Philosophy, History and Biology: Essays in Honour of Jean Gayon

Pierre-Olivier Méthot is Professor of Philosophy and History of Science at Laval University, Quebec City, and holds the Canada Research Chair in Medical Humanities and History of Biological Thought. His research is in the philosophy and history of medicine and biology and in the history of historical epistemology. He has translated and edited Mirko Grmek’s Pathological Realities: Essays on Disease, Experiments, and History (Fordham University Press, 2019) and is the editor of a new collection of essays on Georges Canguilhem, Vital Norms: Canguilhem’s The Normal and the Pathological in the Twenty-First Century (Hermann, 2020). He is also the coeditor of a recent volume in the philosophy of medicine on Le normal et le pathologique : des catégories périmées ? (Éditions Matériologiques, 2022). He currently serves as an Associate Editor of History and Philosophy of the Life Sciences. He is also a member of the Centre interuniversitaire de recherche sur la science et la technologie (Montréal) and the Centre nutrition, santé et société (Québec) as well as an associate researcher at the Institut des humanités en médecine (Lausanne).

“The book Philosophy, History and Biology: Essays in Honour of Jean Gayon, edited by Pierre-Olivier Méthot with an introduction by Méthot and Philippe Huneman, gathers scholarly contributions and personal testimonies from some of Gayon’s colleagues and journey companions. … all the essays follow the common thread of portraying Gayon as a mediator between supposed oppositions—philosophy-history and continental-analytic philosophy—they offer a unique perspective … . This breadth of positions gives the volume a sufficiently wide scope … .” (Emiliano Sfara, History and Philosophy of the Life Sciences, Vol. 47 (1), 2025)

• Introduction (P.-O. Méthot, F. Merlin, P. Huneman).- Part I: Historical Epistemology and Philosophy of Biology.- Chapter 1. “From Historical Epistemology to Philosophy of Biology” (Pierre-Olivier Méthot).- Chapter 2. “Jean Gayon and the Historical Perspective in Philosophy of Biology” (François Duchesneau).- Chapter 3. “Taking Historical Epistemology to the International Scene” (Anastasios Brenner).- Chapter 4. “Jean Gayon, History and Philosophy of Biology: A New Synthesis” (Thomas Pradeu).- Chapter 5. "Title TBA" (Victor Petit).- Part II: History of Evolutionary Theory and Genetics.- Chapter 6. “Jean Gayon and the History of French Genetics” (Richard Burian).- Chapter 7. “Population Genetics and the Evolutionary Synthesis: Remarks on the Contribution of Jean Gayon” (David Depew).- Chapter 8. “Local Traditions and the Death of Diffusion: Jean Gayon’s Contribution to Contemporary Narratives of ‘the Molecular Vision of Life’” (Edna Suarez).- Chapter 9. “Jean Gayon on Alfred R. Wallace’s Contribution to Evolutionary Theory” (Jon Hodge).- Part III: Case-studies in History and Philosophy of Biology.- Chapter 10. “Locating the Human in the Biological World: A Way into the Species Problem” (Phil Sloan). Chapter 11. “Lamarck: Philosopher of Nature” (Stéphane Tirard).- Chapter 12. “A Critique of Jean Gayon’s Critiques of Cultural Evolution” (Jorge Martinez).- Chapter 13. “Between Science and Ideology: The Case of Clemence Royer” (Gérard Chazal).- Chapter 14. “Mill on Design and Natural Selection” (Denis Forest).- Chapter 15. “Eighteenth-Century uses of Vitalism in constructing Biology” (Charles T. Wolfe).- Part IV: Personal Reminiscences.- Chapter 16. “Practicing Evolutionary Biology with Jean Gayon” (Philippe Huneman).- Chapter 17. “Historical Epistemology and Analytic Philosophy: The Path of a Singular Synthesis. Testimony ofa Former Doctoral Student” (Élodie Giroux).- Chapter 18. “Title TBA” (Staffan Müller-Wille).- Chapter 19. “Jean Gayon: In Memoriam” (Hans-Jörg Rheinberger).