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491Toolbox murders: putting genes in their epigenetic and ecological contexts: P. Griffiths and K. Stotz: Genetics and philosophy: an introduction (review)Biology and Philosophy 31 (1): 125-142. 2016.Griffiths and Stotz’s Genetics and Philosophy: An Introduction offers a very good overview of scientific and philosophical issues raised by present-day genetics. Examining, in particular, the questions of how a “gene” should be defined and what a gene does from a causal point of view, the authors explore the different domains of the life sciences in which genetics has come to play a decisive role, from Mendelian genetics to molecular genetics, behavioural genetics, and evolution. In this review,…Read more
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Réponse de lâauteur à la correspondance à propos de lâarticle:«Apport de la philosophie à la question de lâimmunogénicité»la Presse Médicale 40 (1): 116--117. 2011.
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13Identité, la Part de L’Autre (L'): Immunologie Et PhilosophieOdile Jacob. 2010.EN BIOLOGIE AUSSI, L'AUTRE EST EN NOUS La biologie nous montre que, dans des conditions physiologiques normales, quelque chose de l'autre est en nous. Nous avons déjà parlé de la greffe tissulaire où évidemment le tissu ou ...
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115Organisms or biological individuals? Combining physiological and evolutionary individualityBiology and Philosophy 31 (6): 797-817. 2016.The definition of biological individuality is one of the most discussed topics in philosophy of biology, but current debate has focused almost exclusively on evolution-based accounts. Moreover, several participants in this debate consider the notions of a biological individual and an organism as equivalent. In this paper, I show that the debates would be considerably enriched and clarified if philosophers took into account two elements. First, physiological fields are crucial for the understandi…Read more
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Lâimmunité et lâinteractionnisme biologiquele Tout Et les Parties Dans les Systèmes Naturels, Paris, Vuibert. forthcoming.
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39Darwinian Populations and Natural Selection, by Peter Godfrey-SmithMind 120 (479): 863-870. 2011.
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46The Speed of Change: Towards a Discontinuity Theory of Immunity?Nature Reviews Immunology 13 (10). 2013.Immunology — though deeply experimental in everyday practice — is also a theoretical discipline. Recent advances in the understanding of innate immunity, how it is triggered and how it shares features that have previously been uniquely ascribed to the adaptive immune system, can contribute to the refinement of the theoretical framework of immunology. In particular, natural killer cells and macrophages are activated by transient modifications, but adapt to long-lasting modifications that occur in…Read more
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4L'individu: Perspectives ContemporainesVrin. 2008.Qu'est-ce qu'un individu? Tentative de réponse grâce aux apports de la métaphysique, de la philosophie du langage, de la philosophie des sciences du vivant, de la philosophie des sciences cognitives, de la philosophie politique et de la philosophie des sciences sociales.
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4Précis de Philosophie des SciencesVuibert (Paris). 2011.Le Précis de philosophie des sciences vise à présenter, de manière pédagogique, l'état actuel des grandes questions et des grands domaines de la philosophie des sciences. C'est un ouvrage de niveau "intermédiaire", entre les ouvrages d'initiation et les ouvrages de recherche. Il peut être utilisé comme manuel pour des cours de philosophie des sciences au niveau Master, ainsi que dans le cadre de la préparation aux nouvelles épreuves d'épistémologie des CAPES scientifiques. Il a notamment pour vo…Read more
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68Individuals Across The Sciences (edited book)Oxford University Press. 2016.What are individuals? How can they be identified? These are crucial questions for philosophers and scientists alike. Criteria of individuality seem to differ markedly between metaphysics and the empirical sciences - and this might well explain why no work has hitherto attempted to relate the contributions of metaphysics, physics and biology on this question. This timely volume brings together various strands of research into 'individuality', examining how different sciences handle the issue, and…Read more
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144What philosophy of biology should be: Rosenberg, McShea: Philosophy of biology. A contemporary introduction. Routledge, 2008Biology and Philosophy 26 (1): 119-127. 2011.This paper reviews Rosenberg’s and McShea’s textbook in philosophy of biology, entitled Philosophy of Biology. A Contemporary Introduction. I insist on the excellent quality of this textbook, then I turn to more critical comments, which deal mainly with what philosophy of biology is, and what it should be
