The Ramsey Lab
theramseylab.bsky.social
The Ramsey Lab
@theramseylab.bsky.social
The Ramsey philosophy of biology lab at KU Leuven, Belgium.
https://www.theramseylab.org • #HPbio #philsci #philsky #evosky #paleosky #cogsci
Defining non-human #ToolUse remains contested, complicating scientific generalization & inspiring the concept of “tooling.” Our new 📄 @philscijournal.bsky.social proposes a synthetic framework to advance research on 🔧 use & tooling 👇 www.cambridge.org/core/journal... #philsci #cogsci #evosky #HPbio
November 10, 2025 at 2:15 PM
New Element in the #PhilBio series—free to download until Nov 17! Is disease an objective biological fact or a value-laden construct? Peter Takacs argues for a hybrid view that unites both sides under an evolutionary notion of dysfunction👇 www.cambridge.org/core/element... #philsky #philsci #evosky
November 3, 2025 at 2:08 PM
Correlation isn’t causation, as the mantra goes—but statistical noise in correlational data can reveal causal information. When X and Y are causally linked, their noise tends to be asymmetric & this can guide #CausalInference. Check out our 📃👇 doi.org/10.1111/nous... #philsky #philsci #StatsSky #HPS
October 21, 2025 at 9:20 AM
New Element in the Philosophy of Biology series—free to download until Oct. 24! @djnicholson.bsky.social uncovers Schrödinger’s motivations for writing "What Is Life?", revisits its central arguments & examines the book’s lasting impact on cell & molecular biology👇 www.cambridge.org/core/element...
October 17, 2025 at 11:23 AM
Are you curious about what computational methods can offer to #HPS? Then check out the edited volume by Grant Ramsey & @andreasdeblock.bsky.social, published by @upittpress.bsky.social, showcasing key tools, questions, and investigative perspectives 👇📕💻 upittpress.org/books/978082... #philsky #DH
October 13, 2025 at 2:15 PM
New Cambridge Element in the Philosophy of Biology series—fully #openaccess! @thomasreydon.bsky.social explores how evolutionary theory crosses over from biology into other fields, showing how these crossovers embody a broader style of reasoning: 'evolutionary thinking' bit.ly/48z3h36 #HPbio #evosky
October 3, 2025 at 10:50 AM
Alejandro Fábregas-Tejeda (KU Leuven) presenting joint work with Gianmaria Dani and Grant Ramsey and articulating the concept of 'ethospace' to expand on the theoretical toolkit for advancing the comparative study of behavior across the three of life.

#philbio #hpbio #philsky #evosky #behavior🧪
September 27, 2025 at 1:26 PM
Mark Oliver Casper (University of Kassel/ University of Göttingen) discussing points of intersection between enactivism and behavioral biology & strategies for modelling behavioral complexity in response to the Motley Crue Argument.

#evosky #philbio #philsky #4Ecognition
September 27, 2025 at 12:40 PM
Auguste Nahas (@augustenahas.bsky.social) from Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne University makes a case for choice as a topic of philosophical concern and distinguishes among five conceptual roles at play, with implications for the study of choice across the tree of life.

#hpbio #evosky #philsky #philbio
September 27, 2025 at 10:17 AM
Anton Killin (University of Bielefeld) on aesthetic behaviour & cognition.
While the aesthetic is often applied to humans & often to a Western, post-Kantian context, evalutative coevolutionary approaches suggest more promising avenues for research across the tree of life.

#philbio #evosky #philsky
September 27, 2025 at 9:30 AM
Kristin Aleklett (@kaleklett.bsky.social) from Lund University deep diving into the challenges and opportunities for studying the behvioral ecology of fungi. Tinbergen's 4 Qs are applicable, but some are trickier than others (e.g., development)

#evosky #fungi #philsky #behaviouralecology #philbio 🧪
September 27, 2025 at 8:07 AM
Kirsty Wan (@micromotility.bsky.social) starts the second day of the workshop with a tour de force overview of the behavioral complexity of single-celled organisms and ways to study and model it. #evosky #cellbio #HPbio
September 27, 2025 at 7:13 AM
Bengt Autzen (University College Cork) on plants, sensitivity and optimal choice, arguing that is possible to recognize a form of risk-sensitivity in pea plants but its relation to optimal foraging theory needs to be further examined. 🌱

#evosky #philsky #philbio #hpbio #plantbehavior 🧪
September 26, 2025 at 3:15 PM
Gianmaria Dani (KU Leuven) argues that perception, integration & conditioned response should be seen as 3 different steps in the process of classical conditioning & discusses the implications for plant associative learning. Beware of pseudoconditioning!🌱

#evosky #philbio #hpbio #philsky #hpbio 🧪
September 26, 2025 at 2:45 PM
Silvia Guerra (University of Padova) on goal-directed behavior in pea plants. Plants are able to perceive elements in the environment, the features of potential supports and to modulate their behavior according to context.

#evosky #philsky #philbio #hpbio #plantbehavior 🌱🧪
September 26, 2025 at 1:15 PM
Linda Grohmann (University of Wuppertal) argues that comparative research in behavior and cognition represents a double bind—a dilemma arising from the conflicting demands of providing definitions while presenting experimental results.

#evosky #hpbio #philbio #philsky 🧪
September 26, 2025 at 12:42 PM
Nedah N. Nemati (Columbia University) on rethinking behavioral similarity in comparative neurobiology. "Biology will not straightforwardly provide answers to structure without invoking notions of function".

#philsky #hpbio #evosky #behavior #neuroscience 🧪
September 26, 2025 at 10:18 AM
Susana Colinas Fischer (University College London) on what #Celegans can teach us about adapting existing behavioral frameworks to the study of new organisms. Interesting insights on how reward and punishment are integrated in the context of learning.

#evosky #philbio #hpbio #behavior🧪
September 26, 2025 at 8:49 AM
Tobias Starzak (Ruhr University Bochum) analyzing the loci of disagreement in animal minds research across principles of interpretation, new experimental approaches and concept selection.

#hpbio #philsky #evosky #philbio #animalbehavior🧪
September 26, 2025 at 8:22 AM
@alejandrofabregastejeda.com introduces the workshop’s rich, interdisciplinary program and the phylogenetic scope emerging from comparative studies of behavior. Two exciting days are ahead!

#hpbio #evosky #philbio #philsky 🧪
September 26, 2025 at 8:21 AM
The 'Behavior Across the Tree of Life' Workshop has finally kicked off! Here Gianmaria Dani maps the problem space for the event. How should we address behavior beyond animals and avoid the risks of anthropomorphic projection?

#hpbio #philsky #evosky #philbio 🧪
September 26, 2025 at 7:39 AM
Tomorrow we kick off the workshop "Behavior Across the Tree of Life"! We have a stellar lineup of philosophers & scientists who will discuss theoretical and methodological challenges for building a cross-kingdom comparative behavioral biology. Exciting developments to follow! #philsci #evobio #HPBio
September 25, 2025 at 1:55 PM
New Element in the Philosophy of Biology series—free to download until October 6! Walter Veit examines the role of models in evolutionary biology: their types, testability, and interrelations 👇📕 www.cambridge.org/core/element... #philsci #HPBio #evobio
September 24, 2025 at 12:48 PM
Do notions like “programmed #cell death” (PCD) and the endogenous–exogenous death distinction apply to microbes? In our new chapter, we argue that an evolutionary concept of PCD extends across the tree of life, including microbial taxa 👇📃 link.springer.com/chapter/10.1... #evosky #HPbio #philsci 🦠 🔬
September 22, 2025 at 3:06 PM
Organisms alter selective pressures in many ways. But can they also shape the drift probabilities of their populations? In our recent paper, we argue that they can—and, in doing so, we expand the scope of #nicheconstruction theory 📄👇 link.springer.com/article/10.1... #HPBio #evobio #ecology #HPS
September 11, 2025 at 7:13 PM