Skeptics 1999 Maastricht
SkeptInq@aol.com
Wed, 25 Nov 1998 16:07:09 EST
Dear List Member,
CSICOP is pleased to pass along the following call for papers. The annual
European Skeptics conference will be held at Maastricht University,
Maastricht, The Netherlands, September 17-19, 1999.
The conference is sponsored by the Dutch organization Skepsis, the European
Council of Skeptical Organizations (ECSO), and CSICOP.
Barry Karr
CSICOP/Skeptical Inquirer
_____________________________
Call for Papers (please distribute)
European Skeptics '99 Maastricht
The European Skeptical Congress of 1999 wil be held in
The Netherlands. The place will be Maastricht, and the
time will September 17-19. The location will be
Maastricht University.
Maastricht is in the southernmost tip of the Netherlands.
It lies very close to Germany and Belgium, and boasts of
a rich artistic, historic and culinary culture, and is
worth a visit.
The language of the congress will be English.
The theme is:
The challenge of the 21st century
This theme has many subthemes. We welcome both case studies
and broad analyses. We hope that contributors will
in all cases provide both empirical underpinnings of their
messages, and visions of how to apply their findings in the
future.
The 21st century will bring new challenges for everybody, hence
for skeptics too. On the brink of this new century it seems a
good idea to try to look into the future and prepare for it.
Environment
Concern for environmental issues (greenhouse effect, pollution of
various kinds, radioactivity, electrosmog) will continue to grow.
This field is rife with uncertainties and conflicts. Economic
activities, which yield concrete benefits in the near future,
clash with the much more uncertain long run environmental risks
they entail. Health issues further compound the problem. In the
face of so many unknowns a major risk is that irrational solutions
are sought, and that what passes for scientific consensus actually
is politically engineered mass hysteria.
Physical health
In the field of health many new developments will occur. One is that
scientific improvements and a rising age of the population will make
the costs of health care go up. This will encourage people to look
for low cost alternative solutions for health problems, and also to
privately shop around for things that the public health care cannot
provide. This will result in much irrationality.
Mental health
Another development that the 21st century will bring is a better
understanding of psychosomatic diseases and the placebo effect.
Both belong to the mysterious realm of mind-body interaction. The
past two centuries or so have seen the rise of mesmerism and the
discovery of the placebo effect and an endless succession of fad
diseases. It is to be expected that scientific research will
proceed to unravel these mind-body relations. What is known in
this respect? Is science up to this challenge at all?
Secularisation
The secularisation of European society will increase. In other words,
the traditional forms of official religion will continue to decline
gradually. The void they leave is filled with a great number of new
religions, each with their own mixture of humanitarian values,
revelations of uncertain origin and testable (and probably false)
claims. The traditional religions seem to fall back on ever more
uncompromising positions. The skeptical movement usually steers
clear of religious issues and takes a definitely agnostic point of
view. But skeptics are often seen as unromantic cold cynics, and
their passion for truth is not understood, or they are seen as wanton
spoilers of pleasant illusions. At best they are seen as somewhat
otherworldly people. Should `skeptics' try to appeal more to widely
understood humanitarian values and offer a coherent world view instead
of merely sticking to `It ain't necessarily so'?
Entertainment and media
Entertainment will continue to increase. There's a growing tendency
in all media (books, newspapers, movies, radio, tv, internet) to
confuse amusement and information. Possibly this is related to the
enormous efforts that are being spent on trying to attract the
attention of the public. It is not something of recent times either,
because (at least in The Netherlands) `lying' and `printing' are
proverbially identified. Anyway, the trend of mixing entertainment with
information is likely to increase. The general public is less sophisticated
than the media makers and often thinks that what's on tv is true when it
isn't. How serious is this problem? What can be done about it? What are the
possibilities for promoting a clear distinction between amusement and
information?
Academia
Nonsense is spreading in academia. Certain departments have lax
standards, specifically in management `science' and other soft
fields. The need to attract attention and get anything published,
no matter what the quality, is cited as explanation for this.
In the `hard' sciences political pressure to produce quick results
for little money leads to questionable quality. Companies hire
gurus to provide for their personnel an uncertain mixture of
education, motivation, entertainment and crypto-religion, and
seem to be unable to judge the merits of what they get. Are
universities up to the task of guarding the integrity of science?
Old issues
The old superstitions are certainly not going to vanish, but
they are changing. Astrology is a case in point: the astrologers
that call themselves `serious' retreat to unfalsifiable positions,
and lose interest in tests. The public never bothers to question
glossy astrology columns either: it's just as amusing as sitting
in a merry-go-round on a wooden horse and going nowhere, but all
the while enjoying new sensations and - temporarily - a new look
on the world. What is the skeptic comment on that?
Parapsychology has been around for a century. Has it produced anything
worthwhile. One might think of parts of parapsychology that have been
incorporated into ordinary psychology or the setting of standards for
the design of experiments.
Summary
Any speaker who wishes to comment on the skeptical challenges
of the 21st century in the fields of environment, physical and mental
health, secularisation and the media is welcome. Any progress report
on old issues is welcome. Any suggestions how to meet these challenges,
(for instance by school education) is welcome.
The Dutch organization Skepsis customarily publishes proceedings
of its conferences in book form. Also for this conference such a
publication is planned. Contributors will be asked to submit a
full length paper before the beginning of the conference. The
standard time for presenting the essentials of these papers will
be 20 minutes. Proposals are expected before February 1, 1999.
Please send proposals for papers to:
Dr. J.W. Nienhuys
Dommelseweg 1A
5581 VA Waalre
Netherlands
telephone: +31.40.2216791
email: wsadjw@urc.tue.nl
The Scientific Committee for the Congress consists of
J.W. Nienhuys, A. Sarma and T. Trachet.
If you want a one or more copies of a printed version
of this call for papers, please request them from
J.W.Nienhuys.