Canguilhem and Continental Philosophy of Biology

This edited volume presents papers on this alternative philosophy of biology that could be called 'continental philosophy of biology,' and the variety of positions and solutions that it has spawned. In doing so, it contributes to debates in the history and philosophy of science and the history of philosophy of science, as well as to the craving for 'history' and/or 'theory' in the theoretical biological disciplines. In addition, however, it also provides inspiration for a broader image of philosophy of biology, in which these traditional issues may have a place. The volume devotes specific attention to the work of Georges Canguilhem, which is central to this alternative tradition of 'continental philosophy of biology'. This is the first collection on Georges Canguilhem and the Continental tradition in philosophy of biology. The book should be of interest to philosophers of biology, continental philosophers, historians of biology and those interested in broader traditions in philosophy of science.

Charles T. Wolfe is a Professor in the Department of Philosophy, Université de Toulouse-2 Jean-Jaurès. He works primarily in history and philosophy of the early modern life sciences, with a particular interest in materialism and vitalism. He is the author of Materialism: A Historico-Philosophical Introduction (2016), La philosophie de la biologie: une histoire du vitalisme (2019) and Lire le matérialisme (2020), and has edited or coedited volumes on monsters, brains, empiricism, biology, mechanism and vitalism, including most recently (w. D. Jalobeanu) the Encyclopedia of Early Modern Philosophy and the Sciences (2019-2022) and (w. J. Symons, in progress) The History and Philosophy of Materialism. He is co-editor of the book series 'History, Philosophy and Theory of the Life Sciences' (Springer). Papers available at [https://univ-tlse2.academia.edu/CharlesWolfe]

Gertrudis Van de Vijver is Full Professor at the department of Philosophy and Moral Sciences of Ghent University. She was awarded her PhD in philosophy from this university in 1988. Since receiving her PhD, she was post-doctoral researcher and research director at Ghent University until she became a professor there in 2000. Her research is mainly on the epistemological implications of issues of complexity, self-organization and teleology in the life sciences, in psychology and in the study of cognition. For this, she developed a transcendental approach to the philosophy of biology, centring on the idea of co-constitution. In addition, she does research on other aspects and implications of transcendental philosophy, and on the connections of psychoanalytic theory with epistemology and philosophy of language.

Giuseppe Bianco is researcher at Cà Foscari University, Venice. He was awarded his PhD in philosophy from Lille3 University and worked in several European and American Universities. His area of interest is 19th and 20th century history of European philosophy and the history of the relation between philosophy, psychology, sociology and medicine. He has worked on the history of concepts, problems, authors, texts, intellectual clusters, chairs, educational systems and, in general, cultural objects that have to do with philosophy. He is the author of Après Bergson (Puf, 2015), he edited books on the history 20th century French philosophy and a monographic issue of the Revue philosophique on Georges Canguilhem (Georges Canguilhem. Les traces du métier).  He was part, along with Gertrudis Van de Vijver and Charles T. Wolfe of two research projects dealing with the relation between philosophy and the life-sciences (both funded by the Flanders Research Foundation and based at Ghent University): 'Vitalism. A counter-history of biology' (2019-2022) and 'Human life? From philosophy of life to philosophical anthropology' (2022-225). He was the recipient of the Marie Sklodowska-Curie Individual grant for his research project INTERPHIL, 'The international congresses and the transnational shaping of philosophy (1900-1948).' The project will start in 2023 and will involve the collaboration between Cà Foscari University and the University of Québec in Montréal (UQAM). He is currently writing a book on Gilles Deleuze.