Maurizio Esposito | Faculty of Sciences of the University of Lisbon (original) (raw)
Papers by Maurizio Esposito
Jakob von Uexküll and Philosophy, 2019
Social History of Medicine, 2021
In his 1995 book, The Mangle of Practice, Andrew Pickering distinguished between representational... more In his 1995 book, The Mangle of Practice, Andrew Pickering distinguished between representationalist and performative idioms in philosophy of science. While the former describes science as mainly a theoretical enterprise, the latter represents science as a collection of practices. The two perspectives outline two kinds of epistemologies presenting different philosophical concerns. In fact, in a scientific world where entities are not only thought or represented but touched, used, and transformed, the question about their existence does not really matter. What does matter though is to what extent we can extrapolate, from all our experimental material activities, the “real” working of the natural processes. In this chapter, drawing on Pickering's insights, we introduce a particular kind of performative epistemology fit for grasping how experimental biologists produce reliable knowledge. We argue that experimental biology can be mapped through four principal points: constrained act...
Historiographies of Science, 2021
Journal of the History of Biology, 2020
At the beginning of the twentieth century Haeckel’s biogenetic law was widely questioned. On the ... more At the beginning of the twentieth century Haeckel’s biogenetic law was widely questioned. On the one hand, there were those who wanted to dismiss it altogether: ontogeny and phylogeny did not have any systematic or interesting relation. On the other hand, there were those who sought to revise it. They argued that while Haeckel’s recapitulationism might have been erroneous, this should not deter the research over the relation between evolution and development. The British embryologist Walter Garstang was one of the main figures on the “revisionists” side. In this paper, I first situate Garstang’s contribution to embryology and evolution within the extraordinarily creative period of the first three decades of the twentieth century. Then, I review some of Garstang’s specific ideas in detail, especially his most well-known 1922 paper “The Theory of Recapitulation.” Finally, I look at how the demise of the biogenetic law in light of Garstang’s views—as well as from the perspective of contemporary developmental evolution—should be understood. My main concern is not about the dismissal of Haeckel’s law or the sidelining of embryology in the twentieth-century evolutionary biology. I am rather interested in exploring why Garstang’s revised version of biogenetic law—which was entirely consistent with the neo-Darwinian perspective underpinning the Modern synthesis—did not spur a major new agenda in evolutionary biology after the 1930s.
The Wordsworth Circle, 2017
Revista Colombiana de Filosofía de la Ciencia, 2018
El artículo explora algunos de los sentidos y usos de la historia en la filosofía de las ciencias... more El artículo explora algunos de los sentidos y usos de la historia en la filosofía de las ciencias. Se argumenta que la ausencia (o presencia) de la historia en las reflexiones filosóficas sobre la ciencia no depende de una falta de comunicación entre historiadores y filósofos, sino del contraste entre dos concepciones filosóficas del conocimiento radicalmente distintas. Por un lado, hay una concepción “idealista” que defiende un ideal de razón autónomo de cualquier elemento contingente que pueda orientar la cogitación científica. Por otro lado, hay una concepción “materialista” que es más atenta a las condiciones contextuales que posibilitan la ocurrencia de formas específicas de conocimientos. Las dos concepciones tienen historias distintas e interpretan la actividad científica en formas muy diferentes. La primera se enfoca en los aspectos teóricos de la ciencia y se orienta hacia un análisis conceptual de aquellas teorías científicas más exitosas en términos de coherencia, predicc...
History of the Human Sciences, 2016
Scholars have paid great attention to the neo-Darwinism of Ronald Fisher. He was one of the found... more Scholars have paid great attention to the neo-Darwinism of Ronald Fisher. He was one of the founding fathers of the modern synthesis and, not surprisingly, his writings and life have been widely scrutinized. However, less attention has been paid to his interests in the human sciences. In assessing Fisher’s uses of the human sciences in his seminal book the Genetical Theory of Natural Selection and elsewhere, the article shows how Fisher’s evolutionary thought was essentially eclectic when applied to the human context. In order to understand how evolution works among humans, Fisher made himself also a sociologist and historian. More than a eugenically minded Darwinist, Fisher was also a sophisticated scholar combining many disciplines without the ambition to reduce, simplistically, the human sciences to biology.
