Category Archives: IAS-Research

Related to the IAS-Research center, members etc.

Talk by Sara Diani: “Complex systems and clinical medicine: do they have fitting points?”Talk by Sara Diani: “Complex systems and clinical medicine: do they have fitting points?”Talk by Sara Diani: “Complex systems and clinical medicine: do they have fitting points?”

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Date and time: Friday, May 8, 11.30 am.

Location: Carlos Santamaría Building, Room B14

Speaker: Sara Diani (Lahnhöhe Zentrum, Lahnstein, Germany)

Title: Complex systems and clinical medicine: do they have fitting points?

Abstract: In the clinical practice we approach diseases with a linear logic, not a complex one, focusing us on a little part of the organism, ignoring what happens in the other compartments. Anytime we try to treat a disease, we make several attempts because we don’t have a unifying and logical model that can help us to define a rational method. Our empiricism would need a consequent rational analysis of it, in order to properly analyze the results.

In other words, except for the studies done by the philosophers of medicine, we do not use a clear model of what is health and what is disease. To this aim the connection between philosophical and theoretical systemic approach to our body and its reactions, the science of complex systems, the study about networks and the “field discipline” in physics, and finally the clinical practice has been here explored.

A new model of interaction between body, environment and disease, by using the latest theories of physics and biology, and the concept of heuristic learning (based on the event and error) is proposed. The disease is triggered by environmental information (except for the genetic ones), and it is an active process, performed through the individual characteristics. Through heuristic learning the system develops its own “best response” to the information in that moment. This will follow the rules of the live organism: to maintain low entropy, the best order possible, and to use the least energy.

This idea has a central role in defining and treating the diseases.

The ratio between medical and biological paradigms with a systemic and holistic perspective could allow us to revolutionize the cures for the patient, to do more effective research to understand deeply the results with the final goal of a new, higher and wider level of medicine.

Date and time: Friday, May 8, 11.30 am.

Location: Carlos Santamaría Building, Room B14

Speaker: Sara Diani (Lahnhöhe Zentrum, Lahnstein, Germany)

Title: Complex systems and clinical medicine: do they have fitting points?

Abstract: In the clinical practice we approach diseases with a linear logic, not a complex one, focusing us on a little part of the organism, ignoring what happens in the other compartments. Anytime we try to treat a disease, we make several attempts because we don’t have a unifying and logical model that can help us to define a rational method. Our empiricism would need a consequent rational analysis of it, in order to properly analyze the results.

In other words, except for the studies done by the philosophers of medicine, we do not use a clear model of what is health and what is disease. To this aim the connection between philosophical and theoretical systemic approach to our body and its reactions, the science of complex systems, the study about networks and the “field discipline” in physics, and finally the clinical practice has been here explored.

A new model of interaction between body, environment and disease, by using the latest theories of physics and biology, and the concept of heuristic learning (based on the event and error) is proposed. The disease is triggered by environmental information (except for the genetic ones), and it is an active process, performed through the individual characteristics. Through heuristic learning the system develops its own “best response” to the information in that moment. This will follow the rules of the live organism: to maintain low entropy, the best order possible, and to use the least energy.

This idea has a central role in defining and treating the diseases.

The ratio between medical and biological paradigms with a systemic and holistic perspective could allow us to revolutionize the cures for the patient, to do more effective research to understand deeply the results with the final goal of a new, higher and wider level of medicine.

Date and time: Friday, May 8, 11.30 am.

Location: Carlos Santamaría Building, Room B14

Speaker: Sara Diani (Lahnhöhe Zentrum, Lahnstein, Germany)

Title: Complex systems and clinical medicine: do they have fitting points?

Abstract: In the clinical practice we approach diseases with a linear logic, not a complex one, focusing us on a little part of the organism, ignoring what happens in the other compartments. Anytime we try to treat a disease, we make several attempts because we don’t have a unifying and logical model that can help us to define a rational method. Our empiricism would need a consequent rational analysis of it, in order to properly analyze the results.

