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291À propos de l'article de Juliette Grange dans Cités 58Cités 60 (4): 199-204. 2014.Réponses à Juliette Grange sur ses remises en cause peu argumentées d'une partie de la philosophie en France.
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142Cultural evolution: A general appraisalLudus Vitalis 13 (23): 139-150. 2005.The first objective of the paper is to propose a classification and characterize the major approaches to the modes of cultural evolution: (1) Research programs on the origins of the cultural capacity of the human species. (2) Description and explanation of cultural change with the help of concepts or models inspired by the schemes of population genetics. (3) Research on parallel evolution of genes and culture. (4) Narrow coupling between biological evolution and cultural evolution, or the “gene-…Read more
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137Economic Natural Selection: What Concept of Selection?Biological Theory 6 (4): 320-325. 2011.The article examines two cases of adoption of evolutionary ways of thinking by modern economists: Nelson and Winter’s (Evolutionary Theory of Economic Change, 1982), and evolutionary game theory (1990s and after). In both cases, the authors explicitly refer to natural selection in an economic context. I show that natural selection is taken in two different senses, which correspond to two general conceptions of the principle of natural selection, one of which contains reproduction and heredity as…Read more
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109The individuality of the species: A Darwinian theory? — From Buffon to Ghiselin, and back to Darwin (review)Biology and Philosophy 11 (2): 215-244. 1996.Since the 1970s, there has been a tremendous amount of literature on Ghiselin's proposal that species are individuals. After recalling the origins and stakes of this thesis in contemporary evolutionary theory, I show that it can also be found in the writings of the French naturalist Buffon in the 18th Century. Although Buffon did not have the conception that one species could be derived from another, there is an interesting similarity between the modern argument and that of Buffon regarding the …Read more
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97Chance, Explanation, and Causation in Evolutionary TheoryHistory and Philosophy of the Life Sciences 27 (3/4). 2005.Chance comes into plays at many levels of the explanation of the evolutionary process; but the unity of sense of this category is problematic. The purpose of this talk is to clarify the meaning of chance at various levels in evolutionary theory: mutations, genetic drift, genetic revolutions, ecosystems, macroevolution. Three main concepts of chance are found at these various levels: luck (popular concept), randomness (probabilistic concept), and contingency relative to a given theoretical system…Read more
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66Vitalisme et philosophie de la biologieRÉPHA, revue étudiante de philosophie analytique 2 7-18. 2010.
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62International audience.
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62The singular fate of genetics in the history of French biology, 1900?1940Journal of the History of Biology 21 (3): 357-402. 1988.In this study we have examined the reception of Mendelism in France from 1900 to 1940, and the place of some of the extra-Mendelian traditions of research that contributed to the development of genetics in France after World War II
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50Nietzsche and DarwinIn Jane Maienschein & Michael Ruse (eds.), Biology and the foundation of ethics, Cambridge University Press. pp. 154--197. 1999.There is no doubt that Nietzsche, the most famous philosopher of the second half of the nineteenth century, was concerned with Darwin. This essay aims to provide a systematic evaluation of Nietzsche's work in those areas in which he felt the necessity to position himself with regard to Darwin, or "Darwinism," as he knew it.
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48The Concept of Individuality in Canguilhem's Philosophy of BiologyJournal of the History of Biology 31 (3). 1998.This paper does not intend to provide an exhaustive account of Canguilhem's thinking. It will focus on his philosophical approach to the biological sciences
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32De la croissance relative à l'allométrie (1918-1936)/From relative growth to allometry (1918-1936)Revue d'Histoire des Sciences 53 (3): 475-498. 2000.
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31On the Uses of the Category of Style in the History of SciencePhilosophy and Rhetoric 32 (3). 1999.
