APSE Talk: Adrian Stencel - What is a biological perspective and why does it matter?

02.09.2022

Speaker: Adrian Stencel, Jagiellonian University, Krakow
Date and Time: 2.9., 16:45-18:15
Place: HS 3D, NIG, Universitätsstraße 7
Title: What is a biological perspective and why does it matter?

Abstract:
For many decades, biologists and philosophers have been struggling with the process of individualization of objects of their inquiry because of the complexity of the biological world and the intersection of theoretical and empirical issues. Currently, the leading view is that in the case of biological units, whether we talk about species, organisms, or populations, we should be pluralists. This view could be justified in the context of pragmatism or process ontology. Regardless of the justification, the main idea is that there exist multiple definitions of a given concept because each one is focused on a different aspect of reality (evolutionary, ecological, physiological, etc.). Recently, there has been growing appreciation of the fact that even though the focus is on a given aspect of reality, still there might exist different biological perspectives -  because different biological elements of a given aggregation could approach a given aspect of reality in their way. At the same time, there is not much discussion of the foundations of biological perspectivism. The main goal of the talk is to show why it is important to develop biological perspectivism and what kind of problems need to be solved to do so.

The talk ist organized by the APSE-Unit of the Department of Philosophy. After the talk, we will go for dinner/drinks nearby – everyone welcome!