Philosophy of Cancer Biology Workshop
Philosophy of Cancer Biology Workshop
15 October – 17 October 2018
Cancer is one of the main causes of death globally according to the World Health Organization. The biological complexity and heterogeneity of this disease (or group of diseases) make it very difficult to apprehend, control, and cure. For a long time, cancer has been little studied by philosophers of science. Most of the work in the humanities and the social sciences has focused on the social, anthropological, psychological, and ethical dimensions of cancer. Yet cancer is now becoming increasingly an object of study for philosophers of biology and philosophers of medicine. In particular, the scientific explanation, definition, classification and prediction of cancer as a biological and medical phenomenon face many epistemological challenges. Cancer research raises a host of experimental, theoretical, and conceptual issues that connect with most, if not all, the domains of today’s biology and medicine.
The main goal of this workshop is to provide a forum where philosophers of biology and philosophers of medicine meet to discuss the biological and medical science of cancer.
Organizing committee
- Sara Green (Section for History and Philosophy of Science, Department of Science Education, University of Copenhagen, Denmark)
- Lucie Laplane (IHPST, CNRS & University Paris 1; Institut Gustave Roussy, France)
- Maël Lemoine (ImmunoConcept, UMR5164, CNRS & University of Bordeaux; IHPST, CNRS & University Paris 1, France)
- Thomas Pradeu (ImmunoConcept, UMR5164, CNRS & University of Bordeaux; IHPST, CNRS & University Paris 1, France)
- Elena Rondeau (ImmunoConcept, UMR5164, CNRS & University of Bordeaux, France)
Call for abstracts
The organizing committee welcomes abstracts for 20 minutes’ oral presentations on any subject related to cancer biology and medicine, with a philosophical, conceptual, and/or theoretical focus.
Examples of questions that this workshop will raise include:
- – How is the complexity of cancer addressed in scientific and medical practices?
- – Can the different models and theories of cancer be better integrated into an encompassing framework?
- – What are the epistemic implications of different approaches to cancer?
- – How are questions about the ontology of cancer related to methodological issues?
- – To what extent are questions concerning the nature of cancer intertwined with issues concerning diagnostics and/or treatments?
- – How are new technologies such as cancer genomics affecting our understanding of cancer?
Abstracts must be submitted by email to Lucie Laplane by April 30, 2018.
lucie.laplane@univ-paris1.fr
Notifications will be sent by the end of May.
The submission must contain:
- – Names of author(s)
- – Institutional affiliations & Position
- – Title of the talk
- – Abstract: no longer than 500 words