PSH Workshop “Philosophical Debates in Cultural Evolution” (July 12, Groningen)

Cultural evolution is a relatively new field of inquiry that applies evolutionary theory to culture and cultural change. This application evokes many philosophical questions, such as: how can we conceive of culture in evolutionary terms? How are evolutionarily models of culture related to theories of culture in other fields? This workshop brings together scholars from philosophy, arts and theoretical biology to discuss these issues.

This workshop is organized in the context of the recently started interdisciplinary community and master program Philosophy, Science and Humanities (PSH) at the University of Groningen.

The workshop will take place on July 12, at the University of Groningen at the Faculty of Philosophy, in room Omega (in-person only). Coffee, tea, and snacks will be provided. Attendance is free, but registration is required. To register, please fill out the form below before July 4.

https://forms.gle/VocLcNj6aJ1jGXJf6

The programme is as follows:

12:45 – 13:00 Introduction by the organizers (Olivier van Baars and Markus Eronen)
13:00 – 14:00 Barend van Heusden: Bridging evolution and history: the chrono-logic of culture
14:00 – 15:00 Fred Keijzer: Cultural evolution and Woese’s concept of a Darwinian threshold
15:00 – 15:30 Coffee and tea
15:30 – 16:30 Eva Boon and Inès Daras: Modelling decisions and intelligibility in cultural evolution
16:30 – 17:30 Marc Slors: Large-group collaboration without a shared perspective: conventionality as an alternative for collective intentionality
17:30 – 18:00 Closing and drinks