Profile | Egenis, Centre for the study of Life Sciences

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I am a philosopher of science, with a main focus on philosophy of biology. For 20 years, 2002-2022, I was Director of Egenis, the Centre for the Study of Life Sciences, which from 2002-2012 was the ESRC Centre for Genomics in Society. I now serve as Consulting Director.

I received my Ph.D at Cambridge in 1981 after spending two years studying in the U.S. as a Harkness Fellow. I was then a Junior Research Fellow at St. John’s College, Oxford, for two years before taking up a post in the Department of Philosophy at Stanford University, where I taught until 1996. I then returned to the U.K. to take up posts as Professor of Philosophy in Birkbeck College, University of London, and as a Senior Research Fellow at Exeter.

At Exeter I have headed the reintroduction of philosophy, which had been dormant at Exeter since the department was closed in the mid-eighties. Several undergraduate philosophy degrees were launched in 2000, at which time I resigned my chair in London and was appointed at Exeter as Professor of Philosophy of Science. In 2002 I assumed the full-time directorship of Egenis, the ESRC Centre for Genomics in Society.

During the period 1st April to 15th June 2006 I was the Spinoza Visiting Professor at the University of Amsterdam, duties of which included two public lectures as well as leading a series of seminars with staff and graduate students at the University. In Autumn 2013 I spent a term in Cambridge as Diane Middlebrook and Carl Djerassi Visiting Professor of Gender Studies, where I worked on rethinking ideas about sex and gender from a processual perspective.

In 2010 I was elected a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. For 2011-13, I was President of the British Society for the Philosophy of Science. From Jan 1, 2019 to December 31, 2022, I have been Vice-President, President and President-Elect of the Philosophy of Science Association, serving as President for 2021-22. In 2020 I was eleced an Honorary International Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and in 2023 I was elected a member of the American Philosophical Society.

In November 2022 I delivered a Gifford lecture at the University of Aberdeen, "A Brief History of Form". In May 2023, I gave a series of six Gifford lectures at the University of Edinburgh, entitled "A Process Perspective on Human Life".

Download full CV.

For online publications see my Google Scholar page:

http://scholar.google.co.uk/citations?user=Cj6XcJ4AAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao

Or ResearchGate:

https://www.researchgate.net/profile/John_Dupre/publications/

Other information:

Books

Gemma Anderson-Tempini and John Dupré (eds.)

ISBN: 978-1-78938-766-7

Drawing Processes of Life: Molecules, Cells, Organisms

The Metaphysics of Biology

ISBN: 978-1009011103