Date: Friday December 5th, 2014
Time: 9:00am
Location: Oak Room at IMU
Title: The causal factors of robustness and plasticity in living systems: towards a synthesis of genetics, development, and the organization of whole organisms
Abstract:
Living systems demonstrate both robustness and plasticity throughout their lifetime. An outstanding question is how stability and change coexist and drive behavior and cognition. Is it through 1) evolutionary selection and genetic control, 2) regularity of context and developmental scaffolding, or 3) the autonomous organization of whole organisms? It seems reasonable to accept that all three play a role in the nature of living, behaving, and cognizing systems. Theorists have often prioritized one of the above options at the expense of others, but given that all are factors in behavior, there remains an outstanding problem to describe how these factors interrelate. The objective of this workshop is to identify the substantive claims made by theorists who defend the priority of one kind of factor over others, and then to attempt a synthesis of approaches.>
Organization:
This day-long workshop will be broken into four discussion sessions, on the topics of evolution and genetic control, developmental scaffolding, physiology/metabolic closure of whole organisms, and finally a synthesizing session that incorporates all three perspectives. Each session will begin with a brief report on the previous session, and a short presentation to highlight the main arguments for prioritizing the given session’s factor, followed by a moderated discussion amongst a small panel and audience Q&A. The final session will place all the previous panelists together and attempt to integrate the outcomes of the prior discussions.
Panelists:
Genetics and Evolution:
Luis Rocha - IU Informatics, Cognitive Science
Manfred Laubichler - ASU Theoretical Biology, History of Biology
Chris Harshaw - IU Biology
Lisa Lloyd - IU History and Philosophy of Science
Colin Allen - IU History and Philosophy of Science, Cognitive Science
Development:
Paul Meyer - IU Psychological and Brain Sciences, Neurobiology
Shane Zappettini - IU History and Philosophy of Science, Cognitive Science
Jeff Alberts - IU Psychological and Brain Sciences
Swapnaa Jayaraman - IU Psychological and Brain Sciences
Erik Ragsdale - IU Biology
Greg Kohn - IU Psychological and Brain Sciences
Armin P. Moczek - IU Biology
Physiology and Metabolic Closure:
Eran Agmon - IU Informatics, Cognitive Science
Randall Beer - IU Informatics, Cognitive Science
Alex Gates - IU Infomatics, Cognitive Science
Simon DeDeo - IU Informatics, Cognitive Science
Derek Jones - University of Evansville Philosophy
Russ McBride - University of Utah Cognitive Science
Jake McKinlay - IU Biology
Synthesis:
Everyone listed
Colin Allen - History and Philosophy of Science, Cognitive Science
Alex Gates - Informatics, Cognitive Science
References
This workshop covers a broad range of topics at a fairly high level, so there is no definitive reference on the subject. If you have any recommendations for more references to be added here, please email them to eagmon@indiana.edu
Genetics and Evolution
Development
Physiology and Metabolic Closure