The Lonely Pipette : helping scientists do better science

TLP #24 : The untold power of philosophy - Thomas Pradeu


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This week, we meet our first philosopher guest - Thomas Pradeu tells us what scientist can learn from philosophers 

  • Thomas shares his journey navigating from philosophy to immunology and biology
  • He explains the difference between ‘philosophy IN biology’ compared to ‘philosophy OF biology’
  • He mentions ‘mutual ignorance’ - that scientists often don’t know about philosophers who would be interested in their science
  • Thomas argues that philosophers should be brought in at the beginning of a project rather than at the end. He describes his model for embedding philosophers within a biology research environment
  • He gives lots of specific examples, from immunology and beyond, where philosophers made an impact on science by intervening upstream
  • Thomas stresses the importance of challenging the foundations (in the lab and at home)
  • He also stresses the importance of reading every day
  • Thomas talks honestly about the difficulties of improving life-work balance and gender balance in academia
  • Thomas is proud of his success in creating examples of the Philosophy IN Biology networks as a model for interdisciplinary collaboration 

He mentioned these researchers/philosophers

  • Jean Gayon : https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean_Gayon
  • Edgardo Carosella : https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edgardo_D._Carosella
  • David Hull : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Hull_(philosopher)
  • Elliott Sober : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elliott_Sober
  • Ernst Mayr : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ernst_Mayr
  • Richard Dawkins : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Dawkins
  • Stephen Paget : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stephen_Paget
  • Lucie Laplane : https://www.cnrs.fr/fr/personne/lucie-laplane
  • Francis Bacon : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francis_Bacon
  • Dick Lewontin : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Lewontin

To find out more about Thomas visit his websites or follow him on Twitter

  • Website : https://www.u-bordeaux.fr/universite/espace-presse/repertoire-dexperts/thomas-pradeu
  • ImmunoConcept Lab : https://immunoconcept.cnrs.fr/conceptual-biology-medicine/
  • PhilInBioMed:  Institute for Philosophy in Biology and Medicine : https://www.philinbiomed.org/
  • Thomas on Twitter : https://twitter.com/pradeu?lang=en

To find out more about Renaud and Jonathan :

  • Twitter : https://twitter.com/LePourpre
  • LinkedIn : https://www.linkedin.com/in/renaudpourpre/
  • Twitter : https://twitter.com/Epigenetique
  • LinkedIn : https://www.linkedin.com/in/jonathanweitzman/%20

More about the soundtrack :
Music by Amaria - Lovely Swindler https://soundcloud.com/amariamusique/

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The Lonely Pipette : helping scientists do better scienceBy Jonathan Weitzman & Renaud Pourpre

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