Physis, from Elementary Particles to Human Nature

Debates in Barcelona, with collaboration from B•Debate, featuring Nobel Laureate in Physics Frank Wilczek and renowned philosopher of Science Daniel Dennett

30/09/2012

 

Some findings of contemporary physics have come to constitute nothing less than a challenge to reason, clashing with our ideas about the laws and mechanisms that govern the world and, accordingly, undermining our general conception of nature. Other disciplines play a decisive role in the emergence of this new philosophy of nature, like Genetics and Neurobiology, which are key to our attempts to address the eternal philosophical question of human nature.

These issues will be addressed in the two Barcelona sessions of the 10th International Ontology Congress, which will also be held in San Sebastian from 1 to 6 October, with eminent philosophers and some of the scientists that have played a key role in this philosophical adventure that contemporary science is moving towards, including Nobel laureate in Physics and researcher at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Frank Wilczek.

These debates will be open to the general public and held at the Centre de Cultura Contemporània de Barcelona (CCCB) on 8 and 9 October, and have received support from B·Debate —an initiative of Biocat and the "la Caixa" Foundation— among others.

Monday 8 October, at 7 pm
Natural Philosophy Today: The Beauty of the Quantum
Frank Wilczek, physicist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Nobel Laureate in Physics
Moderated and presented by: Ulises Moulines, philosopher and professor at the Ludwig Maximilians University, Munich

How Cultural Evolution Shapes Human Nature
Daniel Dennett, philosopher and co-director of the Center for Cognitive Studies at Tufts University
Moderated and presented by: Francisco J. Ayala, geneticist and professor at the University of California

Tuesday 9 October, at 7 pm
Theoretical Concepts in Physics: An Attempt at Realistic Interpretation
Ulises Moulines

From Biology to Ethics
Francisco J. Ayala
Moderated and presented by: Salvador Giner, President of the Institut d’Estudis Catalans

Program

Date: 8 and 9 October 2012
Venue: CCCB • C/ Montalegre, 5 • Barcelona (map)

Free admission, limited capacity.
Simultaneous translation into Spanish is offered at the debate on Monday 8 October

Organizers:

      

Collaborators: