The ESSSAT Research Prize for Studies in Science and Theology 2012

and the ESSSAT Student Prize 2012

 

The ESSSAT Research Prize 2012 has been awarded to Dr. Anna Ijjas for her study Der Alte mit dem Würfel: Ein Beitrag zur Metaphysik der Quantenmechanik (The Old One with the Dice: A Contribution to the Metaphysics of Quantum Physics).

The ESSSAT Student Prize 2012 has been awarded to Annemarie van Stee for her study Philosophical anthropological assumptions in cognitive neuroscience of self.

Source: ESSSAT

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The ESSSAT Research Prize 2012 has been awarded to Dr. Anna Ijjas for her study Der Alte mit dem Würfel: Ein Beitrag zur Metaphysik der Quantenmechanik (The Old One with the Dice: A Contribution to the Metaphysics of Quantum Physics). Anna Ijjas (1985) is both a physicist/ astronomer and a theologian. She subjects philosophical and theological uses and abuses of quantum theory to critical examination. Her title draws on a comment of Einstein that quantum physics must be wrong as it presents the world as indeterministic. In the past century, quantum physics has been extremely successful, and thus Einstein was wrong. However, Ijjas argues that this need not imply indeterminism in the sense Einstein disliked so much. „The structure of the Universe allows for a degree of open-endedness in physical processes, but quantum physics gives us no grounds for believing that the world is dominated by blind chance. On the contrary, the living being’s capacity to choose represents the universal norm. God confers upon His creation the gift of freedom.” The work earned her a doctorate in theology, summa cum laude, from the Ludwig-Maximilians University in Munich. Dr. Ijjas has a position at the Faculty for Catholic Theology, while at the same time working on a doctorate in theoretical astrophysics.

The ESSSAT Student Prize 2012 has been awarded to Annemarie van Stee for her study Philosophical anthropological assumptions in cognitive neuroscience of self. Annemarie van Stee is currently a PhD-student at the philosophy of religion section of the Leiden Institute for Religious Studies. In her study Annemarie van Stee investigates the philosophical anthropological assumptions underlying operationalizations of self in cognitive neuroscience (CNS) research. This is done by confronting these operationalizations with the philosophical anthropology of Søren Kierkegaard, as outlined in The Sickness unto Death [Sygdommen til Døden, 1849; hereafter SD], written by Kierkegaard’s pseudonym Anti-Climacus. A specific aim of her thesis is to evaluate the extent to which CNS can accommodate the subjectivity of self within its objective research paradigm. A secondary aim is to further CNS’ research through suggesting novel operationalizations based on SD.

The prizes were presented at the XIVth European Conference on Science and Theology, to be held 24-29 April 2012 in Tartu, Estonia. The conference was organized by the European Society for the Study of Science And Theology (ESSSAT), a scholarly, non-confessional academic organization (www.ESSSAT.org). The prizes had been made possible by the Udo Keller Foundation „Forum Humanum” (http://www.forum-humanum.org)