Mathilde Tahar

I am very happy to share this piece with you, exploring the link between inventiveness and play in nonhuman animals. It was written with care and a sincere desire to convey what science and philosophy can teach us about this fascinating topic. I hope you enjoy reading it! aeon.co/essays/how-e...

Delighted to confirm that Mathilde Tahar (UCL) @drmathildetahar.bsky.social is also included in our expert line-up!!

Tomorrow at 9:30 AM, I’ll be defending some Dennettian ideas about agency in animal cognition for the project @animalinvention.bsky.social Informations online: www.animalinventiveness.com Many thanks to @drmathildetahar.bsky.social and Alecia Carter for this wonderful workshop program @ucl.ac.uk

Mon essai sur la place du temps en biologie et sur la complexité de la durée du vivant est sorti ! Ça parle de Bergson mais aussi des pollinisateurs et d’écologie, de théories bancales et des histoires complexes qui tissent les cultures animales. Il est en librairies, en bonne compagnie.

We are delighted to invite you to the interdisciplinary workshop of @animalinvention.bsky.social on Agency between Biology and Philosophy. It will take place at UCL and online on 22-23 September. All info and registration details can be found here: www.animalinventiveness.com/post/interna...

The next session of our seminar is tomorrow! Christopher Joseph Gonzalez will talk about normative agency in nonhumans ! Info on how to join can be found here : www.animalinventiveness.com/post/seminar... We are looking forward to discussing this fascinating topic with you!

Hello everyone, The next session of our seminar on Agency between Biology and Philosophy will take place tomorrow 13th of May from 4 to 5 PM (UK time) on Zoom. This session on AI agency will be led by Leonard Dung. Feel free to join us :) www.animalinventiveness.com/post/seminar...

Le CNRS poursuit son projet d'agrandir son élevage de primates non humains. Le but est d'y élever au maximum 1 800 primates pour, à partir de 2032, en produire de 250 à 300 par an et les vendre aux laboratoires de recherche publics français à des fins d'expérimentations scientifiques.

Save the dates !!

A year ago !!! « I am very happy to share this piece, exploring the link between inventiveness and play in our fellow nonhuman animals. It was written with care and a sincere desire to convey what science and philosophy can teach us about this fascinating topic. » aeon.co/essays/how-e...

Hello everyone ! Our Agency Between Biology and Philosophy seminar is coming back ! I am very happy (and honoured) to say that Denis Walsh will be leading this session, on Ecological Agency. => Zoom => 8 April from 4 to 5 PM, UK time => how to join? Here: www.animalinventiveness.com/post/seminar...

The next session of our transdisciplinary (biology-philosophy) seminar on Agency will take place this Wednesday on Zoom ! Hugh Desmond will talk about agency and cognitive capacities! More info on how to join us here: www.animalinventiveness.com/post/seminar...

The next session of our transdisciplinary (biology-philosophy) seminar on Agency will take place next Wednesday. Marek Špinka will talk about play in nonhuman animals, and I expect it to be super cool ! 😎 More info here : www.animalinventiveness.com/post/seminar...

À paraître cette année chez Vrin ! Le temps du vivant, discussion de Bergson à l’aune de l’histoire de la biologie et des découvertes contemporaines

Tomorrow is the first session of the 2026 edition of our online seminar on animal agency! This session will be led by Lisa Yon and will explore ways to promote agency in captive animals (especially elephants!). 🐘 Hoping to see many of you! www.animalinventiveness.com/post/seminar...

In 2024, my colleagues and I organized the @evothan symposium, bringing together experts in comparative thanatology from around the world. At the time, a French documentary team captured many of us in action: now available to watch here (w/ Eng subtitles): www.arte.tv/fr/videos/11... #animalgrief

The next session of our online seminar is tomorrow !! Angie Pepper will be presenting, on the topic « A good life or their own life? Rethinking nonhuman animal interests in freedom ». Relevant information can be found here : www.animalinventiveness.com/post/seminar... You’re welcome to join!

Next session is tomorrow ! Come and join us to unveil the mystery of animal agency (or just try to make sense of the concept actually…)! Daria Zakharova will be presenting. www.animalinventiveness.com/post/seminar...

