Marta Bertolaso
University Campus Bio-Medico of Rome, Italy
Fall Term 2012
Biological Complexity and Contingency in Hierarchical Organized Systems

Marta Bertolaso is an Assistant Professor of Philosophy of Science at the University Campus Bio-Medico of Rome. She has been studying the Epistemology of Biology with a specific focus on cancer research and on the philosophical implications of the theoretical models that have been proposed to account for its occurrence.  She is currently exploring the relationships between contingency, hierarchy and causal complexity in the study of cancer. In particular, her interest deals with how features of organizational levels are structured. She aims at providing both a better understanding of that phenomenon and drawing lessons for the epistemology of complex systems in general. She enjoys discussing issues with her students and colleagues. 

Some of her hobbies include: collecting and arranging flowers and interior decoration in general. When you cannot find her in the University or at home, look for her in some beautiful, natural place with trees, rivers and flowers. She also enjoys walking and biking. Reading a good book over a cup of tea is another good option for resting and enjoying the company of family and friends when the weather does not allow for anything else.

2013 Update

Refereed Papers:

Bertolaso M. (2012) La Dimensione non Riduzionista del Riduzionismo nella Ricerca Sperimentale Dai Modelli Molecolari a Quelli Sistemici nella Ricerca sul Cancro. Rivista Di Filosofia Neo-Scolastica, Special Issue, Vol. 4 (in press).

Bertolaso M. (2013) On the Structure of Biological Explanations: Beyond Functional Ascriptions in Cancer Research. Epistemologia, Vol. 35 (in press).

Bertolaso M. (2013) La Indeterminación Biológica y las Perspectivas Sistémicas de la Biología Contemporánea, in un Volume Speciale su “El debate sobre el determinismo. Nuevas perspectivas desde la ciencia contemporánea”, Special Issue, Anuario Filosófico (in press).

Bertolaso M. (2013) Breaking Down Levels of Biological Organization, Theoretical Biology Forum (accepted).

Collective Books’ Chapters:

Bertolaso M. (2013) Sulla ‘irriducibilità’ della prospettiva sistemica in biologia. In: L. Urbani Ulivi (Ed) Strutture di mondo. Il pensiero sistemico come specchio di una realtà complessa, Il Mulino, Bologna (in press).

Bertolaso M., Giuliani A., Filippi S. (2013) The Mesoscopic Level and its Epistemological Relevance in Systems Biology, André X. C. N. Valente AXCN, Gao Y, Sarkar A (Eds) Recent Advances in Systems Biology, NovaScience (invited chapter, in press).

Book:

Bertolaso M. (2013) How Science works. Choosing Levels of Explanation in Biological Sciences, Aracne (in press)

2014 Update

Papers

Barcaccia B., Esposito G., Matarese M., Bertolaso M., Elvira M., De Marinis M.G. (2013) Defining quality of life: a wild-goose chase?, Europe’s Journal of Psychology, special issue Quality of Life in Social Science & Clinical Medicine, Vol. 9(1), 185–203, doi:10.5964/ejop.v9i1.484.

Bertolaso M (2013). On the Structure of Biological Explanations: Beyond Functional Ascriptions in Cancer Research. Epistemologia, vol. 36, p. 112-130.

Bertolaso M. (2013) a Indeterminación Biológica y las Perspectivas Sistémicas de la Biología Contemporáne - Biological Uncertainty and the Systemic Perspectives of Contemporary Biology . Anuario Filosofico, vol. 46, p. 365-386.

Bertolaso M (2013) Breaking Down Levels of Biological Organization, Theoretical Biology Forum, Vol 106, 49-72.

Bertolaso M (2014) Why it has been so difficult to pin down with a definition of nature. In a Special Issue on “Rethinking Nature”, Teoria (call for a special issue). In press.

Bertolaso M, Ghilardi G (2014) Semantic roots of reductionism’s limits, Neoscolastica. In press.

Giuliani A, Filippi S, Bertolaso M (2014) Why network approach can promote a new way of thinking in biology, hosted by Dr(s) Xiaogang Wu, Hans Westerhoff, Pierre De Meyts, Hiroaki Kitano in Frontiers in Genetics (Systems Biology). http://journal.frontiersin.org/Journal/10.3389/fgene.2014.00083/abstract

Bertolaso M (2014) La complessità del cancro. Verso nuove categorie concettuali per comprendere la rilevanza del contesto, Medicina & Storia accepted.

Chapters of books

Bertolaso M (2013). Le frontiere dell’oggettività e le nuove prospettive aperte dalla ricerca oncologica. In: Elio Borgonovi e Paolo Tralongo . Contenimento Economico e Umanizzazione dell’assistenza. p. 41-57, EdiScience,

Bertolaso M. (2013) Sulla ‘irriducibilità’ della prospettiva sistemica in biologia. Un’analisi delle convergenze dei modelli interpretativi del cancro.. In: L. Urbani Ulivi . Strutture di mondo. Il pensiero sistemico come specchio di una realtà complessa.. p. 143-169, Bologna, Il Mulino.

Bertolaso M, Giuliani A, Filippi S (2013) The Mesoscopic Level and its Epistemological Relevance in Systems Biology. In: Recent Advances in Systems Biology. Nova Science Publishers, Inc. (ISBN: 978-1-62948-736-6)

Books

Bertolaso M (2013) How Science works. Choosing Levels of Explanation in Biological Sciences, Aracne s.r.l., Rome.

2015 Update

I have received the Italian Abilitazione Nazionale for Associate Professor in Philosophy of Science (SSD: M-Fil02)

Promoted and leading the Bio-Techno-Practice Project: www.biotechnopractice.org

Papers

1. Bertolaso M (2014) “Why it has been so difficult to pin down with a definition of nature”. In a Special Issue on “Rethinking Nature”, Teoria (call for a special issue), 34(1): 75-92.

2. Bertolaso M, Ghilardi G (2014) “Semantic roots of reductionism’s limits”, Neoscolastica, 3: 481-500.

3. Giuliani A, Filippi S, Bertolaso M (2014) “Why network approach can promote a new way of thinking in biology”, hosted by Dr(s) Xiaogang Wu, Hans Westerhoff, Pierre De Meyts, Hiroaki Kitano in Frontiers in Genetics (Systems Biology), Vol 5 (83), 1-5. 

4. Bertolaso M (2014) “La complessità del cancro. Verso nuove categorie concettuali per comprendere la rilevanza del contesto”, Medicina & Storia, 5: 97-120.

5. Loppini A, Capolupo A, Cherubini C, Gizzi A, Bertolaso M, Filippi S, Vitiello G (2014), “On the coherent behavior of pancreatic beta cell clusters”, Physics Letters A, 378: 3210–17.          

6. Di Stefano N, Bertolaso M (2014) “Understanding Musical Consonance and Dissonance: Epistemological Considerations from a Systemic Perspective.” In a  Special Issue "Towards a Second Generation General System Theory" , Systems, 2: 566-575.

7. Bertolaso M (2014), “Cancer and its complexity: epistemological implications” (Editorial), in “Cancer and its Complexity: Epistemological and Ethical Reflections”, Numero Speciale Medic. Metodologia Didattica ed Innovazione Clinica, M. Bertolaso (Ed.), Vol. 2.

8. Bertolaso M (2015), “Emerging Epistemologies in life sciences”, Rivista di Neoscolastica, Vol. 1-2, in press.

9.  Bertolaso M; Capolupo; Cherubini C.; Filippi S.; Gizzi A.; Loppini A.; Vitiello G., “The Role of Coherence in Emergent Behavior of Biological Systems”, IEBM: Electromagnetic Biology and Medicine, ID: 1036069

10. Di Bernardo M, Dieli AM, Bertolaso M (2015) “Thinking out of the box: Education as a Relational Challenge”, Medic. Metodologia Didattica ed Innovazione Clinica, in press.

Book Chapters

1. Bertolaso M, Di Stefano N, Ghilardi G, Marcos A (2015) “Bio-Techno-Logos and Scientific Practice” –, in The Future of Scientific Practice: ‘Bio-Techno-Logos’, Bertolaso M. (Ed.), Pickering & Chatto Publishers.

2. Bertolaso M (2015) “Philosophy within Science” in The Future of Scientific Practice: ‘Bio-Techno-Logos’, Bertolaso M. (Ed.), Pickering & Chatto Publishers.

3. Bertolaso M. (2015),  “A System Approach to Cancer. From Things to Relations”, in Green, S. (ed.), Philosophy of Systems Biology: 5 Questions. Copenhagen: Automatic Press, in press.

4. Bertolaso M (2015) “Biological Determinations: Stability wins” in Strutture di Mondo (Urbani Ulivi L. Ed.), Vol. III, in press.

