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1Sex and Death: An Introduction to Philosophy of BiologyThe University of Chicago Press. 1999.Is the history of life a series of accidents or a drama scripted by selfish genes? Is there an “essential” human nature, determined at birth or in a distant evolutionary past? What should we conserve—species, ecosystems, or something else? Informed answers to questions like these, critical to our understanding of ourselves and the world around us, require both a knowledge of biology and a philosophical framework within which to make sense of its findings. In this accessible introduction to philo…Read more
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1Historical and Philosophical Perspectives on Behavioral Genetics and Developmental ScienceIn Kathryn Hood, Halpern E., Greenberg Carolyn Tucker, Lerner Gary & M. Richard (eds.), Handbook of Developmental Science, Behavior and Genetics, Wiley-blackwell. pp. 41--60. 2010.
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1EmotionsIn Stephen P. Stich & Ted A. Warfield (eds.), The Blackwell Guide to Philosophy of Mind, Blackwell. 2003.This chapter contains sections titled: Brute Feelings or Rational Judgments? Evolutionary Theories of Emotion The Universality of Emotion 12.4 The Emotions in Cognitive Science Is Emotion a Natural Kind? Conclusion.
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1Adaptive Explanation and the Concept of a VestigeIn David L. Hull (ed.), A review of Paul Griffiths (ed.), Trees of Life: Essays in Philosophy of Biology, Kluwer Academic Publishers, Dordrecht, 1992, 276 pp. $96.00, Kluwer. pp. 111-131. 1994.
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1Evolutionary Perspectives on EmotionIn Alfred W. Kazniak (ed.), Emotions, Qualia and Consciousness, World Scientific. pp. 106--123. 2001.Evolutionary Psychology links the methodology for cognitive science associated with the late David Marr to evolutionary theory. The mind is conceived as a bundle of modules which can be described at three theoretical levels. Each module represents an adaptation to some specific ecological problem. Evolutionary psychologists try to derive the highest level of description using a heuristic method called 'adaptive thinking'. This paper questions the value of the official EP methodology and reassert…Read more
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EmotionsIn Stephen P. Stich & Ted A. Warfield (eds.), Blackwell Guide to Philosophy of Mind, Blackwell. pp. 197--203. 2002.
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Towards a 'Machiavellian' theory of emotional appraisalIn Dylan Evans & Pierre Cruse (eds.), Emotion, Evolution and Rationality, Oxford University Press. 2004.
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Levels of DescriptionIn P. Slezak, T. Caelli & R. Clark (eds.), Perspectives on Cognitive Science, Ablex. pp. 283--300. 1995.
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Darwinism and Developmental SystemsIn Susan Oyama, Paul Griffiths & Russell D. Gray (eds.), Cycles of Contingency: Developmental Systems and Evolution, Mit Press. pp. 195-218. 2001.
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Adaptation and adaptationismIn Robert A. Wilson & Frank C. Keil (eds.), The MIT Encyclopedia of the Cognitive Sciences, Mit Press. pp. 3-4. 1999.Encyclopedia entry on the concepts of adaptation and adaptationism.
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The Baldwin effect and Genetic assimilation: Contrasting explanatory foci and Gene concepts in two approaches to an evolutionary processIn Peter Carruthers, Stephen Laurence & Stephen P. Stich (eds.), The Innate Mind: Culture and Cognition, Oxford University Press Usa. pp. 91-101. 2006.David Papineau (2003; 2005) has discussed the relationship between social learning and the family of postulated evolutionary processes that includes ‘organic selection’, ‘coincident selection’, ‘autonomisation’, ‘the Baldwin effect’ and ‘genetic assimilation’. In all these processes a trait which initially develops in the members of a population as a result of some interaction with the environment comes to develop without that interaction in their descendants. It is uncontroversial that the deve…Read more
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Scientists’ Concepts of Innateness: Evolution or Attraction?In Richard Samuels & Daniel A. Wilkenfeld (eds.), Advances in Experimental Philosophy of Science, Bloomsbury. pp. 172-201. 2019.
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Developmental Systems Theory: What Does it Explain, and How Does It Explain It?In Richard M. Lerner & Janette B. Benson (eds.), Embodiment and Epigenesis: Theoretical and Methodological Issues in Understanding the Role of Biology Within the Relational Developmental System Part A: Philosophical, Theoretical, and Biological Dimensions, Elsevier. pp. 65--94. 2013.
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From adaptive heuristic to phylogenetic perspective: Some lessons from the evolutionary psychology of emotionIn Paul S. Davies & I. I. I. Harmon R. Holcomb (eds.), The Evolution of Minds: Psychological and Philosophical Perspectives, Kluwer Academic Publishers. pp. 309-325. 2001.
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A developmental systems account of human natureIn Elizabeth Hannon & Tim Lewens (eds.), Why We Disagree About Human Nature, Oxford University Press. 2018.
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Lehrman's dictum: Information and explanation in developmental biologyDevelopmental Psychobiology 55 (1): 22--32. 2013.
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Rand on concepts, definitions, and the advance of science: Comments on Gotthelf and LennoxIn Allan Gotthelf & James G. Lennox (eds.), Concepts and Their Role in Knowledge: Reflections on Objectivist Epistemology, University of Pittsburgh Press. pp. 139--147. 2013.
Areas of Specialization
Philosophy of Biology |
Philosophy of Medicine |
Philosophy of Mind |
General Philosophy of Science |
Areas of Interest
Applied Ethics |
Philosophy of Cognitive Science |