Dear ISH Colleagues,
   Please send me any announcements you would to share with our community. I will send these out by the 6th.

Here is one to get us started:

Seminars

Dear colleagues,
The History, Philosophy and Biology Teaching Lab (LEFHBio), associated with the Institute of Biology/ Federal University of Bahia and the National Institute of Science and Technology in Interdisciplinary and Transdisciplinary Studies in Ecology and Evolution (INCT IN-TREE), Brazil, will continue its seminar cycle in June 9th 2022 with the talk by Dr. Maël Montévil, from Centre Cavaillès, République des Savoirs USR 3608, École Normale Supérieure, Paris, France, entitled “How should we think scientifically about biological objects?”.

Access link:
https://us06web.zoom.us/j/89114169386?pwd=NlU0UldlTDZFOHZheDhhUUYyc0FJUT09

An abstract for the talk and a short bios of the speaker are available at the end of this message.

WHAT?
Event of the Seminar Cycle of the History, Philosophy and Biology Teaching Lab (LEFHBio)
TITLE:
How should we think scientifically about biological objects?
SPEAKER:
Maël Montévil (Centre Cavaillès, République des Savoirs USR 3608, École Normale Supérieure, Paris, France)
Language:English
WHEN?
June 9th 2022, 09:00 AM BRT
WHERE?
(For conversion, use https://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/converter.html, choosing Salvador, Bahia - Brazil)
Remote event, Zoom, https://us06web.zoom.us/j/89114169386?pwd=NlU0UldlTDZFOHZheDhhUUYyc0FJUT09

Each seminar has a maximum audience of 100 participants, based on order of access.

Seminar Cycle of the History, Philosophy and Biology Teaching Lab (LEFHBio)
June 9th 2022, 09:00 AM BRT
“How should we think scientifically about biological objects?”

Maël Montévil (Centre Cavaillès, République des Savoirs USR 3608, École Normale Supérieure, Paris, France)

Abstract: Scholars used Aristotelian reasoning in combination with theology to understand living beings, leading to natural theology, where god was the guarantee of biological norms. Transformism, notably Darwin, provided an alternative to this view; however, this alternative had to be acknowledged by scientists when the model of science was classical mechanics. It followed that thinking about biological objects remained similar to physics thinking, where norms are laws, or at least invariants and symmetries. The recurring analogies with technological objects, recently computers, as viewed by engineers (and not users or anthropology) also contributed to this theoretical and epistemological bias and confusion. On the opposite, we can think about biological objects differently, on renewed theoretical bases, by starting from theoretical principles that are sound in this field. Then, instead of fast analogies, numerous new questions, methods, and reasoning have to be fleshed out.
Speaker’s biography: Maël Montévil is a researcher (chargé de recherche) in CNRS, working in Centre Cavaillès, République des Savoirs USR 3608, École Normale Supérieure. He is a theoretical biologist working at the crossroads of experimental biology, mathematics, and philosophy. He works both on the ways to understand living being and to take care of them in the Anthropocene. Most of his writing can be found here https://montevil.org/

One of the previous events of the Seminar Cycle of the Teaching, Philosophy and History of Biology Laboratory (LEFHBio) is available on the LEFHBio channel on You Tube: Talk by Kostas Kampourakis, Students’ “teleological misconceptions” in evolution education: why the underlying design stance, not teleology per se, is the problem: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dg_mz_0rDLc

End of Announcement

Lloyd Ackert, Ph.D.
Department of History
Drexel University

ISH Listserve Moderator
https://www.ishpssb.org/
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