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VERSION:2.0
CALSCALE:GREGORIAN
METHOD:PUBLISH
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTAMP:20260606T065740Z
DTSTART;TZID=Europe/London:20120508T110000
DTEND;TZID=Europe/London:20120508T180000
SUMMARY:Aristotelian Powers Now
UID:20260611T103838Z-iCalPlugin-Grails@philevents-web-bd7db559-gt5qm
TZID:Europe/London
LOCATION:London\, United Kingdom
DESCRIPTION:<p>The recent resurgence of interest in Aristotelianism reflects the relevance of these ideas to contemporary issues in causation\, science and ontology. This seminar &nbsp\;presents two papers looking at Aristotelian powers. Anna Marmodoro&rsquo\;s paper seeks to make sense of Aristotle&rsquo\;s account of powers for a modern audience\, highlighting what is distinctive and relevant from a contemporary perspective. Nancy Cartwright and John &nbsp\;Pemberton&rsquo\;s paper argues that to make sense of modern science we must understand it as using powers which have Aristotelian characteristics.</p>\n<p>Chair: Robert Northcott\, Birkbeck<br><br><em>Structural Powers&nbsp\;in Aristotle&rsquo\;s Metaphysics</em><br>Anna Marmodoro\, Oxford</p>\n<p>Aristotle&rsquo\;s ontology aims at explaining what there is and what happens in nature. &nbsp\;The elemental items in his ontology are pure powers which are instances of different types of potentiality. &nbsp\;Powers can act on their correlative passive powers and become mutually manifested. &nbsp\;But powers do not occur as free-floating instantiations of potentiality in nature. &nbsp\;Rather\, &nbsp\;they are always composed along with other powers into entities. &nbsp\;According to Aristotle\, powers compose holistically with other powers to constitute entities\, the way rain drops compose into pools of water. &nbsp\;The compositions of powers may be natural\, artificial\, &nbsp\;or chance compositions. &nbsp\;Aristotle explains the composition of powers in his ontology through substance-forms and privation-forms. &nbsp\;Such forms\, which are a type of structural universal\, whether natural\, or artificial\, or chance ones\, explain the emergent functionality of the entities constituted by the powers.<br><br><br><em>Aristotelian Powers: what would modern science do without them?</em><br>Nancy Cartwright and John Pemberton\, LSE</p>\n<p>Modern science is centrally concerned with arrangements of things\, nomological machines\, and with the processes of change to which they can give rise: e.g. in chemical &nbsp\;reactions\, force-based dynamics\, and biological processes. The methods used by science take things to have powers which give rise to change: hydrogen to link with oxygen\, masses to attract\, hearts to pump blood. What a power does when exercised is in the nature&nbsp\;&nbsp\;of that power - the changes which occur are coherent processes through time. These characteristics are Aristotelian. Relational accounts of powers seem problematic. Arrangements of things can give rise to new emergent powers.<br><br></p>\n<p>Registration:&nbsp\;R.Robinson1@lse.ac.uk</p>
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