Kristie Dotson!

 

These are gonna be great!

Students these days

 Yesterday I read Steven Hales' thought-provoking post about how students have changed (with thanks to Daily Nous for flagging it). Hales has noticed his students becoming significantly worse at reading, writing and basic maths over the course of his 30-year career. And he puts it down largely to smart-phone addiction.

Now pre-order!

 

https://www.foyles.co.uk/book/the-units-of-life/ellen-clarke/9780192857194

Building

 I just noticed my book is already listed for presale at waterstones

https://www.waterstones.com/book/the-units-of-life/ellen-clarke/9780192857194

squeeeee!!!

Cover visuals

 OUP has done a superb job designing my cover! But which do you think i should choose?

    

    

   

Good news and bad news

I usually prefer to start with bad news, and save something to look forward to, end on a high. But the bad news this time is kinda funny anyway so I'll hold it back.

SELFISH GENETIC ELEMENTS & WITHIN-ORGANISM CONFLICTS

I'm really looking forward to participating in this satellite event at Biology 25, the largest conference of organismal biology in Switzerland Programme – Biology25. I'm going to present work I've been developing on biological identity, with my co-author and former PhD student Dr Will Morgan. The organisers Afra Salazar and Luca Soldini are very kindly allowing me to present virtually.

The paper takes inspiration from Aristotle's solution to the problem of change, to propose an essential property that allows organisms to change over time without becoming numerically different substances. It then looks at how the action of selfish genetic elements problematizes gene-based versions of this property.

I'm excited to learn more about some of the different forms that selfish genetic elements take, and how they challenge our normal ideas about organismal unity and agency.

Book update

So apparently I've done all I can, and now I just have to wait for the machinations of OUP's production process to play out. There have been all sorts of delays and hold-ups recently, and it looks like July 2025 is the earliest I can hope to see it published. Perhaps I'll be able to hold a copy in my hand a little before that, I'm not sure.

It feels so slow! So many relevant papers get published in the meantime that it then looks like i'm ignoring. And I'm terrified someone will make basically the same argument and gazump me. Frankly that's unlikely in philosophy, but still. It's crazy to remember that I began writing this book in 2019, just weeks before the world ground to a halt. That was my first ever sabbatical, which got transformed into 6 months of home schooling a 3 year old and a 6 year old instead. Or at least home-containing them, lol, i don't remember much school happening. That was before I got divorced and became a single mum 60% of the time. So much has happened and the book itself changed so much.

In hindsight I didn't really know how the book was going to end up, the proposal was pretty promissory. I knew that I wanted colour pictures and a fairly chatty, lively style. I wanted it to have some of the same vibes as my talks, where I show the audience a bunch of cool critters and blow their minds with weird facts.

One thing I certainly didn't anticipate was how philosophical it turned out - a whole chapter on identity?! Analytic metaphysics? Possible worlds!!!!! I guess this was the influence of my move to Leeds, in which i lost my regular interactions with microbiologists and anthropologists but gained much more contact with metaphysicians.

At some point I was chatting to a colleague about our aspirations for books we were both writing. He said he wanted his book to be careful and not make too many mistakes. I laughed and said what I cared about most was I didnt want my book to be boring. I bloody hope I've succeeded. It's a book that takes risks rather than being careful, and I've no doubt there are mistakes and naivetes. I want to inspire and provoke rather than have the last word. And in some ways its a love letter to philosophy of biology. Homage to the incredible splendour of the living world but also an attempt to show-not-tell biologists, in particular, the sorts of insights and assistance that philosophy has to offer.

No shade to the other kinds, but I'm the kind of philosopher of biology who is motivated above all else by the idea that philosophy can help science, can help solve scientific mysteries. it's really the mysteries themselves that I want at the centre of everything. But sometimes it feels like the hardest thing about my job is explaining to scientists over and over what I am and trying to persuade them that I might be able to help. I hope this book helps. I hope some folk find it interesting. I hope someone reads it!

Hey, reach out if you fancy reviewing it!

Identity trouble

I started (and never finished) writing this post years ago about moving, and its impact on one's identity.

First look at these gorgeous illustrations in from Guido Prieto for my book

 https://ekvv.uni-bielefeld.de/pers_publ/publ/PersonDetail.jsp?personId=469088930&lang=EN