KLI Colloquia are informal, public talks that are followed by extensive dissussions. Speakers are KLI fellows or visiting researchers who are interested in presenting their work to an interdisciplinary audience and discussing it in a wider research context. We offer three types of talks:
1. Current Research Talks. KLI fellows or visiting researchers present and discuss their most recent research with the KLI fellows and the Vienna scientific community.
2. Future Research Talks. Visiting researchers present and discuss future projects and ideas togehter with the KLI fellows and the Vienna scientific community.
3. Professional Developmental Talks. Experts about research grants and applications at the Austrian and European levels present career opportunities and strategies to late-PhD and post-doctoral researchers.
- The presentation language is English.
- If you are interested in presenting your current or future work at the KLI, please contact the Scientific Director or the Executive Manager.
Event Details
Topic description:
"Process thinking" is currently coming into the focus of research activity in philosophy of biology, as witnessed by recent workshop activity, publications, and research grants. This colloquium will provide a seminar-style introduction to process philosophy of biology designed for both philosophers and biologists. I focus on describing some of the developments in the life sciences that have motivated a "dynamic turn" of perspective, as well as on examining what difference, if any, that turn makes to biological theory. Topics to be addressed include pluralism and classification, biological essentialism, process theories of development, different ontologies of processes (particularist, causalist, functionalist), and the alleged underdetermination of ontology by science.
Biographical note:
James DiFrisco received his PhD in Philosophy from University of Leuven, Belgium, with a dissertation entitled "Process and Levels of Organization: A Dynamic Ontology for the Life Sciences." His research focuses on problems related to biological organization, functions, individuality, and levels, as well as on a variety of themes in naturalistic metaphysics including physicalism and the relations between scientific domains.
