Tercera Sesión Seminario Permanente Filosofía y Ciencias: "Tinkering with life: machines and causation in biology"

La tercera sesión del Seminario Permanente Filosofía y Ciencias, "Tinkering with life: machines and causation in biology", estará a cargo del Prof. Maurizio Esposito del Departamento de Filosofía de la Universidad de Santiago de Chile.

Maurizio Esposito es Director del Departamento de Filosofía de la Universidad de Santiago de Chile. Licenciado en la Universidad de Bolonia en Filosofía en el 2007, finalizó sus estudios de doctorado en la Universidad de Leeds (UK) en Historia y Filosofía de la Ciencia (2011). Posteriormente realizó una estancia postdoctoral en el Instituto de Investigaciones Filosófica de la UNAM en México en el 2012. A partir del 2013 se despeña como Profesor e Investigador en la Universidad de Santiago de Chile. Su investigación se enfoca en la historia y filosofía de las ciencias de la vida. Ha publicado una monografía sobre la biología organicista y varios artículos que exploran la relación entre biología y sociedad.

RESUMEN

Manipulating organisms has been one of the most important epistemic strategies in the history of biology. From the experimental biology inaugurated by Abraham Trembley and Lazzaro Spallanzani in the 18th century to the physiology of Claude Bernard and Carl Ludwig in the 19th century, modern knowledge of life could not be easily severed from sophisticated technics of experimental intervention. In the 20th century, for instance, from the experimental physiology of Jacques Loeb until synthetic biology, direct intervention is deeply intertwined with the production of new entities (parthenogenetic egg, protocells, synthetic genome, chimeras etc.) and theoretical knowledge is often the consequence of complex technological novelties. In fact, the very concept of “organism” has changed in parallel with the invention of new technological devices. The automata of the 17th and 18th century, the feedback mechanisms of the 19th and 20th century, and the recent information “machines”, inspired new way to conceive and understand organic beings.

The talk aims to foster philosophical reflection on the relation between experimental intervention, technological innovations and theoretical knowledge in the biosciences. In particular, it will be argued that philosophers of biology should take seriously the importance of technology in the production and justification of new theoretical knowledge. Furthermore, the talk briefly examines the relationship between realism and pragmatism in biology.