The ULL hosts a congress that will reflect on the boundaries between Science, History and Philosophy

The congress “Science, History and Philosophy: Geometries of Thought. Homage to José Montesinos Sirera”" is a meeting co-organized by the University of La Laguna, the Alumni ULL association, the Canary Society of Mathematics Teachers Luis Balbuena Castellano and the Royal Canary Academy of Sciences, which for three days, between Monday 7 and Wednesday 9 of April, will bring together researchers and specialists from different national and international universities and centers in fields such as Mathematics and Philosophy and the History of Science.

The sessions will take place in the Blas Cabrera Felipe Auditorium of the Faculty of Sciences at the University of La Laguna, and will be inaugurated next Monday, April 7 at 9:30 a.m., in a session that will be attended by the rector of the academic institution, Francisco García; the former rector and co-organizer of the congress Antonio Martinón; the honored professor, José Luis Montesinos; the dean of the Faculty of Sciences, María del Mar Afonso; the dean of the Faculty of Humanities, Javier Medina; the inaugural speaker Jürgen Renn, from the Max Planck Institute of Berlin; and Professor María Jesús Rodríguez, from the organizing committee of the Congress.

The spirit of this congress is to encourage interdisciplinary dialogue and reflect on the relationship between the sciences and the humanities, considering the ongoing debate that has shaped both the scientific and humanistic paradigms and which continues to generate discussion. Thus, among other topics, specific aspects of the careers of important scientists such as David Bohm, Sonia Kovalevskaya, Bertrand Russell, Einstein, Ortega y Gasset, and Wittgenstein will be addressed. There will also be reflections on mathematics and theology (presented by Montesinos Sirera himself); science, ethics, and politics in the society of emergencies; and the challenges of the philosophy of science, to name a few.

To this end, a wide range of speakers will be present, including representatives from the University of La Laguna itself, as well as from institutions such as the Max Planck Institute in Berlin and the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC); Spanish universities such as the University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, the Autonomous University of Madrid, the Complutense University of Madrid, the University of Seville, and the University of Barcelona; and international universities such as the University of Oslo and the University of Berkeley. Detailed presentations can be found in the program congressional.

José Montenisos Sierra, the honored professor, is the author of numerous books on Mathematics and the History of Science, and has carried out significant outreach work. He began his studies in Mathematics at the University of La Laguna, although he graduated in Madrid. He has taught Algebra at the Canary Islands center, at the University of Grenoble (France), and at the School of Forestry Engineering in Madrid, and was a Fulbright scholar at the University of Chicago. He ultimately became a secondary school teacher in Madrid, Barcelona, Gran Canaria, and Tenerife.

In 1990, he and a group of professors founded a lecture series on the History of Science in La Orotava, which attracted the interest of the Regional Ministry of Education. From the 1996-97 academic year onward, the series was also offered at both public universities in the Canary Islands. In 1999, the Seminar became a Foundation, which Montesinos directed until 2007. The Foundation's board of trustees includes representatives from the Regional Ministry of Education, the Island Council of Tenerife, the La Orotava City Council, and the University of La Laguna.