Research Interests – Publications
Personal info
Position | Full Professor and Head of Department |
alvaro.moreno AT ehu DOT es | |
Phone | 34 943 01 8249 |
Address | EHU/UPV, Department of Logic and Philosophy of Science, Avenida de Tolosa 70, 20018 Donostia – San Sebastián |
Summary

Research interests
- Philosophy of biology and general philosophy of science
- Self-organization and complex systems.
- Artificial life
- Origin of cognition
- Science Studies
Publications
Publications 2010-2017
BOOKS
Moreno, A. & Mossio, M. (2015) Biological Autonomy: A philosophical and theoretical enquiry, Springer.
JOURNAL PAPERS
Moreno, A. (2017): ¿Qué significa hoy la idea de Autonomía para la Biología? Metatheoria-Revista de Filosofia e Historia de la Ciencia. In press.
Bich, L., Mossio, M., Ruiz-Mirazo, K. & Moreno, A. (2016): Biological regulation: controlling the system from within. Biology and Philosophy 31: 237–265.
Bich, L. & Moreno, A. (2016): The role of regulation in the origin and synthetic modeling of minimal cognition. BioSystems, 148. 12–21. doi:10.1016/j.biosystems.2015.08.002
Moreno, A. (2016): Some conceptual issues in the transition from chemistry to biology. History & Philosophy of the Life Sciences 38(4), 1–19. DOI: 10.1007/s40656-016-0117-y.
Nunes-Neto, N., Saborido, C., El-Hani, C, Viana, B. & Moreno, A. (2016): Function and normativity in social-ecological systems. Filosofia e História da Biologia, 11(2), 259–287.
Ruiz-Mirazo, K. & Moreno, A. (2016): Reflexiones sobre el origen de vida: algo más que un problema ‘evolutivo’. Metode 87, 55–63
Arnellos, A. and Moreno, A. (2015). Multicellular Agency. An organizational view. Biology & Philosophy, en prensa.
Saborido, C. & Moreno A. (2015). Biological Pathology from an Organizational Perspective, Journal of theoretical medicine and bioethics.
Moreno, A. (2015) Un cuarto de siglo de Vida Artificial: Balance y perspectivas, Teorema, en prensa
Nunes-Neto, N. Moreno, A. and El Hani (2014) Function in Ecology: an organizational approach, Biology and Philosophy 29(1): 123-141
Arnellos, A., Moreno, A. and Ruiz-Mirazo, K. (2014) Organizational requirements for multicellular autonomy: insights from a comparative case study, Biology and Philosophy 29: 851-884. DOI 10.1007/s10539-013-9387-x . ISSN: 0169-3867.
Ruiz Mirazo, K. and Moreno, A. (2013) Synthetic Biology: challenging life to grasp, use or extend it, Biological Theory (8)4 : 376-382
Mossio, M., Bich, L. and Moreno, A. (2013) Emergence, Closure and Inter-level Causation in Biological Systems, Erkenntnis, 78(2), 153-178.
Moreno, A. and Peretó, J. (2013) ¿Qué es la vida? de Erwin Schrödinger ¿Vale la pena leerlo? Revista de la Sociedad Española de Bioquímica y Biología Molecular 175: 7-9
Arnellos, A., Moreno, A. and Ruiz Mirazo, K. (2013) Autonomy as a property that characterizes organisms among other multicellular systems, Contrastes. Suplemento XVII: 357-372
Ruiz-Mirazo, K. and Moreno, A. (2012) Biología sintética: enfrentándose a la vida para comprenderla, utilizarla o extenderla, Pasajes 38: 28-37.
Ruiz-Mirazo, K. and Moreno, A. (2012) Autonomy in evolution. From minimal to complex life, Synthese 185(1):21-52
Arnellos, A. and Moreno, A. (2012) How functional differentation originated in prebiotic evolution, Ludus Vitalis, 37: 1-23.
Saborido, C., Mossio, M. & Moreno, A. (2011) Biological organization and cross-generation functions, British Journal for the Philosophy of Science, 62, 3, 583-606.
Moreno, A. y A. Casado da Rocha (2011) Autonomy Beyond the Brain: What Neuroscience Offers to a More Interactive, Relational Bioethics, The American Journal of Bioethics – Neuroscience 2(3), 54-56.
Piedrafita, G., Olasagasti, F., Ruiz-Mirazo, K., Peretó, J. Moreno, A., Montero, F. and Moran, F. (2010) Conceptual bases for the emergence of early protocells. Origins of Life and Evolution of the Biosphere 40(4-5): 445–448
Moreno, A. (2010) Modularity and function in early prebiotic evolution, Origins of Life and Evolution of the Biosphere. 40 (4-5), 475–477.
Mossio, M. and Moreno, A. (2010) Organisational closure in biological organisms. History and Philosophy of the Life Sciences 32: 269–288.
Ruiz-Mirazo, K., Peretó, J. and Moreno, A. (2010) Defining life or bringing biology to life. Origins of Life and Evolution of the Biosphere 40(2): 203–213
Saborido, C., Mossio, M. and Moreno, A. (2010) La dimensión teleologica del concepto de función biológica, Teorema XXIX (3): 31–56
BOOK CHAPTERS
Arnellos A, Moreno A (2016) Integrating constitution and interaction in the transition from unicellular to multicellular organisms. In: Niklas K, Newman S (eds.) Multicellularity: origins and evolution. MIT Press, Cambridge MA, pp 249–275.
