Event

What is a university? Origins and history of a thousand-year-old institution

After focusing on the issues of the "Commons", the management of "common goods" , "health as a common good", this year the Chair turns its attention to the issue of "knowledge" as a "common good" and the role that the University is called upon to play in the creation and transmission of knowledge. As its title - "University and society. What can knowledge do for the common good?" - shows, the value and meaning that society places on knowledge, even more so from a universal perspective, is not self-evident. More info coming soon...
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Event

University and society: should we be training technicians or citizens?

After focusing on the issues of the "Commons", the management of "common goods" , "health as a common good", this year the Chair turns its attention to the issue of "knowledge" as a "common good" and the role that the University is called upon to play in the creation and transmission of knowledge. As its title - "University and society. What can knowledge do for the common good?" - shows, the value and meaning that society places on knowledge, even more so from a universal perspective, is not self-evident. More info coming soon...
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Event

Knowledge and the common good: how can a university be managed to serve the common good?

After focusing on the issues of the "Commons", the management of "common goods" , "health as a common good", this year the Chair turns its attention to the issue of "knowledge" as a "common good" and the role that the University is called upon to play in the creation and transmission of knowledge. As its title - "University and society. What can knowledge do for the common good?" - shows, the value and meaning that society places on knowledge, even more so from a universal perspective, is not self-evident. More info coming soon...
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Event

Annual Research Day

The program 2:00 pm | Keynote lecture on the use of AI in research - Hugues BERSINI, Professor at the Université libre de Bruxelles: "Can science be just data driven?" 3:00 pm | Presentations by UNamur researchers3:00 pm | Catherine Guirkinger: Use of AI in an economic history project3:15 pm | Nicolas Roy (PI: Alexandre Mayer): AI at the service of innovation in photonics and optics: revealing the secrets of scrolls through the classification of animal species15:25 | Nemanja Antonic (PI: Elio Tuci): An in silico representation of C. elegans collective behaviour<15h35 | Nicolas Franco : The benefits and dangers of "predicting the future" with covid-like machine learning models 15h45 | Michel Ajzen : Managerial and human implications of AI in organizations <15h55 | Robin Ghyselinck (PI : Bruno Dumas) : Deep Learning for endoscopy: towards next generation computer-aided diagnosis4:05 pm | Auguste Debroise (PI : Guilhem Cassan) : LLMs to measure the importance of stereotypes within gender representations in Hollywood films16h15 | Gabriel Dias De Carvalho : Learning practices in physics using generative AI16h25 | Sébastien Dujardin (PI : Catherine Linard) : Where Geography meets AI: A case study on mapping online flood conversations16h35 | Jeremy Dodeigne : LLMs in SHS: revolutionary tools in a Wild West Territory? Reflections on costs, transparency and open science16h45 | Antoinette Rouvroy : Governing AI in Democracy17h00 | Keynote lecture on ethics and guidelines to consider when using AI in research projects and writing research articles - Bettina BERENDT, Professor at KU Leuven18h00 | Benoît Frenay and Michaël Lobet : Creation of an IA scientific committee at UNamur18:10 | DrinkA certificate of attendance, worth 0.5 cross-disciplinary doctoral training credits, will be issued on request. Contact: secretariat.adre@unamur.beThis event is free of charge, but registration is required. I want to register
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Article

New impetus for the humanities and social sciences at UNamur

A new platform dedicated to research in the humanities and social sciences (SHS) is being launched at UNamur. The aim? To offer SHS researchers methodological support tailored to their needs and strengthen SHS excellence at UNamur. This platform, SHS Impulse, will provide various services such as financial support for training, consultancy, access to resources, or co-financed software purchases.
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Article

University and democracy: a living, sometimes threatened, link

Trust of traditional political institutions and elected representatives, rise of authoritarian logics, definition of public services... Democracy today seems to be going through a turbulent zone. What role does the university play in this context? To shed light on this question, we interviewed four researchers from different disciplines: educationalist Sephora Boucenna, philosopher Louis Carré, political scientist Vincent Jacquet and legal scholar Aline Nardi. Their contrasting views sketch out the contours of an issue that is more topical than ever: thinking about and defending the link between university and democracy.
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Article

SPiN: a new research center for a new way of thinking about science

At a time when misinformation, post-truths and conspiracies are undermining confidence in science, UNamur welcomes SPiN (Science & Philosophy in Namur), a new interdisciplinary research center that questions the place of science in society. Founded last September by Olivier Sartenaer, Professor of Philosophy of Science at UNamur, SPiN brings together philosophers and scientists around a common vision: to develop a critical and accessible reflection on science in all its diversity..
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Article

"Beyond genes": what if we rethought the notion of heredity?

Are we prisoners of our genetic heritage? Can filiation be reduced to genes alone? Can we escape our destiny? Existential questions we all ask ourselves, and to which Gaëlle Pontarotti, lecturer and researcher in the Department of Sciences, Philosophies and Societies at UNamur, sheds new light in her book Par-delà les gènes. Une autre histoire de l'hérédité, published last October by Gallimard.
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Event

Mistrust of science

For its inaugural conference, the SPiN (Science & Philosophy in Namur) center will be joined by Claire Rommelaere, a lawyer and researcher at the Center for Bioethics at the University of Namur, and Aude Bandini, a philosopher of science at the University of Montreal, to take a critical look at the theme of "distrust of science." The urgency of addressing this issue is clear in our era, where, despite an overall stable level of trust in science, the parameters of public debate are frequently blurred by misinformation.Having had the opportunity to observe philosophers of science in their natural habitat for nearly fifteen years, Claire Rommelaere will share her thoughts on whether or not we should trust those who think about science.For her part, Aude Bandini will address a major problem that we all face at a time when the mass of available knowledge is such that it is impossible to acquire it on our own. Indeed, the socially distributed nature of knowledge generally leaves us no choice but to rely on the authority of experts, even on very important issues (such as health). However, when we rely on others in this way and follow recommendations that, due to our ignorance, we have no means of evaluating, we place ourselves in a relationship of "epistemic dependence" that conflicts with our aspirations for intellectual autonomy and forces us to ask ourselves a question whose answer may prove unbearable: is intellectual autonomy nothing more than a myth?Conference hosted by journalist Maïté Warland.Program:5:30-6:30 p.m. | Drinks at Quai 22 (Rue du Séminaire 22, 5000 Namur)6:30 p.m. | Claire RommelaereDistrust of philosophers of science7:00 p.m. | Aude Bandini Intellectualautonomy in the face of scientific authority: a headache for social epistemologyRegistration deadline: April 16.Free of charge. Register
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Research institut

Espace philosophique de Namur

A transdisciplinary space open to the outside world and designed to stimulate original research, ESPHIN addresses themes developed in its two founding departments: that of Philosophy in the Faculty of Philosophy and Letters and that of Sciences-Philosophies-Society in the Faculty of Science.

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Research institut

Patrimoines, transmissions, héritages

The Patrimoines, Transmissions, Héritages (PaTHs) institute is a federation of research centers and groups that have sprung up in and around the Faculty of Philosophy and Letters in recent years.

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