Mathilde TaharUniversity College London | UCL · Department of Anthropology
Mathilde Tahar
Doctor of Philosophy of Biology
Animal inventiveness: a new insight on agency in evolution
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14
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Introduction
Now, my research explores biological agency, and especially animal inventiveness, and the role it may play in evolutionary and ecological dynamics.
My PhD focused on Bergson and the theory of Evolution, and more precisely Bergson's critique of the "hidden" finalism of the evolutionists of his time. Furthermore, I analysed how Bergson's thinking about duration was relevant for evolutionary biology today when conceiving of the historical causality of evolutionary processes.
Publications
Publications (14)
Biology seems to present local and transitory regularities rather than immutable laws. To account for these historically constituted regularities and to distinguish them from mathematical invariants, Montévil and Mossio (Journal of Theoretical Biology 372:179–191, 2015) have proposed to speak of constraints. In this article we analyse the causal po...
Neo-Darwinism, through the combination of natural selection and genetics, has made possible an explanation of adaptive phenomena that claims to be devoid of metaphysical presuppositions. What Bergson already deplored and what we explore in this paper is the implicit finalism of such evolutionary explanations, which turn living beings into closed an...
« L’œil est fait pour voir », « seuls les plus adaptés survivent », « l’évolution est un progrès », etc. Autant d’affirmations qui assimilent implicitement le travail de la nature à celui d’un ingénieur manipulant la matière vivante avec des objectifs : un appareil de vision, une adaptation aux conditions environnementales, un progrès technique. La...
If Charles Darwin’s work opened up the possibility of a true natural history, the significance of time in evolutionary processes was left unresolved. This ambiguity has led to various interpretations of what evolutionary history is, some seeing it as the pure unfolding of processes, others as a flow marked by contingency and unpredictability. These...
The non-human animal holds a significant position in Bergson’s work. However, because it often serves to illuminate other concepts – humanity, the élan vital – few studies have delved into Bergson’s animal philosophy. However, Bergson’s conception of the animal as an instinctive but conscious being, distinct from humans but partaking, like them, in...
Agency is a central concept in the organisational approach to organisms, which accounts for their internal purposiveness. Recent recognition of the active role played by organisms in evolution has led researchers to use this concept in an evolutionary approach. Agency is then considered in terms of ‘unintentional’ choice: agents choose from a given...
Bergsonian philosophy is not generally regarded as a true philosophy of biology. Bergson’s rejection of Darwinism, his silence on incipient genetics, and his unfortunate comparison of the movement of the élan vital with the duration of consciousness led Bergson to be considered at best an outdated philosopher, at worst an enemy of science. However,...
In the eyes of the biologist Jacques Monod, Bergson is “the most illustrious promoter of a metaphysical vitalism” revolting against rationality. This interpretation, not exclusive to Monod, is often accompanied by the accusation that Bergson’s vitalism would be teleological, and maybe even mystical – this last idea being reinforced by the success t...
Bergson offers an epistemological critique of Darwin’s theory that focuses on his gradualism: for Darwin variation is “minute”, and Bergson glosses “insensible.” His main argument is that if variations are insensible, they cannot confer an advantage to the organism and therefore be selected. Yet, for Darwin, the selected variation is not insensible...
« La crise écologique que nous traversons actuellement invite à reconsidérer la place de l’espèce humaine dans le monde vivant. Si la civilisation humaine repose de plus en plus sur un développement sans précédent de la technique, elle est confrontée aux impasses d’un interventionnisme technique incapable de résoudre les problèmes proprement biolog...
La plasticité, chez Bergson, est un concept qui déborde largement la plasticité phénotypique : elle renvoie à la créativité des formes vivantes à travers l’Evolution. Caractérisant particulièrement les organismes primitifs et les embryons, elle est ce qui permet à Bergson de parler d’Evolution créatrice. Cependant, les caractéristiques qu’il en don...
ANALYSE : Henri Bergson n'a pas bien été accueilli par la communauté des biologistes. Pourtant, sa philosophie est un garde-fou contre le mécanisme de la théorie de l'Evolution, qui est en réalité un finalisme «honteux», souligne la philosophe des sciences Mathilde Tahar, qui note que les questions que l'auteur de L'Evolution créatrice pose à la bi...
Qui sont les acteurs de l'évolution ? Réflexion bergsonienne par-delà finalisme et hasard