In other words, except for the studies done by the philosophers of medicine, we do not use a clear model of what is health and what is disease. To this aim the connection between philosophical and theoretical systemic approach to our body and its reactions, the science of complex systems, the study about networks and the “field discipline” in physics, and finally the clinical practice has been here explored.

A new model of interaction between body, environment and disease, by using the latest theories of physics and biology, and the concept of heuristic learning (based on the event and error) is proposed. The disease is triggered by environmental information (except for the genetic ones), and it is an active process, performed through the individual characteristics. Through heuristic learning the system develops its own “best response” to the information in that moment. This will follow the rules of the live organism: to maintain low entropy, the best order possible, and to use the least energy.

This idea has a central role in defining and treating the diseases.

The ratio between medical and biological paradigms with a systemic and holistic perspective could allow us to revolutionize the cures for the patient, to do more effective research to understand deeply the results with the final goal of a new, higher and wider level of medicine.

Talk by Marcella Faria: CELL-MATRIX ADHESION COMPLEXES AND THEIR DYNAMIC ASSEMBLY: THE POETICS OF CELL ATTACHMENTTalk by Marcella Faria: CELL-MATRIX ADHESION COMPLEXES AND THEIR DYNAMIC ASSEMBLY: THE POETICS OF CELL ATTACHMENTTalk by Marcella Faria: CELL-MATRIX ADHESION COMPLEXES AND THEIR DYNAMIC ASSEMBLY: THE POETICS OF CELL ATTACHMENT

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Date and time: Monday, April 27th, 11.30 am.

Location: Carlos Santamaría Building, Room B14

Speaker: Marcella Faria, Center For Applied Toxinology ,São Paulo
Title: CELL-MATRIX ADHESION COMPLEXES AND THEIR DYNAMIC ASSEMBLY: THE POETICS OF CELL ATTACHMENT

Abstract: Cell-matrix adhesion complexes (CMACs) are regions responsible for cellular attachment to the extracellular matrix (ECM), they are mainly composed by integrins, α/β heterodimers that bind selectively different ECM components through their extracellular domains acting as receptors for this class of molecules. Upon ECM binding the cytoplasmic tails of integrins will interact with a wide range of recruited factors that regulate integrin clustering in the cell membrane; and also activate signaling pathways that will provide a physical linkage between activated integrins and the microfilament system to be remodeled during cell migration. Ultimately CMACs work as functional protein networks that dynamically connect the ECM to filamentous Actin, controlling cell migration precisely through the continual rearrangement of both ECM adhesion, and Actin polymerization. In the present work we shall examine some attempts to conceptualize “cell migration” as an emergent process developed in the recent specialized literature; they introduce the notions of hierarchic organization into levels i.e. molecular, sub-cellular and cellular and describe an informational flow of increasing complexity versus decreasing number of entities, between these levels. We shall discuss few examples of CMACs remodeling in particular physiological and pathological conditions to argue that cell migration is a process that is also organized into semiotic dimensions. Our approach will not come as an alternative to the systems biology conceptualization initially presented but as a complementary view. Beyond the syntactic level – here illustrated as specific recognition of discrete ECM protein sequences by distinct integrin heterodimers – we shall reach the semantic and pragmatic levels by bringing into light the dynamics of some “word games”, i.e. Lewis Carroll’s doublets; and magic squares. In such poetic games the synthetic transformations subjected by the words have to deal with semantic rules, but are ultimately dictated by meaning, as concrete pragmatic constrains. We will emphasize the integration of synthetics, semantics and pragmatics also for the CMACs continuous remodeling through cell migration.

