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77Not Music, but Musics: A Case for Conceptual Pluralism in AestheticsEstetika: The European Journal of Aesthetics 54 (2): 151-174. 2017.We argue for conceptual pluralism about music. In our view, there is no right answer to the question ‘What is music?’ divorced from some context or interest. Instead, there are several, non-equivalent music concepts suited to different interests – from within some tradition or practice, or by way of some research question or field of inquiry. We argue that unitary definitions of music are problematic, that the role music concepts play in various research questions should motivate conceptual plur…Read more
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884Model Organisms are Not (Theoretical) ModelsBritish Journal for the Philosophy of Science 66 (2): 327-348. 2015.Many biological investigations are organized around a small group of species, often referred to as ‘model organisms’, such as the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster. The terms ‘model’ and ‘modelling’ also occur in biology in association with mathematical and mechanistic theorizing, as in the Lotka–Volterra model of predator-prey dynamics. What is the relation between theoretical models and model organisms? Are these models in the same sense? We offer an account on which the two practices are show…Read more
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63Paleobiology and philosophyBiology and Philosophy 34 (2): 31. 2019.I offer four ways of distinguishing paleobiology from neontology, and from this develop a sketch of the philosophy of paleobiology. I then situate and describe the papers in the special issue Paleobiology and Philosophy, and reflect on the value and prospects of paleontology-focused philosophy.
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73Marsupial lions and methodological omnivory: function, success and reconstruction in paleobiologyBiology and Philosophy 30 (2): 187-209. 2015.Historical scientists frequently face incomplete data, and lack direct experimental access to their targets. This has led some philosophers and scientists to be pessimistic about the epistemic potential of the historical sciences. And yet, historical science often produces plausible, sophisticated hypotheses. I explain this capacity to generate knowledge in the face of apparent evidential scarcity by examining recent work on Thylacoleo carnifex, the ‘marsupial lion’. Here, we see two important m…Read more
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Towards a new aesthetics of science: aesthetic cultures and the processes and objects of regardIn Milena Ivanova & Alice Murphy (eds.), The Aesthetics of Scientific Experiments, Routledge. 2023.
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38Reports from the high table: Sepkoski and Ruse : The paleobiological revolution: essays on the growth of modern paleontology, University of Chicago Press, 2009Biology and Philosophy 27 (1): 149-158. 2012.David Sepkoski and Michael Ruse’s edited collection The Peolobiological Revolution covers the changes in paleontological science in the last half-century. The collection should be of interest to philosophers of science (particularly those interested in non-reductive unity) as well as historians. I give an overview of the content and major themes of the volume and draw some lessons for the philosophy of science along the way. In particular, I argue that the history of paleontology demands a new a…Read more
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98From things to thinking: Cognitive archaeologyMind and Language 34 (2): 263-279. 2019.Cognitive archaeologists infer from material remains to the cognitive features of past societies. We characterize cognitive archaeology in terms of trace-based reasoning, which in the case of cognitive archaeology involves inferences drawing upon background theory linking objects from the archaeological record to cognitive features. We analyse such practices, examining work on cognitive evolution, language, and musicality. We argue that the central epistemic challenge for cognitive archaeology i…Read more
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48Epistemic Engagement, Aesthetic Value, and Scientific PracticeBritish Journal for the Philosophy of Science 74 (2): 313-334. 2023.I develop an account of the relationship between aesthetics and knowledge, focusing on scientific practice. Cognitivists infer from ‘partial sensitivity’—aesthetic appreciation partly depends on doxastic states—to ‘factivity’, the idea that the truth or otherwise of those beliefs makes a difference to aesthetic appreciation. Rejecting factivity, I develop a notion of ‘epistemic engagement’: partaking genuinely in a knowledge-directed process of coming to epistemic judgements, and suggest that th…Read more
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14Cleaning, sculpting or preparing? Scientific knowledge in Caitlin Wylie’s preparing dinosaurs (review)Biology and Philosophy 38 (2): 1-12. 2023.Caitlin Wylie’s “Preparing Dinosaurs: the work behind the scenes” (MIT Press 2021) provides a rich ethnographic analysis of the work of fossil preparators. On her account, knowledge in vertebrate paleontology is mediated through a three-way division of labour between paleontologists, preparators and volunteers, each with their own role, expertise and responsibility. In this review, I develop her notion of ‘preparation as knowledge’, focusing in particular on the nature of objectivity in paleonto…Read more
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17Isabelle F. Peschard and Bas C. van Fraassen (Eds.): The Experimental Side of Modeling: (Minnesota Studies in the Philosophy of Science, Vol 21). University of Minnesota Press, Minnesota, 2018, 336 pp., $ 40,00 (Paperback), ISBN: 978-1-5179-0534-7 (review)Journal for General Philosophy of Science / Zeitschrift für Allgemeine Wissenschaftstheorie 51 (3): 499-502. 2020.
