From debbie.castle at sydney.edu.au Mon Apr 10 09:26:26 2017 From: debbie.castle at sydney.edu.au (Debbie Castle) Date: Sun, 9 Apr 2017 23:26:26 +0000 Subject: [SydPhil] Reminder HPS Research Seminar today - Michael Devitt -HISTORICAL BIOLOGICAL ESSENTIALISM Message-ID: <8B1F61251560B84CACBB4191CEEAFD850176B69FB5@ex-mbx-pro-06> [https://gallery.mailchimp.com/377ed99b00666e1febb7dbbc0/images/4fed6c6d-233b-48a1-a3f9-8d84bd306ae5.jpg] THE UNIT FOR HISTORY AND PHILOSOPHY OF SCIENCE Held in conjunction with the Sydney Centre for the Foundations of Science SEMESTER ONE RESEARCH SEMINAR SERIES MONDAY 10th April 2017 [https://gallery.mailchimp.com/377ed99b00666e1febb7dbbc0/images/344bbc80-ccde-4440-b0f1-ca38a73dbd2f.jpg] MICHAEL DEVITT Distinguished Professor of Philosophy The Graduate Centre The City University of New York. HISTORICAL BIOLOGICAL ESSENTIALISM The consensus in the philosophy of biology is that a taxon?s essence or nature is wholly historical. In ?Resurrecting Biological Essentialism? (2008), I rejected this consensus in arguing that there is an intrinsic component to the essence. Still I accepted that there was also an historical component. But why believe that there is? This paper begins with an argument, drawing on the literature, that this component is required by historical/evolutionary explanations. But most of the paper is concerned with another question. What precisely is this historical component? An answer must be complete in that it distinguishes one taxon from another; for example, zebras from horses. An answer must be plausible in that posits an essence that can bear the explanatory burden. Despite asking around, I have been surprisingly unable to find a worked out complete and plausible answer in the literature. I go on to propose one: the relevant history of a taxon is of organisms of a certain intrinsic kind evolving into organisms of a certain other intrinsic kind, until we reach the taxon in question. The consensus is right that there is an historical component to the essence of a taxon but that component requires that there also be an intrinsic component. WHERE: CCANESA MEETING ROOM, MADSEN BUILDING CAMPERDOWN CAMPUS Best access to CCANESA is from the Eastern Avenue entrance of the Madsen Building. When you enter you will be on the 3rd floor. Please proceed across the foyer and take the stairs on the right up one floor. The door to CCANESA will be straight ahead on this landing WHEN: Monday 10th April 2017 START: 5.30PM All Welcome | No Booking Required | Free PLEASE CHECK OUR WEBSITE FOR ANY CHANGES TO VENUE OR TIME sydney.edu.au/science/hps/ Copyright ? *2016* *Unit for HPS, All rights reserved. Want to change how you receive these emails? You can update your preferences<*|UPDATE_PROFILE|*> or unsubscribe from this list<*|UNSUB|*> -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From jlrbentley at yahoo.com.au Mon Apr 10 11:49:27 2017 From: jlrbentley at yahoo.com.au (John Bentley) Date: Mon, 10 Apr 2017 01:49:27 +0000 (UTC) Subject: [SydPhil] Philorum Group @ Central. 2017-03(Mar)-14 Tue. Open Forum References: <28300903.2900988.1491788967140.ref@mail.yahoo.com> Message-ID: <28300903.2900988.1491788967140@mail.yahoo.com> All welcome. Dates: 2nd Tuesdays of the month. 18:15 for a 18:30 Start. Finish 21:30 (Feel free to come and go at any point during the night.) The Members Bar, Floor 1 (Keep winding up to the top of the stairs.) The Gaelic Club 64 Devonshire Street Surry Hills 2010 NSW Sydney, Australia (100 metres from a Central railway station exit.) Cost: $3 donation. (This goes entirely to the venue). www.philorum.org View a google map at http://www.philorum.org/centralNextMeeting.html From dalia.nassar at gmail.com Tue Apr 11 11:40:17 2017 From: dalia.nassar at gmail.com (Dalia Nassar) Date: Tue, 11 Apr 2017 11:40:17 +1000 Subject: [SydPhil] Alexander von Humboldt: Views of Nature (Sydney Ideas) Message-ID: Sydney Ideas - Alexander Von Humboldt: views of nature *Associate Professor Joan Steigerwald, Department of Humanities, York University* 3 May 2017 6-7.30pm New Law LT 106 Level 1 Sydney Law School Annex Eastern Avenue The University of Sydney *Co-presented with the Concepts and Theories of Life from the Nineteenth Century to the Present project in the