From August 4 to 8, 2014, the Institute of Philosophy of the Universidad Austral The university organized the 2nd Interdisciplinary Research Week, “Determinism and Indeterminism: From Biology to Philosophy,” which took place at the Pilar Campus. This week is part of a three-year project, funded by the John Templeton Foundation, which began last year and aims to study the impact of new scientific findings on issues related to the determinism/indeterminism of nature, promoting interdisciplinary work among Spanish-speaking scientists, philosophers, and theologians.

The week began with two lectures open to the general public, one given by Dr. Miguel de Asúa (National University of San Martín, Argentina) entitled “The Beyond of Darwin”, and another given by Dr. Rafael Vicuña (Pontifical Catholic University of Chile), “The Origin of Life on Earth”.

On Monday and Tuesday afternoon, Prof. Francisco Güell (University of Navarra, Spain) presented the seminar “Developmental Biology and Characterization of the Living Being: Scientific Exposition and Open Philosophical Questions” to a heterogeneous group of biologists, physicists, philosophers, and theologians.

The central activity of the Week was the Workshop of the last three days, which was structured in six working sessions (two per day) and which invited an enriching dialogue between more than 30 participants from eight countries. The Workshop began with a dialogue between two speakers (one a leading figure in science and the other in philosophy or theology) based on a thought-provoking question, later opening the discussion to the rest of the participants. On Wednesday, the philosophers questioned the scientists about the epistemological foundations of their discipline; in this case, Dr. Mariano Asla (Universidad Austral(Argentina) spoke with Dr. Valeria Cantó-Soler (Johns Hopkins University, United States) about the following questions: Do physics and biology understand the notion of determinism in the same way? How is biological determinism related to physicalism and reductionism?

In the afternoon, Dr. Héctor Velázquez Fernández (Pan-American University, Mexico) and Dr. Guillermo Folguera (CONICET – University of Buenos Aires, Argentina) worked on the topic of evolutionary, systemic and organizational explanations of biological complexity and their implications for a deterministic or indeterministic view of biological phenomena.

On the second day of the Workshop, the biologists questioned the philosophers, and the working sessions focused on the concept of information in biology and its relationship to determinism. Dr. Ángela Suburo (Universidad Austral(Argentina) engaged in dialogue with Dr. María Cerezo (University of Murcia, Spain) about genetic determination, epigenetic factors, and the space they leave for indeterminacy. In the afternoon, Dr. Marta Bertolaso ​​(University Campus Bio-Medico, Rome) and Dr. Francisco Güell (University of Navarra, Spain) discussed biological complexity within an indeterministic framework.

On the final day, philosophers and theologians were questioned by scientists about the origin of the universe and God's providential action. In the morning, Dr. Rafael Vicuña (Catholic University of Chile) and Dr. Rafael Martínez (Pontifical University of the Holy Cross, Italy) discussed the question of whether or not divine intervention was necessary for the emergence of life from inorganic matter. In the afternoon, Dr. Ignacio Silva (University of Oxford, United Kingdom) and Dr. Jorge Aquino (Universidad Austral(Argentina) discussed divine creative action and its relationship to the notion of contingent evolution, which includes elements of chance. Can divine providence cause change through the random mutations proposed by the theory of evolution?