A tenured position in philosophy of medicine or biology opens in Bordeaux

AOS: Philosophy of medicine, Philosophy of biology 

AOC: Philosophy of Science 

University of Bordeaux (France)

Deadline for application: June 28th, 2021.

Application: mael.lemoine@u-bordeaux.fr

Short description of the job profile

Candidates will have developed an expertise in any topic of medical science (e.g. a disease, a method, a subfield) by applying conceptual tools from philosophy of science to specific problems in medicine. The new professor will join a group of philosophers tightly collaborating with biologists and medical scientists. She or he will teach in English in an international Master program of “philosophy in science”, to be created soon.

Detailed description of the job profile

The person recruited will be required to teach in medical, scientific and philosophical curricula. 

The successful candidate will be expected to contribute to the development of the activities of the PhilInBioMed network (Institute for Philosophy In Biology and Medicine), through active international collaboration (http://philinbiomed.org).

In terms of teaching, the recruited professor will have to actively contribute to the implementation of innovative teaching, particularly at Master’s level, for philosophers wishing to work closely with scientists, and to integrate into existing philosophical teaching systems for courses in the health sciences.

The recruited professor should also participate in teaching in the health/sciences curriculum in the first cycle of health studies and in the third cycle of health studies in the framework of seminars intended for medical students in the various health specialties. A large part of the teaching, or even all of it, should or could be given in English.

Research must be in line with at least one of the research topics of the “Conceptual Biology and Medicine Group” (https://www.immuconcept.org/conceptual-biology-medicine/). An indispensable condition is that research must allow close collaboration with the group’s philosophers, with members of the unit, and must precisely identify potential partnerships with scientists and doctors from the Bordeaux community and abroad. Although the Conceptual Biology and Medicine Group is part of a research unit specialized in immunology, it is not necessary for the recruited professor to work specifically in that domain. A crucial condition, however, is that the recruited professor identify a biomedical field of competence on which he or she wishes to work in a privileged manner (for example, one or more pathology(ies), and/or a particular scientific method used in a medical context).

These collaborations should make it possible to reinforce the specificity of the group, i.e. the development of a program of publications co-written by scientists and philosophers for scientific and philosophical journals. The group is particularly keen on publishing in science and medicine journals, so as to foster the dialogue with these communities.

 Applicants must already hold a tenure or tenure-track position. Alternatively, they must already hold a ‘qualification’ from the Conseil National des Universités (CNU).

Feral Atlas, a new website on ecological worlds

Feral Atlas invites you to explore the ecological worlds created when nonhuman entities become tangled up with human infrastructure projects. Seventy-nine field reports from scientists, humanists, and artists show you how to recognize “feral” ecologies, that is, ecologies that have been encouraged by human-built infrastructures, but which have developed and spread beyond human control. These infrastructural effects, Feral Atlasargues, are the Anthropocene.

Playful, political, and insistently attuned to more-than-human histories, Feral Atlas does more than catalog sites of imperial and industrial ruin. Stretching conventional notions of maps and mapping, it draws on the relational potential of the digital to offer new ways of analyzing—and apprehending—the Anthropocene; while acknowledging danger, it demonstrates how in situ observation and transdisciplinary collaboration can cultivate vital forms of recognition and response to the urgent environmental challenges of our times. 

PhilInBioMed elected 1 of 6 Useful Resources For Biology Enthusiasts

The video platfrom Wiki.ezvid.com is a free-to-use video wiki, where a user is introduced to a concept in the space of a four-to-seven minute video presentation, and then additional text, images, data, and links to third-party information sources are provided to add more detail to each topic. The website aims to answer questions on the Internet in ways that are accessible to anyone, without technical jargon or unnecessary digression.

Recently a video entitled 6 Useful Resources For Biology Enthusiasts has been added and the PhilInBioMed website came in on place three. We are happy that through this video the interdisciplinary apporach of the PhilInBioMed network will become known to a wider audience. We hope it will inspire both scientists and philosophers to take a look at the work done in the network and to join interdisciplinary collaborations.

