This playlist contains covers a series of online discussions with guests that do work that is of relevance to us.
We discuss the philosophy of science, various theories of life, evolutionary biology, and topics such as "artificial intelligence," where the difference between living and non-living systems is important.
The discussion panel includes Tarja Knuuttila, Andrea Loettgers, Paul Polena, Kevin Purkhauser, and Johannes Jaeger, the core team members of our project.
After a brief introduction by each guest, and the initial panel discussion, we open the floor for questions from the audience.
We discuss the philosophy of science, various theories of life, evolutionary biology, and topics such as "artificial intelligence," where the difference between living and non-living systems is important.
The discussion panel includes Tarja Knuuttila, Andrea Loettgers, Paul Polena, Kevin Purkhauser, and Johannes Jaeger, the core team members of our project.
After a brief introduction by each guest, and the initial panel discussion, we open the floor for questions from the audience.
Guest: Hasok Chang
Realism for Realistic People
Sep 18, 2024
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We discuss Hasok Chang's book "Realism for Realistic People." It aims to outline a philosophy of science focused on understanding and promoting the actual practices of inquiry in science and other knowledge-focused areas of life, while rejecting the traditional notion of metaphysical realism, which claims that our theories correspond to some ultimate reality. Instead, Chang proposes an “activist realism,” offering a novel pragmatist conception of truth and reality as operational ideals, achievable through actual scientific practice.
Hasok Chang is the Hans Rausing Professor of History and Philosophy of Science at Cambridge University. His research interests lie in the history and philosophy of chemistry and physics from the 18th century onward, as well as the philosophy of scientific practice. He also engages with a variety of topics in the philosophy of science, including realism, pluralism, pragmatism, measurement, and evidence.
Realism for Realistic People
Sep 18, 2024
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We discuss Hasok Chang's book "Realism for Realistic People." It aims to outline a philosophy of science focused on understanding and promoting the actual practices of inquiry in science and other knowledge-focused areas of life, while rejecting the traditional notion of metaphysical realism, which claims that our theories correspond to some ultimate reality. Instead, Chang proposes an “activist realism,” offering a novel pragmatist conception of truth and reality as operational ideals, achievable through actual scientific practice.
Hasok Chang is the Hans Rausing Professor of History and Philosophy of Science at Cambridge University. His research interests lie in the history and philosophy of chemistry and physics from the 18th century onward, as well as the philosophy of scientific practice. He also engages with a variety of topics in the philosophy of science, including realism, pluralism, pragmatism, measurement, and evidence.
Guest: Dan S. Brooks
The Leveled World
Sep 25, 2024
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"[L]evels of organization can be thought of as local maxima of regularity and predictability in the phase space of alternate modes of organization of matter."
This discussion revolves around the intriguing quote above (from Bill Wimsatt’s “Re-Engineering Philosophy for Limited Beings"). The idea that there are levels of organization in our experienced reality is one of the most recognizable concepts in the life, neuro, and social sciences. At the same time, the concept is overloaded, and often used in vague or inconsistent ways, which has led some philosophers to argue that we should do away with it altogether. We talk to Dan about why levels are essential for contemporary biology and philosophy of science, and what is meant exactly by “local maxima of regularity and predictability in the organization of matter.”
Daniel S. Brooks is currently a visiting Professor for Theoretical Philosophy at the University of Wuppertal. His research interests span the history and philosophy of the life sciences (particularly developmental biology, ecology and neuroscience), concept usage in science, naturalized epistemology, methodology in philosophy, and existentialism. He has been advocating a new take on levels organization which will appear in a monograph which is (tentatively) entitled “The Leveled World: The Role of Levels of Organization in Biological Thought.”
The Leveled World
Sep 25, 2024
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"[L]evels of organization can be thought of as local maxima of regularity and predictability in the phase space of alternate modes of organization of matter."
This discussion revolves around the intriguing quote above (from Bill Wimsatt’s “Re-Engineering Philosophy for Limited Beings"). The idea that there are levels of organization in our experienced reality is one of the most recognizable concepts in the life, neuro, and social sciences. At the same time, the concept is overloaded, and often used in vague or inconsistent ways, which has led some philosophers to argue that we should do away with it altogether. We talk to Dan about why levels are essential for contemporary biology and philosophy of science, and what is meant exactly by “local maxima of regularity and predictability in the organization of matter.”