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48From Models-as-Fictions to Models-as-ToolsErgo: An Open Access Journal of Philosophy 4. 2017.Many accounts of scientific modeling conceive of models as fictions: scientists interact with models in ways analogous to various aesthetic objects. Fictionalists follow most other accounts of modeling by taking them to be revelatory of the actual world in virtue of bearing some resemblance relation to a target system. While such fictionalist accounts capture crucial aspects of modelling practice, they are ill-suited to some design and engineering contexts. Here, models sometimes serve to underw…Read more
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66Big dragons on small islands: generality and particularity in science: Review of Angela Potochnik’s idealization and the aims of scienceBiology and Philosophy 33 (3-4): 20. 2018.Angela Potochnik’s Idealization and the Aims of Science defends an ambitious and systematic account of scientific knowledge: ultimately science pursues human understanding rather than truth. Potochnik argues that idealization is rampant and unchecked in science. Further, given that idealizations involve departures from truth, this suggests science is not primarily about truth. I explore the relationship between truths about causal patterns and scientific understanding in light of this, and sugge…Read more
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12Big dragons on small islands: generality and particularity in science: Review of Angela Potochnik’s idealization and the aims of science (review)Biology and Philosophy 33 (3-4): 1-12. 2018.Angela Potochnik’s Idealization and the Aims of Science (Chicago) defends an ambitious and systematic account of scientific knowledge: ultimately science pursues human understanding rather than truth. Potochnik argues that idealization is rampant and unchecked in science. Further, given that idealizations involve departures from truth, this suggests science is not primarily about truth. I explore the relationship between truths about causal patterns and scientific understanding in light of this,…Read more
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46Introduction: Creativity, Conservatism & the Social Epistemology of ScienceStudies in History and Philosophy of Science A. forthcoming.
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58Existential risk, creativity & well-adapted scienceStudies in History and Philosophy of Science Part A 76 39-48. 2019.
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41Creativity, conservativeness & the social epistemology of scienceStudies in History and Philosophy of Science Part A 76 1-4. 2019.
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42Existential Risk, Creativity & Well-Adapted ScienceStudies in History and Philosophy of Science. forthcoming.
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41From Models-as-Fictions to Models-as-ToolsErgo: An Open Access Journal of Philosophy 4. 2017.Many accounts of scientific modeling conceive of models as fictions: scientists interact with models in ways analogous to various aesthetic objects. Fictionalists follow most other accounts of modeling by taking them to be revelatory of the actual world in virtue of bearing some resemblance relation to a target system. While such fictionalist accounts capture crucial aspects of modelling practice, they are ill-suited to some design and engineering contexts. Here, models sometimes serve to underw…Read more
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16Comparative Thinking in BiologyCambridge University Press. 2020.Biologists often study living systems in light of their having evolved, of their being the products of various processes of heredity, adaptation, ancestry, and so on. In their investigations, then, biologists think comparatively: they situate lineages into models of those evolutionary processes, comparing their targets with ancestral relatives and with analogous evolutionary outcomes. This element characterizes this mode of investigation - 'comparative thinking' - and puts it to work in understa…Read more
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42Creativity and PhilosophyBritish Journal of Aesthetics 60 (2): 225-229. 2020.Creativity and PhilosophyBerys Gaut and Matthew Kieran Routledge. 2018. pp. 394. £30.99.
