David Papineau (King’s College London) will be giving our first talk of the semester, entitled “Physicalism without Causal Closure” on Monday, March 2nd. The talk will be held from 4:00-6:00pm in Room B01, Goddard Hall (NYU). The abstract for his talk is below. Hope to see you all there!
“Physicalism without Causal Closure“
David Papineau, Kings College London
The standard argument for physicalism assumes the causal closure of the physical. But if causation is a macroscopic phenomenon, in the thermodynamic sense, then it cannot be taken for granted that the physical realm is causally closed. I argue that there remain strong reasons for embracing physicalism, but that the case needs to carefully constructed. We need to make sure that we do not beg the question, and that we introduce causal notions at the right place in the argument.
There will be a dinner after the talk. If you are interested, please email nyphilsci@gmail.com as soon as possible so that I can make the reservation for the appropriate number of people (please note that all faculty and grad students are welcome, but only the speaker’s dinner will be covered). If you have any other questions, please email nyphilsci@gmail.com.
Relativity, Causality and Natural Selection
In this talk I’ll present an alternative causal structure for biological evolution. First the causalist and statisticalist perspectives on evolutionary fitness are analyzed, finding them to implicitly depend on each other, and hence cannot be individually fundamental. I argue that this can be seen as an instance of a relativistic perspective over evolutionary phenomena and, therefore, insoluble. New accounts of fitness, the struggle for life, and Natural Selection are developed under this interpretation. This biological relativism is unique in that it draws from General Relativity in physics, unlike previous theories that drew upon statistical mechanics or Newtonian dynamics. Some consequences of this relativism, like a mathematical law of evolutionary change, as well as new theoretical biological concepts to underpin it, are discussed. The law and theory are then applied to give examples of how cannon and problems within evolutionary theory and biology can be understood using these new methods.
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People from outside NYU: if this is your *first* time coming to the seminar, let them know so we can make sure you will have access to the building.
*~*~* Beer is $2. Bring CHANGE *~*~*