This work was created for eLife, a non-profit organisation inspired by research funders and led by scientists. This artwork was designed to complement a series of articles offering philosophical perspectives on the life sciences. The artwork was created to highlight that scientific philosophers are moving away from discussing only evolution to now encompass a wide range of topics. The subjects covered in this series included philosophical bias, synthetic biology, regeneration, stem cells, microbiology, immunology, big data, and the use of art to better understand a biological process.
At first, the philosophy of science revolved around the evolutionary theories of life on earth. However, its focus shifted and numerous scientific topics emerged that supply data for philosophical speculation. The latter tries to unravel and define the foundations, methods and implications of science as a whole. Hereby philosophers create and evaluate the models of natural systems, which is also termed cognition and metacognition.
