Since its inception in the history of ideas, the concept of race has been oscillating between the political-social and biological domains. While the political-social perspectives have been dominant in the second half of the 20thcentury, “race” seems to be subject to a new kind of biologisation during the time of epigenetics. In this article, I show that the epigenetic approach to race echoes earlier externalist conceptions of race, and that it leads to the articulation of naturalism, environmentalism, and biosocial (...) constructivism. I argue that it invites us to think about race as a relational, plastic, and accidental property, and so-called “racial groups” as biosocial historically contingent constructs. (shrink)

Cet article relit l’itinéraire conduisant Lukács d’un constructivisme fort à un naturalisme plus prononcé à la lumière des débats écologiques contemporains polarisés par l’opposition entre naturalisme et antinaturalisme. La critique de la naturalisation des phénomènes sociaux conduit dans Histoire et conscience de classe à disqualifier tout concept de nature ; ce constructivisme fort empêche la première philosophie de la praxis de problématiser les rapports écologiques entre nature et société. À l’inverse, Ontologie de l’être social interroge le conditionnement naturel (...) de la praxis humaine. Si le dernier Lukács souligne la contradiction possible entre les finalités de l’agir humain et la toile causale naturelle où il s’inscrit, sa conception optimiste de l’histoire évacue en même temps l’éventualité d’une crise écologique du capitalisme. (shrink)

Comment les juristes pensent-ils les fondements du droit? Le constructivisme juridique apporte une réponse inédite à cette interrogation. Cet essai le révèle en tant que modèle épistémologique permettant de refonder le droit par la science juridique. Inexploré jusqu'alors en droit, le constructivisme apparaît comme une structure de la pensée des juristes qui se manifeste en période de crise à travers un processus en forme de boucle révolutionnant successivement les méthodes, le concept et les valeurs de la connaissance juridique (...) (fig. de la couverture). Par une plongée au cur de la Rome antique, ce premier tome consacré aux origines romaines du constructivisme juridique étudie l'émergence du jusnaturalisme dans une société romaine en crise marquée par un droit privé en pleine mutation. Il décrit comment la transformation du savoir classique des jurisconsultes en une science du droit rationnelle et abstraite est l'uvre d'un fondement constructiviste du droit en mesure de répondre aux réalités sociopolitiques. Et si l'étude historique de ces temps de crise pouvait nous aider à comprendre les évolutions du droit d'aujourd'hui? (shrink)

Niettegenstaande de tendens van het failliet van het multiculturalisme is multiculturele dialoog niet weg te denken in een zich globaliserende wereld. Taylor, Gadamer, Honneth en Kymlicka hebben een bijdrage geleverd op het vlak van de erkenning van identiteit, respect en waardering van verschil. Wij voeren het argument aan dat bovenstaande auteurs niet ontsnappen aan het postmodernistisch dilemma van zelfautonomie en slachtofferschap. Dit komt doordat zij in hun rationale vertrekken van het afzonderlijke subject en deze situeren in een ruimte-tijd waarin de (...) tijd slechts een historische rol heeft en de ruimte geen actieve rol speelt. Tegenover deze uitvloeisels van het postmodern denken stellen wij het eco-communau-tarisme. Vanuit de vaststelling dat het individu denkt, spreek en handelt in de context van zijn taal en cultuur en dus vanuit zijn gemeenschap, situeren wij dit subject en de gemeenschap tevens in een particulier territorium of het ecotoop. Door middel van Hacking’s sociaal constructivisme, het Leibniziaanse meerwereldenbeeld en het biologische paradigma als nieuw denkkader, structureren wij de gemeenschap volgens een cyclisch en een lineair tijdverloop. Het cyclische waarborgt de traditie van een gemeenschap, het lineaire doet de gemeenschap evolueren naar een moreel betere toekomst en heeft een transcendent statuut. Het eco-communautarisme biedt het kader voor een kwalitatieve evolutie van individuen en gemeenschappen. Het normerend aspect hiervan is de pluriforme en multiculturele dialoog. (shrink)

