European Summer School on Life & Cognition

PROGRAMME

Day 1 – 22nd June

Life: autonomous organization and evolution

Chairperson: Kepa Ruiz-Mirazo

This session is dedicated to how traditions and scientific practices working on the notion of living organization and autonomy in biology can be brought together with the standard evolutionary theory. This includes topics intensely debated these days within biology and philosophy of biology, concerning our understanding of evolution and how evolutionary theory can integrate scientific and philosophical traditions which were historically not incorporated by the Modern Synthesis (such as embryology or organicism), and also new scientific findings which change deep intuitions of the older views (as it occurs with microbiology, metagenomics or complexity studies). These days the exploration of systemic approaches, previously neglected by the standard views in evolutionary theory and Molecular Biology is pervasive, so the time is ripe to discuss in depth some of their theoretical consequences. The session will explore different proposals to expand the standard view of evolution, such as the extension of the conception of inheritance, the evolution of structured or integrated systems, and the challenges to the tree of life.

Morning session

9h30-10h30: Eva Jablonka (Biology, Tel Aviv University, Israel)

10h30-11h30: Arantza Etxeberria (Philosophy, EHU/UPV)

11h30-11h45: Pause

11h45-12h45:Maureen O’Malley (Philosophy, University of Exeter, UK)

13h00-14h30: Lunch

Afternoon session

14h30-16h00: Group workshops

16h00-16h15: Pause

16h15: 17h30: General discussion

Day 2 – 23rd June

Fabricating Life: Approaches to Synthetic Biology

Chairperson: Arantza Etxeberria

Research on the origins of life, artificial life and, more recently, ‘synthetic biology’ share the aim of implementing systems with life-like properties with the view to gaining insight about natural biological systems. Apart from reviewing the main strategies pursued at present in the fabrication of living entities, and the new type of knowledge that these are providing (or will surely provide in the immediate future), we would like to address questions such as: what are the most important properties that may characterize “transients”, that is, systems that are already more than physico-chemical but remain ‘infrabiological’ ? Is the project of implementing ‘artificial (proto-)cells’ taking over other approaches less concerned with individuality? What are the underlying ideas on the nature of life?

Morning session

9h30-10h30:Paul Bourgine (Sciences of Complexity, CREA, Paris, France)

10h30-11h30:Juli Peretó (Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Universitat de València, Spain)

11h30-11h45: Pause

11h45-12h45: Kepa Ruiz-Mirazo (Philosophy/ Sciences of Complexity, EHU/UPV)

13h00-14h30: Lunch

Afternoon session

14h30-16h00: Group workshops

16h00-16h15: Pause

16h15: 17h30: General discussion

Day 3 – 24th June

Complexity and mechanisms – systems thinking and emergence

Chairperson: Jon Umerez

After a century of discoveries on the molecular bases underlying biological and cognitive phenomena, there is nowadays a revival of holistic/integrative approaches, coming together with new methods to deal with the intricate web of interactions that molecular mechanisms involve. The third day will be dedicated to the analysis of the main changes of perspective and new methodologies developed in this regard, with a special focus on epistemological issues of complex systems, including a revision of traditional issues like emergence, reduction, hierarchical relationships and downward causation, in addition to the main properties and advantages stemming from network models, both in life and cognition.

Morning session

9h30-10h30: Ricard Solé (Complex systems, University of Barcelona, Spain)

10h30-11h30:Giuseppe Longo (Theoretical Biology/Modelling, CREA, Paris, France)

11h30-11h45: Pause

11h45-12h45:Alvaro Moreno (Philosophy, EHU/UPV)

13h00-14h30: Lunch

Afternoon session

14h30-16h00: Group workshops

16h00-16h15: Pause

16h15: 17h30: General discussion

Day 4 – 25th June

Extended and Embodied Cognition

Chairperson: Xabier Barandiaran

One of the main possible challenges to the idea of autonomy at the cognitive level is the thesis of the extended mind which can even confer the status of ‘mental property’ to processes occurring in the environment. The sessions of this day will be dedicated to discuss the “extended mind” thesis, including work done on prosthesis and the importance of social interactions for the cognitive phenomena.

Check the full program for the day (including abstracts, guiding questions, reading material, etc).

Morning session

9h30-10h30:Michael Wheeler (Philosophy, University of Stirling, UK)

10h30-11h30:Ezequiel Di Paolo (Cognitive Science, EHU/UPV)

11h30-11h45: Pause

11h45-12h45: Charles Lenay (Cognitive Science, Université Technologique de Compiègne, France)

13h00-14h30: Lunch

Afternoon session

14h30-16h00: Group workshops

16h00-16h15: Pause

16h15: 17h30: General discussion

Day 5 – 26th June

Human agency: ethics & social interaction

Chairperson: Alvaro Moreno

The concept of autonomy is also of crucial importance for understanding ethics. In this field human agency is taken as a largely uncontroversial starting point, yet recent work in biology and the cognitive sciences raises important conceptual, empirical and methodological challenges for standard philosophical assumptions concerning human agency and autonomy. For instance, some research threatens to undermine the idea that rational reflection plays a central role in human agency. More positively, biological and cognitive research may contribute new ideas for understanding agent individuation, personal identity, and self-directedness, offering the potential for a more firmly grounded naturalistic account of human agency. Philosophers are responding to these challenges, with the new field of neuroethics being one of the more prominent examples of a deepening engagement between philosophy and science. In this session we shall tackle questions such as: Is the individual agent constitutive or constituted by its social interactions? Does contemporary cognitive research undermine philosophical conceptions of human agency? What role do emotions play in moral autonomy? What is the subject of ethical action? How can theories of social and biological organization help us to understand the domain of deliberation and choice?

Morning session

9h30-10h30: Wayne Christensen (Philosophy, Konrad Lorenz Institute, Vienna, Austria).

10h30-11h30:Antonio Casado (Philosophy, EHU/UPV)

11h30-11h45: Pause

11h45-12h45: Hanne De Jaegher (Philosophy, University of Heidelberg)

13h00-14h30: Lunch

Afternoon session

14h30-16h00: Group workshops

16h00-16h15: Pause

16h15: 17h30: General discussion