Boston University professor to present annual Alfred P. Stiernotte Lecture in Philosophy at Quinnipiac University Sept. 26

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Caption: Alfred I. Tauber, professor of philosophy emeritus and Zoltan Kohn professor of medicine emeritus at Boston University. Contributed photo.

Boston University professor to present annual Alfred P. Stiernotte Lecture in Philosophy at Quinnipiac University Sept. 26

Hamden, Conn.  – Sept. 6, 2016 - Alfred I. Tauber, professor of philosophy emeritus and Zoltan Kohn professor of medicine emeritus at Boston University, will present the 32^nd annual Alfred P. Stiernotte Lecture, “Immunity in Context: Science and Society in Dialogue,” at 5 p.m. on Monday, Sept. 26,^, in the Mount Carmel Auditorium at Quinnipiac University, 275 Mount Carmel Ave. The lecture is free and open to the public.

The science of immunology, which is concerned with biological identity, has two competing views. The first regards the organism as insular and autonomous, an entity that must defend its borders. An alternate view places the organism firmly in its environment, allowing for cooperative relationships. These contending orientations have drawn the attention of social scientists and culture critics. Tauber’s lecture will present the philosophical discussion, which falls into two domains: the status of individuality, organism and agency as conceived within the science; and the status of arguments originating outside the laboratory. 

As an academic physician, Tauber’s laboratory interests focused on the cell biology and biochemistry of the inflammatory reaction, which eventually oriented his later studies in the philosophy and history of science. He has published extensively in ethics and science studies with an emphasis on the critical examination of immunology’s theory and historical development.

Tauber’s “The Immune Self: Theory or Metaphor?” (Cambridge, 1994) was the first philosophical study of contemporary immunology. In “Confessions of a Medicine Man” (MIT 1999) and “Patient Autonomy and the Ethics of Responsibility” (MIT 2005), he focused on the doctor-patient relationship and developed his views on the ethics of medicine, defining the moral status of the patient and advocating for patient-centered medicine. In other philosophical writing, he has published books on Thoreau, Freud and Wittgenstein. His latest book, “Immunity: The Evolution of an Idea,” will be published by Oxford University Press in early 2017. 

Tauber served as chief of the Hematology-Oncology Division at Boston City Hospital from 1982-91 and as director of the Center for Philosophy and History of Science at Boston University from 1993-2010. In 2008, he received the Science Medal from the University of Bologna in Bologna, Italy, and was awarded an honorary doctorate from the University of Haifa in Haifa, Israel, in 2011.

The Stiernotte lecture series is named in honor of the late Alfred P. Stiernotte, who initiated the teaching of philosophy at Quinnipiac more than 50 years ago, and has been funded largely from an endowment provided by his estate. The lecture is traditionally one of the first academic events of the year.

For more information, call 203-582-8652.