•  332
    Dispositional Properties in Evo-Devo
    In Laura Nuño de la Rosa & G. Müller (eds.), Evolutionary Developmental Biology, Springer. 2018.
    In identifying intrinsic molecular chance and extrinsic adaptive pressures as the only causally relevant factors in the process of evolution, the theoretical perspective of the Modern Synthesis had a major impact on the perceived tenability of an ontology of dispositional properties. However, since the late 1970s, an increasing number of evolutionary biologists have challenged the descriptive and explanatory adequacy of this “chance alone, extrinsic only” understanding of evolutionary change. Be…Read more
  •  261
    The problem of form in molecular biology
    with Fernando M. Pérez Herranz
    In González Recio & José Luis (eds.), Philosophical Essays on Physics and Biology, G. Olms. 2009.
  •  148
    Becoming organisms. The development of organisation and the organisation of development
    History and Philosophy of Life Sciences 32 289-316. 2010.
    Despite the radical importance of embryology in the development of organi- cism, developmental biology remains philosophically underexplored as a theoretical and empirical resource to clarify the nature of organisms. This paper discusses how embryology can help develop the organisational definition of the organism as a differentiated, function- ally integrated, and autonomous system. I distinguish two conceptions of development in the organisational tradition that yield two different conceptions…Read more
  •  68
    Conceptual Roles of Evolvability across Evolutionary Biology: Between Diversity and Unification
    with Cristina Villegas, Alan C. Love, Ingo Brigandt, and Günter P. Wagner
    In Thomas F. Hansen, David Houle, Mihaela Pavličev & Christophe Pélabon (eds.), Evolvability: A Unifying Concept in Evolutionary Biology?, Mit Press. 2023.
    A number of biologists and philosophers have noted the diversity of interpretations of evolvability in contemporary evolutionary research. Different clusters of research defined by co-citation patterns or shared methodological orientation sometimes concentrate on distinct conceptions of evolvability. We examine five different activities where the notion of evolvability plays conceptual roles in evolutionary biological investigation: setting a research agenda, characterization, explanation, predi…Read more
  •  54
    A disposition or dispositional property is a capacity, ability, or potential to display or exhibit some outcome. Evolvability refers to a disposition to evolve. This chapter discusses why the dispositional nature of evolvability matters—why philosophical distinctions about dispositions can have scientific implications. To that end, we build a conceptual toolkit with vocabulary from prior philosophical analyses using a different disposition: protein foldability. We then apply this toolkit to addr…Read more
  •  39
    Becoming Organisms: The Organisation of Development and the Development of Organisation
    History and Philosophy of the Life Sciences 32 (2/3). 2010.
    Despite the radical importance of embryology in the development of organicism, developmental biology remains philosophically underexplored as a theoretical and empirical resource to clarify the nature of organisms. This paper discusses how embryology can help develop the organisational definition of the organism as a differentiated, functionally integrated, and autonomous system. I distinguish two conceptions of development in the organisational tradition that yield two different conceptions of …Read more
  •  38
    Pere Alberch: Originator of EvoDevo
    with John O. Reiss, Ann C. Burke, Charles Archer, Miquel de Renzi, Hernán Dopazo, Arantza Etxeberría, Emily A. Gale, J. Richard Hinchliffe, Chris S. Rose, Diego Rasskin-Gutman, and Gerd B. Müller
    Biological 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
  •  37
    Pregnant Females as Historical Individuals: An Insight From the Philosophy of Evo-Devo
    with Mihaela Pavličev and Arantza Etxeberria
    Frontiers 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
  •  36
    Chances and Propensities in Evo-Devo
    British Journal for the Philosophy of Science 73 (2): 509-533. 2022.
    While the notion of chance has been central in discussions over the probabilistic nature of natural selection and genetic drift, its role in the production of variants on which populational sampling takes place has received much less philosophical attention. This article discusses the concept of chance in evolution in the light of contemporary work in evo-devo. We distinguish different levels at which randomness and chance can be defined in this context, and argue that recent research on variabi…Read more
  •  29
    La 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
  •  28
    A causal dispositional account of fitness
    History and Philosophy of the Life Sciences 38 (3). 2016.
    The notion of fitness is usually equated to reproductive success. However, this actualist approach presents some difficulties, mainly the explanatory circularity problem, which have lead philosophers of biology to offer alternative definitions in which fitness and reproductive success are distinguished. In this paper, we argue that none of these alternatives is satisfactory and, inspired by Mumford and Anjum’s dispositional theory of causation, we offer a definition of fitness as a causal dispos…Read more
  •  17
    La biología sintética mantiene una relación muy singular con la teoría evolutiva: por un lado, parte de una interpretación ingenieril de la evolución para fundar su aproximación al diseño de bioartefactos; por otro, la biología sintética aspira, en última instancia, a deshacerse de la evolución creando organismos de novo que se comporten de un modo predecible. Tras examinar las tres grandes propiedades que aparecen recurrentemente en la descripción sintética de los nuevos artefactos orgánicos, a…Read more
  •  11
    Introduction
    Quaderns de Filosofia 6 (1): 11. 2019.
  •  8
    Aristotle’s influence on D’Arcy Thompson was praised by Thompson himself and has been recognized by others in various respects, including the aesthetic and normative dimensions of biology, and the multicausal explanation of living forms. This article focuses on the relatedness of organic forms, one of the core problems addressed by both Aristotle’s History of Animals (HA), and the renowned chapter of Thompson’s On Growth and Form (G&F), “On the Theory of Transformations, or the Comparison of Rel…Read more
  • Evolutionary Developmental Biology (edited book)
    with G. Müller
    Springer. forthcoming.