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31Philosophy and history of science in Sober: comments on Did Write the Origin Backwards?Philosophical Studies 172 (3): 803-811. 2015.Did Darwin Write the Origin Backwards is Sober’s book that comes closest to history of science. Some reviews have expressed reservations about Sober’s inclination to subordinate historical accuracy to analytical clarity, and to contemporary discussions . My comments will be devoted to the kind of relationship that Sober entertains with history of science. I do not think that the author’s interest in history is superficial and instrumental.In the first section, I try to locate Sober’s book within…Read more
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25The Role of the Vilmorin Company in the Promotion and Diffusion of the Experimental Science of Heredity in France, 1840–1920Journal of the History of Biology 31 (2). 1998.
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24French Studies in the Philosophy of Science: Contemporary Research in France (edited book)Springer. 2009.The series Boston Studies in the Philosophy of Science was conceived in the broadest framework of interdisciplinary and international concerns.
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22Évolution et hasardLaval Théologique et Philosophique 61 (3): 527-537. 2005.Dans la théorie contemporaine de l’évolution, trois sens classiques de la notion de hasard interviennent : la notion ordinaire de chance, la notion probabiliste de l’aléatoire, et la notion épistémologique de contingence relativement à un système théorique. Ces trois notions suffisent à définir le statut du hasard aux principaux niveaux du processus évolutif où l’on invoque communément des effets fortuits : mutations, dérive génétique, révolutions génétiques, changements écologiques, macroévolut…Read more
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2210 From Darwin to today in evolutionary biologyIn J. Hodges & Gregory Radick (eds.), The Cambridge Companion to Darwin, Cambridge University Press. pp. 240. 2003.
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22Does oxygen have a function, or where should the regress of functional ascriptions stop in biology?In Philippe Huneman (ed.), Functions: Selection and Mechanisms, Springer. pp. 67--79. 2013.
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22La biologie darwinienne de l'évolution est-elle 'reductionniste'?Revue Philosophique De Louvain 93 (1): 111-139. 1995.
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21Literally speaking, "Philosophy of biology" is a rather old expression. William Whewell coined it in 1840, at the very time he introduced the expression "philosophy of science". Whewell was fond of creating neologisms, like Auguste Comte, his French counterpart in the field of the philosophical reflection about science. Historians of science know that a few years earlier, in 1834, Whewell had generated a small scandal when he proposed the word "scientist" as a general term by which "the students…Read more
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21The Contributions – and Collapse – of Lamarckian Heredity in Pasteurian Molecular Biology: 1. Lysogeny, 1900–1960Journal of the History of Biology 50 (1): 5-52. 2017.This article shows how Lamarckism was essential in the birth of the French school of molecular biology. We argue that the concept of inheritance of acquired characters positively shaped debates surrounding bacteriophagy and lysogeny in the Pasteurian tradition during the interwar period. During this period the typical Lamarckian account of heredity treated it as the continuation of protoplasmic physiology in daughter cells. Félix d’Hérelle applied this conception to argue that there was only one…Read more
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20The Modern Synthesis: Theoretical or Institutional Event?Journal of the History of Biology 52 (4): 519-535. 2019.This paper surveys questions about the nature of the Modern Synthesis as a historical event : was it rather theoretical than institutional? When and where did it actually happen? Who was involved? It argues that all answers to these questions are interrelated, and that systematic sets of answers define specific perspectives on the Modern Synthesis that are all complementary.
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19Animalité et végétalité dans les représentations de l’héréditéRevue de Synthèse 113 (3-4): 423-438. 1992.
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18Évolution et philosophieRevue Philosophique de la France Et de l'Etranger 194 (3). 2004.Les questions que le philosophe peut aujourd'hui se poser sur l'évolution sont de deux ordres. Les unes relèvent de la philosophic des sciences (de quel genre de science s'agit-il ?). Les autres regardent la philosophic en général: dans quelle mesure l'évolution conduit-elle à réexaminer certaines grandes questions philosophiques traditionnelles, comme celles des fondements de l'épistémologie (théorie de la connaissance) et de l'éthique ? The questions a philosopher may raise today about evoluti…Read more
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University of Paris 1 Panthéon-SorbonneDepartment for Teaching and Research in Philosophy (UFR10)Regular Faculty
Areas of Specialization
Philosophy of Biology |
20th Century Philosophy |
Areas of Interest
Philosophy of Biology |
20th Century Philosophy |