Daniel S. Brooks is currently a visiting Professor for Theoretical Philosophy at the University of Wuppertal. His research interests span the history and philosophy of the life sciences (particularly developmental biology, ecology and neuroscience), concept usage in science, naturalized epistemology, methodology in philosophy, and existentialism. He has been advocating a new take on levels organization which will appear in a monograph which is (tentatively) entitled “The Leveled World: The Role of Levels of Organization in Biological Thought.”
Guest: Michela Massimi
Perspectival Realism
Nov 28, 2025
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There was an additional discussion with Michela Massimi about "Perspectival Realism", which was unfortunately not recorded.
Perspectival Realism
Nov 28, 2025
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There was an additional discussion with Michela Massimi about "Perspectival Realism", which was unfortunately not recorded.
Guest: Adam Frank
The Blind Spot
Jan 9, 2025
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“There can be no experience of the world without the experiencer and that, my dear friends, is us.”
This discussion revolves around “The Blind Spot”, a book co-authored by physicists Adam Frank and Marcelo Gleiser with philosopher Evan Thompson. It discusses the importance of science for the survival of humanity in our current moment of metacrisis, but also takes a critical stance towards interpretations of scientific knowledge that neglect the uniquely situated standpoint of the limited human observer. Using numerous examples from physics, biology, and cognitive neuroscience, it proposes various ways to overcome this “blind spot” towards a more grounded, humane, and sustainable science for the 21st -century.
Adam Frank is professor of computational astrophysics at Rochester University, with a research focus on magnetic flows involved in star formation and the dynamics of planetary nebula. He is also an active researcher in the field of astrobiology, studying the planetary impacts of our own civilization, in order to better understand the evolution of potential exo-civilizations. Adam is a very active science communicator, co-founder of the 13.7 and 13.8 science blogs, frequent contributor to NPR and the New York Times (among other major media outlets), and the author of books such as “About Time,” “Light of the Stars,” and the “Little Book of Aliens.”
The Blind Spot
Jan 9, 2025
______
“There can be no experience of the world without the experiencer and that, my dear friends, is us.”
This discussion revolves around “The Blind Spot”, a book co-authored by physicists Adam Frank and Marcelo Gleiser with philosopher Evan Thompson. It discusses the importance of science for the survival of humanity in our current moment of metacrisis, but also takes a critical stance towards interpretations of scientific knowledge that neglect the uniquely situated standpoint of the limited human observer. Using numerous examples from physics, biology, and cognitive neuroscience, it proposes various ways to overcome this “blind spot” towards a more grounded, humane, and sustainable science for the 21st -century.
Adam Frank is professor of computational astrophysics at Rochester University, with a research focus on magnetic flows involved in star formation and the dynamics of planetary nebula. He is also an active researcher in the field of astrobiology, studying the planetary impacts of our own civilization, in order to better understand the evolution of potential exo-civilizations. Adam is a very active science communicator, co-founder of the 13.7 and 13.8 science blogs, frequent contributor to NPR and the New York Times (among other major media outlets), and the author of books such as “About Time,” “Light of the Stars,” and the “Little Book of Aliens.”
Guest: Kate Nave
A Drive to Survive
Feb 13, 2025
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This discussion revolves around “A Drive to Survive”, a book on life and the free-energy principle (FEP) by philosopher Kathryn Nave. If there is one thing we recognize about living systems, it is their ability to surprise us with unexpected behavior. This ability springs from the agency of the organism, and is rooted in its peculiar self-manufacturing organization. In contrast, proponents of the free-energy principle take a “pan-inferentialist” approach, claiming that life is all about solving problems by minimizing surprise. But then, they claim, minimizing surprise is also the very definition of persistent existence for any thing in the world. We ask how all of this fits together (or whether it really does) when it comes to explaining the distinguishing characteristics of life, and the ability of our brains to make sense of our large world.
Kathryn Nave is a Leverhulme Trust early career research fellow at the University of Edinburgh. Her research focuses on developing a realist account of autonomy and agency, grounded in the uniquely metabolic existence of living systems, and upon critiquing the machine concept of the mind in light of this distinctive material instability.
A Drive to Survive
Feb 13, 2025
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This discussion revolves around “A Drive to Survive”, a book on life and the free-energy principle (FEP) by philosopher Kathryn Nave. If there is one thing we recognize about living systems, it is their ability to surprise us with unexpected behavior. This ability springs from the agency of the organism, and is rooted in its peculiar self-manufacturing organization. In contrast, proponents of the free-energy principle take a “pan-inferentialist” approach, claiming that life is all about solving problems by minimizing surprise. But then, they claim, minimizing surprise is also the very definition of persistent existence for any thing in the world. We ask how all of this fits together (or whether it really does) when it comes to explaining the distinguishing characteristics of life, and the ability of our brains to make sense of our large world.
