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26The basic components of the human mind were not solidified during the Pleistocene epochIn Francisco José Ayala & Robert Arp (eds.), Contemporary Debates in Philosophy of Biology, Wiley-blackwell. 2009.There are a number of competing hypotheses about human evolution. For example, Homo habilis and Homo erectus could have existed together, or one could have evolved from the other, and paleontological evidence may allow us to decide between these two hypotheses (see, e.g., Spoor et al., 2007). For most who work on the biology of human behavior, there is no question that human behavior is in some large part a product of evolution. But, there are competing hypotheses in this area as well. Some clai…Read more
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9Reform for the evolutionary social sciences or new theory of human nature? (review)Metascience 25 (3): 479-485. 2016.
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69Models and Modelling in the Sciences: A Philosophical IntroductionRoutledge. 2020.Biologists, climate scientists, and economists all rely on models to move their work forward. In this book, I explore the use of models in these and other fields to introduce readers to the various philosophical issues that arise in scientific modeling. I show that paying attention to models plays a crucial role in appraising scientific work. After surveying a wide range of models from a number of different scientific disciplines, I demonstrate how focusing on models sheds light on many perenni…Read more
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557No Magic Bullet Explains the Evolution of Unique Human TraitsBiological Theory 8 (1): 15-19. 2013.Here I outline the argument in Kim Sterelny’s book The Evolved Apprentice. I present some worries for Sterelny from the perspective of modelers in behavioral ecology. I go on to discuss Sterelny’s approach to moral psychology and finally introduce some potential new applications for his evolved apprentice view
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Ontogeny, phylogeny, and scientific developmentIn V. Harcastle (ed.), Where Biology Meets Psychology, . pp. 273--285. 1999.
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110Moving past the levels of selection debates: review of Samir Okasha’s Evolution and the Levels of Selection: Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2006 (review)Biology and Philosophy 25 (3): 417-423. 2010.
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47Integrating the multiple biological causes of human behaviorBiology and Philosophy 20 (1): 177-190. 2005.I introduce a range of examples of different causal hypotheses about human mate selection. The hypotheses I focus on come from evolutionary psychology, fluctuating asymmetry research and chemical signaling research. I argue that a major obstacle facing an integrated biology of human behavior is the lack of a causal framework that shows how multiple proximate causal mechanisms can act together to produce components of our behavior.
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2277Scientific ModelsPhilosophy Compass 6 (11): 757-764. 2011.This contribution provides an assessment of the epistemological role of scientific models. The prevalent view that all scientific models are representations of the world is rejected. This view points to a unified way of resolving epistemic issues for scientific models. The emerging consensus in philosophy of science that models have many different epistemic roles in science is presented and defended
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198Models, Pictures, and Unified Accounts of Representation: Lessons from Aesthetics for Philosophy of SciencePerspectives on Science 17 (4): 417-428. 2009.Several prominent philosophers of science, most notably Ron Giere, propose that scientific theories are collections of models and that models represent the objects of scientific study. Some, including Giere, argue that models represent in the same way that pictures represent. Aestheticians have brought the picturing relation under intense scrutiny and presented important arguments against the tenability of particular accounts of picturing. Many of these arguments from aesthetics can be used agai…Read more
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743Evolutionary psychology, adaptation and designIn Thomas Heams, Philippe Huneman, Guillaume Lecointre & Marc Silberstein (eds.), Handbook of Evolutionary Thinking in the Sciences, Springer. pp. 659-673. 2015.I argue that Evolutionary Psychologists’ notion of adaptationism is closest to what Peter Godfrey-Smith (2001) calls explanatory adaptationism and as a result, is not a good organizing principle for research in the biology of human behavior. I also argue that adopting an alternate notion of adaptationism presents much more explanatory resources to the biology of human behavior. I proceed by introducing Evolutionary Psychology and giving some examples of alternative approaches to the biological e…Read more
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18Herbert Simon's Computational Models of Scientific DiscoveryPSA: Proceedings of the Biennial Meeting of the Philosophy of Science Association 1990 97-108. 1990.In this paper I evaluate Herbert Simon 's important computational approach to scientific discovery, which can be characterized as a contribution to both the "cognitive science of science" and to naturalized philosophy of science. First, I tackle the empirical adequacy of Simon 's account of discovery, arguing that his claims about the discovery process lack evidence and, even if substantiated, they disregard the important social dimension of scientific discovery. Second, I discuss the normative …Read more
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23Empirical investigation or rational reconstruction?Behavioral and Brain Sciences 14 (4): 742-743. 1991.
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530How much work do scientific images do?Spontaneous Generations 6 (1): 115-130. 2012.In this paper, I defend the view that there are many scientific images that have a serious epistemic role in science but this role is not adequately accounted for by the going view of representation and its attendant theoretical commitments. The relevant view of representation is Laura Perini’s account of representation for scientific images. I draw on Adina Roskies’ work on scientific images as well as work on models in science to support my conclusion.
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13Book ReviewKim Sterelny, The Evolution of Agency and Other Essays. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press , xvi + 310 pp., $54.95 (review)Philosophy of Science 69 (3): 538-540. 2002.
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80Can scientific development and children's cognitive development be the same process?Philosophy of Science 66 (4): 565-578. 1999.In this paper I assess Gopnik and Meltzoff's developmental psychology of science as a contribution to the understanding of scientific development. I focus on two specific aspects of Gopnik and Meltzoff's approach: the relation between their views and recapitulationist views of ontogeny and phylogeny in biology, and their overall conception of cognition as a set of veridical processes. First, I discuss several issues that arise from their appeal to evolutionary biology, focusing specifically on t…Read more
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7Baldwin effects and the expansion of the explanatory repertoire in evolutionary biologyIn Bruce H. Weber & David J. Depew (eds.), Evolution and Learning: The Baldwin Effect Reconsidered, Mit Press. pp. 33--351. 2003.
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623The Theory Theory Thrice Over: The Child as Scientist, Superscientist or Social Institution?Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part A 33 (1): 117-132. 2002.Alison Gopnik and Andrew Meltzoff have argued for a view they call the ‘theory theory’: theory change in science and children are similar. While their version of the theory theory has been criticized for depending on a number of disputed claims, we argue that there is a fundamental problem which is much more basic: the theory theory is multiply ambiguous. We show that it might be claiming that a similarity holds between theory change in children and (i) individual scientists, (ii) a rational rec…Read more
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106Biological informationIn Sahotra Sarkar & Jessica Pfeifer (eds.), Philosophy of Science: An Encyclopedia, . 2005.This paper discussses various concepts of biological information with particular attention being paid to genetic information.
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32Agents and norms in the new economics of sciencePhilosophy of the Social Sciences 31 (2): 224-238. 2001.In this article, the author focuses on Philip Kitcher's and Alvin Goldman's economic models of the social character of scientific knowledge production. After introducing some relevant methodological issues in the social sciences and characterizing Kitcher's and Goldman's models, the author goes on to show that special problems arise directly from the concept of an agent invoked in the models. The author argues that the two distinct concepts of agents, borrowed from economics and cognitive psycho…Read more
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1Are you experienced? What you don't know about your climbing experienceIn Stephen E. Schmid (ed.), Climbing - Philosophy for Everyone: Because It's There, Wiley-blackwell. 2010.
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712Evolutionary Perspectives on Human AggressionHuman Nature 23 (1): 1-4. 2012.The papers in this volume present varying approaches to human aggression, each from an evolutionary perspective. The evolutionary studies of aggression collected here all pursue aspects of patterns of response to environmental circumstances and consider explicitly how those circumstances shape the costs and benefits of behaving aggressively. All the authors understand various aspects of aggression as evolved adaptations but none believe that this implies we are doomed to continued violence, but …Read more
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Areas of Specialization
Philosophy of Biology |
Philosophy of Cognitive Science |
Philosophy of Social Science |
Philosophy of Probability |