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ALS – Alan C. Love
November 17, 2023 @ 3:30 pm - 6:00 pm EST
Title: The Biological Trait Concept and Character Identity Mechanisms
Abstract:
Biologists frequently talk about characters, traits, features, phenotypes, and parts to pick out those aspects of cells, organisms, and populations they want to investigate. However, they accomplish this in diverse and sometimes seemingly contradictory ways, and the theoretical question of what constitutes a biological trait is relatively neglected. Although it is unsurprising that there is no shared background theory about traits given the heterogeneous landscape of the life sciences, I argue that this is to be expected and there is more than one legitimate answer to what a trait is. In this respect, “trait” is on solid footing with other biological concepts that have several non-arbitrary interpretations and display multiple roles across different contexts (e.g., gene, homology, and species). In service of advancing theory on this theme, I outline the character identity mechanism framework and demonstrate how it yields increased contrastive resolution and novel predictions for comparative mechanistic biology. As a result, it addresses a challenge formulated by David Hull more than fifty years ago: “philosophers could have been of some service to biologists [by answering] the question—what is a character?”
This talk will also be available live streamed on YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCrRp47ZMXD7NXO3a9Gyh2sg.
Light refreshments will follow the lecture in CL 1008.
Read more about Alan Love here: Alan Love | College of Liberal Arts (umn.edu)
Details
- Date:
- November 17, 2023
- Time:
-
3:30 pm - 6:00 pm EST
- Event Categories:
- 64th Annual Lecture Series, 2023-24, Annual Lecture Series
Venue
- 1008 Cathedral of Learning
-
4200 Fifth Ave
Pittsburgh, PA 15260 United States
Organizer
- Center for Philosophy of Science
- Phone:
- 4126241050
- Email:
- pittcntr@pitt.edu
- View Organizer Website