A processual perspective on biology

Add to your list(s) Download to your calendar using vCal

• John Dupré (University of Exeter)
• Wednesday 16 October 2013, 13:00-14:30
• Seminar Room 2, Department of History and Philosophy of Science.

If you have a question about this talk, please contact Christopher Clarke.

We tend to talk about living systems as if they consisted of a hierarchy of things (molecules, cells, organisms…) But it is also clear that these entities are more accurately conceived as processes, and their relative stability is maintained by a host of subprocesses. Though this is not in itself especially controversial, it is less often noticed that it has important consequences. It presents serious problems, for instance, for the new mechanism that has recently become very popular among philosophers of the life sciences. More speculatively, I suggest that the substance ontology that has dominated scientific thinking since the seventeenth century has become an obstacle to thinking about biology.

This talk is part of the CamPoS (Cambridge Philosophy of Science) seminar series.

This talk is included in these lists:

• All Talks (aka the CURE list)
• CamPoS (Cambridge Philosophy of Science) seminar
• Cambridge talks
• Department of History and Philosophy of Science
• Featured lists
• History and Philosophy of Science long list
• Philosophy Events
• Seminar Room 2, Department of History and Philosophy of Science
• Trust & Technology Initiative - interesting events
• hc446
• jer64's list

Note that ex-directory lists are not shown.