Lakatos Award Lectures and Ceremony

Lectures by the 2015 and 2016 Lakatos Award winners, Thomas Pradeu and Brian Epstein, followed by a public award ceremony.

Thomas Pradeau (CNRS and University of Bordeaux): “Why Philosophy in Science? Re-Visiting Immunology and Biological Individuality”

Thomas Pradeau was awarded the 2015 Lakatos Award for his book The Limits of the Self: Immunology and Biological Identity. The book was praised by the Award Selectors as “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.”

Brian Epstein (Tufts): “Rebuilding the Foundations of the Social Sciences”

Brian Epstein was awarded the 2016 Lakatos Award for his book The Ant Trap: Rebuilding the Foundations of the Social Sciences. The Ant Trap was rated as “an extremely serious and significant book, as good a treatment of the metaphysics of the social world as there is, by some way.”