This article examines how childhood has become a strategy that answers to questions concerning the governability of life. The analysis is organized around the concept of “biosocial power,” which is shown to be a particular zone of intensity within the wider field of biopolitics. To grasp this intensity it is necessary to attend to the place of imagination in staging biosocial strategies, that is the specific ways in which childhood is both an imaginary projection and a technical project, (...) and to this end Agamben’s concept of the “anthropological machine” is used to examine how biosocial power has been assembled and deployed. The paper begins with the question of childhood as it was posed towards the end of the nineteenth century, focusing on how this positioned the figure of the child at the intersection of zoē and bios, animal and human, past and future. It ends with a discussion on how the current global obesity “epidemic” has transformed this one-time vision of mastery into a strategy of survival. (shrink)

Jean-Marc Ferry stands opposed to the philosophy of Cornelius Castoriadis, claiming that it relies upon an arbitrary ontological decision. According to Ferry, Castoriadis’ philosophy does not respect the Kantian critique of reason. In this contribution, I reply to this objection. I comment on his specific methodological operation: elucidation. I show that this method does not go beyond Kantian finitude, and that it allows him to justify his ontological concepts. In the last part of this article, I interpret his method as (...) a ‘grounded constructivism’ and I explain how it contributes to those philosophical theories. (shrink)

Je défends dans ce texte une version particulière de la position que Sharon Street a appelée le «constructivisme humien». J’esquisserai pourquoi je considère que ce constructivisme est préférable à la fois au réalisme moral et au constructivisme kantien sur le plan de la compréhension du statut ontologique des valeurs. Après avoir accepté de reconnaître le rôle des pressions de l’évolution dans l’émergence de la moralité, le constructivisme humien doit toutefois préciser le rôle de l’intersubjectivité historique dans (...) l’évolution subséquente de la morale. J’expliquerai aussi pourquoi je considère que l’intégration d’un volet cohérentiste au constructivisme permet d’atténuer les craintes concernant le caractère potentiellement non-cognitiviste des théories contextualistes. Enfin, j’esquisserai pourquoi l’idée d’un «espace des raisons morales» indépendant, à certains égards, de l’esprit humain est compatible avec le constructivisme humien.I defend a version of what Sharon Street has dubbed “Humean constructivism.” I’ll first sketch out why I think that contextual constructivism provides us with a more plausible understanding of the ontological status of values than both Kantian constructivism and moral realism. In addition to its recognition of the role of evolutionary pressures in the emergence of human morality, contextual constructivism must now clarify the role of historical intersubjectivity in the subsequent development of morality. I will then claim that adding a coherentist module to Humean constructivism provides a satisfactory answer to those who fear that contextual metaethical theories can only be non-cognitivist. Finally, I will sketch out why I think that the notion of a mind-independent “space of moral reasons” is largely compatible with Humean constructivism. (shrink)

Depuis leur origine, la théorie et la pratique psychanalytique suscitent des questions et des oppositions. Dans ce débat très animé, un philosophe, dont les travaux sur l'histoire de la psychanalyse sont reconnus, et un psychanalyste ouvert sur l'épistémologie abordent, sans concessions et de façon approfondie, les principaux points de la polémique. Au lecteur de former sa propre opinion.

The author has endeavoured to define two main trends in the research on the foundations of mathematics, constructivism and structuralism. He gives many examples in axiomatic set theory, e.g. the continuum hypothesis, and in intuitionism, e.g. the notion of choice sequence, in order to show that the two approaches are complementary. The paper contains some original ideas, concerning the structure of the continuum and the constructive horizon, and is completed by an appendix. The paper is an attempt at the justification (...) of a constructivist philosophy in the making. (shrink)

L’objectif de cet article est le repérage de la composante constructiviste du « discours dominant » qui, de Bruno Latour à la géo-ingénierie, conduit à la justification de l’Anthropocène et des délices du développement technologique débridé. J’appelle géo-constructivisme la politique globale qui a généré les changements climatiques et les solutions technologiques qui sont proposées pour les réguler.