‘What is an Individual Organism? Philosophical Problems’ Conference in Krakow

 

Understanding the origins and nature of biological individual constitute important problems in the biological sciences. For instance, what separates a genuine biological individual from an aggregate of lower units, or from a population of interacting lower entities? Answering these questions could permit us to understand better the status of ant colonies or honey bees, for it is not clear where do they belong. Furthermore, in recent years multispecies ensembles made of host and their symbiotic microorganisms (‘holobionts’), has been called the real unit upon which natural selection act, which has led to a debate involving both biologists and philosophers of biology. The aim of this conference is to explore the philosophical issues that have been raised over the concept of biological individuality. We welcome any submissions that touch those problems, including attempts to answer the following questions:

What makes a group of objects an individual?

Is there one proper way of individualization?

Can we have more than one concept of biological individuality?

What is the role of biological practice in those debates?

How biological individuals evolve?

 

Keynote speakers:

Dominika Włoch-Salamon (Jagiellonian University) is a biologist interested in social behaviour of microorganisms, experimental evolution and programmed cell death.

Learn more about Dominika: http://www.eko.uj.edu.pl/en_GB/zespol-genetyki-ewolucyjnej/badania

 

Pierrick Bourrat (Macquarie University and the University of Sydney) is a philosopher of biology interested in evolutionary theory, and evolutionary individuality.

Learn more abour Pierrick: http://pierrickbourrat.com/

 

General Information

Organizers

Institute of Philosophy, Jagiellonian University

Coordinator: Adrian Stencel

Who can apply?

Philosophers, biologists, medical doctors, and any other scholars, at any point in their career, who are interested in this subject.

Language

English is the conference language.

Where and when will the conference be held?

In Kraków, 11 October 2019.

How to apply?

Send an abstract (maximum 500 words) before 25 August 2019 to: philbio.workshops@gmail.com

All decisions will be made prior to 5 September 2019.

 

New postgraduate training course at the University of Bordeaux: Philosophy in science, conceptual approaches applied to biological and medical research

 

 

The course aims to equip medical, biological and neuroscientists with the conceptual tools of philosophy of science.
Philosophy is not conceived here as a reflection about science, but rather as a set of methods to improve research relevance and efficacy.
At the end of the program, participants will submit a paper, written in collaboration with the philosopher who supervises them, to a
scientific journal. All classes are taught in French.

Program Director : Maël Lemoine, Professor, philosophy of medical science, University of Bordeaux

More information

 

Crédits: Images Gerd Altmann & Arek Socha (Pixabay), Photos Drew Hays & freestocks.org (Unsplash)

New Philosophy of Biology section in eLIFE

 

The importance of philosophy in the life sciences is becoming more and more obvious – to philosophers and scientists alike. One marker for the increased awareness is the new "Philosophy of Biology" section of eLIFE. This peer-reviewed journal targets an audience in the biomedical and life science field. The fact that they now welcome spontaneous submissions from philosophers of biology is a major step towards more interdisciplinarity. Among the first to publish in this section are PhilInBioMed members Lucie Laplane, Sabina Leonelli, Kate MacCord, Jane Maienschein and Thomas Pradeu.

 

Summer school: Data & Health

Big data and algorithms are profoundly transforming contemporary medicine.

The program of this interdisciplinary summer school will present the genetic and bioinformatics foundations of this evolution and its philosophical, ethical, legal, sociological and psychological issues. Each session will include a conference and a workshop on a specific case. Students will actively participate in the final synthesis.

Expected sessions

– Big data and health: legal issues

– Data, health and ethical issues

– Brugada syndrome and connectivity map approach

– Big data and medical diagnosis

– From basic research to the patient: contribution of integrated biology in mitochondrial diseases

– Big data and the patient

– Bioinformatics and health

One day in Nantes to visit a research institution and discover the city.

The aim is to provide an overview of a set of problems, related to the use of data in health, thanks to humanities and social sciences methods.The course is intended for students and researchers interested in medicine, genetics, bioinformatic, laws or humanities.

The program will be entirely taught in English.

More information