Dear all, The next Macquarie University Philosophy seminar will be held on Tuesday October 23, 11am-1pm, in Room 107, W6A.
Dr Elizabeth Schier (Macquarie) will present a paper entitled "Emergent materialism". Abstract: What is science telling us about materialism? In this paper I argue that science has already shown that emergent materialism is true. There are two phenomena that are crucial. First of all we will see that there are emergent causal powers in that organised wholes have causal powers that their constituents lack. Secondly we will see that it is often possible to get mereological explanations of these emergent causal powers. In this paper I develop an account which can accommodate both of these phenomena. The basic idea behind it is to base the emergence of mereologically novel causal powers in the organisation of the parts. I will argue that such a ³structuralist² metaphysics both fits what science is telling us about the world (at least in some instances) and is materialistic. ****** All welcome - we look forward to seeing you there. Mianna ----- Dr Mianna Lotz Lecturer and Seminar Convenor Department of Philosophy Division of Society, Culture, Media and Philosophy Macquarie University Sydney, NSW 2109 Australia tel: (+61 2) 9850 8804 Disclaimer This message is intended for the addressee named and may contain confidential information. If you are not the intended recipient, please delete it and notify the sender. Views expressed in this message are those of the individual sender, and are not necessarily the views of Macquarie University. _______________________________________________ SydPhil mailing list [email protected] List Info: http://lists.arts.usyd.edu.au/mailman/listinfo/sydphil NEW LIST ARCHIVE: http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/