La question : « Monadologie et/ou constructivisme ? » est le nom d?un problème rencontré par la tentative de faire jouer ensemble Heidegger, Deleuze et Uexküll, en les corrigeant l?un par l?autre, pour construire une ontologie phénoménologique sur une base vitaliste ? et non plus seulement anthropologique. Après avoir rappelé l?itinéraire qui conduit à cette tentative, puis envisagé quelques-unes des difficultés obligeant à corriger nos ambitions initiales, nous nous laisserons guider par ces difficultés pour présenter une lecture critique de (...) deux moments du cours de 1929-30, dans lequel Heidegger tente une analyse phénoménologique de la vie et de l?animalité. En pointant le caractère problématique de cette analyse, nous n?entendrons pas tant mettre en évidence des lacunes ou des insuffisances que des difficultés réelles, qui permettent de s?aventurer aux confins de l?épistémologie et de l?éthologie, tout en prenant la mesure des limites, mais aussi de la richesse, d?une certaine attitude phénoménologique. * Ce qui fait l?intérêt et la difficulté fondamentale de l??uvre de Heidegger, c?est son point de départ non dans le sujet ou la conscience, mais dans ce que Heidegger nomme le Dasein : l?ouverture compréhensive à l?être de l?étant en totalité. Cette ouverture caractérise l?être de l?étant particulier qu?est l?homme. À la question de savoir ce que le Dasein est, il faut répondre. (shrink)

In a recent paper, Kyselo argues that an enactive approach to selfhood can overcome ‘the body-social problem’: “the question for philosophy of cognitive science about how bodily and social aspects figure in the individuation of the human individual self” ). Kyselo’s claim is that we should conceive of the human self as a socially enacted phenomenon that is bodily mediated. Whilst there is much to be praised about this claim, I will demonstrate in this paper that such a conception of (...) self ultimately leads to a strained interpretation of how bodily and social processes are related. To this end, I will begin the paper by elucidating the body-social problem as it appears in modern cognitive science and then expounding Kyselo’s solution, which relies on a novel interpretation of Jonas’s concept of needful freedom. In response to this solution, I will highlight two problems which Kyselo’s account cannot overcome in its current state. I will argue that a more satisfactory solution to the body-social problem involves a re-conception of the human body as irrevocably socially constituted and the human social world as irrevocably bodily constituted. On this view, even the most minimal sense of selfhood cannot privilege either bodily or social processes; instead, the two are ontologically entwined such that humans are biosocial selves. (shrink)

We argue that Reasons Fundamentalism, as defended by T.M. Scanlon, faces two important difficulties—one ontological, the other epistemological—namely theontological proliferation problemand thereliability challenge.We suggest that formal constructivism can avoid these difficulties, and that Scanlon would do well to adopt it. We also show that Scanlon’s three main objections to this view depend either on a misunderstanding of what formal constructivism is or on a question-begging argument in favour of realism.

SummaryThe relationship between inter-generational social mobility of sons and daughters between 1958 and 1991 and biosocial variables, i.e. birth order, number of children in family, father's social class, region, educational attainment of child and father, educational and cognitive test scores, was studied in a large British cohort study. The data used were collected as part of the British National Child Development Study. The extent of social class mobility was determined inter-generationally and was categorized as none, upwardly mobile or downwardly (...) mobile. All of the biosocial variables were associated with social mobility when analysed separately. Multivariate analyses revealed that the most significant predictor of mobility categories in both sexes was education of the cohort member, followed by social class of the father. In both sexes mathematics score was a significant predicator, while in sons reading and non-verbal IQ scores were also important predictors. In the light of these results, it appears that social mobility in Britain takes place largely on meritocratic principles. (shrink)

