[PHILOS-L] Reminder: Ulysse Gadiou on Samuel Alexander | June 12 @11am | UNamur seminar on Emergence

[Gauvain Leconte-Chevillard]

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Dear all,

We remind all of you who have ever wanted to know and understand more about Samuel Alexander that we are pleased to welcome Ulysse Gadiou on the 12th of June, from 11am to 1pm (UTC+2) in local 55 of the Faculté des Lettres (rue Grafé, 1, Namur) of UNamur, or online, for the final session of the Emergence Seminar: 

The Role of Value in Alexander’s Theory of Diachronic Emergence

Emergence Seminar - Ulysse Gadiou on Alexander | Réunion-Joindre | Microsoft Teams

 
Abstract
Samuel Alexander's contribution to emergentist philosophy, while widely regarded as an ambitious metaphysical system, is yet little explored even among emergentist philosophers, due to its heavy metaphysical assumptions or to its often obscure style, which still resists many attempts of clarification. This relative neglect is unfortunate though, for Alexander's work represents a uniquely comprehensive attempt to render emergence not merely as a descriptive concept, but as an ontologically operative principle within a fully articulated cosmology.

My purpose is to address a problem raised by Emily Thomas (2013), concerning Alexander's theory of diachronic emergence. In Alexander's system, the physical structure of the universe gives rise, over time, to increasingly complex forms of existence. So diachronic emergence has a determined direction, meaning the universe is organized as one ontological hierarchy of increasing complexity and value. Alexander expresses this progression by talking of a nisus, which drives the universe toward higher forms of existence. However, Alexander's nisus seems to lack a clear origin or grounding within the fundamental nature of Space-Time, which raises the question of whether Alexander is departing here from his naturalistic commitment: is not the nisus an unexplained, teleological force that we are bound to accept with "natural piety"?

I suggest that the notion of nisus can be better understood if we take a deeper interest in the role of values in Alexander's cosmology. While he primarily treats values as tertiary qualities associated with human experience, Alexander also suggests that they are continuous with more primitive “sub-values” present in living, and perhaps all empirical, forms of existence. Drawing on Darwinian insights, he portrays the natural history of the world as a "history of value", where values express successful relations between individuals and their environments. On this basis, I argue that the nisus can be understood as the emergent expression of value-realizing processes. The apparently teleological dimension of cosmic development reflects the cumulative stabilization of successful interactions that instantiate and reinforce values, thus giving rise to a (contingent) line of progress. On this issue, I take it that Alexander is still influenced by the Hegelian perspective of the British Idealists, and so tends to frame his claims in absolute terms and to begin from an anthropocentric standpoint before extending his analysis more generally. This makes it difficult for him to take account of the contingency of the particular line of progress that modern Western perspectives refer to. To clarify and support my interpretation of Alexander, I will contrast his position with the more pluralistic evolutionary account developed by Whitehead.

Beyond its exegetical aims, this reinterpretation opens potential dialogue with contemporary scientific approaches, such as eco-evo-devo theory, which likewise emphasize the co-construction of organisms and environments and the emergence of shared or intersecting values across multiple levels of organization

Gauvain Leconte-Chevillard

Il/lui (he/him)

Postdoc Université de Namur - SPiN (Sciences and Philosophy in Namur)

gauvainleconte.carrd.co 

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