Intuiting Life: Process-Philosophical Perspectives on Biology

Presenters: Matt Segall & Spyridon Koutroufinis

Matt Segall, a frequent presenter for Cobb & Friends in his role as Cobb Institute's chair of its Science Advisory Board, will join Spyridon Koutroufinis to introduce a new book released in June by Cambridge Scholars Publishing, PROCESS-PHILOSOPHICAL PERSPECTIVES ON BIOLOGY: INTUITING LIFE, edited by Arthur Araújo and Spyridon Koutroufinis.

Segall summarizes the book's aim as follows:
"The authors of this book unfold ideas that contrast markedly with the metaphysical foundations of the contemporary life sciences and the academically established philosophy of biology that is closely related to them. Many bio-scientists implicitly or explicitly embrace a materialistic metaphysics that emerged from the worldview of the 19th century. This kind of reductionist metaphysics obscures the complexity of biological phenomena, thereby neglecting essential characteristics of living processes. This book introduces a process-philosophical approach to essential dimensions of the phenomenon of life with the aim of opening up new horizons in our understanding of fundamental biological concepts such as organism, ontogeny, agency, teleology, environment or Umwelt, and normativity. Based on the metaphysics of Alfred North Whitehead and other process thinkers, the authors ascribe subjectivity, value, and teleological striving to all living beings, from the most primitive unicellular organisms to complex animals."

Matt Segall wrote a chapter in the book, "On the Place of Life in the Cosmos: Whitehead’s Philosophy of Organism and Contemporary Theoretical Biology." He is a philosopher, transdisciplinary researcher, author, and teacher applying process-relational thought across the natural and social sciences, including the study of consciousness. He is Associate Professor in the Philosophy, Cosmology, and Consciousness Graduate Program at California Institute of Integral Studies in San Francisco, CA. For details of his academic background, his teaching, and his writings, see the curriculum vitae on his website, https://footnotes2plato.com/.

Spyridon A. Koutroufinis is Privatdozent (Associate Professor) for philosophy at the Technical University of Berlin. Between 2012 and 2014 he was Visiting Associate Professor at the University of California, Berkeley. He has specialized in process philosophy, biophilosophy, classical metaphysics and complexity theory. His research focus is the establishment of a new theory of the organism. He is the author and editor of six books and numerous articles and book chapters.

Recording Date: October 3, 2023

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