Process Biology: Final Conference of the ERC Project ‘A Process Ontology for Contemporary Biology’

http://socialsciences.exeter.ac.uk/sociology/events/probioprojectconference/

The ERC-funded project ‘A Process Ontology for Contemporary Biology’ (2013-2018) has sought to rethink central issues in the philosophy of biology by elaborating an ontology for biology that takes full account of the processual nature of living systems. The goal has been to develop a concept of process adequate for addressing the multiple levels of interacting processes at different time scales characteristic of living systems. All biological entities can be analysed as stabilised processes relative to an appropriate time scale, and this conception provides a better understanding of familiar biological pluralisms (about genes, organisms, species, etc.) in terms of different ways in which distinct scientific practices intersect with biological processes. A process perspective has been used to shed light on a number of traditional philosophical problems, including individuation, classification, persistence, explanation, essentialism, and reductionism. It has also addressed the consequences of a process perspective for particular areas of contemporary biological and biomedical research.

This final conference will present the main findings of the project and explore the broader consequences of a process ontology for biology, as well as suggest further avenues of future research in the philosophy of biology and metaphysics.

Speakers: Rani Lill Anjum (NMBU), Jane Calvert (Edinburgh), John Dupré (Exeter), Adam Ferner (Royal Institute of Philosophy London), Antony Galton (Exeter), Scott Gilbert (Swarthmore), James Griesemer (UC Davis), Stephan Güttinger (Exeter), Sui Huang (Seattle), Phyllis Illari (UCL), Johannes Jaeger (Klosterneuburg), Spyridon Koutroufinis (TU Berlin), Sabina Leonelli (Exeter), Elisabeth Lloyd (Indiana), Anne Sophie Meincke (Exeter), Daniel Nicholson (Exeter), Peter Simons (Trinity College Dublin), Ana Soto (Tufts), Helen Steward (Leeds), Rowland Stout (University College Dublin), Sonia Sultan (Wesleyan), James Wakefield (Exeter), Denis Walsh (Toronto), Kenneth Waters (Calgary).

For questions concerning registration please contact Miss Chee Wong at [email protected].