Project News

November 29
Call for Papers: Teleology for the 21st Century - Synthese Topical Collection

Teleology used to be one of the central topics in metaphysics from antiquity until well into the 19th century, but it is rarely discussed today. This lacuna is unfortunate, because the nature of goal-directedness has important implications in debates about biological functions, human and AI agency, naturalism, the philosophy of social science, the philosophy of mind, and experimental philosophy. We are looking for innovative papers that shed light on what teleology is, either from a general metaphysical standpoint or in connection with some specific debate.
Guest Editors: Daniel Kodaj (Eötvös Loránd University), László Bernáth (Eötvös Loránd Research Network & Eötvös Loránd University), Martin Pickup (University of Birmingham)

Appropriate topics include, but are not limited to:

  • New approaches to teleology in the philosophy of biology

  • Concepts of teleology that go beyond the philosophy of biology and relate to issues in, or re-structure debates within, the philosophy of action, social ontology, or the philosophy of mind

  • Goal-directedness and AI

  • The role of teleology in the explanatory practices of the natural vs the social sciences

The deadline for submissions is 15 May 2022.

For further information, please contact the lead guest editor at: dkodaj@gmail.com.

Submissions via: https://www.editorialmanager.com/synt/default.aspx

ASSOCIATED PROJECTS
November 16
New job posting! Postdoc at Georgetown University

Manus Patten in the Department of Biology at Georgetown University and Arvid Ågren at the Department of Evolutionary Biology at Uppsala University are searching for a postdoctoral fellow to conduct research on the “Paradox of the Organism,” the observation that despite ample opportunity for organisms to be torn apart from within by selfish genetic elements and selfish cell lineages, they nevertheless persist. This project is funded by the John Templeton Foundation and is part of a larger effort investigating agency, directionality, and function in biological systems. More details on our project are available online here. And the full job description is here.

November 2
To err is human – or is it? Even simple organisms can act wrongly in a given environment and then adapt to correct the mistake.

The saying goes that to err is human – but researchers at the University of Reading think that to err is to be alive in the first place. An interdisciplinary team from the University will analyse the nature of mistakes and their classification – such as mistakes of timing, measurement, and discrimination – over the next three years. The goal is to create a general framework for the life sciences that can systematically generate novel, testable hypotheses concerning the mechanisms and processes by which living systems make mistakes. Read Professor David Oderberg's full article online here.

ASSOCIATED PROJECTS
October 6
Is one of biology’s perennial themes ready for a fresh look?

There are interesting, unresolved issues about how function, purpose, and allied concepts are related. What’s been missing is a systematic interdisciplinary conversation that includes biologists interested in phenomena like agency, directionality, and goal-directedness, and the conceptual frameworks that have been bubbling up in philosophy. There’s real potential to do new kinds of science.

September 27
Research on purpose: new model combines philosophy and science

How should we understand goal-oriented behavior and the evolution of function across diverse living systems? Professor Alan Love is leading a new global cohort program that seeks to articulate more precise concepts, develop innovative formal models and accurate measurement methods, and foster new scientific research related to purposiveness in living systems. The three-year effort includes 24 projects from across the globe.