CfP: Fifth European Advanced Seminar in the Philosophy of the Life Sciences 2018 (Vienna)
Call for papers (pdf version here: www.reydon.info/easpls)
Fifth
European Advanced School in the Philosophy of the Life Sciences
(EASPLS): Interdisciplinarity in the life sciences and their philosophy
Konrad Lorenz institute for Evolution and Cognition Research (KLI), Klosterneuburg (Austria), September 10-14, 2018
Directors: Sabina Leonelli (Exeter) & Thomas Reydon (Hannover)
The European
Advanced School in the Philosophy of the Life Sciences (EASPLS)
consortium will hold its fifth biennial summer school on September
10-14, 2018 at the Konrad Lorenz institute for Evolution and Cognition
Research (KLI) in Klosterneuburg near Vienna, Austria. The overarching
topic of EASPLS 2018 is interdisciplinarity in the life sciences and
their philosophy. Young scholars (PhD students and early post-doctoral
researchers) in the history, philosophy and social studies of the life
sciences (including medicine) are invited to apply. The registration
fee is € 570,- (including accommodation in single rooms, breakfasts and
lunches, but not including travel expenses and dinners). Please find
more details at: http://bit.ly/2mHYPdj.
Candidates should
send a letter of motivation along with their CV, and a title
and abstract of their proposed presentation of about 500 words in a
single file (labelled: name-
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The European
Advanced School for the Philosophy of the Life Sciences is a
biennial event that aims at fostering research, facilitating
collaborations, and training students in the field of the philosophy,
history, and social studies of the life sciences, broadly conceived.
EASPLS is organized by a consortium of the following European top level
institutions in the area of philosophy, history and social studies of
the life sciences:; Egenis, the Centre for the Study of Life Sciences;
University of Exeter, U.K.; Centre for Ethics and Philosophy of Science
(CEPS), Institute of Philosophy; Leibniz University Hannover,
Germany; IAS Research Centre for Life, Mind and Society; University of
the Basque Country, San Sebastian, Spain; Institute for the History and
Philosophy of Science and Technology (IHPST); University of Paris 1
Panthéon-Sorbonne, France; Conceptual and Theoretical Analysis of
Immune Activation and Biological Boundaries research
group (ImmunoConcEpT); University of Bordeaux, France; Konrad Lorenz
Institute for Evolution and Cognition Research (KLI), Klosterneuburg,
Austria; Department of Philosophy, Faculty of Humanities; University of
Geneva, Switzerland.
The EASPLS is
characterized by its unique format: The schedule mixes presentations of
senior researchers and presentations by PhD students and young
post-doctoral researchers. The summer school includes various forms of
participation. The selected participants will be asked to either (1)
give a paper on the topic they have proposed with their application, (2)
to present a commentary on a senior researcher’s presentation, or (3)
to participate in a roundtable discussion moderated by a senior
researcher. The organizers aim to publish the best contributions
(full-length papers, commentary notes, and discussion notes) in a
thematic issue or section in an international journal in the field.
EASPLS 2018 will be held at the Konrad Lorenz Institute for Evolution and Cognition Research (KLI; www.kli.ac.at)
in Klosterneuburg, a small town about 15 min by train from Vienna. The
KLI is an international center for advanced studies in
theoretical biology, with a focus on the development and evolution
of biological and cultural complexity. The KLI supports theoretical
research primarily in the areas of evolutionary developmental biology
and evolutionary science. Emphasis is given to projects bridging the
natural and social sciences and the humanities. The institute is located
in the historical Kremsmünsterhof, a cultural heritage monument where
workshops, symposia, and summer schools are hosted. It provides a
stimulating and creative environment for fellows, visiting scholars,
students, and external faculty (get an impression of the last EASPLS
at: http://bit.ly/2cM9AWU).
Accommodation (in single rooms) will be in a hotel in Vienna close to
the train station (Wien Franz-Josefs-Bahnhof) from which there is a
direct train connection to Klosterneuburg.
