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Jean Gayon, History and Philosophy of Biology: A New Synthesis

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Philosophy, History and Biology: Essays in Honour of Jean Gayon

Part of the book series: History, Philosophy and Theory of the Life Sciences ((HPTL,volume 30))

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Abstract

In this contribution, I show that Jean Gayon’s work operates an original synthesis between the history of science, the philosophy of science and the life sciences. I propose that the philosophy of biology as it has been constructed since the 1970s could usefully draw inspiration from this synthesis to develop a much richer and more open analysis of current biological sciences. While the philosophy of biology is very strongly dominated by the biology of evolution, the history of biology has opened up to practically all the major fields of contemporary biology (for example, cell biology, molecular biology, or virology, among many others). Perhaps Jean Gayon’s work is an invitation to draw inspiration from this thematic diversity to construct a new philosophy of biology and, beyond that, a new synthesis between philosophy, history, and biology.

Translated from Pradeu (2018).

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Among the other journals that publish work in the philosophy of biology, some are devoted to both historical and philosophical approaches to the life sciences (Studies in History and Philosophy of Biological and Biomedical Sciences, for example), while others publish research that is relevant to the philosophy of science as a whole (Philosophy of Science or The British Journal for the Philosophy of Science, for example).

  2. 2.

    At this point, I would like to mention two potential conflicts, which may distort my judgment. First, I have been Associate Editor of the journal Biology and Philosophy since January 2017 (the mission of the Editor-in-Chief and Associate Editors is to receive submissions, select reviewers according to a “double-blind” procedure, and make the final decision whether to publish the submitted article). There is therefore perhaps a risk that I overestimate the importance of the journal Biology and Philosophy relative to other journals. Second, my own research in philosophy of biology has focused on the philosophy of immunology, a field that is not primarily evolutionary. There is therefore perhaps a risk that I overestimate the importance of non-evolutionary approaches in the philosophy of biology.

  3. 3.

    The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America (PNAS) is the official journal of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States, published since 1915.

  4. 4.

    More specifically, I have used the PNAS thematic classification, which I have applied to articles published in Biology and Philosophy. This was the best way for me to produce a satisfactory comparison between the two journals. An obvious consequence of this method is the multiplication of “0%” mentions in the representation of biological fields as it appears in Biology and Philosophy (Fig. 5.1).

  5. 5.

    In a fascinating study, Christophe Malaterre and his colleagues have enriched and challenged Jean Gayon’s and my conclusions. Using a different and increasingly popular method, namely text mining, they conclude that although evolution by natural selection has been a much prevalent and relatively stable topic in Biology and Philosophy, a much broader diversity of topics has in fact been addressed in this journal (Malaterre et al., 2020).

  6. 6.

    In my 2017 article, I examine and reject several often-advanced explanations for the dominance of evolutionary biology in philosophy of biology, namely the idea of a simple historical contingency, that of a higher degree of theorization in evolutionary biology, and finally that of a greater intrinsic philosophical interest in evolution. I refer the interested reader to this article.

  7. 7.

    The Journal of the History of Biology was founded by Everett Mendelsohn in 1968. Mendelsohn was Editor-in-chief for thirty-one years, until 1999. Until December 2017, the Editor-in-Chief was Michael Dietrich (Dartmouth College, then Pittsburgh University); since January 2018, the Editors-in-Chief are Karen Rader (Virginia Commonwealth University) and Marsha Richmond (Wayne State University). The Journal of the History of Biology is unanimously considered to be one of the major journals, if not the major journal, in the history of biology.

  8. 8.

    The most notable exception is the work of Gregory J. Morgan (Morgan 2001, 2006, 2010; Morgan and Pitts 2008).

  9. 9.

    In 2016, John Dupré, Gladys Kostyrka, and I edited what is, to our knowledge, the first edited volume devoted specifically to the philosophy of virology (Pradeu et al., 2016). It includes the contributions of Gregory J. Morgan (Stevens Institute of Technology), Maureen O’Malley (then at the University of Bordeaux), Thomas Pradeu (CNRS & University of Bordeaux), Jean-Michel Claverie and Chantal Abergel (Université Aix-Marseille), Patrick Forterre (Institut Pasteur & Paris-Sud University), John Dupré and Stephan Guttinger (University of Exeter), Marc van Regenmortel (CNRS & University of Strasbourg), Eugene Koonin (NIH) et Petro Starokadomskyy (UT Southwestern Medical Center), Gladys Kostyrka (IHPST, CNRS & Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne University), and Pierre-Olivier Méthot (Laval University).

  10. 10.

    On Morange, see Loison and Pradeu (2021).

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Acknowledgements

I want to thank Jean Gayon for his constant trust and friendship. He was a model of strength and honor. Being his friend and learning from him has been one of the most important experiences of my life. Thanks to the École normale supérieure, the IHPST and Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne University for allowing me to write my thesis under the direction of Jean Gayon. My research is supported by the European Research Council (ERC; European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme—Grant agreement n° 637647—IDEM).

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  1. ImmunoConcept, CNRS, University of Bordeaux, Bordeaux, France

    Thomas Pradeu

  2. IHPST, UMR8590, CNRS, Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne, Paris, France

    Thomas Pradeu

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  1. Faculté de Philosophie, Université Laval, Quebec City, QC, Canada

    Pierre-Olivier Méthot

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Pradeu, T. (2023). Jean Gayon, History and Philosophy of Biology: A New Synthesis. In: Méthot, PO. (eds) Philosophy, History and Biology: Essays in Honour of Jean Gayon. History, Philosophy and Theory of the Life Sciences, vol 30. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-28157-0_5

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