On Purpose

The aim of the On Purpose conference is to bring together scholars from different disciplines, along with their unique perspectives, to consider questions related to purpose, broadly construed. The conference is premised on the idea that bringing together cutting-edge research in an interdisciplinary format has the potential to shed new light to what is, arguably, one of humanity’s oldest and most enduring questions: Is there purpose in the universe, and if there is, what is it?

Conference Schedule & List of Talks/Speakers

DAY 1

(Sunday, May 5th)

9:00am-9:45am

“Proper Functions in Society: Selectionist Arguments in Sociology”

Andrés Casto Araujo (Sociology, Duke University)

9:45am-10:30am

“Do opaque algorithms have functions?”

Clint Hurshman (Philosophy, University of Kansas)

10:45am-11:30am

“Quasi-Naturalistic Teleology in Aristotle’s Biology”

Mo Zhao (Philosophy, University of Bonn)

11:30am-12:15pm

“How to be a Teleologist: Comparisons of Teleological Explanations in the History &

Philosophy of Biology & Cosmology”

Nichole Levesley (History and Philosophy of Science, University of Cambridge) 

1:15pm-2:00pm

“Keeping the Telos in Teleology: A Pragmatist Suggestion”

Niall Roe (History and Philosophy of Science, University of Cambridge)

2:00pm-3:15pm

“A Guide to the Problems of Teleology in Biology”

Robert Brandon (Philosophy, Duke University)

3:30pm-4:45pm

(* title to be announced)

Mariska Leunissen (Philosophy, University of North Carolina Chapel Hill)

DAY 2

(Monday, May 6th)

8:45am-9:30am

“Teleological Development and Synergistic Information”

Tiago Rama (Philosophy, University of the Republic of Uruguay) *remote presentation

9:30am-10:15am

“A normative challenge for evolution-based moral realisms”

Jonah Branding (Philosophy & Biology, Michigan State University) & Matt Ferkany (Philosophy, Michigan State University) 

10:30am-11:15am

“Toward a Descriptive Psychological Theory of Meaning and Purpose”

Jonathan Iwry (Harvard Law School)

11:15am-12:00pm

“Making Sense of Agency”

Cassandra Williams (Philosophy, University of Toronto)

1:00pm-1:45pm

“The Human Affectome: A teleological framework of affective phenomena”

Alessandra Yu (Neuroscience, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai), Daniela Schiller (Neuroscience, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai) & Leroy Lowe (Neuroqualia)

1:45pm-3:00pm

“Did Darwin make purpose safe for science, or banish it from nature?”

Alex Rosenberg (Philosophy, Duke University)

3:15pm-4:30pm

“Desire and Prediction”

Kent Berridge (Psychology/Neuroscience, University of Michigan)

DAY 3

(Tuesday, May 7th)

9:45am-11:00am

“Novel goals, diverse intelligences: the biomedical impact of philosophical frameworks”

Michael Levin (Biology, Tufts University) *remote presentation