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18Pattern and Process in evo-devoIn Henk W. De Regt, Stephan Hartmann & Samir Okasha (eds.), EPSA Philosophy of Science: Amsterdam 2009, Springer. pp. 263-274. 2011.In the Modern Synthesis the study of patterns refers to how to identify and systematize order in lineages (description), attributed to underlying processes or mechanisms (explanation). But patterns and processes play distinct roles in evodevo. In this paper we (1) distinguish three different views (the transformational, the morphogenetic and the process approach) according to the role they play in the description and explanation of development and evolution, and (2) relate this discussion to the…Read more
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4Guest editors’ Introduction. Philosophical lessons from complexity: Sandra Mitchell’s contribution to philosophy of scienceTheoria: Revista de Teoría, Historia y Fundamentos de la Ciencia 38 (3): 253-259. 2023.This monographic issue contains a long article bringing together the Lullius Lectures delivered by Professor Sandra Mitchell during the Xth Conference of the Society of Logic, Methodology, and Philosophy of Science in Spain, that took place in Salamanca (16-19 November, 2021). The publication of her Lectures is complemented by six original articles that address and examine different aspects of Sandra Mitchell’s contributions to the philosophy of science. In this introduction to the monograph, th…Read more
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10What is Special about Natural Drift as an Organism-Centered View of EvolutionConstructivist Foundations 18 (1): 107-109. 2022.Jorge Mpodozis presents natural drift as an organism-centered view of biological evolution. Currently, many other research programs in biology and philosophy of biology pursue organismic perspectives in evolution. We consider some of the features appearing in the article in this light in order to highlight what is special in Mpodozis’s proposal. We contend that collaborations among research programs would be valuable and suggest that the major contribution of natural drift for organismic project…Read more
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42Pere Alberch: Originator of EvoDevoBiological Theory 3 (4): 351-356. 2008.In September 2008, 10 years after the untimely death of Pere Alberch (1954–1998), the 20th Altenberg Workshop in Theoretical Biology gathered a group of Pere’s students, col- laborators, and colleagues (Figure 1) to celebrate his contribu- tions to the origins of EvoDevo. Hosted by the Konrad Lorenz Institute for Evolution and Cognition Research (KLI) outside Vienna, the group met for two days of discussion. The meeting was organized in tandem with a congress held in May 2008 at the Cavanilles I…Read more
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13R ussell B onduriansky & T roy D ay, Extended heredity : a new understanding of inheritance and evolution, Princeton University Press, 2018, 288 pp, ISBN 9780691157672 (review)History and Philosophy of the Life Sciences 41 (3): 33. 2019.
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47Pregnant Females as Historical Individuals: An Insight From the Philosophy of Evo-DevoFrontiers in Psychology 11 572106. 2021.Criticisms of the “container” model of pregnancy picturing female and embryo as separate entities multiply in various philosophical and scientific contexts during the last decades. In this paper, we examine how this model underlies received views of pregnancy in evolutionary biology, in the characterization of the transition from oviparity to viviparity in mammals and in the selectionist explanations of pregnancy as an evolutionary strategy. In contrast, recent evo-devo studies on eutherian repr…Read more
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2Sobre la noción de información genética: semántica y excepcionalidad (On the notion of genetic information: semantics and exceptionality)Theoria: Revista de Teoría, Historia y Fundamentos de la Ciencia 19 (2): 209-230. 2010.La noción de información genética es central para la biología, aunque no puede decirse que su estatus teórico esté claro. En este artículo se repasa brevemente la historia de su uso, y se consideran los diferentes problemas que la noción suscita para la comprensión de la evolución y del desarrollo.
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75Understanding the knowledge and practice of medicine: papers from the fourth Philosophy of Medicine Roundtable (review)Theoretical Medicine and Bioethics 34 (4): 253-257. 2013.
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13Canguilhem and the Logic of LifeIn Christopher Donohue & Charles T. Wolfe (eds.), Vitalism and Its Legacy in Twentieth Century Life Sciences and Philosophy, Springer Verlag. pp. 131-151. 2022.We examine aspects of Canguilhem’s philosophy of biology, concerning the knowledge of life and its consequences on science and vitalism. His concept of life stems from the idea of a living individual endowed with creative subjectivity and norms, a Kantian view which “disconcerts logic.” In contrast, we examine two naturalistic perspectives in the 1970s exploring the logic of life (JacobJacob, François) and the logic of the living individual (MaturanaMaturana, Humberto and VarelaVarela, Francisco…Read more
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Was Darwin the "Newton of a blade of grass"? The heritage of Kant in Darwin's theory of evolutionEndoxa 24 185-216. 2010.
