3QBC: Idealization, Mechanism and Reduction: New Directions in the Philosophy of
Proximal Biology

Emmanuel College, University of Queensland St Lucia, 15-17 December 2006

Since its emergence as a separate field in philosophy of science in the early
1970s, the philosophy of the biology has often been criticized for focusing on
evolutionary biology to the exclusion of other area of bioscience. But in recent
years there has been a spate of publications on what has variously been termed
'causal', 'proximal', or 'experimental' biology. This conference will explore
two emerging themes in the recent literature on proximal biology: 1. How
proximal biology creates idealized objects of study such as 'the' human genome
or 'the' vertebrate limb; 2. Whether proximal biology discovers 'mechanisms'
rather than laws or theories. In the light of these two themes we will ask to
what extent we should expect biological phenomenon to be reduced to the
molecular level.

Keynote speakers

	Prof. William Bechtel (UCSD) - author of Discovering Cell Mechanisms - The
	Creation of Modern Cell Biology (CUP 2006)

	Prof. Alexander Rosenberg (Duke) - author of Darwinian Reductionism Or, How to
	Stop Worrying and Love Molecular Biology (Chicago 2006)

	Dr Marcel Weber (Basel) - author of Philosophy of Experimental Biology (CUP
	2004)

Invited discussants
(and representative publications)

	Dr Ingo Brigandt (Alberta)
	"Homology in comparative, molecular and evolutionary biology" Journal of
	Experimental Zoology (Molecular and Developmental Evolution) 2003

	Prof. Mark Colyvan (Sydney)
	Ecological Orbits: How Planets Move and Populations Grow OUP 2004. (with Lev R.
	Ginzburg.)

	Dr Stephen Downes (Utah)
	"Integrating the Multiple Biological Causes of Human Behavior" Biology and
	Philosophy 2005

	Dr Karola Stotz (Indiana)
	"With genes like that who needs an environment: Postgenomics' argument for the
	'ontogeny of information'" Philosophy of Science 2006

	James Tabery (Pittsburgh)
	"Synthesizing Activities and Interactions in the Concept of a Mechanism"
	Philosophy of Science 2004

	Dr Rasmus Winther (UNAM)
	"Parts and Theories in Compositional Biology" Biology and Philosophy 2006

Registration information and a draft program is available at:
http://www.uq.edu.au/biohumanities/index.html?page=22765

Enquiries to biohumanities@uq.edu.au

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