Saborido C., Moreno, A., González-Moreno, M. & Hernández, J.C. (2016) Organizational Malfunctions and the Notions of Health and Disease, in Mael Lemoine and Elodie Giroux (eds). Naturalism in philosophy of health: issues, limits and implications. Springer, pp. 101–120. DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-29091-1_7.
Etxeberria, A. and Moreno, A. (2014) La noción de autonomía en biología: aportaciones, retos y discusiones, in Antonio Casado da Rocha Ed. Autonomía con otros. Ensayos de Bioética, Madrid: Plaza y Valdés, pags. 95–110.
Moreno, A. (2013) A biological perspective of the nature of cognition: Some remarks for a naturalistic program, in Talmont-Kaminski, K and Milkowski, M (eds) Regarding the Mind, Naturally: Naturalist Approaches to the Sciences of the Mental, Cambridge Scholars Publishing. Newcastle (UK) pp.71–85.
Bich, L. and Moreno, A. (2013) Autonomía biológica y las raíces de la cognición. El rol de la regulación en la emergencia de un mundo endógenamente generado, in P. Razeto and R. Ramos (eds.), Autopoiesis. Un Concepto Vivo, Santiago de Chile: Editorial Universitas Nueva Civilización, 75-95.
Moreno, A. (2012) Autonomy, In Dubitzky, W., Wolkenhauer, O., Cho, K-H. and Yokota, H. (eds.) Encyclopedia of Systems Biology. New York: Springer.
Moreno, A. (2012) Holism, in Dubitzky, W., Wolkenhauer, O., Cho, K-H. and Yokota, H. (eds.) Encyclopedia of Systems Biology, New York: Springer.
Nunes-Neto, N., Moreno, A. and El-Hani, C. (2012). An epistemological framework for the functional explanations in contemporary ecology. In Actas del I Congreso de la Asociación Iberoamericana de Filosofía de la Biología (A. Diéguez, V. Claramonte, J. Alcolea, G. Caponi, A. Etxeberría, P. Lorenzano, A. Marcos, J. Martínez Contreras, A. Rosas, Eds.). Publicacions de la Universitat de València, Valencia, 273-279.
Arnellos, A., Ruiz-Mirazo, K. and Moreno, Alvaro (2012). Autonomy as a property that defines individual organisms among multicellular communities. In Actas del I Congreso de la Asociación Iberoamericana de Filosofía de la Biología (A. Diéguez, V. Claramonte, J. Alcolea, G. Caponi, A. Etxeberría, P. Lorenzano, A. Marcos, J. Martínez Contreras, A. Rosas, Eds.). Publicacions de la Universitat de València, Valencia, 325.330.
Ruiz-Mirazo, K. and Moreno, A. (2011) Life, in Encyclopedia of Astrobiology (Gargaud, M., Amils, R.,Cernicharo Quintanilla, J., Cleaves, H.J., Irvine, W.M., Pinti, D., Viso, M., Eds.). Springer. Heidelberg, Germany. Vol 2, pp. 919-921.
Ruiz-Mirazo, K. and Moreno, A. (2011) Autopoiesis, in Encyclopedia of Astrobiology (Gargaud, M., Amils, R., Cernicharo Quintanilla, J., Cleaves, H.J., Irvine, W.M., Pinti, D., Viso, M., Eds.). Springer. Heidelberg, Germany. Vol 2, p. 130.
Ruiz-Mirazo, K. and Moreno, A. (2011) Homeostasis, in Encyclopedia of Astrobiology (Gargaud, M., Amils, R., Cernicharo Quintanilla, J., Cleaves, H.J., Irvine, W.M., Pinti, D., Viso, M., Eds.). Springer. Heidelberg, Germany. Vol 2, p. 759.
Ruiz-Mirazo, K. and Moreno, A. (2011) The need for a universal definition of Life in XXIst Century, in G. Terzis and R. Arp (eds.) Information and Living Systems: Essays in Philosophy of Biology. MIT Press, Cambridge, MA. 3-23.
Moreno, A. and Ruiz-Mirazo, K. (2011) The informational nature of biological causality, in G. Terzis and R. Arp (eds.) Information and Living Systems: Essays in Philosophy of Biology.MIT Press. Cambridge, MA. 157-175.
Moreno, A., Ruiz-Mirazo, K. and Barandiaran, X. (2011) The impact of the paradigm of complexity on the foundational frameworks of biology and cognitive science, in Hooker (ed) Complex Systems.Vol X of the D. Gavia, P. Thagard and J. Woods (eds) Handbook of the Philosophy of Science. Elsevier. 311-333.
Mossio, M., Saborido, C., and Moreno, A. (2010) Fonctions: Normativité, Téléologie, et Organisation, in Ricqlès, A., Gayon, J. (eds), Épistémologie de les Fonctions: Des organisms aux artefacts. PUF, Paris (Francia) 159-173.