Conference 2008

Exploring Non-Reduction and Levels of Reality:
A Call for Papers

The upcoming Metanexus conference on science and religion (Madrid, July 13 – 17) will be devoting one day to investigating the impact of a non-reductionist view of reality on the sciences, and invites papers on that theme.

The sort of non-reduction intended here is not, of course, any of the senses of the term that are used so profitably in the natural sciences. Rather, we wish to examine the more tendentious claims that assert “all reality is nothing but…”. For example, the claim that consciousness is nothing but electrical impulses in the brain, or that biological processes are nothing but physical/chemical reactions.

What happens if the theories and explanations in a discipline eliminate such “nothing buttery” claims? What new insights become available for theories that take reality to be multi-aspectual and multi-leveled? Are they actually freed from pre-conceived limits so as to account for more sides to their data? Are there clear strategies for explanation that are non-reductionist?

Papers must be readable within 25 minutes so as to leave time for discussion, and preference will be given to those whose subject is close to the focus of the conference: personhood, the social sciences, and multidisciplinary studies. Abstracts must be submitted by January 31 via e-mail to Professor Roberto Poli (roberto.poli (at) soc.unitn.it) and to Professor Basarab Nicolescu (nicol (at) club-internet.fr).