Il sera question ici d’examiner le constructivisme hégélien, relativement au problème épistémologique. Le constructivisme, comme concept mathématique, est basé sur la construction de l’objet et remonte à l’antiquité grecque. Le constructivisme philosophique, par contre, est un concept moderne qui applique cette stratégie mathématique au problème de la connaissance. La forme hégélienne, omniprésente dans ses écrits, ne semble jamais avoir reçu l’attention qu’elle mérite. Elle se laisse pourtant examiner par rapport au constructivisme de Kant, parfois étudié sous (...) le terme de révolution copernicienne. J’esquisserai donc la façon dont Hegel transforme une approche a priori et apodictique en procédé a posteriori et faillible. Le constructivisme hégélien offre ainsi des possibilités encore peu connues mais prometteuses pour le débat épistémologique. (shrink)

: J. Baird Callicott's claim to have unified environmentalism and animal liberation should be rejected by holists and liberationists. By making relations of intimacy necessary for moral considerability, Callicott excludes from the moral community nonhuman animals unable to engage in intimate relations due to the circumstances of their confinement. By failing to afford moral protection to animals in factory farms and research laboratories, Callicott's biosocial moral theory falls short of meeting a basic moral demand of liberationists. Moreover, were Callicott (...) to include factory farm and research animals inside the moral community by affording them universal or non-communitarian rights, his theory would fall foul of environmentalists who seek to promote ecosystem stability and integrity via therapeutic hunting. If factory farm and research animals can have rights irrespective of their particular circumstances, then so can free- roaming animals from overabundant and exotic species. (shrink)

SummaryAnthropometric differences between the two Koreas are of considerable public and scientific interest given the unique socio-political status of North Korea and the fact that the nations share the same genetic ancestry. This study provides new biosocial evidence on these differences by analysing mid-upper arm circumference as a human welfare indicator. This is the first study to compare the nutritional status of adults surveyed inside North Korea with South Koreans. The MUAC measurements of 2793 North Korean women obtained through (...) a household survey conducted in 2002 were compared with those of 1428 South Korean women surveyed around 2003. Comparative analysis was conducted by plotting centiles and calculating mean differences in MUAC by age. This paper finds that the MUAC of the South Koreans was on average 2.8 cm greater than that of their North Korean peers, with MUAC gaps ranging from 1.6 cm to 3.9 cm and becoming more pronounced with age. This research confirms previous studies on height and weight in the two Germanies and in the two Koreas that have shown that biosocial performance is worse in socialist economies as compared with free-market regimes. (shrink)

This essay situates Foucault`s ideas of ‘biopower’ and ‘governmentality’ within the Indian context of the Covid emergency, analysing how the excesses of ‘biopolitical’ and the authoritarian forms of ‘governmentality’ evoke a radical re-reading of Foucault within Covid-infested India. We argue how pre-existing ‘discursive’ conditions of biomedical, digital, and neoliberal India facilitated more majoritarian and undemocratic forms of (bio)politics during the Indian experience of the pandemic, exposing the migrant workers in particular to tremendous ‘precarity’ and turning them into pandemicariat. To meet (...) our theoretical ends, we investigate through forging links between Foucauldian theory – consisting of a set of concepts like biopolitics, anatomo-politics, governmentality etc— and ideas like transmuted biosociality, truncated sociality, will to live, pandemicariat etc. Current conditions of truncated sociality render human bodies more ‘discursively’ available for ‘biomedical’ and ‘biopolitical’ interventions, disempowering people’s capacity to sustain the more synthetic biosocial substances of conviviality. However, following Agamben’s early controversial stance for braving the virus, we would like to envisage “life” to be more than “survival” alone. We would also argue that the hard times of the pandemic invoke a new grammar of the “will to live” that was practised by the pandemicariat against heavy odds. (shrink)

