Keynote Speakers

  • Daniel Dennett (Tufts University)
  • Eva Jablonka (Tel Aviv University)
  • Ruth Mace (University College London)
  • Alex Mesoudi (University of Exeter)
  • Thomas Reydon (University of Hannover)
  • Gerhard Schurz (University of Duesseldorf)
  • Brian Skyrms (University of California, Irvine)

Book of Abstracts

The book of abstracts can be downloaded here:

 
 

The Generalized Theory of Evolution: Programme Schedule

Wednesday, January 31st, 2018
16:00 — 17:30 Daniel Dennett: Tools Making Tools: the recursive de-Darwinization of human culture
(Chair: Karim Baraghith)
(Lecture Hall)
Watch Video | See Slides
17:30 — 18:00 Fingerfood and Drinks
(Foyer, Ground Floor)
18:00 — 19:15 (ca.) Round Table: Cultural Evolution or Social Darwinism? Prospects and Problems of a Generalized Evolutionary Theory
(Lecture Hall)
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Thursday, February 1st, 2018
09:00 — 09:15 Opening
(Lecture Hall)
09:15 — 10:45 Alex Mesoudi: The Viability of a Theory and Science of Cultural Evolution
(Chair: Karim Baraghith)
(Lecture Hall)
Watch Video | See Slides
10:45 — 11:00 Short Coffee Break
(Foyer, 2nd Floor)
  Room 2: Complexity (Chair: Özlem Yılmaz) Room 4: Generalized Evolutionary Modelling (Chair: Hannah Rubin)
11:00 — 11:30 Nicola Bertoldi: Complex Adaptive Systems and Evolutionary Explanations. Is the generalized theory of evolution a general theory of complexity? Alex Aylward: A ‘veritable key of the future’ — R. A. Fisher and the Generality of Selection
11:30 — 12:00 Cancelled: Carolin Löscher: From Being Alive to Biological Complexity — A matter of communication Aydin Mohseni: Disagreements in Evolutionary Dynamics
See Slides
12:00 — 12:30 Mel Andrews: Adapting Evolution — Complexity and Culture in a Universal Darwinian Framework
See Slides
Grant Ramsey: Does Evolutionary Theory Have a Unified Conceptual Foundation?
12:30 — 14:00 Lunch Break
14:00 — 15:30 Gerhard Schurz: Generalizing Evolution Theory: Evolution in nature and culture
(Lecture Hall)
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15:30 — 16:00 Coffee Break
(Foyer, 2nd Floor)
  Room 2: Communication & Language (Chair: Henk Zeevat) Room 4: Generalized Evolutionary Modelling (Chair: Gustavo Cevolani)
16:00 — 16:30 Fermín C. Fulda: Organismal Evolution and the Ecological Approach to Meaning: From Informational Content to Ecological Relevance Özlem Yılmaz: Plant Stress Physiology
16:30 — 17:00 Rafael Ventura: The Emergence and Change of Linguistic Meaning Walter Veit: The Evolution of Multicellularity: Cheating done right
See Slides
17:00 — 17:30 Karim Baraghith & Christian J. Feldbacher-Escamilla: Success-Based Inheritance in Cultural Evolution
See Slides
Mathias Gutmann: Human Evolution and Multi-Agent-Modelling
19:00 — 21:00 (ca.) Conference Dinner
(Brewery: Zum Schlüssel, Bolkerstr. 41, 40213 Düsseldorf)
 
