I am former student of the Ecole Normale Supérieure (Ulm, BL 2005), trained in philosophy and in cognitive science in Paris. I have a master degree in cognitive science, including a hands-on training at Alain Berthoz’s laboratory of physiology of perception and action (Collège de France), and at Ecole Normale Supérieure and Panthéon-Sorbonne University I have received an education in history of philosophy and history and philosophy of science.
I earned a PhD in philosophy and history of cognitive science at Ecole Normale Supérieure de Lyon in 2015. Pr. Jean-Michel Roy supervised it. My dissertation was devoted to functional brain imaging technologies and their use in cognitive neuroscience. Our dynamic Center for the Epistemology of Cognitive Science held many activities. As a philosophy teacher, I have taught medical humanities and philosophy of science at Université Claude Bernard de Lyon, Université Lumière Lyon 2, Université Versailles Saint-Quentin, and general philosophy at high school. Serving for two years the Haut Conseil de la science et de la technologie, a board of scientists advising the French government on higher education and research policy, I have an experience in science policy. I was mostly in charge of science and society issues. I spent several years in Japan, as a Japan Society for the Promotion of Science postdoctoral fellow at Rikkyo University, under the supervision of Tetsuya Kono. I hold previously a similar position at the Osamu Sakura laboratory, Interfaculty Initiative in Information Studies, The University of Tokyo. I took part in the activities of the Knowledge and Action Lab and the Face-Body Studies in Transcultural Conditions project. I am now a researcher in the HYBRIDA project, member of the Centre for medical ethics at the University of Oslo. I am also associated with the Université catholique de Louvain, Belgium, member of HELESI and the Pence lab. RESEARCH At the most general level, my research is devoted to scientific instruments. I am interested in philosophical and historical discussions about the notion of scientific instrument, from Robert Hooke to Gaston Bachelard, until Bruno Latour and Ian Hacking. Study of science cannot avoid questioning tools, equipment, and technology developed and used in scientific research. What is a tool? How do tools contribute to the dynamics of science? How are the means and ends of scientific inquiry defined? I focus on the original epistemological and ethical issues that arise when we develop and use new tools. This philosophical approach provides me a guide for several lines of inquiry into the philosophy of neuroscience, cognitive science, psychology, psychiatry, medicine, and bioengineering. I have a specific interest for the tools of neuroscience. A major part of my PhD thesis was analyzing the emergence of Positron Emission Tomography and functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging, and their impact on cognitive science. I am also conducting research projects in science and society issues. This includes the status of science in democracy, science policy, and research ethics. I have a specific interest in neuroethics as an enterprise promoting science and society dialogue. |
Contact: maxe.gaillard at gmail dot com