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The topic of EASPLS 2018: Interdisciplinarity in the life sciences and their philosophy
EASPLS 2018
welcomes contributions on all aspects of interdisciplinarity in the
life sciences, interdisciplinarity between the life sciences and other
areas of research (such as engineering and the physical and social
sciences), as well as interdisciplinarity in the philosophy of the life
sciences (for instance, integrating philosophy with historical or social
scientific methods). The aim of the summer school is to bring together
graduate students and senior scholars whose work reflects on the nature
of interdisciplinary work in the life sciences, on the prerequisites for
getting interdisciplinary research projects off the ground, on the role
that the philosophy of the life sciences can play in facilitating
interdisciplinary scientific research and the “bridging” of
disciplines, or on the position that work in the philosophy of the life
sciences can occupy as a part of interdisciplinary research projects in
the life sciences. The organizers aim to assemble a community
of scholars addressing these issues from a wide variety of perspectives
and whose research focuses on a diversity of topics. The following areas
of work serve to illustrate the sorts of issues that are in focus for
the summer school, but it should be emphasized that EASPLS 2018 aims to
cover the topic of interdisciplinarity conceived broadly and not limited
to the issues mentioned below.
Unity
and diversity in the life sciences: The life sciences constitute a very
diverse set of fields of work, including fields such as evolutionary
biology, phylogenetic systematics, population genetics,
ecology, conservation biology, developmental biology, behavioral
biology, crop science, synthetic biology, microbiology, biomedical
research, epidemiology, and many more. What binds these fields of work
together is their concern with phenomena in the living world. At the
same time, they show an enormous diversity with respect to their
theoretical underpinnings, their metaphysical commitments, their
research aims and questions, and their methodologies, raising
the question how (dis-)unified the life sciences in fact are. How large
exactly are the theoretical and methodological differences between the
various areas of life science? This is not merely a question of
theoretical interest, but also one that touches scientific practice, as
many research projects in the life sciences rely on contributions
from multiple fields of work. What does it take to get interdisciplinary
research projects in the life sciences to work? What sorts of obstacles
do researchers from different areas of life science encounter
when working in interdisciplinary contexts, and how can such obstacles
be overcome?
Darwinism bridging disciplines:
Authors such as Daniel Dennett (Darwin’s Dangerous Idea, 1995), or Gary
Cziko (Without Miracles: Universal Selection Theory and the Second
Darwinian Revolution, 1995) have long argued that evolutionary thinking
constitutes a powerful scientific tool that can be applied both to
biological phenomena and to phenomena outside the biological realm. At
present there are several strong movements that attempt to establish
evolutionary research programs outside the life sciences, such as
economics and organizational science or the philosophy of
science. Richard Dawkins, one of the most vocal proponents of Darwinian
thinking, however, cautioned against an “uncritical dragging of some
garbled version of natural selection into every available field of human
discourse, whether it is appropriate or not. Maybe the “fittest” firms
survive in the marketplace of commerce, or the fittest theories survive
in the scientific marketplace, but we should at the very least
be cautious before we get carried away” (‘Why Darwin matters’, The
Guardian, Friday 8 February 2008). This cautioning raises the question
what it takes to apply a theoretical framework such as
Darwinian evolutionary theory to phenomena outside its original domain
of application. What are the conceptual, epistemological and
metaphysical requirements that need to be met to construct genuinely
evolutionary explanations of phenomena in economics and other
non-biological domains? How can evolutionary biology be integrated with
areas of work outside biology to create new research programs?
History and
philosophy of the life sciences as an interdisciplinary area of
study: Many philosophers working on the life sciences use
interdisciplinary methods, drawing on historical or social science
methods such as the collection and analysis of archival sources,
interviewing, surveys, ethnography and participative observation. What
methods best fit the philosophical study of the life sciences and its
key subject matter, life itself? What are the philosophical and
practical implications of adopting one method over another, and what are
the challenges and opportunities involved in building bridges between
philosophy and other branches of scholarship focusing on the study
of science (including history, sociology, science and technology
studies, anthropology, geography, innovation studies and so forth)?
Philosophy of
biology as theoretical biology: What happens when philosophers become
participants in biological research? How does philosophy fit in the
workflow and conceptual apparatus deployed by biologists, particularly
(but not only) in situations where several branches of biology are
involved? And how is the position of biological and medical research
within philosophy itself to be conceptualized (a question
typically confronted by philosophers who collaborate in scientific
projects, and wish their scientific colleagues to appreciate and
understand philosophical contributions)? We are hoping for papers that
examine the roles that philosophy of biology can play as a contributor
to biological research, and the implications that such roles may have
on the content of both scientific knowledge and philosophical
scholarship; and/or the roles that biology plays within philosophy
itself, as a subject matter, provider of empirical resources and
evidence, source of conceptual inspiration and constraint
on philosophical thinking.