Friday, February 2nd, 2018
09:00 — 10:30 Brian Skyrms: Some Evolutionary Dynamics of Signaling Games
(Chair: Gerhard Schurz)
(Lecture Hall)
Watch Video | See Slides
10:30 — 11:00 Coffee Break
(Foyer, 2nd Floor)
  Room 2: Generalized Evolutionary Modelling (Chair: Paul Thorn) Room 4: Generalized Evolutionary Modelling (Chair: Alexander Christian)
11:00 — 11:30 Hannah Rubin: Inclusive Fitness. How Not to Import Ideas from Cultural Evolution
See Slides
New Talk: Karim Baraghith: The Causal Interactionist Population Concept in Generalized Darwinian Systems
See Slides
11:30 — 12:00 Marc Artiga: Natural Selection, Functions and Beyond Pedro Atã & João Queiroz: Art Evolution as Niche Construction in Distributed Cognitive Systems
12:00 — 12:30 Cailin O’Connor: The Cultural Red King Effect Caglar Karaca: Is Cosmological Evolution Led by Natural Selection? A misconception in the neo-Darwinian approach
12:30 — 14:00 Lunch Break
  Room 2: Generalized Evolutionary Modelling (Chair: Alexander Gebharter) Room 4: Generalized Evolutionary Modelling (Chair: Karim Baraghith)
14:00 — 14:30 Ozan Altan Altinok: The Generalized Theories of Evolution
See Slides
Cancelled: Philippe Huneman: Darwinian Cultural Evolution and the Ways of Capturing the Nature of ‘Darwinian’ Systems
14:30 — 15:00 Man-Him Ip: Evolutionary Debunking Arguments and the Conceptual Truth Objection Francesco Suman: The Role of Culture in the Evolutionary Process: A pluralistic perspective
15:00 — 15:30 Gregor Greslehner: Synthetic Biology and Experimental Evolution: Expanding the structure-function space
See Slides
Lorenzo Baravalle: The Theory of Cultural Evolution as Theory of Forces
15:30 — 16:00 Cancelled: Brian McLoone & Wai-Tong Fan & Adam Pham & Rory Smead & Laurence Loewe: Finite Populations, Group Structure, and the Evolution of Collective Action: Insights from a Discrete Analysis of the Snowdrift Game Cancelled: Hugh Desmond: Delineating the Cultural Selective Environment: Fitness and Dominance
16:00 — 16:30 Coffee Break
(Foyer, 2nd Floor)
16:30 — 18:00 Ruth Mace: No Need for an Upgrade: Using the toolkit from behavioural ecology to study cultural evolution
(Chair: Christian J. Feldbacher-Escamilla)
(Lecture Hall)
Watch Video
 
Saturday, February 3rd, 2018
09:00 — 10:30 Thomas Reydon: Towards Applicability Criteria for Generalized Evolutionary Theories: The concept of real populations
(Chair: Corina Strößner)
(Lecture Hall)
Watch Video
10:30 — 11:00 Coffee Break
(Foyer, 2nd Floor)
  Room 2: EvoDevo (Chair: Gregor Greslehner) Room 4: Generalized Evolutionary Modelling (Chair: Corina Strößner)
11:00 — 11:30 Yoav Soen: Adaptation by Natural Improvisation: A theory of individual-specific adaptation Florian J. Boge: Is ‘Quantum Darwinism’ really a Darwinism?
See Slides
11:30 — 12:00 Íñigo Ongay de Felipe: Lamarckian Inheritance and the Generalized Theory of Evolution Cancelled: Theo Stone: Creativity Within Evolutionary Epistemology
12:00 — 12:30 Cancelled: Sebastian Schuol: The Many Faces of Epigenetics (and their impact for evolutionary thinking) Michael P. Schlaile: A Case for (Econo-)Memetics: Why we should not throw the baby out with the bathwater
12:30 — 13:00 Caleb Hazelwood & Lane DesAutels: Extending Evolutionary Individuality: An Appeal to Multi-Dimensional Heredity Maarten Boudry & Steije Hofhuis: Parasites of the Mind. How cultural representations can subvert human interests
See Slides
13:00 — 14:00 Lunch Break
14:00 — 15:30 Eva Jablonka: Culture: An Evolutionary-Developmental Approach
(Chair: Christian J. Feldbacher-Escamilla)
(Lecture Hall)
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15:30 — 15:45 Closing
(Lecture Hall)