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12Darwin’s ‘imaginary illustrations’: creatively teaching evolutionary concepts and the nature of scienceThe American Biology Teacher 72. 2010.An overlooked feature of Darwin’s work is his use of “imaginary illustrations” to show that natural selection is competent to produce adaptive, evolutionary change. When set in the context of Darwin’s methodology, these thought
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31Conceptual Change in Biology: Scientific and Philosophical Perspectives on Evolution and Development (edited book)Springer Verlag, Boston Studies in the Philosophy of Science. 2015.This volume explores questions about conceptual change from both scientific and philosophical viewpoints by analyzing the recent history of evolutionary developmental biology. It features revised papers that originated from the workshop "Conceptual Change in Biological Science: Evolutionary Developmental Biology, 1981-2011" held at the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science in Berlin in July 2010. The Preface has been written by Ron Amundson. In these papers, philosophers and biologist…Read more
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21Conceptual change and evolutionary developmental biologyIn Alan C. Love (ed.), Conceptual Change in Biology: Scientific and Philosophical Perspectives on Evolution and Development, Springer Verlag, Boston Studies in the Philosophy of Science. pp. 1-54. 2015.The 1981 Dahlem conference was a catalyst for contemporary evolutionary developmental biology (Evo-devo). This introductory chapter rehearses some of the details of the history surrounding the original conference and its associated edited volume, explicates the philosophical problem of conceptual change that provided the rationale for a workshop devoted to evaluating the epistemic revisions and transformations that occurred in the interim, explores conceptual change with respect to the concept o…Read more
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20The erotetic organization of developmental biologyIn A. Minelli & T. Pradeu (eds.), Towards a Theory of Development, Oxford University Press. 2014.Developmental biology is the science of explaining how a variety of interacting processes generate the heterogeneous shapes, size, and structural features of an organism as it develops rom embryo to adult, or more generally throughout its life cycle (Love, 2008b; Minelli, 2011a). Although it is commonplace in philosophy to associate sciences with theories such that the individuation of a science is dependent on a constitutive theory or group of models, it is uncommon to find presentations of dev…Read more
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109The Idealization of Causation in Mechanistic ExplanationPhilosophy of Science 82 (5): 761-774. 2015.Causal relations among components and activities are intentionally misrepresented in mechanistic explanations found routinely across the life sciences. Since several mechanists explicitly advocate accurately representing factors that make a difference to the outcome, these idealizations conflict with the stated rationale for mechanistic explanation. We argue that these idealizations signal an overlooked feature of reasoning in molecular and cell biology—mechanistic explanations do not occur in i…Read more
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153Looking beyond gene concepts (review)Philosophy of Science 73 (2). 2006.Book Review: What Genes Can’t Do By Lenny Moss
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60Microbes modeling ontogenyBiology and Philosophy 28 (2): 161-188. 2013.Model organisms are central to contemporary biology and studies of embryogenesis in particular. Biologists utilize only a small number of species to experimentally elucidate the phenomena and mechanisms of development. Critics have questioned whether these experimental models are good representatives of their targets because of the inherent biases involved in their selection (e.g., rapid development and short generation time). A standard response is that the manipulative molecular techniques ava…Read more
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13From Arabidopsis and Antirrhinum to Arabia and Antioch (review)Evolution & Development 15 158-159. 2013.From Arabidopsis and Antirrhinum to Arabia and Antioch: a review of cells to civilizations: the principles of change that shape life Cells to Civilizations: The Principles of Change That Shape Life, Coen, E. 2012. Princeton University Press, Princeton, NJ. 312 pp. ISBN 978-0-691-14967-7
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99Explaining evolutionary innovations and novelties: Criteria of explanatory adequacy and epistemological prerequisitesPhilosophy of Science 75 (5): 874-886. 2008.It is a common complaint that antireductionist arguments are primarily negative. Here I describe an alternative nonreductionist epistemology based on considerations taken from multidisciplinary research in biology. The core of this framework consists in seeing investigation as coordinated around sets of problems (problem agendas) that have associated criteria of explanatory adequacy. These ideas are developed in a case study, the explanation of evolutionary innovations and novelties, which demon…Read more
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13Developmental biologyThe Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. 2015.Developmental biology is the science of explaining how a variety of interacting processes generate an organism’s heterogeneous shapes, size, and structural features that arise on the trajectory from embryo to adult, or more generally throughout a life cycle. It represents an exemplary area of contemporary experimental biology that focuses on phenomena that have puzzled natural philosophers and scientists for more than two millennia.
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72Conceptualizing Evolutionary Novelty: Moving Beyond Definitional DebatesJournal of Experimental Zoology Part B: Molecular and Developmental Evolution 318 417-427. 2012.According to many biologists, explaining the evolution of morphological novelty and behavioral innovation are central endeavors in contemporary evolutionary biology. These endeavors are inherently multidisciplinary but also have involved a high degree of controversy. One key source of controversy is the definitional diversity associated with the concept of evolutionary novelty, which can lead to contradictory claims (a novel trait according to one definition is not a novel trait according to ano…Read more
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38A Review of Darwin in Galápagos: Footsteps to a New World by K. Thalia Grant and Gregory B. Estes, [2009]
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23Exceeding Our Grasp: Science, History, and the Problem of Unconceived Alternatives by P. Kyle Stanford (review)Review of Metaphysics 62 (1): 155-157. 2008.