Studies in history and philosophy of biological and biomedical sciences, Jan 13, 2017
Genetic determinism is nowadays largely questioned and widely criticized. However, if we look at ... more Genetic determinism is nowadays largely questioned and widely criticized. However, if we look at the history of biology in the last one hundred years, we realize that genetic determinism has always been controversial. Why, then, did it acquire such relevance in the past despite facing longstanding criticism? Through the analysis of some of the ambitious expectations of future scientific applications, this article explores the possibility that part of the historical success of genetic determinism lies in the powerful rhetorical strategies that have connected the germinal matter with alluring bio-technological visions. Indeed, in drawing on the recent perspectives of "expectation studies" in science and technology, it will be shown that there has been an interesting historical relationship between reductionist notions of the gene as a hereditary unit, coded information or functional DNA segment, and startling prophecies of what controlling such an entity might achieve. It wi...
The British Journal For the History of Science, 2010
Introduction 1 Old and New Organicisms 2 Romantic Biology: Establishing Connections in the Ninete... more Introduction 1 Old and New Organicisms 2 Romantic Biology: Establishing Connections in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries 3 The British Version: J S Haldane, D'Arcy Thompson and the Organism as a Whole 4 The New Generation: A Failed Organismal Revolution 5 The American Version: Chicago and Beyond 6 Romantic Biology from California's Shores: W E Ritter, C M Child and the Scripps Marine Association Conclusion: Whatever Happened to Organismal Biologies? Notes Works Cited Index
Historical Studies in the Natural Sciences, 2015
In 1903, the Scripps Marine Association was founded in La Jolla, San Diego. It was rechristened t... more In 1903, the Scripps Marine Association was founded in La Jolla, San Diego. It was rechristened the Scripps Institution of Oceanography two decades later. Today it is one of the largest marine research institutions in the world. The present study aims to reconstruct the history of this institution during the first years of its existence, the life of its first director, W. E. Ritter, and the cultural and scientific background of both. In particular, through the use of archival sources and unpublished materials, the essay reports on Ritter’s dream to import a form of holistic biology from Europe to southern California. This biology, which Ritter termed “organismal,” had to challenge reductionist and mechanist approaches to life sciences, including Weismann’s and Mendelian’s theories of heredity, both considered ideologically biased, politically dangerous, and scientifically flawed. Ritter believed that his new biology had to be grounded in a pluralist approach where laboratory and fie...
Theory in Biosciences, 2013
In 1930, while R.A. Fisher, J.B.S. Haldane, E.B. Ford and S.G. Wright were laying the foundations... more In 1930, while R.A. Fisher, J.B.S. Haldane, E.B. Ford and S.G. Wright were laying the foundations of what a decade later J.S. Huxley dubbed "Modern Synthesis", E.S. Russell published a groundbreaking work, The Interpretation of Development and Heredity. In this book Russell not only condemned Mendelian genetics and neo-Darwinism, but also proposed an alternative synthesis unifying heredity, development, and evolution. The book did not represent the work of a mind operating in isolation. Rather, it was a synthetic work connecting ideas and doctrines of many influential scientists working in Europe and the USA. Through the analysis of archival documents and rarely or never mentioned sources, this article provides an unconventional picture of Russell's theoretical biology. It will be shown that Russell was an international celebrity; he was at the centre of a large network of scholars who shared his ideas and insights. He was one of several biologists arguing for a different synthesis; a synthesis perhaps less visible, less institutionalised, and less 'modern', nevertheless with its influential advocates and international support. Finally, this study shows that Russell's synthesis was not rooted in the classic pantheon of towering figures in the history of biology, i.e. Darwin, Wallace, and Mendel, but was based on the teachings of Kant, Goethe, Cuvier, von Baer, and Müller.
Science in Context, 2014
ArgumentD’Arcy Thompson has often been portrayed as a loner. His science of form has frequently b... more ArgumentD’Arcy Thompson has often been portrayed as a loner. His science of form has frequently been labeled anachronistic, idiosyncratic, and unconnected to his contemporary biology. This article aims to challenge this interpretation. Thompson's representation as a loner did not lie in the idiosyncrasies of his science, but in our own historiography. Through the use of unedited archival sources, this study shows that Thompson's biology was well-connected to an international research program – a program mainly shared by developmental biologists, physiologists, and morphologists. In addition, this article also aims to propose a new interpretation of Thompson's On Growth and Form. Drawing on his private correspondence and published sources, the paper re-contextualizes the contents and conclusions of Thompson's seminal work. We will see that Thompson defended a particular kind of organismal biology. The bio-science he supported stemmed not only from Aristotle's zool...
