Workshop "Explaining Development"
organized by
Alessandro Minelli (University of Padova and Istituto Veneto di Scienze Lettere ed Arti)
& Thomas Pradeu (Paris-Sorbonne University and Institut universitaire de France)
Istituto Veneto di Scienze Lettere ed Arti
Palazzo Franchetti
Venice, Italy
9-10 September 2014
What is development, and how should it be explained? Conceptual issues play an important role in today’s developmental biology (e.g., concerning plasticity and robustness, the periodization of development, etc.) An important, related question is to determine whether developmental biology offers theories. In a volume published by Oxford University Press in 2014 and edited by Minelli and Pradeu (Towards a theory of development), prominent biologists and philosophers have examined this question. This exploration of the theoretical aspects of developmental biology has now naturally led us to a broader and perhaps even more fundamental question, that of the explanation(s) of development.
Programme
9 September 2014
09:00-09:30 Alessandro Minelli & Thomas Pradeu – Welcome and introductory remarks: Part 1 (Minelli); Part 2 (Pradeu)
Explaining what? – Putting development in context
09:30-10:20 Giuseppe Fusco – Development in the context of the life cycle
10:20-11:10 James R. Griesemer – Periodization of development
11:10-11:30 Coffee break
Explaining what? – Unconventional developmental systems
11:30-12:20 Alessandro Minelli – Developing chimaeras and the spatial boundaries of developmental systems
14:00-14:50 Alexander V. Ereskovsky – Problems and insights from sponge developmental biology
Descriptions, explanations and theories in developmental biology
14:50-15:40 Thomas Pradeu – Explaining development: A plea for reductionist holism in developmental biology
15:40-16:30 Lucie Laplane – Contrasting notions of theory and their relevance for developmental biology
16:30-17:00 Coffee break
17:00-18:00 Plenary discussion I – The problem agenda(s)
10 September 2014
On the causality of development
09:00-09:50 Wallace Arthur – Directionality and hierarchy in developmental systems
09:50-10:40 Johannes Jaeger – The role of dynamical systems theory in a mechanistic theory of development
10:40-11:10 Coffee break
11:10-12:00 Gerd B. Müller – Do theories of evolution affect theories of development?
What does it exactly mean to give an explanation of development?
14:00-14:50 Alan C. Love – The concept of potentiality in developmental reasoning
14:50-15:40 Michel Vervoort – The importance to compare convergent developmental processes in trying to establish some principles of development
15:40-16:10 Coffee break
16:10-17:00 Plenary discussion II – Connections and broader issues
17:00-18:00 What next? General discussion on research, meetings and editorial plans
