On Tuesday 9th February Prof. Robert Koons will be giving us a seminar talk entitled – How the Quantum Revolution Vindicates Aristotle’s Metaphysics. Join in at 1pm for the talk followed by Q&A.
Abstract: Aristotle’s theory of nature offered a number of advantages from a religious and humanistic point of view. It allowed for a profound difference between human beings and other material entities. At the same time, Aristotelianism conceived of human desires and aspirations as continuous with the striving of all natural entities to their essence-determined ends, providing an objective and scientific basis for objective norms in ethics, aesthetics, and politics. The Scientific Revolution of the last three hundred years, while clearly enabling an amazing degree of progress in our understanding of the physical basis of the world (both at the very small and very large ends of the scale), occasioned the loss of many metaphysical insights of Aristotle and the Aristotelian tradition, insights which remain essential to the understanding of middle-sized objects– like human beings. The quantum revolution of the last one hundred years has gradually transformed the imaginative landscape of natural science, creating new opportunities for the recovery of those same Aristotelian themes.
During the Coronavirus pandemic we will be hosting our research seminar series online. Join us for the Lent Term Research Seminars all at 1pm UK time.
Free access to this webinar will be made available the morning of the webinar by clicking the button below.
