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Laurent Loison
CNRS, Paris

After a full training in biology (University of Strasbourg), I turned to history and philosophy of science and defended in 2008 a PhD at Nantes University. I am presently a full-time junior researcher at the CNRS, working in Paris in the Institute of History and Philosophy of Science and Technology (IHPST, Sorbonne).

My researches are devoted to some conceptual aspects of the history and philosophy of the scientific fields that allow the autonomy of biology: the evolutionary theory, the cell theory and molecular biology. My main interest is in Lamarckism (broadly speaking) and the concept of inheritance of acquired characters. My PhD dissertation explored the complex history of Lamarckism in the French context. I am now mostly involved in the conceptual clarification of two conflated evolutionary mechanisms: the Baldwin effect and Genetic assimilation in order to enrich the scientific and philosophical debate regarding the possibility of an Extended evolutionary synthesis.

I am also interested in the issue of the articulation of history and philosophy of science. Most of my contribution regards the problem of “presentism” and the way it might be possible to renew the aim and scope of what is usually termed 'historical epistemology' (continental philosophy of science).