Jakob von Uexküll and Philosophy, 2019
Social History of Medicine, 2021
In his 1995 book, The Mangle of Practice, Andrew Pickering distinguished between representational... more In his 1995 book, The Mangle of Practice, Andrew Pickering distinguished between representationalist and performative idioms in philosophy of science. While the former describes science as mainly a theoretical enterprise, the latter represents science as a collection of practices. The two perspectives outline two kinds of epistemologies presenting different philosophical concerns. In fact, in a scientific world where entities are not only thought or represented but touched, used, and transformed, the question about their existence does not really matter. What does matter though is to what extent we can extrapolate, from all our experimental material activities, the “real” working of the natural processes. In this chapter, drawing on Pickering's insights, we introduce a particular kind of performative epistemology fit for grasping how experimental biologists produce reliable knowledge. We argue that experimental biology can be mapped through four principal points: constrained act...
Historiographies of Science, 2021
Journal of the History of Biology, 2020
At the beginning of the twentieth century Haeckel’s biogenetic law was widely questioned. On the ... more At the beginning of the twentieth century Haeckel’s biogenetic law was widely questioned. On the one hand, there were those who wanted to dismiss it altogether: ontogeny and phylogeny did not have any systematic or interesting relation. On the other hand, there were those who sought to revise it. They argued that while Haeckel’s recapitulationism might have been erroneous, this should not deter the research over the relation between evolution and development. The British embryologist Walter Garstang was one of the main figures on the “revisionists” side. In this paper, I first situate Garstang’s contribution to embryology and evolution within the extraordinarily creative period of the first three decades of the twentieth century. Then, I review some of Garstang’s specific ideas in detail, especially his most well-known 1922 paper “The Theory of Recapitulation.” Finally, I look at how the demise of the biogenetic law in light of Garstang’s views—as well as from the perspective of contemporary developmental evolution—should be understood. My main concern is not about the dismissal of Haeckel’s law or the sidelining of embryology in the twentieth-century evolutionary biology. I am rather interested in exploring why Garstang’s revised version of biogenetic law—which was entirely consistent with the neo-Darwinian perspective underpinning the Modern synthesis—did not spur a major new agenda in evolutionary biology after the 1930s.
The Wordsworth Circle, 2017
Revista Colombiana de Filosofía de la Ciencia, 2018
El artículo explora algunos de los sentidos y usos de la historia en la filosofía de las ciencias... more El artículo explora algunos de los sentidos y usos de la historia en la filosofía de las ciencias. Se argumenta que la ausencia (o presencia) de la historia en las reflexiones filosóficas sobre la ciencia no depende de una falta de comunicación entre historiadores y filósofos, sino del contraste entre dos concepciones filosóficas del conocimiento radicalmente distintas. Por un lado, hay una concepción “idealista” que defiende un ideal de razón autónomo de cualquier elemento contingente que pueda orientar la cogitación científica. Por otro lado, hay una concepción “materialista” que es más atenta a las condiciones contextuales que posibilitan la ocurrencia de formas específicas de conocimientos. Las dos concepciones tienen historias distintas e interpretan la actividad científica en formas muy diferentes. La primera se enfoca en los aspectos teóricos de la ciencia y se orienta hacia un análisis conceptual de aquellas teorías científicas más exitosas en términos de coherencia, predicc...
History of the Human Sciences, 2016
Scholars have paid great attention to the neo-Darwinism of Ronald Fisher. He was one of the found... more Scholars have paid great attention to the neo-Darwinism of Ronald Fisher. He was one of the founding fathers of the modern synthesis and, not surprisingly, his writings and life have been widely scrutinized. However, less attention has been paid to his interests in the human sciences. In assessing Fisher’s uses of the human sciences in his seminal book the Genetical Theory of Natural Selection and elsewhere, the article shows how Fisher’s evolutionary thought was essentially eclectic when applied to the human context. In order to understand how evolution works among humans, Fisher made himself also a sociologist and historian. More than a eugenically minded Darwinist, Fisher was also a sophisticated scholar combining many disciplines without the ambition to reduce, simplistically, the human sciences to biology.
