Affiliation:

ISPF (Institute for the history of philosophy and science in modern age), CNR (National Research Council, Italy), Naples. Associated to Stazione Zoologica Anton Dohrn, Naples

Topics of interest:

History and philosophy of biology

Interdisciplinary history of concepts

Philosophy and epistemology of history

Biography:

Silvia Caianiello is Senior Researcher at the Institute for the History of Philosophy and Science in the Modern Age (ISPF) of the Italian National Research Council (C.N.R.) in Naples, Italy; since 2016, she is associated to SZN in Naples. She is co-editor of the Book Series “Filosofia e saperi. Crossing boundaries between humanities and life sciences” (CNR Edizioni). She is member of ISPHSSB (“International Society for the History, Philosophy, & Social Studies of Biology”).

Moving from philosophy of history, she conducted extensive research on the correlation between representations of time and epistemological approaches to history from XVIII to XX Century, and on some major conceptual interactions between human and life sciences in the XIX Century.

Currently her main research field is the history and philosophy of evolutionary theory and evo-devo (Evolutionary Developmental Biology), with particular focus on the breakthrough of systemic and hierarchical approaches to biological organization and evolutionary change and on conceptual transfers across different scientific fields.

Recent works:

• “Figures du temps historique et instances de la méthode”, Laboratorio dell’ISPF, 2017, vol. XIV (21): DOI: 10.12862/Lab17CNS.
• “Tempo e historicidade na filosofia, ciência e teoria da história: entrevista com Silvia Caianiello”, a cura di Francesco Guerra e Murilo Gonçalves, Revista de Teoria da História, 2017, 17/1:306-322 (https://www.revistas.ufg.br/teoria/article/view/48051).
• Recensione di “E. Gagliasso, F. Morganti, A. Passariello (a cura di), Percorsi evolutivi. Lezioni di Filosofia della biologia, Franco Angeli, Milano, 2016″ e “N.D. Cilia, L. Tonetti (a cura di), Wired Bodies. New Perspectives on the Machine-Organism Analogy, CNR Edizioni, Roma, 2017″, Testo e Senso, 2017, 18: http://testoesenso.it/article/view/428
• “A pluralização do tempo histórico e ascensão de um método sistêmico para a história”, in Heterocronias. Ensaios sobre a multiplicidade do tempo histórico, edited by M. Salomon. Goiânia: Edições Ricochete, 2017.
• “A Possible Role for Philosophy: Bridging the Conceptual Divide in Cancer Research”, Acta Biotheoretica, September 2018, 66/3:243-250 (https://doi.org/10.1007/s10441-018-9326-y).
• “Mechanistic philosophies of development: Theodor Boveri and Eric H. Davidson”, in From Boveri to Davidson: Embryological approaches to genomic function, edited by M.I. Arnone and S. Caianiello, special issue of Marine Genomics, 2018.
• “Seinesgleichen geschieht: contemporary challenges to evolutionary contingency”, in The culture of predictability and the nature of the unpredictable. Life, evolution, behavior, edited by D. Ceccarelli and G. Frezza. Roma: CNR Edizioni, 2018.
• “Prolegomena to a History of Robustness”, in Biological Robustness – Emerging Perspectives from within the Life Sciences, edited by M. Bertolaso, S. Caianiello and E. Serrelli. Springer (Series: History, Philosophy and Theory of the Life Sciences), in press.
• (with M. Bertolaso) “Robustness as Organized Heterogeneity”, Rivista di Filosofia Neo-Scolastica, 2016, 108/2:293-303.
• “Revisiting the Phenotypic Hierarchy in Hierarchy Theory”, in Evolutionary Theory: A Hierarchical Perspective, edited by N. Eldredge, T. Pievani, E. Serrelli, I. Temkin. Chicago: Chicago University Press, 2016, pp. 151-173.
• “Empatia e relazionalità. Dalla comunicazione dei corpi all’orizzonte del nonumano”, in Fuori di sé. L’empatia nell’orizzonte umano ed oltre, edited by S. Caianiello. Roma: CNR Edizioni, 2015, pp. 9-34. 
• “Vecchie e nuove funzioni della storia della scienza”, in La meraviglia e la passione: un secolo di scienze della natura nel Mezzogiorno (1760-1860), edited by M.R. Ghiara. Roma: CNR Edizioni, 2015, pp. 95-108.
• “Succession of Functions, from Darwin to Dohrn”, History and Philosophy of the Life Sciences, 2015, 36/3:335-345.
• “Immagini dello sviluppo da Gould a evo-devo”, in Da Gould a evo-devo. Percorsi storici e teorici, edited by Silvia Caianiello. Napoli: CNR Edizioni, 2014, pp. 51-82.