The authors present climate change and antibiotic resistance as emergent biosocial phenomena—ongoing products of massively multiple interactions among human lifestyles and broader life processes. They argue that response to climate change and antibiotic resistance is often framed by two varieties of biosocial imagination. Anthropocentric imaginations privilege the question of human distinctiveness. Anthropomorphic imaginations privilege the question of whether biosocial processes can be modeled in terms of centers of moral and causal responsibility. Together, these frame the matter of (...) response in terms of deliberate human action. The authors argue that, considered as emergent biosocial phenomena, climate change and antibiotic resistance “diffract” deliberate human action and thus limit the value of this frame by rendering the human/nonhuman and intended/nonintended distinctions that are crucial to its practical operation locally irrelevant. Alternative biosocial imaginations currently developing around climate change and antibiotic resistance that allow for “diffraction” and therefore frame response differently are considered. (shrink)

Recent studies demonstrating epigenetic and developmental sensitivity to early environments, as exemplified by fields like the Developmental Origins of Health and Disease (DOHaD) and environmental epigenetics, are bringing new data and models to bear on debates about race, genetics, and society. Here, we first survey the historical prominence of models of environmental determinism in early formulations of racial thinking to illustrate how notions of direct environmental effects on bodies have been used to naturalize racial hierarchy and inequalities in the past. (...) Next, we conduct a scoping review of postgenomic work in environmental epigenetics and DOHaD that looks at the role of race/ethnicity in human health (2000–2021). Although there is substantial heterogeneity in how race is conceptualized and interpreted across studies, we observe practices that may unwittingly encourage typological thinking, including: using DNA methylation as a novel marker of racial classification; neglect of variation and reversibility within supposedly homogenous racial groups; and a tendency to label and reify whole groups as pathologized or impaired. Even in the very different politico-economic and epistemic context of contemporary postgenomic science, these trends echo deeply held beliefs in Western thinking which claimed that different environments shape different bodies and then used this logic to argue for essential differences between Europeans and non-Europeans. We conclude with a series of suggestions on interpreting and reporting findings in these fields that we feel will help researchers harness this work to benefit disadvantaged groups while avoiding the inadvertent dissemination of new and old forms of stigma or prejudice. (shrink)

Motivation: A Biosocial and Cognitive Integration of Motivation and Emotion shows how motivation relates to biological, social, and cognitive issues. A wide range of topics concerning motivation and emotion are considered, including hunger and thirst, circadian and other biological rhythms, fear and anxiety, anger and aggression, achievement, attachment, and love. Goals and incentives are discussed in their application to work, child rearing, and personality. This book reviews an unusual breadth of research and provides the reader with the scientific basis (...) for understanding motivation as a major variable in human and animal life. It also offers insights that can be applied to immediate and practical problems. Various areas are examined in depth, such as the relationships between reward, incentives, and motivation. The discussion of biological rhythms shows that humans and animals are more alert at certain times than others, and these rhythms also affect performance. The topics in the book span the ways in which motivation connects with many aspects of contemporary psychology. Basic issues of design and methodology, details of research procedures, and important aspects of definition and measurement, are discussed throughout the book.Motivation: A Biosocial and Cognitive Integration of Motivation and Emotion examines the way motivation functions and how it interacts with other important variables: physiological processes; learning, attention, and memory; rewards and stressors; the role of culture as well as species characteristics. The presentation makes clear in what important ways motivation, as a construct, contributes to the scientific understanding of behavior. The book offers advanced undergraduate and graduate students a broad overview of motivation. It also is of value for the professional psychologist who seeks an integrated overview of the classical and contemporary literature in the field of motivation. The book provides information on a broad range of issues and thus can be used also as supplementary reading for courses on cognition and biological as well as social psychology. (shrink)

Cet article analyse la position réaliste de Lukács en ontologie sociale, à partir d’une comparaison avec la perspective ontologique de John Searle. Relevant de traditions théoriques que tout oppose, ces deux ontologies se rejoignent sur trois points : elles se proposent d’appréhender le social d’un point de vue ontologique ; l’enquête ontologique elle-même est conçue par les deux auteurs comme une enquête de type génétique ; et chacune de ces approches octroie une place décisive au langage dans la définition de (...) la réalité sociale. Ce dernier point détermine la différence entre le constructivisme de Searle et le réalisme de Lukács. Pour l’un, la réalité sociale suppose le langage, pour le second le langage suppose la réalité sociale, et plus précisément le travail. On évalue chacune de ces positions au regard de l’autre, pour faire apparaître les difficultés que peuvent faire émerger les approches génétiques du social. (shrink)

Skeletons drawn from archaeological contexts provide a fund of data for assessing disease in general and timing of epidemics in particular in past societies. The bioarchaeological record presents an especially important perspective on timing of some of the world's most catastrophic diseases, such as leprosy, tuberculosis, plague (Black Death), and treponematosis. Application of new developments in paleogenomics and paleogenetics presents new opportunities to document ancient pathogens' DNA (for example, Black Death), track their history, and assess their beginning and end points. (...) Paleopathological documentation of disease terminus is complex, in part owing to circumstances where past communities experienced overlapping epidemics, such as leprosy and plague. For most settings, these syndemics-whereby there is an interaction between two or more epidemic diseases-both exacerbate and enhance the burden of morbidity in a community or region. Fundamental to understanding the severity and duration of epidemics is the consideration of multiple factors that simultaneously influence the severity and duration of the specific infectious diseases in a community or region, including poor oral health, under-nutrition, iron deficiency anemia, and elevated parasite load. In our view, comprehending the beginning, the middle, and the end of epidemics requires understanding the wider context of syndemics, the multiple challenging circumstances that undermine health and community stability, and how biosocial factors differentially affect the immune competence of individuals. This article provides several examples of the application of bioarchaeology and syndemics theory in achieving an understanding of how epidemics end. Pathogens continue to circulate, even after what appears to be the end. In effect, then, there is no “end,” just evolution of opportunistic pathogens and our ability (or not) to mitigate them. (shrink)

In Western industrialized countries, women report using health services, and certain medications, more often than do men. Often, analyses are based on data that exclude objective measures of morbidity and that come from cross-sectional surveys, which precludes the use of socioeconomic covariates that are endogenous to seeking care. Here, differences in objective cognitive and physical function, as well as differences in reporting on illness, propensity to seek care, and socioeconomic resources are expected to account for differences in care-seeking behaviour among (...) women and men. This model is applied to the question of medication use in Ismailia, Egypt, using two waves of survey data and in-home tests of physical function from 896 adults aged 50 years and older. The results show that women use medications more often than do men, and that differences between women and men in reported morbidity and disability, observed cognitive and physical function, and economic resources account for womens and men’s care-seeking behaviour in later life. (shrink)

(1992). Defense, safe(ty) and biosocial goals in relation to the agonic and hedonic social modes. World Futures: Vol. 35, Socio-Mental Bimodality, pp. 31-70.

The fact that the emergence of “technoscience,” resulting from the coalescing of science and technology, may have serious social and cultural impact has been debated in recent years particularly with regard to the field of medicine. The present article is exploring the scope and limits of the “technoscientization” of medicine using the example of rare disease patient associations. It is investigated whether and to what extent these organizations adopt technoscientific illness identities and subscribe to the research priorities and objectives of (...) biomedicine. In addition, it is analyzed whether Paul Rabinow’s highly influential concept of biosociality entails a technoscientific model of identity or, quite to the contrary, offers a framework for contesting biomedical ascriptions of identities. As the article shows, patient associations do refer to technoscientific definitions of diseases yet constantly modify and transform them based on their everyday illness experiences. Likewise, the “biosociality” of rare disease patients emerges from the shared experience of having been neglected by mainstream medical research rather than from supposedly objective biomedical classifications. (shrink)

