Pitt-London Workshop in Philosophy of Biology and Neuroscience

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Pitt-London Workshop in Philosophy of Biology and
Neuroscience

• A meeting held at Birkbeck College London under
  the auspices of The London Consortium, a Masters
  and Doctoral Programme in Humanities and Cultural
  Studies. Organisers Colin McCabe, Nancy Condee
  and Peter Machamer

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What we talk about when we talk about causality

• Jim Bogen (Center for Philosophy of Science,
  Pittsburgh) argued that mechanistic explanations
  depend on descriptions of activities rather than
  counterfactual regularities, using examples from
  recent neuroscience.
• (Chair Peter Machamer, HPS, Pittsburgh)

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One hour discussions followed short presentations
of pre-circulated papers
David Papineau (Philosophy, Kings College) and
John Dúpre (Philosophy, Exeter)
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Leveling reduction

• Peter Machamer Jackie Sullivan (HPS,
  Pittsburgh) presented an analysis of reduction
  emphasizing the search for mechanisms and drawing
  on examples in the neurosciences.

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The Causes of Adaptation and the Unity of
Biology

• Dennis Walsh (Philosophy, Edinburgh) discussed
  the role of adaptation and developmental
  constraint in the explanation of evolutionary
  novelty and criticized interpretations of
  evolutionary theory as a theory of interacting
  forces

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Opening night Dinner
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The role a Concept plays in Science the case
of Homology

• Ingo Brigandt (HPS, Pittsburgh) used the history
  and current diversity of homology concepts in
  biology to argue that causal theories of theories
  of reference fail to explain the nature of
  conceptual change in science

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Ingo Brigandt and John Hodge (Leeds) in the
discussion
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Homology in Genomics

• Katherine Kendidg (Philosophy, Birkbeck) argued
  that a strictly phylogenetic homology concept
  defined at the level of populations of organisms
  is inadequate for the needs of molecular biology
  (Alan Love in discussion)

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Extinction concepts put to work in philosophy of
biology

• Joe Cain (Philosophy, Birkbeck) led the group
  through a series of exercises designed to
  highlight decisions that must be made to arrive
  at a determinate concept of extinction

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The Evolution of Means-End Cognition Why
Animals ain't Smart

• David Papineau (Philosophy, Kings College)
  presented a modification of his pre-circulated
  text, and argued for a critical role for visual
  imagination in the evolution of distinctively
  human cognitive abilities

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Infra-human cognition

• David Papineaus paper generated lively
  discussion which was continued the next morning
  with two papers on this topic

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Anthropomorphism Cross-species modeling

• Sandra Mitchell (HPS, Pittsburgh) presented an
  analysis of the conditions under which
  anthropomorphic reasoning can be used to
  illuminate animal behavior and cognition

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Putting Anthropomorphism in Context

• Karen Arnold (HPS, Pittsburgh) examined the
  social and political consequences of using
  anthropomorphic language to describe animal
  behavior, using the term rape as a case study

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John Dupré commented on Mitchell and Arnolds
papers
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Evo-Devo Meets the Mind Towards a
Developmental Evolutionary Psychology

• Paul Griffiths (HPS, Pittsburgh) suggested that
  evolutionary psychology could benefit from
  theoretical innovations in evolutionary
  developmental biology

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Bringing Life to the Mind

• Karola Stotz (Center for Philosophy of Science,
  Pittsburgh) spoke on recent work in cognitive
  science emphasizing bodily experience, situated
  activity, and the environmental embeddedness of
  cognition

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Peter Machamer requests clarification

• One of the highlights of the conference was the
  extensive time available for discussion and the
  emergence of themes among a consistent group of
  participants over four days

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Non-genetic inheritance and cultural evolution

• Gianmatteo Mameli (Philosophy, Kings College)
  questioned the validity of standard arguments
  linking adaptive evolutionary change essentially
  to change in genetic heredity

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History and Philosophy of Science A
Phylogenetic Approach

• Jim Lennox (HPS and Center for Philosophy of
  Science, Pittsburgh) described how issues in
  current science can be illuminated by studying
  the historical emergence of the key concepts
  involved

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Evolutionary morphology and the integration of
evolution and development

• Alan Love (HPS, Pittsburgh) used the
  phylogenetic approach to enrich our
  understanding of current moves to reintegrate
  developmental and evolutionary biology

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John Hodge (Leeds) commented on the papers by
Lennox and Love
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In conclusion, Colin McCabe gave his impressions
of the conference as a whole
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(No Transcript)
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Closing Dinner and speeches