lgBIG — lake geneva BIOLOGICAL INTEREST GROUP
The lake geneva BIOLOGICAL INTEREST GROUP is a forum for discussing biology from a multitude of perspectives, including philosophical, scientific and historical, and was founded in 2012 at the Department of Philosophy of the University of Geneva. Our standing members are based in different institutions at the Universities of Geneva, Lausanne, Bern, and Milan. We consider ourselves to be part of a BIG international movement that includes kindred groups at the University of Minnesota and the University of Exeter. Our members are also participating in the From Biological Practice to Scientific Metaphysics initiative, sinergia and What if? research projects.
Our meetings take place on Tuesdays from 12:15 to 14:00 in Bâtiment des Philosophes in the room Phil102 (22, boulevard des Philosophes). We discuss our own research as well as other contemporary philosophical, scientific and historical work that addresses interesting biological issues.
Everyone is welcome!
Members in Geneva
Department of Philosophy
Lorenzo Casini
Silvia de Cesare
Christine Clavien
Michaela Egli
Maria José Ferreira Ruiz
Michal Hladky
Guillaume Schlaepfer
Michael Stuart
Marcel Weber
External members
William Bausman (Wisconsin)
Rawad El Skaf (Salzburg)
Pierre-Luc Germain (Zürich)
François Pellet (Münster)
Christian Sachse (Lausanne)
Raphael Scholl (Cambridge)
Martin Wasmer (Hannover)
Activities
Program (provisional) Spring Term 2020
18 Feb Organisational meeting
25 Feb Maria José Ferreira Ruiz on causal specificity
03 March Marcel Weber on the concepts of morphogen and positional information in developmental biology
10 March Pierre-Luc Germain against proper function
17 March All on Baetu’s Mechanisms in Molecular Biology
24 March Michaela Egli on pragmatic clinical trials and extrapolation
31 March Christine Clavien on the evaluation of patients’ responsibility for their health condition
07 April Silvia de Cesare on progress in evolution
21 April Nadine Marachly on Pradeu’s Philosophy of Immunology I (Chapters 2-3?)
28 April Nadine Marachly on Pradeu’s Philosophy of Immunology II (Chapters 4-5?)
05 Mai Lorenzo Casini and Jan Sprenger on conflicts of interest and meta-analysis in clinical research
12 Mai Tiberiu Popa on Aristotle on microstructural explanations
19 Mai Christian Sachse on asymmetric co-evolution between homogametic (XX) and heterogametic (XY) organisms
Past Activities
- Program Fall Term 2019
- Program Fall Term 2018
- Program Spring Term 2018
- Program Fall Term 2017
- Program Spring Term 2017
- Program Fall Term 2016
- Program Spring Term 2016
- Program Fall Term 2015
- Program Spring Term 2015
- Program Fall Term 2014
- Workshop on Modelling, Experimenting and Simulating, July 27-28, University of Geneva
- Program Spring Term 2014
- Workshop on Organisms, Machines and Mechanisms, December 5-6, University of Geneva
- Program Fall Term 2013
- Program Spring Term 2013
- lgBIG getaway, December 14-15, 2012, Champex-d'en-Haut
- Program Fall Term 2012
Contact
If you are interested in the group, in attending the weekly meetings, or in presenting your own work at one of the meetings, please do not hesitate to contact us.
Marcel Weber
Département de Philosophie
Université de Genève
2, rue de Candolle
CH-1211 Genève 4
Tél.: +41.22.379.7050 (secrétariat)
Email: