Georges Canguilhem and the Philosophy of Biology Workshop

Part of the Philosophy and Practice workshop series at the School of History, Anthropology, Philosophy and Politics, Queen’s University Belfast

September 21, 2023. 27 University Square, Belfast, BT7 1PD. Room: 01/003 

This workshop addresses the work of the twentieth-century French philosopher George Canguilhem and assesses, in relation to his contexts and to ours, his responses to the most fundamental question in the philosophy of biology, namely the question of the nature of biological life. The event will serve to celebrate the new MA programme in Philosophy at Queen’s University Belfast (https://www.qub.ac.uk/courses/postgraduate-taught/philosophy-ma/) as well as the publication of the essay collection Canguilhem and Continental Philosophy of Biology, ed. G. Bianco, G. van de Vivjer and C. T. Wolfe (Springer, 2023).

All are welcome in person or online with the following Microsoft Teams link

Programme     

09.30    Maté Prath (Queen’s University Belfast)

Opening remarks on Canguilhem and Continental Philosophy of Biology, ed. G. Bianco, G. van de Vijvers, C. Wolfe

10.00    Fédérico Testa (University of Bristol): 

On the Cosmopolitanism of the Human Species: Biology, Geography and Technology in the Normal and the Pathological

11.15    Coffee

11.30    Gertrudis van de Vijver (Ghent University): 

Driven to know and condemned to reflection: a further articulation of Canguilhem’s epistemological viewpoint on the concept of life

14.30    Giulia Gandolfi, Ca’Foscari University, Venice, Italy: 

Philosophy of life and normativity: the case of the organism in Kant and Canguilhem

15.45    Coffee

16.00    Charles T. Wolfe, Université de Toulouse Jean-Jaurès, Toulouse, France: 

A note on Canguilhem’s ‘Note sur la situation philosophique faite en France à la philosophie biologique’

17.30    Closing discussion. 

Chair: Mark Sinclair (Queen’s University Belfast)