Marie Gaille

Marie Gaille is Director of Research at the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), authorized to direct research in philosophy, and affiliated with the SPHERE laboratory (UMR 7219). She serves as Director of CNRS Humanities & Social Sciences since September 2021, previously serving as Deputy Scientific Director from 2014-2021. She is a member of the Carson-Veil class of the CNRS research executive training (2017) and co-chairs the National Interdisciplinary Research Platform on the End of Life.

• Master's degree in Political Science (Central European University, Budapest; State University of New York, USA)
• Agrégée in philosophy
• Former student of the École Normale Supérieure

Her research focuses on the history and meaning of the relationship between medicine, anthropology and philosophy, examining the epistemological and ethical implications of illness experience, bodily dimensions of human life, and the relationship between living beings and their environment. She specializes in medical decisions regarding life thresholds, ethical issues in medical care for the chronically ill and elderly, and the relationship between health, illness and environment. Her conceptual, critical and normative approach contextualizes issues within epistemological, social, legal and political frameworks, fostering interdisciplinary dialogue between philosophy and medicine. Since her 2004 doctoral thesis Freedom and Civil Conflict – Machiavellian Politics between History and Medicine, she has pursued reflections on citizenship rights, civil conflict and democratic dynamics.

Her recent scholarly output reveals a strong emphasis on chronic illness experiences, planetary health frameworks, and ethical dimensions of medical decision-making, particularly during the pandemic. Her work demonstrates increasing integration of patient lived experiences into medical ethics frameworks, with growing attention to environmental health determinants and cross-cultural approaches to bioethics. The trajectory shows evolution from theoretical philosophical work toward more applied, interdisciplinary research addressing contemporary health challenges through collaborative frameworks.

• Member of Carson-Veil class of CNRS research executive training (2017)
• Member of Scientific Council of OPECST (Parliamentary Office for Evaluation of Scientific and Technological Choices) since 2024
• Co-director of PUF's 'Sciences in the City' philosophical works collection
• Member of editorial board for 'Thinking in Extremes: Machiavellian Series' published by Brill

Dr. Gaille leads the ANR EpiPhiNoRe project ('Reinvented Normalities' and chronic condition Philosophical and epidemiological approaches to patients' perspectives) and has coordinated numerous interdisciplinary research initiatives including the NORMAVI project on normal life experiences with chronic illness and the ETHE project on therapeutic education for Parkinson's disease. She has supervised doctoral students through SPHERE laboratory's monthly doctoral workshop (2013-2021) and organized numerous interdisciplinary events bridging philosophy, medicine and social sciences. Her institutional leadership extends to editorial roles with journals including Laboratoire italien, Asterion, and Raison publique, as well as co-founding the journal Soin, sens et santé.

As a central figure in the SPHERE laboratory, she contributes to its interdisciplinary research axes including History and Philosophy of Medicine and Interdisciplinarity in the history and philosophy of science. She has co-organized workshops and seminars exploring connections between philosophy and medical practice, including the 'Kurt Goldstein: a biologist, a physician, a philosopher or an anthropologist?' international workshop and the 'Soin technologique et éducation thérapeutique' interdisciplinary day. Her work exemplifies the laboratory's mission to bridge historical, philosophical and scientific perspectives on human knowledge systems.