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
William Bausman (Geneva)
Pablo Carnino (Geneva)
Lorenzo Casini (Geneva)
Christine Clavien (Geneva)
Michal Hladky (Geneva)
Maximilian Huber (Geneva)
Maria José Ferreira Ruiz (Geneva)
Guillaume Schlaepfer (Geneva)
Martin Wasmer (Geneva)
Marcel Weber (Geneva)
Other departments
Bruno Strasser (Geneva)
External members
Pierre-Luc Germain (Milan)
Marie I. Kaiser (Cologne)
Andrea Loettgers (Bern)
François Pellet (Münster)
Christian Sachse (Lausanne)
Raphael Scholl (Cambridge)
Pietro Snider (Basel)
Activities
Program (provisional) Spring Term 2018
20 Feb Organizational meeting (for Masters students)
27 Feb Maria Ferreira Ruiz: Dealing with the Changeable and Blurry Edges of Living Things: A Modified Version of Property-Cluster Kinds
6 March Carl Gillet: Using Compositional Explanations to Understand Compositional Levels: Why scientists talk about “levels”
13 March Marcel Weber: Causal Specificity, Biological Possibility and Non-parity About Genetic Causes
20 March Raphael Scholl: Bridging the Gap Between Populations and Individuals by Network Reconstruction
27 March Rawad El Skaf: On the Notion of Possibility at Play in Scientific Thought Experiments
10 April William Bausman: Why Do Biologists Use the Methodologies They Do?
17 April Christine Clavien: title TBA
24 April Tiberiu Popa: Necessity and ‘for the most part’ in Aristotle’s biology
8 May Gregorio Demarchi: Biological Fitness as Dispositional Property – Metaphysical Foundations and Empirical Applications
15 May Martin Wasmer: Operationalizing the Naturalness-based Definition in the European GMO Directive
22 May Lorenzo Casini: title TBA
Classification II: Ancient and Modern Perspectives
Tuesdays, 12h-14h, Bâtiment des Philosophes, Room 102, (22, boulevard des Philosophes)
Program Spring Term 2017
Tuesdays, 12h-14h, Bâtiment des Philosophes, Room 102, (22, boulevard des Philosophes)
21 February
Lorenzo Casini on “Horizontal Surgicality and Mechanistic Constitution”
28 February
Martin Wasmer (ETHZ) on practices in evolutionary biology
7 March
Joshua Babic, Lorenzo Cocco and Michal Hladky on Joseph Woodger’s The Axiomatic Method in Biology (1937)
14 March
Woodger continued
21 March
Raphael Scholl on “Stability without Stasis: Ambition and modesty of realism about true causes”
28 March No meeting (Marcel speaking in Basel)
4 April
Luigi Scorzato on “Science and Illusions” (joint meeting w/ Geneva Symmetry Group)
11 April
Guillaume Schlaepfer on a priori knowledge in evolutionary biology
18 April Easter break
25 April
Will Bausman on “Understanding the inference from scientific practice to metaphysics as an adaptive inference”
2 May
Maria José Ferreira Ruiz (University of Buenos Aires) on information in biology
9 May
Michal Hladky on simulation in neuroscience
16 May
Andrea Loettgers on modeling and experimentation
23 May
François Pellet on “Disease and Its Kinds”
Past Activities
- 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: