Jazmine Gabriel

Jazmine Gabriel is currently working towards her PhD in philosophy from the University of Oregon, where she has been a Graduate Teaching Fellow since 2004. She is currently working on her dissertation, ‘The Problem of Life,’ which concerns the relationship between the ontology of contemporary biology and early modern interpretations of nature/human nature. Her general interests lie in the thematic intersections between philosophy of science, phenomenology, and social/political philosophy.

My dissertation takes as its starting point Hans Jonas’ work in The Phenomenon of Life, which he describes as an ‘existential interpretation of the biological facts.’ What is an existential interpretation of ‘biological facts’? Will it give us a different view of humanity than the one we typically get from the sciences, for example, that we are reducible to our ‘selfish genes’? My work focuses on interpreting the existential significance of key concepts in the ontology of biology that support an understanding of human beings as continuous with the rest of nature in their freedom, responsibility, and creativity. I would like to suggest that understanding the historical transformations of the concepts of causality at work in our explanations of life is a useful way to understand the tensions between secular and religious identities insofar as it reveals that the meaning of ‘materialism’ is not fixed. Instead, we construct a narrative or myth about humanity’s situation in nature that changes according to the ‘scientific facts’ of the age. This narrative often derived from ‘facts’ that have long since been revised or rejected. Thus, revisiting currently accepted scientific ideas and considering their significance for our own self-understanding is one way to challenge common myths about our scientific natures without abandoning dialogue with the sciences altogether.