Faculty Forum Weblog

Oxbridge 2005 Faculty Forum Academic Conference

Sun, 25 Sep 2005 19:37:54 -0800

Through its Faculty Forums (2001, 2002, 2003) and Summer Institute – Oxbridge 2002, the C.S. Lewis Foundation has been pleased to host an international Academic Conference of increasing stature. The conference serves as a focal point of the Foundation's mission to advance the renewal of Christian thought and creative expression throughout the world of learning and the culture at large by affording faculty members and independent scholars the opportunity to read and discuss papers addressing the conference theme from the vantage point of all disciplines - the natural, social, and behavioral sciences, the traditional humanities and the professions.

The Academic Conference, featuring the presentation of juried scholarly papers by participating faculty, ran simultaneously with the Institute's afternoon seminars and workshops. View the online handbook at http://www.cslewis.org/programs/oxbridge/2005/academicconference2005.pdf

Review two featured papers below:

C. S. Lewis and Mathematics

Sun, 25 Sep 2005 11:44:41 -0800

David L. Neuhouser
Prof. Emeritus of Mathematics
Taylor University
Upland, Indiana
July 28, 2005

C. S. Lewis has a reputation for hating science and mathematics. This paper will attempt to show that this reputation is undeserved; show what his true opinions about mathematics and science were, and how he got the reputation in the first place. Science is considered along with mathematics because of their close relationship to each other, particularly in Lewis’ thought. This paper will not include Lewis’s use of higher dimensions in mathematics in over a dozen of his books, although his use of this topic shows his understanding and appreciation of mathematics, because I have already written about it in other places.

Does Mathematical Beauty Pose Problems for Naturalism?

Sun, 25 Sep 2005 11:42:14 -0800

Russell W. Howell
Prof. of Mathematics
Westmont College
Santa Barbara, California
July 28, 2005

The theme of this conference is Making All Things New: The Good, the True, and the Beautiful in the 21st Century. This paper will focus on features of truth and beauty contained in mathematics. More precisely, it asks whether aspects of mathematical theorizing, based mostly on notions of beauty and symmetry, and the subsequent success of mathematics in the natural sciences, cause difficulties for a naturalistic worldview. Several thinkers have raised these issues, at least indirectly, though not so much from the standpoint of mathematical beauty. We begin by reviewing some of their contributions.