This is a book I am really looking forward to read 😍 : The Arrogant Ape by @christinewebb.bsky.social (spoiler alert: we are the said arrogant apes) Will report once done 📚🤓

As Bonfire Night approaches, new research lnkd.in/epBXK8Tu by @distrustful-dinos.bsky.social and me shows that fireworks significantly disturb urban corvids. OA: ecoevorxiv.org/repository/d... #BonfireNight #Wildlife #AnimalWelfare #Corvids 📸 Photo: @distrustful-dinos.bsky.social

Our seminar on animal agency, between biology and philosophy, is back ! Check out the programme for the next sessions here ! We meet on the second Wednesday of each month, on Zoom, from 4 to 5 PM (UK time). You’re very welcome to join ! :) www.animalinventiveness.com/post/seminar...

Peut-on confronter la philosophie bergsonienne aux problèmes de la biologie contemporaine de l'évolution ? Entre finalisme et mécanisme, M. Tahar montre la fécondité toujours actuelle de l'élan vital.

"Comme l’histoire humaine, celle de la vie est imprévisible et n’offre que rétrospectivement l’illusion d’un enchaînement causal déterministe." À lire aujourd'hui sur @laviedesidees.bsky.social, la recension par Renan Strauss de 'Du finalisme en biologie' de @drmathildetahar.bsky.social ⤵️

Il y a un an, je finissais mon livre… www.puf.com/du-finalisme...

I wrote about the slow death of the French public intellectual app.thenewworld.co.uk/story/138799...

I wonder, if we truly believe we are so much better than other species, why have we spent thousands of years driving home the point?

In a letter drawn from a posthumous collection of correspondence, published in 2019, the neurologist Oliver Sacks argued that society had no immunity to the seductions of digital life. “What we are seeing—and bringing on ourselves—resembles a neurological catastrophe on a gigantic scale,” he wrote.

Great paper on the degrees and levels of innovativeness, contributing to the ongoing debate on how to compare innovations & the ability to innovate !! (Nb. to be distinguished from the propensity to invent, which we are studying in chacma baboons @animalinvention.bsky.social ).

🔥New paper out!🔥 Here, Grant & I defend a novel, multidimensional account of behavioural innovativeness that is multilevel too. This complicates comparative claims, as the links btwn individual & group innovativeness are far from straightforward. Yes, #Neanderthals do pop up in the mix 💀🏺 #philsky

"L'animal est omniprésent dans l'œuvre de Bergson, apparaissant comme un modèle nécessaire à la fois pour penser l’humanité, et pour la replacer dans le mouvement général de l’évolution." 🐁🦩🐘🐒 Penser l'animal avec Bergson, par @drmathildetahar.bsky.social ⤵️

Les découvertes de la biologie contemporaine donnent un contenu empirique à l'idée bergsonienne selon laquelle les animaux insèrent de l'indétermination dans le monde. Bergson apparaît dès lors comme le complément philosophique nécessaire aux avancées de l'éthologie et de la biologie de l'évolution.

Mieux comprendre les animaux en mêlant philosophie bergsonienne et biologie contemporaine, c’est ma niche écologique 🌱 J’y parle de Bergson (évidemment), de babouins, de corbeaux, et de la mode du chapeau-saumon 🐒 🐦‍⬛ 🐳 laviedesidees.fr/Penser-l-ani...

Notre discussion avec @fmoullard.bsky.social sur la conscience animale, guidée par Fabien Trécourt, est désormais disponible en podcast! On y a parlé du jeu des poulpes🐙, des collaborations entre loups et corbeaux🐺 🐦‍⬛et de ce que ça fait d'être une chauve-souris 🦇! smartlink.ausha.co/soirees-phil...

The next session of our seminar will take place on Thursday! I will be leading this session. (Note: I am on maternity leave, and chose to lead this session! That's how passionate I am about the subject!) You're very welcome to join us through Zoom! www.animalinventiveness.com/post/seminar...

Très heureuse de vous annoncer la publication de cet article bergsonien sur la conscience de la vie, et surtout la conscience des vivants non-humains ! shs.cairn.info/revue-archiv... (Ps. Dans le même numéro, il y a une recension de mon livre par Tobias Endres 😃 !!)

vient de sortir!. « logique et épistémologie. » ( Vrin) Une publication de référence, qui couvre l’ensemble des domaines de la logique et de la philosophie des sciences. Pas d’équivalent en français. Cela existe grâce à Pierre Wagner. Merci pour l’invitation à y contribuer:)

Merci @ferrydanini.bsky.social pour l'annonce ! Cette page sera en effet tenue à jour par @cangleraux.bsky.social pour participer à donner de la visibilité à la Société de Philosophie des Sciences sur ce réseau ✨

i enjoyed this piece. all fair. tho, as a fellow Bergson lover, i lean away from play as adaption toward an overflowing in affordance. like "open" in Two Sources. or good old Lear: reason not the need!