Contingency, Chance, and Determinism in Deep History

Douglas H. Erwin
Curator of Paleozoic Invertebrates, Smithsonian Institution

Discussants:

Joyce Chaplin
James Duncan Phillips Professor of Early American History

Edward J. Hall
Norman e. Vuilleumier Professor of Philosophy

Jonathan Losos
Monique and Philip Lehner Professor for the Study of Latin America, Professor of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology, Curator in Herpetology, Museum of Comparative Zoology.

Abstract:

The roles of contingency, chance and determinism have long been of interest to historians, evolutionary biologists, paleontologists, economists and specialists in many other fields. Erwin will discuss these issues in the context of events from the fossil record; his paper will be followed by comments designed to invite a cross-disciplinary audience discussion of these major themes.

Sponsored by: The Initiative for the Science of the Human Past at Harvard (SoHP), The Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology, The Department of Philosophy, and the Department of History at Harvard University.