Pushing the Boundaries — Discussion Sessions: Daniel S. Brooks

(Yogi)

As part of our outreach program, we organize a series of public online discussion sessions with philosophers, biologists, and other researchers who do work that is relevant to our own project. The format is that of a short introductory presentation by our guests, followed by a panel discussion and a Q&A session involving the whole audience.

:[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, with philosopher Dan Brooks, 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.”

Book: "Levels of Organization in the Biological Sciences" (with James DiFrisco & William C. Wimsatt)