Contemporary biological (and biomedical) research has strongly influenced existing philosophical debates and has created new ones in the recent years in epistemology, general philosophy, and ethics. My purpose in this paper is not to review these debates, ranging from reductionism to human dignity, in general terms, but to argue about a possible and closer interaction between philosophy as such and biological research as such. This kind of interaction takes place more and more today in laboratories of cognitive science or in hospitals. Some years ago, at least in France, this happened more seldomly. I wish to present some historical and perhaps also more personal comments on this practice of "epistemology in the field", or "philosophy within science".