 

Workshop with Alfred Tauber: on Identity and AutonomyWorkshop with Alfred Tauber: on Identity and AutonomyWorkshop with Alfred Tauber: on Identity and Autonomy

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International Workshop on Autonomy and Identity in the Biomedical Sciences

April 24th, 2015

with

Alfred I. Tauber (Boston University): 

Autonomy versus Dignity: The Search for Philosophical Foundations 

and

  • Argyris Arnellos (KLI): Constitutive self-determination in the transition from uni- to multi-cellularity
  • Antonio Casado (UPV/EHU): Patient autonomy: narrative or episodic?
  • Alvaro Moreno (UPV/EHU): Agency and multicellular identity

Venue: Carlos Santamaría Building, Room A4

Organizers: Antonio Casado and Jon Umerez (UPV/EHU)

Talk by René Zaragüeta: “Why, Willi, why? Phylogenetics and the dichotomy of trees”Talk by René Zaragüeta: “Why, Willi, why? Phylogenetics and the dichotomy of trees”Talk by René Zaragüeta: “Why, Willi, why? Phylogenetics and the dichotomy of trees”

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Date and time: Monday, April 13th, 11.30 am.

Location: Carlos Santamaría Building, Room B14
Speaker: René Zaragüeta i Bagils (Sorbonne, Paris)
Title: “Why, Willi, why? Phylogenetics and the dichotomy of trees”

Abstract: A cladogram is usually considered as resolved when all its branching points are bifurcations. The question I ask is: Why? Why all phylogenetic methods search dichotomous trees? Is evolution, or speciation, dichotomous? I suggest that Hennig’s principle of dichotomy is theoretically grounded. Cladograms—taxa and their relationships—are the result of a Cartesian analysis, which consists of the decomposition of taxa into homologies, i.e. hypotheses of degree of identity. Now, degree of identity is best represented by a ternary relationship, where two features are more identical to each other than any is to a third one. The foundation of taxa and their relationships upon homologies thus results in an intrinsically dichotomous pattern.

I speculate that the theoretical principle of dichotomy was present in Hennig’s theory. However, somehow, Hennig “forgot” his own arguments and the justification for this part of his theory.

Finally, I draw consequences of the theoretical foundation of dichotomy: if the evolutionary process needs not to be dichotomous, in which way are phylogenetic trees phylogenetic?

Talk by Thomas Reydon: Metaphysics Naturalized? The Case of Classification in the Sciences Talk by Thomas Reydon: Metaphysics Naturalized? The Case of Classification in the Sciences Talk by Thomas Reydon: Metaphysics Naturalized? The Case of Classification in the Sciences

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Date and time: Wednesday March 4th. 11.30 am.
Location: Carlos Santamaría Building, Room A4
Speaker: Thomas Reydon
Title: Metaphysics Naturalized? The Case of Classification in the Sciences

Abstract: While the topic of natural kinds has long been a focus of work in the philosophy of science, as well as in other areas of philosophy, a generally accepted account of natural kinds is still lacking. Moreover, there even is no general agreement about the kind of account that is being searched for, or about the criteria that a good account of natural kinds should meet. In response to these problems, in the philosophy of science (though not in other areas) there is a trend to move away from the metaphysics of kinds and classification and to turn to epistemological issues and questions regarding the use of kinds and classifications in various contexts. This trend fits well with the renewed interest in doing naturalistic philosophy of science and the increasing calls for bringing philosophy of science closer to scientific practice.

However, abandoning the search for a metaphysics of kinds and classifications is too quick. A metaphysical account of kinds is a crucial element of the explanation why some kinds and classifications are used in the sciences with more success than others, and some ways of grouping things turn out not to be useful at all. After all, barring cases of epistemic luck the reason for the epistemic and practical success of kinds and classifications must be that they adequately represent some aspect of the world or other. But problem for naturalistic philosophers wanting to elucidate the metaphysics of scientific kinds and classifications is whether naturalistic and practice-oriented philosophy of science can at all come up with an account of the metaphysics of kinds and classifications, rather than staying with epistemological and practical issues. Metaphysics cannot be read off from either epistemology or practice: simply examining scientific kinds and classifications and the ways in which investigators in the various areas of science employ them will not reveal their underpinnings. Thus, some a priori considerations need to enter into the picture – but a priori metaphysics is suspect from a naturalistic viewpoint.