Studies in history and philosophy of biological and biomedical sciences, Jan 13, 2017
Genetic determinism is nowadays largely questioned and widely criticized. However, if we look at ... more Genetic determinism is nowadays largely questioned and widely criticized. However, if we look at the history of biology in the last one hundred years, we realize that genetic determinism has always been controversial. Why, then, did it acquire such relevance in the past despite facing longstanding criticism? Through the analysis of some of the ambitious expectations of future scientific applications, this article explores the possibility that part of the historical success of genetic determinism lies in the powerful rhetorical strategies that have connected the germinal matter with alluring bio-technological visions. Indeed, in drawing on the recent perspectives of "expectation studies" in science and technology, it will be shown that there has been an interesting historical relationship between reductionist notions of the gene as a hereditary unit, coded information or functional DNA segment, and startling prophecies of what controlling such an entity might achieve. It wi...
The British Journal For the History of Science, 2010
Introduction 1 Old and New Organicisms 2 Romantic Biology: Establishing Connections in the Ninete... more Introduction 1 Old and New Organicisms 2 Romantic Biology: Establishing Connections in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries 3 The British Version: J S Haldane, D'Arcy Thompson and the Organism as a Whole 4 The New Generation: A Failed Organismal Revolution 5 The American Version: Chicago and Beyond 6 Romantic Biology from California's Shores: W E Ritter, C M Child and the Scripps Marine Association Conclusion: Whatever Happened to Organismal Biologies? Notes Works Cited Index
Historical Studies in the Natural Sciences, 2015
In 1903, the Scripps Marine Association was founded in La Jolla, San Diego. It was rechristened t... more In 1903, the Scripps Marine Association was founded in La Jolla, San Diego. It was rechristened the Scripps Institution of Oceanography two decades later. Today it is one of the largest marine research institutions in the world. The present study aims to reconstruct the history of this institution during the first years of its existence, the life of its first director, W. E. Ritter, and the cultural and scientific background of both. In particular, through the use of archival sources and unpublished materials, the essay reports on Ritter’s dream to import a form of holistic biology from Europe to southern California. This biology, which Ritter termed “organismal,” had to challenge reductionist and mechanist approaches to life sciences, including Weismann’s and Mendelian’s theories of heredity, both considered ideologically biased, politically dangerous, and scientifically flawed. Ritter believed that his new biology had to be grounded in a pluralist approach where laboratory and fie...
Theory in Biosciences, 2013
In 1930, while R.A. Fisher, J.B.S. Haldane, E.B. Ford and S.G. Wright were laying the foundations... more In 1930, while R.A. Fisher, J.B.S. Haldane, E.B. Ford and S.G. Wright were laying the foundations of what a decade later J.S. Huxley dubbed "Modern Synthesis", E.S. Russell published a groundbreaking work, The Interpretation of Development and Heredity. In this book Russell not only condemned Mendelian genetics and neo-Darwinism, but also proposed an alternative synthesis unifying heredity, development, and evolution. The book did not represent the work of a mind operating in isolation. Rather, it was a synthetic work connecting ideas and doctrines of many influential scientists working in Europe and the USA. Through the analysis of archival documents and rarely or never mentioned sources, this article provides an unconventional picture of Russell's theoretical biology. It will be shown that Russell was an international celebrity; he was at the centre of a large network of scholars who shared his ideas and insights. He was one of several biologists arguing for a different synthesis; a synthesis perhaps less visible, less institutionalised, and less 'modern', nevertheless with its influential advocates and international support. Finally, this study shows that Russell's synthesis was not rooted in the classic pantheon of towering figures in the history of biology, i.e. Darwin, Wallace, and Mendel, but was based on the teachings of Kant, Goethe, Cuvier, von Baer, and Müller.
Science in Context, 2014
ArgumentD’Arcy Thompson has often been portrayed as a loner. His science of form has frequently b... more ArgumentD’Arcy Thompson has often been portrayed as a loner. His science of form has frequently been labeled anachronistic, idiosyncratic, and unconnected to his contemporary biology. This article aims to challenge this interpretation. Thompson's representation as a loner did not lie in the idiosyncrasies of his science, but in our own historiography. Through the use of unedited archival sources, this study shows that Thompson's biology was well-connected to an international research program – a program mainly shared by developmental biologists, physiologists, and morphologists. In addition, this article also aims to propose a new interpretation of Thompson's On Growth and Form. Drawing on his private correspondence and published sources, the paper re-contextualizes the contents and conclusions of Thompson's seminal work. We will see that Thompson defended a particular kind of organismal biology. The bio-science he supported stemmed not only from Aristotle's zool...