Jan Baedke – författare

Epigenetics is currently one of the fastest-growing fields in the sciences. Epigenetic information not only controls DNA expression but links genetic factors with the environmental experiences that influence the traits and characteristics of an individual. What we eat, where we work, and how we live affects not only the activity of our genes but that of our offspring as well. This discovery has imposed a revolutionary theoretical shift on modern biology, especially on evolutionary theory. It has helped to uncover the developmental processes leading to cancer, obesity, schizophrenia, alcoholism, and aging, and to facilitate associated medial applications such as stem cell therapy and cloning.Above the Gene, Beyond Biology explores how biologists in this booming field investigate and explain living systems. Jan Baedke offers the first comprehensive philosophical discussion of epigenetic concepts, explanations, and methodologies so that we can better understand this “epigenetic turn” in the life sciences from a philosophical perspective.

Organisms are central for biology. However, conceptualizing the unit of the organism is not easy. This Element discusses challenges to base biological reasoning and practice on the concept of organism. After many decades dominated by the paradigm of the gene, the organism is making a comeback in the bio- and biomedical sciences. It is again recognized as a causally efficacious, autonomous, and active unit that transcends the properties of genes and affects its own development and evolution - especially in fields like epigenetics, niche construction theory, and evolutionary developmental biology. This Element investigates these developments from a perspective of integrated history and philosophy of science. It focuses on conceptual, biotheoretical, and historical dimensions, as well as sociopolitical and anthropological aspects of today's 'return of the organism.' In particular, it discusses solutions for challenges of organism-centered biosciences in the 21st century. This title is also available as Open Access on Cambridge Core.

Organisms are central for biology. However, conceptualizing the unit of the organism is not easy. This Element discusses challenges to base biological reasoning and practice on the concept of organism. After many decades dominated by the paradigm of the gene, the organism is making a comeback in the bio- and biomedical sciences. It is again recognized as a causally efficacious, autonomous, and active unit that transcends the properties of genes and affects its own development and evolution - especially in fields like epigenetics, niche construction theory, and evolutionary developmental biology. This Element investigates these developments from a perspective of integrated history and philosophy of science. It focuses on conceptual, biotheoretical, and historical dimensions, as well as sociopolitical and anthropological aspects of today's 'return of the organism.' In particular, it discusses solutions for challenges of organism-centered biosciences in the 21st century. This title is also available as Open Access on Cambridge Core.

This volume considers the exchange between the Neo-Kantian tradition in German philosophy and the sciences from the last third of the nineteenth century to the Great war and partly beyond. During this period, various scientific disciplines underwent modernisation processes characterised by an increasing empirical inclination and a decline in the influence of metaphysics, the pluralisation of theories, and the historical and pragmatic revitalisation of scientific claims against philosophy. The various contributions look at the ways in which a certain ‘Kantian orthodoxy’ was influenced by these new developments and whether (and how) itself had some impact on the development of the sciences. The volume is not limited to the 'exact sciences' of mathematics and physics, which are particularly important for the Kantian tradition, but also takes into account less recognised disciplines such as biology, chemistry, technology and psychology. It is complemented by contributions that contrast Neo-Kantianism with other 'scientific philosophies' of the period in question.

This volume considers the exchange between the Neo-Kantian tradition in German philosophy and the sciences from the last third of the nineteenth century to the Great war and partly beyond. During this period, various scientific disciplines underwent modernisation processes characterised by an increasing empirical inclination and a decline in the influence of metaphysics, the pluralisation of theories, and the historical and pragmatic revitalisation of scientific claims against philosophy. The various contributions look at the ways in which a certain ‘Kantian orthodoxy’ was influenced by these new developments and whether (and how) itself had some impact on the development of the sciences. The volume is not limited to the 'exact sciences' of mathematics and physics, which are particularly important for the Kantian tradition, but also takes into account less recognised disciplines such as biology, chemistry, technology and psychology. It is complemented by contributions that contrast Neo-Kantianism with other 'scientific philosophies' of the period in question.

The Riddle of Organismal Agency brings together historians, philosophers, and scientists for an interdisciplinary re-assessment of one of the long-standing problems in the scientific understanding of life.Marshalling insights from diverse sciences including physiology, comparative psychology, developmental biology, and evolutionary biology, the book provides an up-to-date survey of approaches to non-human organisms as agents, capable of performing activities serving their own goals such as surviving or reproducing, and whose doings in the world are thus to be explained teleologically. From an Integrated History and Philosophy of Science perspective, the book contributes to a better conceptual and theoretical understanding of organismal agency, advancing some suggestions on how to study it empirically and how to frame it in relation to wider scientific and philosophical traditions. It also provides new historical entry points for examining the deployment, trajectories, and challenges of agential views of organisms in the history of biology and philosophy.This book will be of interest to philosophers of biology; historians of science; biologists interested in analysing the active roles of organisms in development, ecological interactions, and evolution; philosophers and practitioners of the cognitive sciences; and philosophers and historians of philosophy working on purposiveness and teleology.