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22Semiotics of the artificial: The ‘self’ of self-reproducing systems in cellular automataSemiotica 127 (1-4): 295-320. 1999.
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16J an B aedke, Above the Gene, Beyond Biology: Towards a Philosophy of Epigenetics, Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press, 2018, 313 pages (review)History and Philosophy of the Life Sciences 42 (2): 1-4. 2020.
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1Thomas Heyd, ed., Recognizing the Autonomy of Nature: Theory and Practice Reviewed byPhilosophy in Review 26 (6): 421-423. 2006.
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56Life as emergence: The roots of a new paradigm in theoretical biologyWorld Futures 32 (2): 133-149. 1991.(1991). Life as emergence: The roots of a new paradigm in theoretical biology. World Futures: Vol. 32, Creative Evolution in Nature, Mind, and Society, pp. 133-149
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30La crítica kantiana legó una doble herencia a la biología decimonónica: su noción de ciencia basada en el mecanicismo newtoniano configuró epistemológicamente la teoría de la evolución darwinista, mientras que su comprensión de los organismos se tradujo en una morfología teleológica. En este artículo planteamos dos cuestiones en torno la relación entre las ideas de Kant y Darwin: 1) si Kant habría considerado a Darwin el Newton de la biología, a lo que, con matices, respondemos afirmativamente; …Read more
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21The work of Pere Alberch is crucial to study the early stages of evo-devo. In particular, it illustrates very persuasively why developmental systems have so much to say about the course of evolutionary change. In addition to an important empirical work, he elaborated a stimulating framework of theoretical ideas on biological form, morphological variation, and how developmental processes establish possible evolutionary paths previous to the action of natural selection. In this framework, the stud…Read more
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843Canguilhem and the Logic of LifeTransversal: International Journal for the Historiography of Science 4 47. 2018.In this paper we examine aspects of Canguilhem’s philosophy of biology, concerning the knowledge of life and its consequences on science and vitalism. His concept of life stems from the idea of a living individual, endowed with creative subjectivity and norms, a Kantian view which “disconcerts logic”. In contrast, two different approaches ground naturalistic perspectives to explore the logic of life and the logic of the living individual in the 1970s. Although Canguilhem is closer to the second,…Read more
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1230Auto-organización y autopoiesisDiccionario Interdisciplinar Austral. 2017.El prefijo “auto” en autoorganización y autopoiesis se refiere a la existencia de una identidad o agencialidad implicada en el orden, organización o producción de un sistema que se corresponde con el sistema mismo, en contraste con el diseño o la influencia de carácter externo. La autoorganización (AO) estudia la manera en la que los procesos de un sistema alcanzan de forma espontánea un orden u organización complejo, bien como una estructura o patrón emergente, bien como algún tipo de finalidad…Read more
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38Darwinism evolving: Systems dynamics and the genealogy of natural selectionTheoria 11 (1): 233-234. 1996.
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Biological organization and the role of theoretical biology : function and autonomyIn José Luis González Recio (ed.), Philosophical essays on physics and biology, G. Olms. 2009.
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32Organismo y organización en la biología teórica¿ Vuelta al organicismoLudus Vitalis 14 (26): 3-38. 2006.ABSTRACT. This paper contemplates Organicism and its relation with molecular and evolutionary biology. We explore whether twentieth-first century biology is returning to positions held at the beginning of the twentieth century and then abandoned. The guiding line is a history of theoretical biology in which we distinguish three periods: 1. The 20s-30s, and the Theoretical Biology Club (Needham, Woodger, and Waddington, among others); 2. An intermediate period in the 60s-70s, in which, in s…Read more
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9Darwinism Evolving (review)Theoria: Revista de Teoría, Historia y Fundamentos de la Ciencia 11 (1): 233-234. 1996.
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4Organización y organismo en la Biologıa Teórica¿ Vuelta al organicismoLudus Vitalis 26 3-38. 2006.This paper contemplates Organicism and its relation with molecular and evolutionary biology. We explore whether twentieth-first century biology is returning to positions held at the beginning of the twentieth century and then abandoned. The guiding line is a history of theoretical biology in which we distinguish three periods: 1. The 20s-30s, and the Theoretical Biology Club (Needham, Woodger, and Waddington, among others); 2. An intermediate period in the 60s-70s, in which, in spite of th…Read more
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University of the Basque CountryFaculty of Education, Philosophy and AnthropologyAssociate Professor
Areas of Specialization
Philosophy of Biology |
Philosophy of Science, Misc |
Philosophy of Medicine, Miscellaneous |