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1305Galatea of the microbesThe Philosophers' Magazine 67 89-95. 2014.This paper shows that the identity of living things is a composite reality. It also suggests that the immune system constitutes a unifying process for the organism.
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1095What is an organism? An immunological answerHistory and Philosophy of the Life Sciences 32 (2-3): 247-267. 2010.The question “What is an organism?”, formerly considered as essential in biology, has now been increasingly replaced by a larger question, “What is a biological individual?”. On the grounds that i) individuation is theory-dependent, and ii) physiology does not offer a theory, biologists and philosophers of biology have claimed that it is the theory of evolution by natural selection which tells us what counts as a biological individual. Here I show that one physiological field, immunology, offers…Read more
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Theories of development in biologyâproblems and perspectivesTowards a Theory of Development 1. forthcoming.
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123The many faces of biological individualityBiology and Philosophy 31 (6): 761-773. 2016.Biological individuality is a major topic of discussion in biology and philosophy of biology. Recently, several objections have been raised against traditional accounts of biological individuality, including the objections of monism, theory-centrism, ahistoricity, disciplinary isolationism, and the multiplication of conceptual uncertainties. In this introduction, I will examine the current philosophical landscape about biological individuality, and show how the contributions gathered in this spe…Read more
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24This volume is the best available tool to compare and appraise the different approaches of today’s biology and their conceptual frameworks, serving as a springboard for new research on a clarified conceptual basis. It is expected to constitute a key reference work for biologists and philosophers of biology, as well as for all scientists interested in understanding what is at stake in the present transformations of biological models and theories. The volume is distinguished by including, for the …Read more
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126The self model and the conception of biological identity in immunologyBiology and Philosophy 21 (2): 235-252. 2006.The self/non-self model, first proposed by F.M. Burnet, has dominated immunology for 60 years now. According to this model, any foreign element will trigger an immune reaction in an organism, whereas endogenous elements will not, in normal circumstances, induce an immune reaction. In this paper we show that the self/non-self model is no longer an appropriate explanation of experimental data in immunology, and that this inadequacy may be rooted in an excessively strong metaphysical conception of …Read more
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65To Be Continued: The Genidentity of Physical and Biological ProcessesIn Thomas Pradeu & Alexandre Guay (eds.), Individuals Across The Sciences, Oxford University Press. pp. 317-347. 2016.The concept of genidentity has been proposed as a way to better understand identity through time, especially in physics and biology. The genidentity view is utterly anti-substantialist in so far as it suggests that the identity of X through time does not presuppose whatsoever the existence of a permanent “core” or “substrate” of X. Yet applications of this concept to real science have been scarce and unsatisfying. In this paper, our aim is to show that a well-defined concept of functional genide…Read more
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L'identité immunologique: soi ou continuité?L’Identité? Soi, Non-Soi, Individu Et Personne 47--58. forthcoming.
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88Immunity and the Emergence of IndividualityIn Frédéric Bouchard & Philippe Huneman (eds.), From Groups to Individuals: Evolution and Emerging Individuality, Mit Press. pp. 77. 2013.Since, it has become clear that individuality is not to be considered as a given, but rather as something which needs to be explained. How has individuality emerged through evolution, and how has it subsequently been maintained? In particular, why is it that multicellular organisms appeared and persisted, despite the obvious interest of each cell of favoring its own replication? Several biologists see the immune system as one of the key components for explaining the maintenance of multicellular …Read more
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Apport de la philosophie à la question de lâimmunogénicitéla Presse Médicale 39 (7): 747--752. 2010.
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496Toolbox 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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120Organisms 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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48The 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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70Individuals 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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147What 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
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 |