NACH OBEN

Alejandro Fábregas-Tejeda is a PhD student at Ruhr-University Bochum under the DFG-Emmy Noether Research Group The Return of the Organism in the Biosciences: Theoretical, Historical, and Social Dimensions. He holds a B.Sc. degree in Biology and a M.A. in Philosophy of Science (with complementary specialization in History of Science) from the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM). He graduated from UNAM in 2019 with a dissertation entitled “The Extended Evolutionary Synthesis Debate: Historical, Philosophical and Sociological Dimensions” (M.A with honors).

His ongoing PhD project is a philosophical and historical re-appraisal of the organism-environment relationship in the life sciences. In particular, he is studying how this relationship has been construed in the history of twentieth-century biology and in contemporary debates through three interrelated notions: (i) organismal agency; (ii) reciprocity; and (iii) the organism-environment boundary.


Vita
  • April-June 2022: Visiting PhD Student, Department of History and Philosophy of Science, University of Cambridge
  • 2020-: PhD student in Philosophy, Department of Philosophy I, Ruhr-University Bochum
  • March-April 2019: Visiting M.A. Student, Department of Philosophy I, Ruhr-University Bochum
  • 2017-2019: M.A. in Philosophy of Science, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM)
  • 2017: Gabino Barreda Medal in University Merit (B.Sc. in Biology), UNAM
  • 2011-2016: B.Sc. in Biology, School of Sciences, UNAM

Publications

Journal Articles

  • Richard Lewontin y la reciprocidad organismo-ambiente en la historia de la biología. In: Ludus Vitalis XXIX (56), 31–38 (Co-author: Guido I. Prieto; 2022) [download pdf]
  • Unknotting reciprocal causation between organism and environment. In: Biology & Philosophy 36, 48 (Co-authors: Jan Baedke, Guido I. Prieto; 2021) [download pdf]
  • Global climate change, diet and the complex relationship between human host and microbiome: Towards an integrated picture. In: BioEssays 43, e2100049 (Co-authors: Francesco Catania, Jan Baedke, Abigail Nieves Delgado, Valerio Vitali, Le Anh Nguyen Long; 2021) [download pdf]
  • Revisiting Hans Böker's "Species Transformation Through Reconstruction: Reconstruction Through Active Reaction of Organisms" (1935). In: Biological Theory 16, 63–75 (Co-authors: Abigail Nieves Delgado, Jan Baedke; 2021) [download pdf]
  • Does the Extended Evolutionary Synthesis entail extended explanatory power? In: Biology & Philosophy 35, 20 (Co-authors: Jan Baedke, Francisco Vergara-Silva; 2020) [download pdf]
  • The holobiont concept before Margulis. In: Journal of Experimental Zoology Part B: Molecular and Developmental Evolution 334(3), 149-155 (Co-authors: Jan Baedke, Abigail Nieves Delgado; 2020) [download pdf]
  • New Perspectives on Theory Change in Evolutionary Biology. In: Journal for General Philosophy of Science 50(4), 573-581 (2019) [download pdf]
  • The emerging structure of the Extended Evolutionary Synthesis: where does Evo-Devo fit in?. In: Theory in Biosciences 52, 169-184 (Co-author: Francisco Vergara-Silva; 2018) [download pdf]
  • Hierarchy Theory of Evolution and the Extended Evolutionary Synthesis: Some Epistemic Bridges, Some Conceptual Rifts. In: Evolutionary Biology 45, 127-139 (Co-author: Francisco Vergara-Silva; 2018) [download pdf]

Talks

Selected Talks

  • Organismal purposiveness in early twentieth-century (philosophy of) biology: from ontological principle to explanandum. December 1st 2021, "Life-Philosophies: Exploring Heterdox Naturalism" Seminar, Ghent University, Belgium [online seminar].
  • Organismal Agents for Biology, Intervenable Populations for Fisheries: The Theories and Practices of E.S. Russell, 1908-1939. November 19th 2021, 2021 Annual History of Science Society Meeting, New Orleans, United States [online meeting]
  • Re-negotiating the organism-environment boundary. September 16th 2021, 8th Biennial Meeting of the European Philosophy of Science Association (EPSA21), Turin, Italy.
  • Drawn, erased, re-negotiated: The organism-environment boundary in early twentieth-century biology. July 13th 2021,  ISHPSSB Biennial Meeting, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, United States [online meeting].
  • Organismal agency on the fringes of early twentieth-century biology? The cases of E.S. Russell and R.S. Lillie. May 6th 2021, ROTO Lecture Series, Ruhr University Bochum, Germany [online seminar].
  • The ´Organism´ in Post-war Biology: Paths, Boundaries, and Environments. September 2nd 2020, 9th International Conference of the European Society for the History of Science (ESHS), Bologna, Italy [online meeting]
  • The Extended Evolutionary Synthesis debate: some ontological, epistemological and historical dimensions. July 8th 2019, Meeting of the International Society for the History, Philosophy and Social Studies of Biology (ISHPSSB), University of Oslo, Norway
  • The Extended Evolutionary Synthesis debate: some epistemological and sociological dimensions. April 2nd 2019, Evolution Evolving: Process, Mechanism and Theory, University of Cambridge, United Kingdom (Co-author: Francisco Vergara-Silva)
  • Explanation and the Extended Evolutionary Synthesis: Explanatory Integration, Epistemic Goals, and Explanatory Power. March 21st 2019, The Extended Evolutionary Synthesis: Philosophical and HIstorical Dimensions (7th Workshop on History and Philosophy of the Life Sciences), Ruhr-University Bochum, Germany

ALEJANDRO FÁBREGAS-TEJEDA, M.A.

Fakultät III,
Institut für Philosophie I,
GA 3/34
Ruhr-Universität Bochum
Universitätsstr. 150
44801 Bochum
Tel. +49(0)234/32-24816
Email: Alejandro.FabregasTejeda@rub.de