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74A Mixed Self: The Role of Symbiosis in DevelopmentBiological Theory 6 (1): 80-88. 2011.Since the 1950s, the common view of development has been internalist: development is seen as the result of the unfolding of potentialities already present in the egg cell. In this article, I show that this view is incorrect because of the crucial influence of the environment on development. I focus on a fascinating example, that of the role played by symbioses in development, especially bacterial symbioses, a phenomenon found in virtually all organisms (plants, invertebrates, and vertebrates). I…Read more
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145The organism in developmental systems theoryBiological Theory 5 (3): 216-222. 2010.In this paper, I address the question of what the Developmental Systems Theory (DST) aims at explaining. I distinguish two lines of thought in DST, one which deals specifically with development, and tries to explain the development of the individual organism, and the other which presents itself as a reconceptualization of evolution, and tries to explain the evolution of populations of developmental systems (organism-environment units). I emphasize that, despite the claiming of the contrary by DS…Read more
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46On the definition of a criterion of immunogenicityProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 103 (47): 17858--17861. 2006.The main objective of immunology is to establish why and when an immune response occurs, that is, to determine a criterion of immunogenicity. According to the consensus view, the proper criterion of immunogenicity lies in the discrimination between self and nonself. Here we challenge this consensus by suggesting a simpler and more comprehensive criterion, the criterion of continuity. Moreover, we show that this criterion may be considered as an interpretation of the immune 'self'. We conclude th…Read more
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L'immunologie Et la Définition de l'Identité BiologiqueDissertation, Atelier National de Reproduction des Thèses. 2008.
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19Towards a Theory of Development (edited book)Oxford University Press UK. 2014.Is it possible to explain and predict the development of living things? What is development? Articulate answers to these seemingly innocuous questions are far from straightforward. To date, no systematic, targeted effort has been made to construct a unifying theory of development. This novel work offers a unique exploration of the foundations of ontogeny by asking how the development of living things should be understood. It explores the key concepts of developmental biology, asks whether genera…Read more
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85The Limits of the Self: Immunology and Biological IdentityOxford University Press. 2012.The Limits of the Self, will be essential reading for anyone interested in the definition of biological individuality and the understanding of the immune system.
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Quand et pourquoi une réponse immunitaire est-elle déclenchée?Bulletin de la Société Française D’Immunologie 115 7--7. 2007.
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82Introduction: Reassessing Developmental Systems TheoryBiological Theory 5 (3): 199-201. 2010.The Developmental Systems Theory (DST) presented by its proponents as a challenging approach in biology is aimed at transforming the workings of the life sciences from both a theoretical and experimental point of view (see, in particular, Oyama [1985] 2000; Oyama et al. 2001). Even though some may have the impression that the enthusiasm surrounding DST has faded in very recent years, some of the key concepts, ideas, and visions of DST have in fact pervaded biology and philosophy of biology. It s…Read more
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61Mutualistic viruses and the heteronomy of lifeStudies in History and Philosophy of Science Part C: Studies in History and Philosophy of Biological and Biomedical Sciences 59 80-88. 2016.Though viruses have generally been characterized by their pathogenic and more generally harmful effects, many examples of mutualistic viruses exist. Here I explain how the idea of mutualistic viruses has been defended in recent virology, and I explore four important conceptual and practical consequences of this idea. I ask to what extent this research modifies the way scientists might search for new viruses, our notion of how the host immune system interacts with microbes, the development of new…Read more
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34The Organism in Developmental Systems TheoryBiological Theory 5 (3): 216-222. 2009.In this article, I address the question of what Developmental Systems Theory aims at explaining. I distinguish two lines of thought in DST, one that deals specifically with development and tries to explain the development of the individual organism, and the other that presents itself as a reconceptualization of evolution and tries to explain the evolution of populations of developmental systems. I emphasize that, despite the claim of the contrary by DST proponents, there are two very different d…Read more
Thomas Pradeu
CNRS & University Of Bordeaux
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CNRS & University Of BordeauxProfessor
Areas of Specialization
Philosophy of Biology |
General Philosophy of Science |
Science, Logic, and Mathematics |