Joy JuedesThomas Pradeu, a French philosopher of biology, is Chapman University’s newest Presidential Fellow.
Pradeu joined Chapman in January 2024 and will spend each January on campus.
“As an eminent philosopher of science and an active cancer researcher, Thomas brings something very special to the Chapman community,” says Michael Ibba, dean of Schmid College of Science and Technology.
“In addition to working with Chapman faculty, he teaches an undergraduate immunology class and co-organizes an annual two-day conference at the intersection of philosophy and science. But perhaps the best thing about Thomas is that he is a sharing and open-minded colleague, someone we are all better for knowing.”
Pradeu is a tenured senior investigator in philosophy of science at France’s National Centre for Scientific Research and the University of Bordeaux. He is the founder and leader of the conceptual biology and medicine team in Bordeaux, coordinator of the Philosophy in Biology and Medicine international network and an “embedded philosopher” in the Bordeaux immunology lab ImmunoConcept.
His research, published in both science and philosophy of science journals, deals with immunology, cancer biology, and the microbiome, and with the conceptual and theoretical foundations of biological and biomedical sciences.
Pradeu’s 2012 book, “The Limits of the Self,” received the 2015 Lakatos Award, which is given for an outstanding contribution to the philosophy of science. According to the London School of Economics and Political Science, which administers the award, “The Limits of Self” is a “profound examination of the ways in which our current understanding of the immune system can shed light on the metaphysical questions of identity and selfhood” and should be “of considerable interest well beyond the philosophy of the biomedical sciences.”
Pradeu was a fellow at Stanford University in 2020-2021 and an associate professor in philosophy at Paris-Sorbonne University from 2008 to 2014.
