Organisms are not machines (Ep 82)

Big Biology

Innhold levert av Art Woods, Cam Ghalambor, and Marty Martin, Art Woods, Cam Ghalambor, and Marty Martin. Alt podcastinnhold, inkludert episoder, grafikk og podcastbeskrivelser, lastes opp og leveres direkte av Art Woods, Cam Ghalambor, and Marty Martin, Art Woods, Cam Ghalambor, and Marty Martin eller deres podcastplattformpartner. Hvis du tror at noen bruker det opphavsrettsbeskyttede verket ditt uten din tillatelse, kan du følge prosessen skissert her https://no.player.fm/legal.

2y ago 1:32:08

MP3•Episoder hjem

Why shouldn’t we think of living things as machines? What is and what isn’t an organism?

In this episode, we talk to Dan Nicholson, a philosopher and biologist from George Mason University about his new edited volume, "Everything Flows: Toward a Processual Philosophy of Biology". In it, he and colleagues argue that biological systems more resemble flames and tornadoes and other dynamically stable systems than clocks or other human-designed things. Dan thinks that life is better understood as flows of energy and matter, which means that trying to reduce biological things into smaller parts, a popular practice in biology known as reductionism, will ultimately fail because it misses the stream-like nature of life. In the show today, we discuss these ideas, what Dan calls a processual philosophy for biology, including what it means for evolution, medicine, and more.

Cover art: Keating Shahmehri

--- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/bigbiology/support

156 episoder

#Art Woods #Marty Martin #Biology #Science #Natural Sciences #Art Woods and Marty Martin #Art and Marty