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第107期分析哲学论坛将于6月15日周三晚上7:00，在知新楼A1408举行。具体信息如下：

一、演讲题目：

“Explanatory unification and natural selection explanations”

二、主讲人：

Stefan Sashev Petkov

三、内容简介：

The debate between the dynamical and the statistical interpretations of natural selection is centred on the question of whether all explanations that employ the concepts of natural selection and drift are reducible to causal explanations. The proponents of the statistical interpretation answer negatively, but insist on the fact that selection/drift arguments are explanatory. However, they remain unclear on where the explanatory power comes from. The proponents of the dynamical interpretation answer positively and try to reduce selection/drift arguments to some of the most prominent accounts of causal explanation. In turn, they face the criticism raised by statisticalists that current accounts of causation have to be violated in some of their core conditions or otherwise used in a very loose manner in order to account for selection/drift explanations. We propose a reconciliation of both interpretations by conveying evolutionary explanations within the unificationist model of scientific explanation. Therefore, we argue that the explanatory power in natural selection arguments is a result of successful unification of individual- and population-level facts. A short case study based on research on sympatric speciation will be presented as an example of how population- and individual-level facts are unified to explain the morphological mosaic of bill shape in island scrub jays (Aphelocoma insularis).

四、主讲人简介:

Stefan Sashev Petkov, graduated from Bulgarian Academy of Science with a dissertation on the roles of metaphors in science. A post-doc fellow of Tsinghua Uiversity with a research on theoretic unification and explanations in Evolutionary Biology. Currently lecturing in Beijing Normal University. His research focuses on issues in general philosophy of science - unification, explanation, consistency and contradiction. And how these general concepts are aplicable to solve particular debates in Evolutionary Biology and Ecology.

His presentation will focus on the Unificationist model of scientific explanation and how it can be applied to analyse the current debate between statistical and causal approaches to natural selection explanations in evolutionary biology.

五、主持人：

郭鹏（WilliamHill）

六、时间地点：

6/15(周三)晚上7:00—9:00  知新楼A1408

欢迎广大同学积极参与，如有疑问请联系WilliamHill曾同学（15628788525）。

分析哲学论坛负责小组

2016-6-12