Kathryn Nave is a Leverhulme Trust early career research fellow at the University of Edinburgh. Her research focuses on developing a realist account of autonomy and agency, grounded in the uniquely metabolic existence of living systems, and upon critiquing the machine concept of the mind in light of this distinctive material instability.
Guest: Jan-Hendrik Hofmeyr
The Self-Manufacturing Cell
Mar 13, 2025
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This discussion revolves around Jannie’s work on modeling a whole self-manufacturing cell. He builds on the relational approach developed by the theoretical biologist Robert Rosen, who first proposed a principle of closure (to what he called efficient causation) as the distinguishing feature of living systems. Jannie, in a series of important papers published in 2017, 2018, and 2021 adapts Rosen’s theory to the actual biochemical and structural organization of a cell, and extends the formalism to include the possibility of open-ended behavior and evolution. We discuss the challenges of capturing life in a model, and what we can learn from theory in biology which combines mathematical and conceptual aspects.
Jan-Hendrik (Jannie) Hofmeyr is Emeritus Professor of Biochemistry at the University of Stellenbosch. He is a molecular cell physiologist with varied research interests: computational systems biology, metabolic regulation within the framework of control analysis, code biology, and category theoretical modeling. Since discovering the work of Robert Rosen, he has focused on understanding how living cells are able to manufacture themselves autonomously, or, in Rosen's words, how they are closed to efficient causation.
For those of you who'd like to learn more, there is a three-part interview with Jannie and Yogi called "Mapping Theories of Life into Cell Biochemistry:" (YouTube links embedded). There, we discuss Rosen, Jannie's own modeling efforts, and the next steps a theory of the organism needs to take in a lot more detail.
The Self-Manufacturing Cell
Mar 13, 2025
______
This discussion revolves around Jannie’s work on modeling a whole self-manufacturing cell. He builds on the relational approach developed by the theoretical biologist Robert Rosen, who first proposed a principle of closure (to what he called efficient causation) as the distinguishing feature of living systems. Jannie, in a series of important papers published in 2017, 2018, and 2021 adapts Rosen’s theory to the actual biochemical and structural organization of a cell, and extends the formalism to include the possibility of open-ended behavior and evolution. We discuss the challenges of capturing life in a model, and what we can learn from theory in biology which combines mathematical and conceptual aspects.
Jan-Hendrik (Jannie) Hofmeyr is Emeritus Professor of Biochemistry at the University of Stellenbosch. He is a molecular cell physiologist with varied research interests: computational systems biology, metabolic regulation within the framework of control analysis, code biology, and category theoretical modeling. Since discovering the work of Robert Rosen, he has focused on understanding how living cells are able to manufacture themselves autonomously, or, in Rosen's words, how they are closed to efficient causation.
For those of you who'd like to learn more, there is a three-part interview with Jannie and Yogi called "Mapping Theories of Life into Cell Biochemistry:" (YouTube links embedded). There, we discuss Rosen, Jannie's own modeling efforts, and the next steps a theory of the organism needs to take in a lot more detail.
Guest: Evan Thompson
The Blind Spot (Again!)
Apr 29, 2025
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Another fascinating discussion about the all-important "The Blind Spot" , a book co-authored by physicists Adam Frank and Marcelo Gleiser with our guest for this discussion: philosopher Evan Thompson. We cover an amazing range of topics from post-blind-spot science, to its wider societal implications, to the metaphysics of strange loops at the heart of everything we do or know, to the status and nature of consciousness, and our frustration that not everybody seems to see things our way.
Evan Thompson is one of the co-founders (with Eleanor Rosch and Francisco Varela) of enactivism, an influential and radical approach to embodied cognition. His book, "Mind in Life" is required reading for anyone interested in the topic.
The Blind Spot (Again!)
Apr 29, 2025
______
Another fascinating discussion about the all-important "The Blind Spot" , a book co-authored by physicists Adam Frank and Marcelo Gleiser with our guest for this discussion: philosopher Evan Thompson. We cover an amazing range of topics from post-blind-spot science, to its wider societal implications, to the metaphysics of strange loops at the heart of everything we do or know, to the status and nature of consciousness, and our frustration that not everybody seems to see things our way.
Evan Thompson is one of the co-founders (with Eleanor Rosch and Francisco Varela) of enactivism, an influential and radical approach to embodied cognition. His book, "Mind in Life" is required reading for anyone interested in the topic.