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120In defence of story-tellingStudies in History and Philosophy of Science Part A 62 14-21. 2017.We argue that narratives are central to the success of historical reconstruction. Narrative explanation involves tracing causal trajectories across time. The construction of narrative, then, often involves postulating relatively speculative causal connections between comparatively well-established events. But speculation is not always idle or harmful: it also aids in overcoming local underdetermination by forming scaffolds from which new evidence becomes relevant. Moreover, as our understanding …Read more
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37Epistemic Optimism, Speculation, and the Historical SciencesPhilosophy, Theory, and Practice in Biology 11. 2019.Here’s something I’m willing to claim we know: Homo sapiens, in particular the Polynesian settlers who first arrived in Aotearoa around the twelfth century, take the lion’s share of causal blame for the extinction of a lineage of enormous flightless birds: the moa. Stretching to three metres at their tallest, moa were a distinctive and remarkable feature of Aotearoa’s primeval forests, playing the main browser and grazer role in this unique bird-based ecosystem. Once humans turned up forests wer…Read more
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40Forces, friction and fractionation: Denis Walsh’s Organisms, agency, and evolution: 294 pp, Hardcover, ISBN: 1107122104 (review)Biology and Philosophy 32 (6): 1341-1353. 2017.In Denis Walsh’s Organisms, Agency, and Evolution, he argues that new developments in the science of biology motivate a radical change to our metaphysical picture of life: what he calls ‘Situated Darwinism’. The central claim is that we should take the biological world to be at base about organisms, and organisms in a fundamentally teleological sense. We critically examine Walsh’s arguments and suggest further developments.
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66Mass extinctions as major transitionsBiology and Philosophy 34 (2): 29. 2019.Both paleobiology and investigations of ‘major evolutionary transitions’ are intimately concerned with the macroevolutionary shape of life. It is surprising, then, how little studies of major transitions are informed by paleontological perspectives and. I argue that this disconnect is partially justified because paleobiological investigation is typically ‘phenomena-led’, while investigations of major transitions are ‘theory-led’. The distinction turns on evidential relevance: in the former case,…Read more
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45Geoengineering TensionsFutures. forthcoming.There has been much discussion of the moral, legal and prudential implications of geoengineering, and of governance structures for both the research and deployment of such technologies. However, insufficient attention has been paid to how such measures might affect geoengineering in terms of the incentive structures which underwrite scientific progress. There is a tension between the features that make science productive, and the need to govern geoengineering research, which has thus far gone un…Read more
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53Bottled Understanding: The Role of Lab Work in EcologyBritish Journal for the Philosophy of Science 71 (3): 905-932. 2020.It is often thought that the vindication of experimental work lies in its capacity to be revelatory of natural systems. I challenge this idea by examining laboratory experiments in ecology. A central task of community ecology involves combining mathematical models and observational data to identify trophic interactions in natural systems. But many ecologists are also lab scientists: constructing microcosm or ‘bottle’ experiments, physically realizing the idealized circumstances described in math…Read more
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20Isabelle F. Peschard and Bas C. van Fraassen (Eds.): The Experimental Side of ModelingJournal for General Philosophy of Science / Zeitschrift für Allgemeine Wissenschaftstheorie 51 (3): 499-502. 2020.
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20Creativity Without Agency: Evolutionary Flair & Aesthetic EngagementErgo: An Open Access Journal of Philosophy 10 (n/a). 2023.Common philosophical accounts of creativity align creative products and processes with a particular kind of agency: namely, that deserving of praise or blame. Considering evolutionary examples, we explore two ways of denying that creativity requires forms of agency. First, we argue that decoupling creativity from praiseworthiness comes at little cost: accepting that evolutionary processes are non-agential, they nonetheless exhibit many of the same characteristics and value associated with creati…Read more