Functions: From Organisms to Artefacts

Jean Gayon

Jean Gayon's works have developed in two directions: philosophy and the history of life sciences. His historical work focuses mainly on the 19th and 20th centuries: population biology and biometrics, the theory of evolution, genetics. His philosophical work has itself developed in the following directions: (1) The conceptual clarification of a number of issues commonly addressed by what has been called since the 1970s the philosophy of biology; for example: the concept of species, the structure of the theory of evolution, units of selection, chance. (2) The analysis of some of the typical figures of "biological philosophies" of the 19th and 20th centuries (Bernard, Nietzsche, Pearson, Canguilhem, Dagognet, Sober, Grene, etc.). (3) An involvement in some ethical-political issues related to life and health sciences: genetic improvement of humanity, eugenics, human races.

In addition to this work on the history and philosophy of biology, Jean Gayonalso has contributions on issues relating to the general philosophy of science and its history.

Armand de Ricqlès

Armand de Ricqlès is a French paleobiologist best known for his work in bone histology and its implications for the growth and thermometabolism of dinosaurs. He worked in the University of Paris (and later Université paris VII) from 1961 till 1995, when he was nominated to a chair of Historical and Evolutionary Biology at the Collège de France. He officially retired in 2010, but he continues publishing.

Armand de Ricqlès initially worked on the functional significance of extant bone histodiversity, and applied this newly gained knowledge in paleobiological inferences. He has collaborated with several histologists and paleontologists, including Melvin Glimcher, Timothy G. Bromage, John R. Horner, and Kevin Padian. In his career, he promoted the introduction of cladistics at the University and influenced several students and colleagues, some of them ultimately becoming members of a CNRS sponsored research team organized at the Jussieu campus and at the Muséum National d'Histoire Naturelle in Paris.

Through these collaborations, he has studied the growth, physiology, habitat (aquatic to terrestrial) and other paleobiological aspects of various limbed vertebrates. He has also made some contributions to the history of bone histology, and has written some papers on the problems facing French scientists because of the heavy French bureaucracy.

Antoine C. Dussault is a researcher at the Centre interuniversitaire de recherche sur la science et la technologie (Montréal, Québec) and teaches philosophy at Collège Lionel-Groulx (Sainte-Thérèse, Québec). His work focuses on the philosophy of ecology, environmental ethics and the philosophy of medicine. His main current research topics are the concept of function (in ecology and elsewhere), the concept of health and its possible application to ecosystems, and the holism/reductionism debate in ecology.

**Jean Gayon**

Jean Gayon 的著作主要發展於兩個方向：哲學和生命科學的歷史。他的歷史研究主要集中在19世紀和20世紀：人口生物學和生物統計學、進化論、遺傳學。他的哲學研究則發展於以下幾個方向：(1) 對自1970年代以來被稱為生物哲學的若干問題進行概念澄清；例如：物種的概念、進化論的結構、選擇單位、機會。(2) 分析19世紀和20世紀「生物哲學」的典型人物（如 Bernard、Nietzsche、Pearson、Canguilhem、Dagognet、Sober、Grene 等）。(3) 參與與生命和健康科學相關的一些倫理政治問題：人類的基因改良、優生學、人種。

除了對生物學歷史和哲學的研究外，Jean Gayon 還對一般科學哲學及其歷史的相關問題有所貢獻。

**Armand de Ricqlès**

Armand de Ricqlès 是一位法國古生物學家，以其在骨組織學及其對恐龍生長和熱代謝的影響方面的研究而聞名。他於1961年至1995年在巴黎大學（後來的巴黎第七大學）工作，1995年被任命為法國高等研究院的歷史與進化生物學教授。他於2010年正式退休，但仍持續發表研究成果。

Armand de Ricqlès 最初研究現存骨組織多樣性的功能意義，並將這些新獲得的知識應用於古生物學推論中。他與多位組織學家和古生物學家合作，包括 Melvin Glimcher、Timothy G. Bromage、John R. Horner 和 Kevin Padian。在他的職業生涯中，他推動了在大學引入分支分類學，並影響了多位學生和同事，其中一些最終成為在朱西厄校區和巴黎自然歷史博物館組織的 CNRS 贊助研究團隊的成員。

通過這些合作，他研究了各種有肢脊椎動物的生長、生理、棲息地（從水生到陸生）及其他古生物學方面。他還對骨組織學的歷史做出了一些貢獻，並撰寫了一些關於法國科學家因繁重的法國官僚體系而面臨的問題的論文。

**Antoine C. Dussault**

Antoine C. Dussault 是位於蒙特利爾（魁北克）的跨大學科學與技術研究中心的研究員，並在魁北克聖泰雷茲的利昂·格魯克學院教授哲學。他的研究重點是生態哲學、環境倫理學和醫學哲學。他目前的主要研究主題包括功能的概念（在生態學及其他領域）、健康的概念及其對生態系統的可能應用，以及生態學中的整體論/還原論辯論。