The challenge for a naturalistic and practice-oriented metaphysics of kinds and classification, then, is to bring a priori considerations into play without rendering the account insufficiently naturalistic. In this talk I addresses this challenge and explore what a thoroughly naturalistic metaphysics of kinds and classifications should look like. I will do this by examining two core notions in the debate on kinds and classification, namely the notions of naturalness and, in particular, normativity.


Talk by Olatz González (UPV-EHU): Visualising Basque Fratriarchy: Enactions and Recognition in the Sport of PelotaTalk by Olatz González (UPV-EHU): Visualising Basque Fratriarchy: Enactions and Recognition in the Sport of PelotaTalk by Olatz González (UPV-EHU): Visualising Basque Fratriarchy: Enactions and Recognition in the Sport of Pelota

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Date: Monday, March 2

Time: 11.30 a.m.

Place: Carlos Santamaría Room B14

Speaker: Olatz González (University of Basque Country)

Abstract: Coming soon

IAS-IHPST Workshop: Boundaries and Levels of Biological Organization (1-2 July 2014)IAS-IHPST Workshop: Boundaries and Levels of Biological Organization (1-2 July 2014)IAS-IHPST Workshop: Boundaries and Levels of Biological Organization (1-2 July 2014)

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IAS-IHPST WORKSHOP

BOUNDARIES AND LEVELS OF BIOLOGICAL ORGANIZATION

 

The IAS-Research Centre for Life Mind and Society of the University of the Basque Country (EHU/UPV) in collaboration with the Institut d’Histoire et de Philosophie des Sciences et des Techniques (IHPST) of the University Paris 1 Panthéon Sorbonne École Normale Supérieure and CNRS will be hosting an international workshop in Philosophy of Biology.

The workshop will discuss the notion of biological organization from a systemic- perspective. In particular it will focus on its intrinsic hierarchical dimension, and on the role organization plays in the understanding of the transition from pre-biotic to minimal living systems and of more complex forms of biological, cognitive and ecological systems.

 

Dates: July 1-2 2014

Venue: Room B1 – Centro Carlos Santamaria, Universidad del Pais Vasco (EHU/UPV) Campus de Guipuzkoa

Webpage: http://ias-ihpst.ias-research.net/

For more detailed information please contact the organisers Leonardo Bich  and Maël Montevil.

No registration and no fees are needed for attending the workshop. Access is free to everybody in the academic community interested in the topics of the workshop. If you intend to come, please send an email to leonardo[dot]bich[at]ehu[dot]es so that we can facilitate your entrance into the building.

Download the program

Download the abstracts

 

PROGRAM

TUESDAY 1st of JULY  
10:00 – 10:15 Opening
Session 1  
10:15 – 11.15 Hierarchical thinking in organicist and systems biology

Jon Umerez

IAS/Universidad del País Vasco
11:15 – 11:40 Coffee break and collaboration proposals
11:40 – 12:40 Levels, orders and boundaries: a look into the architecture of biological organization

Matteo Mossio

IHPST/Paris 1 Panthéon Sorbonne
12:40 – 14:30 Lunch break
Session 2  
14:30 – 15:30 Protocellular autonomy: getting organized through the construction of open boundaries

Kepa Ruiz Mirazo

IAS/Universidad del País Vasco
15:30 – 15:40 Break
15:40 – 16:40 Heredity and organization

Gaëlle Pontarotti, with commentaries by Francesca Merlin

IHPST/Paris 1 Panthéon Sorbonne
WEDNESDAY 2nd of JULY

 

  
Session 3  
10:00 – 11:00 Teleology as a principle

Nicole Perret

ENS Paris
11:00 – 11:40 Coffee break and collaboration proposals
11:40 – 12:40 Failed intentions, or why adaptive behavior is not sufficient for cognition

Xabier Barandiaran

IAS/Universidad del País Vasco
12:40 – 14:30 Lunch Break
Session 4  
14:30 – 15: 30 On the origin of autonomy: from chemical to biological organisation

Alvaro Moreno

IAS /Universidad del Pais Vasco
15.30 – 15: 40 Break
15.40 – 16 :40 Gaïa: what was it about?

