Researchers investigate the foundations of ecology

International researchers in philosophy of ecology will join leading ecologists to discuss foundational issues in ecology at a conference to be held at The University of Queensland (UQ) on June 29 and 30.

The conference is being organised by Australia’s first research centre in Biohumanities, which is part of UQ’s School of History, Philosophy, Religion and Classics.

Biohumanities is a new field in which philosophers, historians and social scientists work together with biologists to digest the extraordinary advances of recent bioscience.

Professor of Philosophy and member of the Biohumanities Project at UQ, Professor Mark Colyvan, said the conference would bring together most of the leading figures in philosophy of ecology—a relatively new area of philosophical research.

He said they would be given the opportunity to interact with some of Australia`s leading ecologists, many of whom are located at UQ.

“It is hoped that this conference will establish philosophy of ecology once and for all and set it off on the right, scientifically well-informed, track,” Professor Colyvan said.

“One of the questions to be addressed at the workshop will be: What sense can be made of the balance of nature?

“After all, if nature is not in balance, then what does it mean to disturb nature by human intervention?

“Answers to such questions take on both theoretical and political importance and it is this, as much as anything else, that makes ecology and philosophy of ecology such fascinating areas of study.”

ARC Federation Fellow and head of the Biohumanities Project, Professor Paul Griffiths, said biohumanities aimed to mediate between researchers, the broader academic community and the community at large.

“Across fields as diverse as genomics, evolutionary biology and ecology, the biosciences are generating claims that society needs to analyse and understand,” Professor Griffiths said.

The proceedings of the conference will be podcast from the Biohumanities website.

Media inquiries: Lori Grantham (07 3365 2646 or email biohumanities@uq.edu.au).

Speakers include:

Professor Mark Colyvan http://www.uq.edu.au/~uqmcolyv/colyvan.html
Professor of Philosophy and member of the Ecology Centre and the Biohumanities Project, University of Queensland, author of The Indispensability of Mathematics (Oxford University Press 2001) and coauthor (with Lev Ginzburg) of Ecological Orbits: How planets move and Populations grow (Oxford University Press 2003).

Professor Greg Cooper http://collegeapps.wlu.edu/departments/profile.asp?name=Cooper,%20Gregory&departmentname=Society%20and%20the%20Professions
Professor of Philosophy, Washington and Lee University, USA, author of The Science of the Struggle for Existence: On the foundations of ecology (Cambridge University Press, 2003).

Professor Greg Mikkelson http://www.arts.mcgill.ca/philo/mikkelson/
Professor of Philosophy, School of Environment and Department of Philosophy, McGill University, Canada.

Professor Jay Odenbaugh http://www.lclark.edu/~jay/
Professor of Philosophy and Environmental Studies, Lewis and Clark College, USA.

Professor Hugh Possingham http://www.ecology.uq.edu.au/?page=20910
ARC Federation Fellow and Professor of Ecology, University of Queensland, a fellow of the Australian Academy of Science and author of over 100 scientific articles.

Professor Kim Sterelny http://philrsss.anu.edu.au/people-defaults/kimbo/index.php3
Professor of Philosophy, Australian National University and Victorian University, a fellow of the Australian Academy of the Humanities, co-author (with Paul Griffiths) of Sex and Death: An introduction to the philosophy of biology (Chicago University Press 2001) and author of the Lakatos award-winning Thought in a Hostile World: The evolution of human cognition (Blackwell 2003).