The present landscape of biological science raises many issues touching the meaning and challenges of ‘being human’, from AI to biological sex, consciousness, and free will. The new Being Human lecture series will provide a focused exploration of these issues from leading experts in the philosophy of science, humanities, and other fields, offering a forum for broadening scientific thinking.

Co-organised by James DiFrisco and Güneş Taylor from the Crick with Professor Barry Smith from the University of London's Institute of Philosophy, the aim is to hold these events on a regular basis on Friday afternoons every month or so.

"We are delighted to have created a venue for exploring some of the biggest questions facing us as biologists and people with the expert guidance of thinkers outside the Crick." James DiFrisco and Güneş Taylor

The format will be a facilitated late afternoon talk in the Crick Auditorium, followed by brief invited commentaries and a general Q&A session.The lectures will be non-technical and accessible to a multidisciplinary audience. There will be a short reception and an opportunity to meet the speaker after the talk.

We're delighted to welcome John Dupré Professor of the Philosophy of Science from the University of Exeter as our inaugural speaker. 

John Dupré

John is a philosopher of science, with a main focus on philosophy of biology. From 2002-2022, John was Director of Egenis, the Centre for the Study of Life Sciences where he now serves as Consulting Director.

John received his Ph.D at Cambridge in 1981 after spending two years studying in the U.S. as a Harkness Fellow. He then joined St. John’s College, Oxford as a Junior Research Fellow before taking up a post in the Department of Philosophy at Stanford University, where he taught until 1996. John 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, John headed the reintroduction of philosophy with several undergraduate philosophy degrees launching in 2000, at which time he was appointed at Exeter as Professor of Philosophy of Science. In 2002 John assumed the full-time directorship of Egenis, the ESRC Centre for Genomics in Society.

John has be awarded a number of honorary positions including fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (2010); President of the British Society for the Philosophy of Science (2011-2013): President of the Philosophy of Science Association (2021-2022); Honorary International Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (2020); and a member of the American Philosophical Society (2023).