Between Biology and Spirit. Thinking (from) Science - Thinking (from) Life. The Intellectual Adventure of the Biologist and Philosopher Andrés Moya

Abstract

The life sciences, in the light of the theory of evolution, are contributing, according to A. Moya, a mixed territory that forces to think from the science questions that seemed exclusive patrimony of the humanities: the nature and sense of the human being. The metaphysical questions about human beings and life, characteristic of the humanist tradition, now pass inexorably through science, recent findings in molecular and evolutionary biology, biogenetics, biochemistry, neurobiology, sociobiology, evolutionary psychology, biocomputerization, etc. Between anti-humanist scientism and spiritualist humanism, between the contempt of the humanities and the contempt of the sciences —scorn based on mutual ignorance and/or ideological presuppositions—, there is a humanistic scientism, faithful to the best intellectual tradition of our culture. Against this little illustrated disagreement, Moya shows his conviction that this deep chasm should and can be overcome, starting from the advances that evolutionary biology, and in general the sciences of life could provide as common base upon which to think and from which to think both science and life, both the sense of science and the meaning of human life. The intellectual adventure of A. Moya may be seen as an example of honesty and rigor, advocating against any reductionism for keeping open the creative tensions between biology and spirit.