Agency and Individuality

This conference brings together scientists and philosophers to explore the concepts of agency and individuality, two of the most fundamental and contested ideas across the life sciences, philosophy, and the physical sciences. Participants will examine how entities come to count as individuals and how agency emerges or is attributed at different levels of organization, from cells and organisms to collectives and social groups. The conference offers an interdisciplinary space where scientific and philosophical perspectives meet to rethink how we understand individuals and agents.

If you would like to attend as a listener, please write to: [email protected]

The schedule:

Tuesday, 14 April

09:50–10:00 — Welcome

10:00–11:00 — Javier Suárez (University of Oviedo)
“Agency, Capabilities and the Body Plan: The Case of Fungal Agency”

11:00–12:00 — Jana Švorcová (Charles University)
“Evolving by Norms, Habits, and Creativity: A Bio-Philosophical Perspective on Organismal Evolution”

12:00–13:00 — J. Arvid Ågren (Case Western Reserve University & Cleveland Clinic Research)

“The Paradox of the Organism”

13:00–14:00 — Lunch Break

14:00–15:00 — Andrzej Gecow (Polish Academy of Sciences, emeritus)
“Definitions of Life and the Resulting Draft of the Deductive Theory of Life”

15:00–16:00 — Guglielmo Militello (University of Bordeaux & CNRS / Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne University)
“Functional Integration: A Theoretical Enquiry into the Biological Unit of the Individual”

Wednesday, 15 April

10:00–11:00 — Zofia Prokop (Jagiellonian University)
“Emergent Strategies to Mend the World Broken by Being Reduced ad Absurdum – An Angry Biologist’s Perspective”

11:00–12:00 — Jan Czarnecki (Jagiellonian University)
“Is Life Inherently Agential, or Is Agency Not Enough About Living? A Sketch of an Agency-First Theory of Life”

12:00–13:00 — Jan Baedke (Ruhr University) (canceled)
“Why Organisms Are Different Agents than Other Biological Individuals”

13:00–14:00 — Lunch Break

14:00–15:00 — Thomas Müller (University of Konstanz)
“Agency as an Emergent Physical Phenomenon”

15:00–16:00 — Tomasz Placek (Jagiellonian University)
“What Memory for an Agent?”

Thursday, 16 April

10:00–11:00 — Szymon Miłkoś
(Polish Academy of Sciences)
“Agency, Individuality, and Identity: Through a Metacognitive Continuum”

11:00–12:00 — Ciprian Jeler (Alexandru Ioan Cuza University of Iași)
“Selective Paths and the Units of Selection”

12:00–13:00 — Pierrick Bourrat (Macquarie University)
“Agency, Goal-Directedness, and the Levels of Biological Organisation”

13:00–14:00 — Lunch Break

14:00–15:00 — Mariano Martín-Villuendas (Complutense University of Madrid)
“Tensions in Biological Individuality: A Metascientific Diagnose”

15:00–16:00 — Adrian Stencel (Jagiellonian University)
Who Controls the Holobiont? Agency, Symbiosis, and Control

The book of abstracts: TBA