Personal info

Position	Full Professor and Head of Department
Email	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

Alvaro Moreno Bergareche is full Professor of Philosophy of Science at the University of the Basque Country (UPV/EHU). Founder of the Philosophy of Biology Group at the UPV/EHU more than 20 years ago, which has become one of the RG of reference in Europe in its domain. Pr. Alvaro Moreno is a specialist in the areas of Philosophy of Biology, Artificial Life, Complex Systems and Cognitive Science. He has authored more than 100 scientific publications (including 2 monographs and 4 edited volumes) and almost as many papers in national and international conferences. He has been the principal investigator in more than twelve funded projects (funding institutions include: Spanish Ministry of Education and Science, Basque Government, University of the Basque Country), and participated to several others, including European research networks. He has also participated as Review Expert in the evaluation of proposals submitted to the European Commission for funding and/or review of projects being funded by the Commission). He has organized several international workshops on the relation between Artificial Life and AI. And has been member of the organisational and/or program committee of more than 20 international conferences, and he is since many years regular member of the program committee of the Artificial Life conferences (ALIFE) and the European Conferences on Artificial Life (ECAL). He organized a Doctorate Program on Complex Systems, awarded by the Spanish Ministry of Education, and has supervised many PhD theses, 5 of them obtaining the highest marks. His work has received a growing international recognition, which is confirmed by the invitations he regularly receives to give lectures in different countries, and the numerous national and international awards he received. Pr. Alvaro Moreno is also actively involved in the dissemination of science, and he led the project for the creation of the Museum of Science in San Sebastian (Spain)

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.

Full list of IAS-Research publications