Section 4: TRACK 6
Unprecedented Evolution: Human Continuities and Discontinuities with Animal Life
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Track 6: Unprecedented Evolution
This group considers the uniqueness of humans as one species among many others, using the lens of process thought. We look especially at the evolutionary divergence of the human race in order to offer a process-evolutionary perspective on the animal we have become — able to produce beauty and value while at the same time causing irreparable destruction to the biosphere.
Other Tracks in this Section
- Track 1: Telling the Story: Systems, Processes, and the Present
- Track 2: Intuition in Mathematics and Physics
- Track 3: Systems Theory, Complexity Theory, and Radical Emergence
- Track 4: Neuroscience and Consciousness: Toward an Integral Paradigm
- Track 5: Ecologies, Becoming, Networks, and Value
- Track 7: Beyond Mechanism: The Emergence and Evolution of Living Agents
Track Heads
Spyridon Koutroufinis
Privatdozent, Dr.
Dr. Spyridon Koutroufinis earned his Ph.D. in philosophy of science from the Humboldt University of Berlin. He wrote his habilitation, Organism as Process, at the Technical University of Berlin, where he is currently a Privatdozent for Philosophy. His main areas of specialization and teaching are philosophy and history of biology, process philosophy, ancient and modern metaphysics, and complexity theory. His recent work is on the foundation of a new theory of information including reference and meaning. He is the author of Selbstorganisation ohne Selbst, (Berlin: Pharus-Verlag, 1996) and editor of Prozesse des Lebendigen. Zur Aktualität der Naturphilosophie A.N. Whiteheads, (Freiburg, München: Alber, 2007) and Life and Process. Towards a New Biophilosophy (Frankfurt: Ontos, forthcoming), as well as several articles and book chapters.
Postings from Seizing an Alternative
- “Religion in Human and Cosmic Evolution: Whitehead’s Alternative Vision” by Matthew David Segall
Suggested Resources
Links to Section-related books and media for pre-conference preparation include:
