History and Philosophy of Science Seminar Monday 17th, 6pm, Carslaw 450.
David M. Steffes Postdoctoral Associate Center for Biology & Society Arizona State University Title: "A (Missed) Chance Encounter: The 1926 Meeting between W.E. Agar and Sewall Wright, and its Would-be Ramifications for Philosophy of Biology" In 1926, a very rare meeting took place between two of the more extraordinary and eccentric minds in 20th-century biology: Wilfred Eade Agar (1882-1951) and Sewall Wright (1889-1988). W.E. Agar, the University of Melbourne's Foundation Chair of Zoology, had five years earlier been elected to the Royal Society for his pioneering work on lungfish chromosomes and cellular mechanics, and had three years earlier published the first papers ever to be presented on marsupial genetics. The Rockefeller Foundation recognized Agar's rising star, and invited him to take a six-week tour of the United States' topflight facilities in genetic research, one of which was the University of Chicago's animal laboratories. At Chicago, Agar met Professor Wright, who had only just been hired from the US Department of Agriculture. Wright's career had yet to ascend towards its zenith: his status in 1926 was hitched primarily to his recent achievements in statistical genetics, although he was in the process of devising groundbreaking population models for evolutionary theory (models which changed the landscape of evolutionary thinking in the 1930s). While both Agar and Wright were innovators in genetics, they possessed different research interests. Consequently Agar drew only small importance from his observations of Wright's guinea pig inbreeding projects. What Agar and Wright did have in common, unbeknownst to both of them in 1926, was a passion for philosophy, particularly a penchant for trying to connect the avant-garde philosophical concepts of their time with their subject matter in biology. Both had read and appreciated philosophers such as Henri Bergson, Samuel Alexander, and the German Gestalt theorists. Both men eventually became outspoken proponents of a dual-aspect monist philosophy called "panpsychism" (or "pan-experientialism"), appreciating the work of process philosophers like Alfred North Whitehead and Charles Hartshorne (whom Wright befriended at Chicago). In my talk, I will discuss the philosophical concepts that Agar and Wright held in common, the connection of these concepts with their biological topics of research, and the reasons that Agar and Wright did not hold a conversation about their views in 1926. I will also comment on which aspects of their views were distinctly "Whiteheadian," and thus influential to one of their common pupils: Australia's renowned population ecologist Charles Birch.
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