Workshop: Unnatural Kinds

The Department of Philosophy will host "Unnatural Kinds," an interdisciplinary workshop about scientific classification, on May 16 - 17. Designer pharmaceuticals, novel nanomaterials, cloned cells and animals, and new methods of storing biological or medical information have broadened the scope of defining "kinds" of things to include those that have been synthetically created. As a result, new questions have arisen: When can one claim to have made something of a new kind? How do we keep track of exponentially expanding chemical, pharmaceutical and material databases? How do contemporary information management systems affect how we conceive of classification and categorization? When can, and when should, extra-scientific regulations limit the synthesis of novel kinds? Such questions will drive the discussions of this two-day event. Expert speakers from the National Institutes of Health, University of Utah, Nano Precision Medical, Princeton University, University of Pittsburgh, University of Alberta, SF State and beyond. For more information or to register, visit the Unnatural Kinds workshop site.