knowledge distinct from tacit knowledge? Are they
the same?
    * Can embodied knowledge reside in non-human objects?
    * What is the relationship between theory, experimentation, and
the embodied knowledge possessed by scientists?
    * How and when does the embodied knowledge of scientists
constitute expertise?

On August 15th, 2008 HAPSAT (the Institute for the History and
Philosophy of Science and Technology's Graduate Student Society at the
University of Toronto) will host its fourth annual one-day conference.

We invite graduate students to submit paper and panel proposals that
critically engage with this theme or with any other theme related to
the history and philosophy of science, medicine, and technology. For
papers please email abstracts of up to 250 words to HAP...@gmail.com
by **Monday, May 19, 2008** and for panels please email a document
with a 250 word abstract describing the panel as a whole and
individual abstracts for each paper (also 250 words). Each presenter
will be given 20 minutes.

The Keynote Speaker for this year is Dr. Paul Thagard who will be
giving a lecture titled "Bodies, Brains, Feelings, and Causes: How
Embodiment Meets Representation in Neural Theories of Emotion and
Causality."
Please distribute freely. Apologies for cross posting.