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13Methodological pluralism about causation in the sciences (review)Social Choice and Welfare 53 (11): 1247. 2015.Book review of "Causality: Philosophical Theory Meets Scientific Practice" by P. Illari and F. Russo,
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23Review of Ron Amundson, The Changing Role of the Embryo in Evolutionary Thought: Roots of Evo-Devo (review)Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews 2005 (10). 2005.
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12. Ignorance and science: from strange juxtaposition to essential connection (review)Science in Focus. 2012.
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75Formal and material theories in philosophy of science: a methodological interpretationIn Henk W. de Regt (ed.), Epsa Philosophy of Science: Amsterdam 2009, Springer. pp. 175--185. 2012.John Norton’s argument that all formal theories of induction fail raises substantive questions about the philosophical analysis of scientific reasoning. What are the criteria of adequacy for philosophical theories of induction, explanation, or theory structure? Is more than one adequate theory possible? Using a generalized version of Norton’s argument, I demonstrate that the competition between formal and material theories in philosophy of science results from adhering to different criteria of a…Read more
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16Evolutionary developmental biology: philosophical issuesIn Thomas Heams, Philippe Huneman, Guillaume Lecointre & Marc Silberstein (eds.), Handbook of Evolutionary Thinking in the Sciences, Springer. pp. 265-283. 2015.Evolutionary developmental biology (Evo-devo) is a loose conglomeration of research programs in the life sciences with two main axes: (a) the evolution of development, or inquiry into the pattern and processes of how ontogeny varies and changes over time; and, (b) the developmental basis of evolution, or inquiry into the causal impact of ontogenetic processes on evolutionary trajectories—both in terms of constraint and facilitation. Philosophical issues are found along both axes surrounding conc…Read more
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50Collaborative explanation, explanatory roles, and scientific explaining in practiceStudies in History and Philosophy of Science Part A 52 88-94. 2015.Scientific explanation is a perennial topic in philosophy of science, but the literature has fragmented into specialized discussions in different scientific disciplines. An increasing attention to scientific practice by philosophers is (in part) responsible for this fragmentation and has put pressure on criteria of adequacy for philosophical accounts of explanation, usually demanding some form of pluralism. This commentary examines the arguments offered by Fagan and Woody with respect to explana…Read more
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96Typology Reconfigured: From the Metaphysics of Essentialism to the Epistemology of RepresentationActa Biotheoretica 57 (1-2): 51-75. 2008.The goal of this paper is to encourage a reconfiguration of the discussion about typology in biology away from the metaphysics of essentialism and toward the epistemology of classifying natural phenomena for the purposes of empirical inquiry. First, I briefly review arguments concerning ‘typological thinking’, essentialism, species, and natural kinds, highlighting their predominantly metaphysical nature. Second, I use a distinction between the aims, strategies, and tactics of science to suggest …Read more
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34Larval ectoderm, organizational homology, and the origins of evolutionary noveltyJournal of Experimental Zoology (Mol Dev Evol) 306. 2006.Comprehending the origin of marine invertebrate larvae remains a key domain of research for evolutionary biologists, including the repeated origin of direct developmental modes in echinoids. In order to address the latter question, we surveyed existing evidence on relationships of homology between the ectoderm territories of two closely related sea urchin species in the genus Heliocidaris that differ in their developmental mode. Additionally, we explored a recently articulated idea about homolog…Read more
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68More worry and less love?Metascience 17 (1): 1-26. 2008.Review symposium of Alexander Rosenberg’s Darwinian Reductionism: Or, How to Stop Worrying and Love Molecular Biology [2006]. Worry carries with it a connotation of false concern, as in ‘your mother is always worried about you’. And yet some worrying, including that of your mother, turns out to be justified. Alexander Rosenberg’s new book is an extended argument intended to assuage false concerns about reductionism and molecular biology while encouraging a loving embrace of the two.
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13From philosophy to science (to natural philosophy): evolutionary developmental perspectivesThe Quarterly Review of Biology 83. 2008.This paper focuses on abstraction as a mode of reasoning that facilitates a productive relationship between philosophy and science. Using examples from evolutionary developmental biology, I argue that there are two areas where abstraction can be relevant to science: reasoning explication and problem clarification. The value of abstraction is characterized in terms of methodology (modeling or data gathering) and epistemology (explanatory evaluation or data interpretation).
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227Experiments, Intuitions and Images of Philosophy and ScienceAnalysis 73 (4): 785-797. 2013.According to Joshua Alexander, philosophers use intuitions routinely as a form of evidence to test philosophical theories but experimental philosophy demonstrates that these intuitions are unreliable and unrepresentative.1 According to Herman Cappelen, philosophers never use intuitions as evidence (despite the vacuous sentential leader ‘intuitively’) and experimental philosophy lacks a rationale for its much-touted existence.2 That two books are diametrically opposed on methodology in philosophy…Read more
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17Developmental evolution of novel structures – animalsIn R. Kliman (ed.), Encyclopedia of Evolutionary Biology. Volume 3, Academic Press. 2016.The origination of novel structures has long been an intriguing topic for biologists. Over the past few decades it has served as a central theme in evolutionary developmental biology. Yet, definitions of evolutionary innovation and novelty are frequently debated and there remains disagreement about what kinds of causal factors best explain the origin of qualitatively new variation in the history of life. Here we examine aspects of these debates, survey three empirical case studies, and reflect o…Read more
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Areas of Specialization
Philosophy of Biology |
General Philosophy of Science |
Areas of Interest
Philosophy of Biology |
General Philosophy of Science |