The research unit studies the history and philosophy of the life sciences, especially biology, and philosophical anthropology. Its members work in the Emmy Noether research group "ROTO" (The Return of the Organism in the Biosciences: Theoretical, Historical, and Social Dimensions) funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG). It investigates the conceptual, methodological and anthropological challenges going along with the current comeback of the concept of organism in the bio- and biomedical sciences. The group combines philosophical, historical and sociological approaches to study biological individuality, agency, organism-environment boundaries, and the concept of environment.

ROTO Homepage: Here 

ROTO Twitter: Here

Lecture Series: Here

News

New publications...

• Azita Chellappoo & Jan Baedke: Where the social meets the biological: New ontologies of biosocial race. In: Synthese (2023) [download pdf]
• Jan Baedke & Christina Brandt (eds.): New Styles of Thought and Practices: Biology in the Interwar Period. Special Issue in Journal of the History of Biology. J. Baedke & C. Brandt (eds.). (2022) [Link]
• Jan Baedke & Tatjana Buklijas (eds.): What Counts as Environment in Biology and Medicine: Historical, Philosophical and Sociological Perspectives. Special Issue in Studies in History and Philosophy of Science. (2021/22) [Link]
• Jan Baedke, Alejandro Fábregas-Tejeda, Guido I. Prieto: Unknotting reciprocal causation between organism and environment. In: Biology & Philosophy (2021) [download pdf]
• Abigail Nieves Delgado, Jan Baedke: Does the human microbiome tell us something about race? In: Nature: Humanities & Social Sciences Communications (2021) [download pdf]
• Jan Baedke, Scott F. Gilbert: Evolution and development. In: E. Zalta (ed.): Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. (2020) [download pdf])