Dear all, A reminder that tomorrow Alexander Bird (Bristol/KCL) will be giving a paper entitled “Fundamental Powers, Evolved Powers, and Mental Powers” at the Serious Metaphysics Group (https://www.phil.cam.ac.uk/seminars-phil/SMG).
Unlike previous years, this year the Serious Metaphysics Group will meet every Wednesday of the term from 4.30 to 6.00pm at the Philosophy faculty Board Room. Talks should last about 45 minutes followed by questions and discussion. All graduate students are welcome. Best wishes, Carlo. Abstract: Powers have, in recent years, become a central component of many philosophers' ontology of properties. While I have argued that powers exist at the fundamental level of properties, many other theorists of powers hold that there are non-fundamental powers. In this paper I articulate my reasons for being sceptical about the existing reasons for holding that there are non-fundamental powers. However, I also want to promote a different argument for the existence of a certain class of non-fundamental powers: properties whose existence and nature have natural selection to thank. Such properties will include functional properties of organisms and so may include their mental properties also. -- Carlo Rossi Email: [email protected] Peterhouse, Cambridge _____________________________________________________ To unsubscribe from the CamPhilEvents mailing list, or change your membership options, please visit the list information page: http://bit.ly/CamPhilEvents List archive: http://bit.ly/CamPhilEventsArchive Please note that CamPhilEvents doesn't accept email attachments. See the list information page for further details and suggested alternatives.
