Biology Is About Processes, Not Things | John Dupré

Why It Matters

Recasting organisms as processes alters how researchers define genes, species, and evolutionary mechanisms, with implications for taxonomy, genetics research, and theoretical biology. Clearer conceptual foundations can prevent category errors and guide more coherent experimental and interpretive frameworks.

Summary

John Dupré argues that philosophy of biology is inseparable from biology: philosophers help recover the big-picture concepts scientists lose when they specialize. He critiques essentialist ideas like fixed natural kinds (species, genes), showing biological reality is messy, variable, and often defined pragmatically. Dupré advances a metaphysics of processes rather than substances, contending organisms are ongoing, dynamic systems whose persistence—not change—is what needs explaining. That shift reframes how we think about evolution, classification, and foundational biological concepts.

Original Description

Why do living things stay the same at all?

John Dupré argues that biology is not fundamentally about fixed substances or natural kinds, but about dynamic processes that maintain temporary stability amid constant change.

0:00 Philosophy and Biology Merge Into One Another

1:38 Why Biology Can Lose the Big Picture

4:49 The Metaphysics of Natural Kinds

6:06 Evolution Depends on Variability

7:48 Biology Is About Processes, Not Substances

John Dupré is a British philosopher of science. He is the director of Egenis, the Centre for the Study of Life Sciences, and professor of philosophy at the University of Exeter. Dupré's chief work area lies in philosophy of biology, philosophy of the social sciences, and general philosophy of science.

More from John Dupré on Closer To Truth:

* Philosophy of Biology: A Series: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLFJr3pJl27pKg2BG3wIF4vXFYlNrYLGTq

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