The Social Lives of Microbes (Forum for Philosophy)

What are microbial societies? In what ways do they resemble human societies and in what ways do they differ? Can the same ideas that explain cooperation in larger animals also explain cooperation in microbes? And what can we learn from microbes about what it is to be human? In this panel discussion, philosopher Maureen O’Malley and biologists Kevin Foster and Sara Mitri discuss the social lives of microbes.

Speakers
Kevin Foster, Professor of Evolutionary Biology, University of Oxford
Sara Mitri, Senior Researcher in Microbiology, University of Lausanne
Maureen O’Malley, Research Professor of Philosophy, University of Bordeaux

Chair
Jonathan Birch, Assistant Professor, Department of Philosophy, Logic and Scientific Method (LSE) and Forum for European Philosophy Fellow

Organised in conjunction with the Centre for Philosophy of Natural and Social Science, LSE

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