Sebastien Dutreuil

IHPST/Paris 1 Panthéon Sorbonne
16: 40 – 16:50 Closing remarks

 

Call for a one-year post-doctoral position

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URGENT! Call for a one-year contract for a Post-doctoral position within the IAS Research group in Donostia/San Sebastián

Applications are welcome from researchers holding a PhD degree interested in this contract, which is associated with the Research Project IT590-13 (coord.: Alvaro Moreno) developed by the IAS Research Center. The candidate is asked to have an specialization in Philosophy of Biology and familiarity with the issues and the approach of the research lines specified in the aforementioned funded Project (see below an extract) will be valued.

Along with his CV, the candidates are also asked to submit a brief research proposal (around 1000 words) according to those research lines. The grant consists in a 1-year research contract to be held at the University of the Basque Country. The holder of the contract will be expected to develop research in the specified lines. The call for this contract is issued by University of the Basque Country and details about how to apply are already published here in this link (in Spanish and Basque only).  Further inquiries should be sent to Alvaro Moreno (alvaro.moreno@ehu.es) or Arantza Etxeberria (arantza.etxeberria@ehu.es). The deadline is tight, just from the 17th to the 25th of September.

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“Habits as sensorimotor life-forms” – IAS-Research seminar by Matthew Egbert and Xabier E. Barandiaran“Habits as sensorimotor life-forms” – IAS-Research seminar by Matthew Egbert and Xabier E. Barandiaran“Habits as sensorimotor life-forms” – IAS-Research seminar by Matthew Egbert and Xabier E. Barandiaran

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“Habits as sensorimotor life-forms: modelling self-maintaining behaviour with an iterant deformable sensorimotor medium”, Tuesday 18th June, 11am, Carlos Santamaría Building, B14.

Date and Time: 11am, Tuesday 18th June, Carlos Santamaría Building, B14
Title: Habits as sensorimotor life-forms: modelling self-maintaining behaviour with an iterant deformable sensorimotor medium
Abstract: Artificial Life has not yet explored in depth the analogy between life and mind that is hidden in the nature of habits: their self-sustaining dissipative structure as ecological sensorimotor entities. We present a new dynamical model for habits implementing what we call a node-based “iterant deformable sensorimotor medium” (IDSM). The IDSM has properties designed such that trajectories taken through state space increase the likelihood that in the future, similar trajectories will be taken. We couple the IDSM to sensors and motors of a simulated body in a simulated environment and show that under certain conditions, the IDSM resonates with the other parts of the simulation, forming self-maintaining patterns of activity operating over the IDSM, the body, and the environment. These patterns of activity are similar in many respects to habits, patterns of activity that are self-reinforced. We present various environments and the resulting ‘habits’ that form in them, studying the sensorimotor coordination patterns that stabilize in the process. We discuss how this model and extensions of it can help us understand and model self-sustaining patterns of behaviour as building blocks for a theory of cognition that does no rely on representations

Date and Time: 11am, Tuesday 18th June, Carlos Santamaría Building, B14
Title: Habits as sensorimotor life-forms: modelling self-maintaining behaviour with an iterant deformable sensorimotor medium
Abstract: Artificial Life has not yet explored in depth the analogy between life and mind that is hidden in the nature of habits: their self-sustaining dissipative structure as ecological sensorimotor entities. We present a new dynamical model for habits implementing what we call a node-based “iterant deformable sensorimotor medium” (IDSM). The IDSM has properties designed such that trajectories taken through state space increase the likelihood that in the future, similar trajectories will be taken. We couple the IDSM to sensors and motors of a simulated body in a simulated environment and show that under certain conditions, the IDSM resonates with the other parts of the simulation, forming self-maintaining patterns of activity operating over the IDSM, the body, and the environment. These patterns of activity are similar in many respects to habits, patterns of activity that are self-reinforced. We present various environments and the resulting ‘habits’ that form in them, studying the sensorimotor coordination patterns that stabilize in the process. We discuss how this model and extensions of it can help us understand and model self-sustaining patterns of behaviour as building blocks for a theory of cognition that does no rely on representations

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