[SydPhil] Reminder: Workshop on Problems of Scale (University of Wollongong)

[Patrick McGivern]

Reminder: Workshop on Problems of Scale, University of Wollongong, March 10th-11th.

Problems of scale arise in a variety of philosophical contexts. Discussions of levels of explanation, degrees of abstraction, coarse-graining, structure, mechanisms, and emergence all commonly appeal to relations between scales. The aim of this workshop is to examine a variety of problems in these areas and to develop a better understanding of the role that scale plays in them. This will involve philosophers with interests in a range of areas of science, including physics, chemistry, biology, and cognitive science, as well as those with more general interests in the nature of explanation, measurement, and modelling.

Location: Building 19, room 2072, University of Wollongong main campus

Schedule

Thursday, March 10th

9:30 Robin Hendry (Durham University), "Structure, scale and emergence in chemistry"
10:45 Coffee
11:15 Johanna Wolff (University of Hong Kong), "From microscopic to macroscopic: the curious case of the mole”
12:30 Lunch
1:30 Pierrick Bourrat (University of Sydney), "Natural selection and the reference grain problem”
2:45 Lina Jansson (University of Nottingham), "Scale, idealisations, and explanatory irrelevancies"
4:00 Coffee
4:15 John Matthewson (Massey University), "In mechanistic explanation, more is always more"
5:30 Day 1 Wrap-up

Drinks and dinner

Friday, March 11th

9:30 Michael Silberstein (Elizabethtown College), "Contextual emergence in systems neuroscience and embodied cognition"
10:45 Coffee
11:15 David Michael Kaplan (Macquarie University), "Timescales in neuroscience: some reflections"
12:30 Lunch
1:30 Patrick McGivern (University of Wollongong), “Concepts and problems of scale: new work for a theory of scale"
2:45 General discussion/Wrap-up

The workshop is free, but for catering purposes please contact Patrick McGivern to register your attendance at patrickm at uow.edu.au