WORKSHOP: Intersecting paths across mathematics, biology, and epistemology: a colloquium in honor of Giuseppe Longo and Ana Soto

18 January 2023

21 & 22 October 2022 In this colloquium, we celebrate the 75th birthdays of Giuseppe Longo and Ana Soto. We have chosento show their distinct trajectories and then how they intersect while working on the foundations oftheoretical knowledge with a biology focus. In this respect, both Giuseppe Longo and Ana Sotomaintain a close relationship with […]

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New Paper (2022): R. Beer, E. Di Paolo, The theoretical foundations of enaction: Precariousness

27 December 2022

New Paper (2022): R. Beer, E. Di Paolo, The theoretical foundations of enaction: Precariousness

Published in Biosystems Abstract: Enaction is an increasingly influential approach to cognition that grew out of Maturana and Varela’s earlier work on autopoiesis and the biology of cognition. As with any relatively new scientific discipline, the enactive approach would benefit greatly from a careful analysis of its theoretical foundations. Here we initiate such an analysis […]

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Autonomy beyond the proto-cell: towards a ‘dialectical turn’ in origins-of-life research

14 December 2022

Autonomy beyond the proto-cell: towards a ‘dialectical turn’ in origins-of-life research

     Life’s complexity – even if we just stick to its basic core, the prokaryotic world – is overwhelming. This is not only due to the diversity of biomolecules and their amazing structural properties, or to the multiple and sophisticated transformations they undergo, but also to their dynamic organization and functional integration into cells. Let […]

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New Paper (2022), A. Gambarotto, M. Mossio, Enactivism and the Hegelian Stance on Intrinsic Purposiveness

8 December 2022

New Paper (2022), A. Gambarotto, M. Mossio, Enactivism and the Hegelian Stance on Intrinsic Purposiveness

Published open access in Phenomenology and the Cognitive Sciences Abstract: We characterize Hegel’s stance on biological purposiveness as consisting in a twofold move, which conceives organisms as intrinsically purposive natural systems and focuses on their behavioral and cognitive abilities. We submit that a Hegelian stance is at play in enactivism, the branch of the contemporary […]

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New Paper (2022), J. Rust, Precedent as a path laid down in walking: Grounding intrinsic normativity in a history of response

8 December 2022

New Paper (2022), J. Rust, Precedent as a path laid down in walking: Grounding intrinsic normativity in a history of response

Published open access in Phenomenology and the Cognitive Sciences Abstract: While developments of a shared intellectual tradition, the enactivist approach and the organizational account proffer importantly different accounts of organismic normativity. Where enactivists tend to follow Hans Jonas, Andres Weber, and Francisco Varela in grounding intrinsic affordance norms in existential concern, organizational theorists such as […]

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IAS Research seminar 2022/2023: Sergio Rubin

13 October 2022

IAS Research seminar 2022/2023: Sergio Rubin

The first session of the of the IAS research seminar 2022/2023 will take place next Thursday, October 20th, at 4pm. To connect remotely please register by writing to: andrea.gambarotto@ehu.eus Biological Autonomy and Gaian Systems Sergio Rubin Georges Lemaître Centre for Earth and Climate Research, Earth and Life Institute, Université catholique de Louvain, Belgium In this presentation it […]

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Enaction and Dialectics – Part I

6 October 2022

Enaction and Dialectics – Part I

The enactive approach is a rich perspective on the big questions of life and mind originating in the work of Francisco Varela and colleagues. [1] It is a perspective in continuous development, which makes it difficult to condense in a brief text. Enaction is a way of looking at life and mind as continuous. This […]

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CFP: Levels of Agency from Bacteria to Gaia

5 October 2022

CFP: Levels of Agency from Bacteria to Gaia

Spontaneous Generations, an interdisciplinary journal published by the graduate students of the Institute for the History and Philosophy of Science and Technology, University of Toronto, invites contributions to its 12th volume, entitled “Levels of Agency: From Bacteria to Gaia”.  As of now, confirmed contributors include Alan Love, Anne-Sophie Meincke, Denis Walsh, Glenda Satne, and David […]

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Introducing Dialectical Systems

3 October 2022

Introducing Dialectical Systems

Today we have the pleasure to inaugurate Dialectical Systems, a forum where scholars and the general public interested in biology, cognitive science, ecology and philosophy of science can engage in a constructive interdisciplinary dialogue. The forum’s name is inspired by the landmark book The Dialectical Biologist (1985), in which Levins and Lewontin put forward an […]

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