Participants

Matteo Mossio is Chargé de recherche (tenured) at the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), full member of the IHPST (https://ihpst.pantheonsorbonne.fr/), Paris, France. Matteo Mossio works mainly in philosophical and theoretical issues related to biological autonomy. He published several articles in international philosophical and scientific journals as well as chapters in collective volumes. In 2015, he published (together with Alvaro Moreno) a full monograph on the theory of autonomy (https://www.springer.com/gp/book/9789401798365). Matteo Mossio obtained funding for and took part in numerous research projects in France and abroad. He attended or organised over 90 national and international seminars, workshops, symposia and summer schools, and served as a reviewer for many international philosophical and scientific journals. He supervised several PhD and Master students. He regularly teaches in the Philosophy Program of the University of Paris 1 Panthéon – Sorbonne.

Bernd Rosslenbroich is an evolutionary biologist at Witten/Herdecke University, Germany. His general interests are patterns and processes in macroevolution, systems biology, and philosophy of biology and medicine. The approach of his team is to analyze morphological and physiological patterns and trends and then to learn about underlying processes. He is especially interested in organismic concepts of biology which take due account of the specific characteristics of the organism. Further he is interested in general zoology and watching nature (including birding) in field trips and on journeys for example to Northern Europe, Africa and Malaysia.
Books:
Rosslenbroich B (2014): On the Origin of Autonomy. A New Look at the Major Transitions in Evolution. Springer Cham, Heidelberg, New York, Dordrecht, London
Rosslenbroich B: Properties of Life – Towards a Theory of Organismic Biology (book manuscript, currently under review)
 

Peter Takacs is currently an ARC (Australian Research Council) Postdoctoral Research Fellow in the Department of Philosophy and Charles Perkins Centre at The University of Sydney. His current research spans the philosophy of biology and evolutionary biomedicine, with special emphasis on the fundamental conceptual and empirical challenges that arise when determining the ontology of individuals, ascribing biological fitness, and identifying biological (dys)functions. He also has longstanding interests in explanations of major evolutionary transitions and whether the life sciences in fact require a “New Synthesis.”

Graham is a PhD candidate in Philosophy at Macquarie University, with a background in the philosophy of cognitive science and evolution. His PhD thesis is on the origins and cultural evolution of storytelling, in particular the application of an Extended Evolutionary Synthesis to understanding how and why storytelling has become a ubiquitous behaviour in humans across cultures. His interests lie broadly in conceptual issues around evolution, cognition, agency, and the self.