Faculty of Arts and Social sciences* - *Cost:* Free with online registrations required - *Registration:* https://www.eventbrite.com.au/e/sydney-ideas-alexander-von-humboldt-views-of-nature-tickets-33200725263 -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From calendar-notification at google.com Tue Apr 11 13:00:09 2017 From: calendar-notification at google.com (Google Calendar) Date: Tue, 11 Apr 2017 03:00:09 +0000 Subject: [SydPhil] Notification: Tuomas Tahko @ Wed 12 Apr 2017 13:00 - 14:30 (Seminars) Message-ID: <94eb2c1b63122ce09d054cdb4ac4@google.com> This is a notification for: Title: Tuomas Tahko Where Do You Get Your Protein? (Or: Biochemical Realization) Biochemical kinds such as proteins pose interesting problems for philosophers of science. They can be studied both from the point of view of biology and chemistry, but these different perspectives may result in different classificatory practices. I will examine the tension that such classificatory differences produce. We will see that the reducibility of the biological functions of biochemical kinds to the chemical structures that realize these functions is a key question here. This leads us to a more general discussion of multiple realizability and realization at the biology-chemistry interface. The conclusion is that genuine multiple realizability may be rare at this interface. When: Wed 12 Apr 2017 13:00 ? 14:30 Eastern Time - Melbourne, Sydney Calendar: Seminars Who: * Sam Shpall- creator Event details: https://www.google.com/calendar/event?action=VIEW&eid=MG0zY2w0amdzZWczaDkzN3VvdHN1N3VmbG8gMm1lN2M3ZnIzb21wbDRyaHZrcG1sYTUzNjhAZw Invitation from Google Calendar: https://www.google.com/calendar/ You are receiving this email at the account sydphil at arts.usyd.edu.au because you are subscribed for notifications on calendar Seminars. To stop receiving these emails, please log in to https://www.google.com/calendar/ and change your notification settings for this calendar. Forwarding this invitation could allow any recipient to modify your RSVP response. Learn more at https://support.google.com/calendar/answer/37135#forwarding -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From calendar-notification at google.com Wed Apr 12 14:59:58 2017 From: calendar-notification at google.com (Google Calendar) Date: Wed, 12 Apr 2017 04:59:58 +0000 Subject: [SydPhil] Notification: Drew Khlentzos @ Thu 13 Apr 2017 15:00 - 16:30 (Current Projects) Message-ID: This is a notification for: Title: Drew Khlentzos 'Free Choice' and other puzzling inferences" The 'Paradox of Free Choice' pits intuitive reasoning against (standard) logical reasoning: the salient interpretation of a modal disjunction such as 'You can have ice-cream or yoghurt' is that you can have ice-cream and you can have yoghurt. But standard logic blocks any such inference. Moreover, inserting a special Free Choice Permission rule, FCP, in a standard logical setting leads to inconsistency: from the premise that you may have yoghurt, P(Y), by (modal) Addition we infer: P(Y v I); whence by FCP infer P(Y) & P(I) from which P(I) follows. But then anything is permissible if something is. This is the 'Paradox' of Free Choice. What appears a mere curio turns out to have surprisingly deep roots ? resolving the Paradox requires rethinking the role of disjunction in natural languages as well as its connection with other connectives. When: Thu 13 Apr 2017 15:00 ? 16:30 Eastern Time - Melbourne, Sydney Calendar: Current Projects Who: * Kristie Miller- creator Event details: https://www.google.com/calendar/event?action=VIEW&eid=XzZkMTNhY2k2OG9wNDZiYTM2MTFqOGI5azY0cTM2YjlvNmgxM2NiOWo4aDJqMmdpMjg0cTMyZHBwNnMgZmV2MWxkcjRsa2h2MDM2b2U0aW4yanR0ZGdAZw Invitation from Google Calendar: https://www.google.com/calendar/ You are receiving this email at the account sydphil at arts.usyd.edu.au because you are subscribed for notifications on calendar Current Projects. To stop receiving these emails, please log in to https://www.google.com/calendar/ and change your notification settings for this calendar. Forwarding this invitation could allow any recipient to modify your RSVP response. Learn more at https://support.google.com/calendar/answer/37135#forwarding -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: