The Leveled World - DANIEL S. BROOKS

"[L]evels of organization can be thought of as local maxima of regularity and predictability in the phase space of alternate modes of organization of matter." This discussion revolves around the intriguing quote above (from Bill Wimsatt’s “Re-Engineering Philosophy for Limited Beings"). The idea that there are levels of organization in our experienced reality is one of the most recognizable concepts in the life, neuro, and social sciences. At the same time, the concept is overloaded, and often used in vague or inconsistent ways, which has led some philosophers to argue that we should do away with it altogether. We talk to Dan about why levels are essential for contemporary biology and philosophy of science, and what is meant exactly by “local maxima of regularity and predictability in the organization of matter.” Daniel S. Brooks is currently a visiting Professor for Theoretical Philosophy at the University of Wuppertal. His research interests span the history and philosophy of the life sciences (particularly developmental biology, ecology and neuroscience), concept usage in science, naturalized epistemology, methodology in philosophy, and existentialism. He has been advocating a new take on levels organization which will appear in a monograph which is (tentatively) entitled “The Leveled World: The Role of Levels of Organization in Biological Thought.” Dan's website: https://www.danielsbrooks.com Google Scholar: https://scholar.google.com/citations?... Book: "Levels of Organization in the Biological Sciences" (with James DiFrisco & William C. Wimsatt) https://mitpress.mit.edu/978026204533... 00:00:00 Introduction to the series and Dan by Johannes Jaeger 00:02:45 Dan Brooks: levels of organization - a very large concept 00:13:12 Question: what are local maxima of regularity and robustness? (Jaeger) 00:22:17 Question: what makes levels so complicated? (Kevin Purkhauser) 00:24:42 Follow-up: what is the relation between levels and symmetries? 00:30:14 Question: how to make a cut-off between levels? (Jaeger) 00:35:48 Question: how do levels emerge, stabilize, and relate? (Paul Poledna) 00:44:02 Follow-up: is the mental realm a level? (Jaeger) 00:46:23 Follow-up: multiple levels of levels? levels within levels? (Poledna) 00:51:00 Question: what are the dynamics that stabilize levels? (Poledna) 00:54:35 Question: how does the levels account relate to perspectivism? (Purkhauser) 00:56:06 Question: are levels a prerequisite for limited beings to understand the world? (Jaeger) 00:58:47 Audience question: levels, perspetives, and causal thickets 01:04:13 Audience question: levels of analysis vs levels of organization 01:11:32 Follow-up: what about levels of abstraction? (Jaeger) 01:13:23 Question: are there more levels emerging? (Jaeger) 01:15:32 Question: does committment to levels make you an anti-reductionist? (Jaeger) 01:23:21 Wrap-up: we're exhausted, but in a good way!