The didactic proposal of the post-constructivist (Grossi, 2005), takes into account the relationship between the subject, reality, others and the Other interior and considers the learning potential of all students. Its theoretical foundation is, among other things, the principle that learning is a social phenomenon, and that the spatial organization of the class, in groups of adults, promotes the teaching-learning process. Post-constructivism is a didactic proposition that allows us to respond to the purpose of teaching all students. This article on (...) group work in post-constructivism aims to analyze the change in posture of teachers, and the professional development that follows, and which demonstrates a break with the traditional form of education. The trick of the identified researcher is then to take up in a teacher training, through the aulic groups in the Geempa class and the weekly study group, the scientific approach of post-constructivism. (shrink)

Analyses of the height variation of 16-year-old members of the British National Child Development Study revealed a number of biological and social variables which associated with stature. After multiple regression analyses only eight variables, namely social class, family size, tenure , crowding status, number of children sleeping in the bed, region of the country, sex of child, and pubic hair rating, remained significant. The total variation explained by these biosocial variables was 37·5%.

Dans cet article, nous cherchons à situer la position particulière du philosophe Ronald Dworkin à l’égard du droit naturel. Dworkin a formulé une critique du positivisme juridique, qui le rapproche du jusnaturalisme. Toutefois, Dworkin se refuse à fonder les droits sur un supposé ordre moral indépendant que le législateur ou le juge aurait pour tâche de découvrir lorsqu’il produit la loi. Dworkin substitue aux lois naturelles des principes du droit. Ces derniers ne sont pas des vérités morales indépendantes, mais des (...) critères moraux, qu’il est possible de construire rationnellement. Nous montrons ainsi que Dworkin élabore une forme de constructivisme moral, en partie inspiré de John Rawls, mais appliqué au domaine judiciaire au sein duquel les décisions présentes doivent être cohérentes avec les décisions passées, qui lui permet de redéfinir un droit naturel non transcendant. (shrink)

Personal genetic information services (PGI) or direct-to-consumer genomics (DTC) presents a convergence of web 2.0 platforms with consumer-oriented genetics that brings together issues of policy and design. The rise of networking over DNA profile and biodata (bionetworking) challenges the common design and HCI notions of interaction, social networking and user needs. It confronts design thinking and HCI with various biopolitical and biosocial issues discussed in STS studies. These interfaces intensify the troubled relationship between what is social and biological, collective (...) and individual, public and private, natural and political, material (embodied) and based on data or discourses. At the same time, this fast evolving convergence of biosciences with social networking transforms scientific practices in a way which demonstrates the importance of design in discussing issues of STS and policy. The notion of cosmopolitics as "collective experimentation" and "progressive composition of the common world" (Bruno Latour) offers a framework for understanding this connection between philosophy, policy and design. Bionetworking interfaces in this sense serve as probes for testing future collectives which transform the notions of human subjects, community and politics. (shrink)

(1997). The anticipation of order in biosocial collectives. World Futures: Vol. 49, The Dialatic of Evolution: Essays in Honor of David Loye, pp. 65-88.

The recent sociobiology debate has raised fundamental and previously unresolved conceptual problems. Evolutionary Instability - Logical and Material Aspects of a Unified Theory of Biosocial Evolution - offers ap- proaches for their solution. The scientific applications comprise the dynamics and evolutionary instability of hierarchically organized systems, especially systems of interacting behavioural phenotypes in animals and man. The technical apparatus is thoroughly explained in intuitive terms within the text, and illustrated by numerous familiar examples and graphical representations, supplemented by an (...) informal summary and discussion. The analyses offer new theoretical perspectives to such diverse fields as philosophy of science, evolutionary biology, general system theory and sociology. (shrink)