Titel Deelnemers "August Weismann en het pantheon van de biologie" "Koen Tanghe" "A peek behind a veil of anonymity : an addendum" "Koen Tanghe, Mike Kestemont" "Interpreting the history of evolutionary biology through a Kuhnian prism : sense or nonsense?" "Koen Tanghe, Lieven Pauwels, Alexis De Tiège, Johan Braeckman" "What’s wrong with the modern evolutionary synthesis? A critical reply to Welch (2017)" "Koen Tanghe, Alexis De Tiège, Lieven Pauwels, Stefaan Blancke, Johan Braeckman" "Welch (Biol Philos 32(2):263–279, 2017) has recently proposed two possible explanations for why the field of evolutionary biology is plagued by a steady stream of claims that it needs urgent reform. It is either seriously deficient and incapable of incorporating ideas that are new, relevant and plausible or it is not seriously deficient at all but is prone to attracting discontent and to the championing of ideas that are not very relevant, plausible and/or not really new. He argues for the second explanation. This paper presents a twofold critique of his analysis: firstly, the main calls for reform do not concern the field of evolutionary biology in general but rather, or more specifically, the modern evolutionary synthesis. Secondly, and most importantly, these calls are not only inspired by the factors, enumerated by Welch, but are also, and even primarily, motivated by four problematic characteristics of the modern synthesis. This point is illustrated through a short analysis of the latest reform challenge to the modern synthesis, the so-called extended evolutionary synthesis. We conclude with the suggestion that the modern synthesis should be amended, rather than replaced." "Intuitions in science education and the public understanding of science" "Stefaan Blancke, Koen Tanghe, Johan Braeckman" "Mendel at the sesquicentennial of 'Versuche uber Pflanzen-Hybriden' (1865): the root of the biggest legend in the history of science" "Koen Tanghe" "In 1965, Mendel was still celebrated as the undisputed founder of genetics. In the ensuing 50 years, scholars questioned and undermined this traditional interpretation of his experiments with hybrid plants, without, however, managing to replace it: at the sesquicentennial of the presentation of his 'Versuche' (1865), the Moravian friar remains, to a vast majority, the heroic Father of genetics or at least some kind of geneticist. This exceptionally inert myth is nourished by ontological intuitions but can only continue to flourish, thanks to a long-standing conceptual void in the historiography of biology. It is merely a symptom of this more fundamental problem. 'Historians of science are trained and paid to replace simple stories (...).' (1)" "Life's dual nature: a way out of the impasse of the gene-centred 'versus' complex systems controversy on life" "Alexis De Tiège, Koen Tanghe, Johan Braeckman, Yves Van de Peer" "Living cells and organisms are complex physical systems. Does their organization or complexity primarily rely on the intra-molecular crystalline structure of genetic nucleic acid sequences? Or is it, as critics of the U+2018gene-centredU+2019 perspective claim, predominantly a result of the inter- and supra-molecular U+2013 thus U+2018holisticU+2019 U+2013 network dynamics of genetic and various extra-genetic factors? The twentieth-century successes in several branches of genetics caused intensive focus on the causal role of genes in the biochemistry, development and evolution of living organisms, resulting in a relative abstraction or even neglect of lifeU+2019s complex systems dynamics. Today, however, partly due to the success of systems biology, a number of authors defend lifeU+2019s systems complexity while criticizing the gene-centred approach. Here, we offer a way out of the impasse of the gene-centred U+2018versusU+2019 complex systems perspective to arrive at a more balanced and complete understanding of lifeU+2019s multifaceted nature. After sketching the conceptual and historical background of the controversy, we show how the present state of knowledge in biology vindicates both the holistically complex and gene-centred nature of life on Earth, but decisively falsifies extreme genetic U+2018determinismU+2019 and U+2018reductionismU+2019 as well as extreme U+2018gene-de-centrismU+2019. Contrary to what is often claimed, the fact that genes are one among many extra-genetic causal factors contributing to the biochemistry and development of cells and organisms, only undermines or falsifies genetic determinism and reductionism but not necessarily gene-centrism. Some implications for evolutionary theory, i.e., for the controversy between the Modern Synthesis and an U+2018Extended SynthesisU+2019, are outlined." "From DNA- to NA-centrism and the conditions for gene-centrism revisited" "Alexis De Tiège, Koen Tanghe, Johan Braeckman, Yves Van de Peer" "Edinburgh and the birth of British evolutionism : a peek behind a veil of anonymity" "Koen Tanghe, Mike Kestemont" "Homo Ludens (1938) and the crisis in the humanities" "Koen Tanghe"