Overview

Process Metaphysics encompasses all views which posit that static conceptions of reality are insufficient to fully explain both every day and scientific phenomena. Instead, these perspectives propose understanding the world as fundamentally dynamic, emphasising the fluid nature of time, change, causation, and other key concepts.

Our summer school teaches on how process-oriented, dynamic approaches function and how they can elucidate key issues in the foundational sciences, such as physics, biology, or the structure of spacetime. Equally we will critically engage with views akin to process philosophy, such as event ontologies, yet fail to fully ground a fundamentally dynamic view. We will discuss together with the students potential shortcomings of those views and contrast them to processual solutions.

In sum, we hope to present both the broader paradigm of dynamic metaphysics and its profound concrete implications for individual sciences and specific questions within these disciplines.

Key Questions

• Do the theoretically most fundamental physical entities, such as particles and fields, require reinterpretation in terms of processes?
• Does the mechanistic model of organisms in biology and the philosophy of biology encounter insurmountable obstacles?
• Does physics allow for, or even necessitate, a dynamic understanding of time? How does such a dynamic understanding relate to processes and other concrete dynamic entities?
• Are the multiple, interconnected questions related to biological individuality better solved on a processual/dynamic understanding of living entities?
• What is the nature of dynamicity itself?

Structure

We plan a three-day summer school on the 15th, 16th and 17th of September, with each day dedicated to one of the following overarching topics:

1. Dynamic metaphysics - general principles
2. Dynamic metaphysics and biology
3. Dynamic metaphysics and physics

Each day will be structured as follows:

• Two 90-minute lecture-style sessions in the morning and early afternoon (these may include substantial discussion)
• One 90-minute seminar in the late afternoon

Teachers

• Tina Röck (University of Dundee, UK, Scotland)
• Vesselin Petrov (Bulgarian Academy of Sciences)
• Anna-Lisa Nußbaum (University of Siegen)
• Maximilian Zachrau (University of Siegen)
• Emilia Margoni (University of Geneva, University of Pisa/Firenze)
• Cord Friebe (University of Siegen)

Schedule

15th of September: Dynamic metaphysics - general principles

• 10.00 Welcome
• 10.00 – 12.00 Lecture Maximilian Zachrau “What is Dynamic Metaphysics?”
• 12.00 – 13.30 Break Lunch
• 13.30 – 15.30 Seminar Anna-Lisa Nußbaum “Ontological completeness of perduring and ongoing processes”
• 15.30 – 16.30 Break Coffee
• 16.30 – 18.30 Seminar Tina Röck “What characterises processes and how do processes differ from false friends (cognates like change or events)?”

16th of September: Dynamic metaphysics and biology

• 10.00 – 12.00 Lecture Maximilian Zachrau “The Philosophy of Organism”
• 12.00 – 13.30 Break Lunch
• 13.30 – 15.30 Lecture Anna-Lisa Nußbaum “Processural aspects in memory and consciousness”
• 15.30 – 16.30 Break Coffee
• 16.30 – 18.30 Seminar Anna-Lisa Nußbaum & Maximilian Zachrau “Organism, Machine, Process”

17th of September: Dynamic metaphysics and physics

• 10.00 – 12.00 Lecture Vesselin Petrov “A Whiteheadian-Type Theory of Space and Time”
• 12.00 – 13.30 Break Lunch
• 13.30 – 15.30 Seminar Cord Friebe “Does Space Endure, Perdure, or Become? Rethinking the Expanding Universe”
• 15.30 – 16.30 Break Coffee
• 16.30 – 18.30 Seminar Emilia Margoni “Processualism all the way down: Bohm’s understanding of physics”

Literature

Dynamic metaphysics - general principles

• Stout, R. (1997). “Processes.” Philosophy 72(279): 19–27.
• Galton, A. (2017). “The Dynamic Present,” in Logic and Philosophy of Time — Themes from Prior, P. Blackburn, P. Hasle, & P. Øhrstrøm (eds.), Aalborg University Press: 167–187.

Dynamic metaphysics and biology

• Pradeu, T. (2018). “Genidentity and Biological Processes,” in Everything Flows: Towards a Processual Philosophy of Biology, J. Dupré & D. Nicholson (eds.), Oxford University Press: 96–112.
• Koutroufinis, S. A. (2017). “Organism, Machine, Process: Towards a Process Ontology for Organismic Dynamics.” Organisms. Journal of Biological Sciences 1(1): 22–44.

Dynamic metaphysics and physics

• Margoni, E. (2022). “Can There Be a Process Without Time? Processualism Within Timeless Physics.” Foundations of Physics 52(2): 48.

Participation

There is no participation fee for the summer school.

There are only limited spots available. To apply please sent a letter of motivation (about 1 page) and a CV to: cord.friebe@uni-siegen.de. Deadline: 01 Mai 2025.