Death: Perspectives from the Philosophy of Biology

by Philippe Huneman

This book addresses several key issues in the biological study of death with the intent of capturing their genealogy, the assumptions and presuppositions they make, and the way that they open specific new research avenues. The book is divided into two the first considers physiology and the second evolutionary biology. In the first part, Huneman reconstructs a conceptual genealogy of experimental physiology based on an in-depth analysis of Bichat's investigations of death processes. In the second part he explains that biologists in the late 1950s put forth a research framework that evolutionarily accounts for death in terms of either an effect of the weakness of natural selection or a by-product of natural selection for early reproduction. He illustrates how the biology of death is a central field and that studying it provides insight into the way that the epistemic structure of this knowledge has been constituted, persists until now, and may conflict with some traditional philosophical ideas.

Genres: Philosophy

561 pages, Hardcover

Published February 15, 2023

About the author

Philippe Huneman is CNRS Research Professor and Professor of Philosophy at LInstitut dHistoire et de Philosophie des Science et des Technique, Université Paris I SorbonneWalsh: Canada Research Chair in Philosophy of Biology in the Department of Philosophy, Institute for the History and Philosophy of Science and Technology and the Department of Ecology and evolutionary Biology, University of Toronto.

Reviews

[Pierre Durand · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have written a detailed review for the Journal for General Philosophy of Science if anyone wishes to google that. In short it is really an illuminating book to read. It is for readers in the field of either philosophy or biology or those with an deep interest in the subject.