5.  Di Stefano N & Bertolaso M (2015) 'Systemic perspective and trans-disciplinary approach: convergences from two different case studies'. In Towards a post-Bertalanffy Systemics, Minati, G., Abram, M. and Pessa, E., (eds.), Springer, New York, in press.

6.  Bertolaso M, Güell F (2015) “Requiere la complejidad biológica un marco indeterminista” en Determinismo o Indeterminismo. Grandes preguntas de la Biología, C. Vanney & J.F. Franck (eds.), Colección  “De las Ciencias a la Filosofía”, Logos-Universidad Austral, Rosario-Pilar.

Books
Bertolaso M (Ed) (2015), “The Future of Scientific Practice: ‘Bio-Techno-Logos’”, Pickering & Chatto Publishers, London.

2016 Update

BOOKS
Bertolaso M (Ed) (2015), The Future of Scientific Practice: ‘Bio-Techno-Logos’, Pickering & Chatto Publishers, London.

BOOK CHAPTERS

Bertolaso M. (2016), “A System Approach to Cancer. From Things to Relations”, in Green, S. (ed.), Philosophy of Systems Biology – Perspectives from Scientists and Philosophers. Springer, History, Philosophy and Theory of the Life Sciences (HPTL)

PAPERS

• Bertolaso M, Caianiello S (2016) Robustness as Organized Heterogeneity, Rivista di Filosofia Neo-Scolastica, Vol. 108, in press.
• Valera L & Bertolaso M (2016) Understanding biodiversity from a relational viewpoint, Tópicos, Vol 51, in press.
• Giuliani A, Bartolini E, Bertolaso M (2016), L’humus della scienza: per una necessaria riscoperta della meraviglia e della cooperazione nella ricerca scientifica. Scienze e Ricerche, 28: 5-8.

SPECIAL ISSUES

Bertolaso M. & MacLeod M (Eds) (2016) In Silico Modeling: the Human Factor, Humana.Mente Journal of Philosophical Studies, in press.

2017

Papers
 
1.               Bertolaso M, Caianiello S (2016) Robustness as Organized Heterogeneity, Rivista di Filosofia Neo-Scolastica, Vol. CVIII (2), pp. 293-303. ISSN 0035-6247
 
2.               Valera L & Bertolaso M (2016) Understanding biodiversity from a relational viewpoint (La comprensión de la biodiversidad desde un punto de vista relacional), Tópicos, Vol 51, 37-54. ISSN 0188-6649
 
3.     Giuliani A, Bartolini E, Bertolaso M (2016), L’humus della scienza: per una necessaria riscoperta della meraviglia e della cooperazione nella ricerca scientifica. Scienze e Ricerche, 28: 1-4. ISSN 2283-5873
 
4.             B Bertolaso M. & MacLeod M (Eds) (2016) In Silico Modeling: the Human Factor, Humana.Mente Journal of Philosophical Studies, Vol. 30, pp. III-XV. ISSN 2283-5873
 
5.     Bertolaso M & Di Bernardo M (2016) Questioni Epistemologiche Emergenti nelle Bio-Discipline (Epistemic Values at the intersection of Bio-Techno-Practice. An introduction to Biodisciplines) in Biodisciplines (a cura di Marta Bertolaso e Mirko Di Bernardo), Scienze e Ricerche, 30: pp. 5-8. ISSN 2283 5873
 
6.     Bertolaso M, Frezza G (2016), Bio-techno-practice: personal and social responsibility in the academic work (Bio-techno-practice: responsabilità personale e sociale nel lavoro di ricerca), Medic – Metodologia didattica e innovazione tecnologica 2016; 24(1): 75-84.
ISSN 1824-3991
 
 
Book Chapters
 
12. Bertolaso M (2016) “Disentangling Context Dependencies in Biological Sciences”, in L. Felline, F. Paoli, E. Rossanese (Eds) New Directions in Logic and Philosophy of Science, College Publications, London, pp. 245-255. ISBN 978-184-890-160-5
 
Special Issue (Editor)
 
2. Bertolaso M. & MacLeod M (Eds) (2016) In Silico Modeling: the Human Factor, HUMANA.MENTE Journal of Philosophical Studies. AA.VV., vol. 30. ISSN 1972 1293
 
3. Bertolaso M, Di Bernardo M (Eds) (2016) Bio-Disciplines, Scienze & Ricerche.
ISSN 2283 5873
 
Books
 
Bertolaso M. (2016) Philosophy of Cancer – A Dynamic and Relational View. Springer Series in “History, Philosophy & Theory of the Life Sciences”. ISBN 978-94-024-0863-8