[MaFLA] Elay Shech előadása (holnap, 14:00, HTK BTK)

[Balazs Gyenis]

	Kedves Kollégák!

  A BTK Filozófiai Intézet szeretettel meghív minden érdeklődőt Elay
Shech (Auburn University, Department of Philosophy): Are Mesoscale
Structures Natural Kinds? Reconsidering Batterman’s Middle Way című
előadására.

Időpont: 2023. augusztus 8. kedd, 14:00
Helyszín: BTK Filozófiai Intézet, 1097 Budapest, Tóth Kálmán u. 4., 7.
emelet, Trapéz terem (B.7.16)
Az eseményhez online módon is lehet csatlakozni a következő linken:
https://us06web.zoom.us/j/85258467536?pwd=T1BxaDBMaUhEdlRXTmJqbjhkdlJpZz09

  Az előadás rövid összefoglalója:
Robert W. Batterman’s recent book, A Middle Way: A Non-Fundamental
Approach to Many-Body Physics, presents a methodology for studying
many-body systems in contexts such as physics, materials science and
engineering, and biological modelling. The book’s main thesis consists
of claims to the effect that said methodology (i) is superior to
alternatives, (ii) solves an important autonomy-robustness problem,
and, consequently, (iii) implies that certain mesoscale structures
ought to be considered natural kinds: “…there are theoretical,
scientific reasons for treating the mesoscale [structures] as, in a
rather strong sense, among those that should be considered natural
kinds” (25). My goal is to assess the plausibility of, and understand
exactly what is meant by, claim (iii) about natural kinds. I will
consider and evaluated various interpretations including (what I call)
the novel prediction (NP) interpretation, the enhanced
indispensability argument (EIA) interpretation, the fundamentality
interpretation, and the autonomy interpretation. I argue that the
feasibility of the NP and EIA interpretation ultimately depends on the
viability of rejecting reductionistic in-principle derivations, and
there is a disconnect between the NP and EIA interpretations
Batterman’s understanding of natural kinds as “carving nature at its
joints.” Thus, I suggest that the fundamentality interpretation is
most attainable. Arguably, the autonomy interpretation is most
suggested by A Middle Way but I argue that the autonomy interpretation
fails to imply (iii).

  Üdvözlettel,

            B.


-- 
Balazs Gyenis
Institute of Philosophy of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences
http://hps.elte.hu/~gyepi