The Centre for Science and Philosophy was officially launched at the University of Bristol on Tuesday 4th December 2012, in the Great Hall of Wills Memorial Building. Four highly regarded philosophers of science spoke to an audience of over 600 members of the public, scientists, and academics.
Here, John Dupré (Exeter) talks about the importance of philosophy of biology.
40 years ago philosophy of science was pretty much synonymous with philosophy of physics. Since then philosophy of biology has grown steadily, and is now at least as active an area of research as philosophy of physics. Over the same period, fundamental biological knowledge has experienced an explosive growth perhaps unequalled in the history of science. Reflection on this emerging knowledge is dramatically changing our views of, among many other basic questions, scientific method, causation, and (literally) the meaning of life. Philosophy of biology, therefore, has become an essential contributor both to our understanding of science, and to our general philosophical interpretation of the world.