- Henri Atlan
Henri Atlan (born
27 December 1931 ,Blida ) is a FrenchAlgerian biophysicist and philosopher.Born to a Jewish family in French Algeria, Atlan gained degrees in
medicine andbiophysics at theUniversity of Paris . He then moved to theUniversity of California, Berkeley working on aging and mutation. Influenced byHeinz von Foerster , he became interested in applyingcybernetics andinformation theory to living organisms, and went to theWeizmann Institute inJerusalem to work under the biophysicistAharon Katchalsky . Returning to Paris in 1972, his publications from that year on information theory and self-organizing systems achieved a wide readership. He taught biophysics at theHôtel-Dieu in Paris and theHadassah Medical Center at theHebrew University of Jerusalem . His participation withFrancisco Varela at a conference inCerisy-la-Salle encouraged interest incognitive science in France. Atlan was instrumental in the establishment of theCentre de Recherche en Épistémologie Appliqée (CREA) at theÉcole Polytechnique , and was appointed in 1983 to theComité Consultatif National d'Éthique pour la Sciences de a Vie et de la Santé (National Advisory Commitee on Ethics in the Life Sciences and Medicine). He has been appointed to a chair in the philosophy of biology at theÉcole des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales .Works
*Citation | title=L'organisation biologique et la théorie de l'information | year=1972
*Citation | title=Entre le cristal et la fumée: Essai sur lorganisation de vivant | year=1979
*Citation | title=À tort et à raison: Inter-critique de la science et du mythe | year=1986
*Citation | title=Tout, non, peut-être: Education et vérité | year=1991
*Citation | title=Les étincelles de hasard | year=1999References
*Citation | last=Dupuy | first=Jean-Pierre | contribution=Henri Atlan | title=The Columbia History of Twentieth-Century French Thought | year=2006 | isbn=978-0-231-10790-7
External links
*worldcat id|lccn-n82-129180
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