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33What does human evolutionary theory reveal about the origins of human nature and the constraints it imposes on human cognition, behavior, and society? “The whole field of human evolution is pregnant with philosophical questions of great interest”, Michael Ruse concludes in the final passage of The Philosophy of Human Evolution. This engaging and eminently readable romp through the philosophical landscape of human evolution fills a significant niche in the existing literature. There are numerous …Read more
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162Homology across inheritance systemsBiology and Philosophy 29 (6): 781-806. 2014.Recent work on inheritance systems can be divided into inclusive conceptions, according to which genetic and non-genetic inheritance are both involved in the development and transmission of nearly all animal behavioral traits, and more demanding conceptions of what it takes for non-genetic resources involved in development to qualify as a distinct inheritance system. It might be thought that, if a more stringent conception is adopted, homologies could not subsist across two distinct inheritance …Read more
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41Organism, machine, artifact: The conceptual and normative challenges of synthetic biologyStudies in History and Philosophy of Science Part C: Studies in History and Philosophy of Biological and Biomedical Sciences 44 (4): 627-631. 2013.Synthetic biology is an emerging discipline that aims to apply rational engineering principles in the design and creation of organisms that are exquisitely tailored to human ends. The creation of artificial life raises conceptual, methodological and normative challenges that are ripe for philosophical investigation. This special issue examines the defining concepts and methods of synthetic biology, details the contours of the organism–artifact distinction, situates the products of synthetic biol…Read more
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70Human Nature and Respect for the Evolutionarily Given: a Comment on LewensPhilosophy and Technology 25 (4): 485-493. 2012.Any serious ethical discussion of the enhancement of human nature must begin with a reasonably accurate picture of the causal-historical structure of the living world. In this Comment, I show that even biologically sophisticated ethical discussions of the biomedical enhancement of species and speciel natures are susceptible to the kind of essentialistic thinking that Lewens cautions against. Furthermore, I argue that the same evolutionary and developmental considerations that compel Lewens to re…Read more
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144Convergent evolution and the limits of natural selectionEuropean Journal for Philosophy of Science 2 (3): 355-373. 2012.Stephen Jay Gould argued that replaying the “tape of life” would result in a radically different evolutionary outcome. Some biologists and philosophers, however, have pointed to convergent evolution as evidence for robust replicability in macroevolution. These authors interpret homoplasy, or the independent origination of similar biological forms, as evidence for the power of natural selection to guide form toward certain morphological attractors, notwithstanding the diversionary tendencies of d…Read more
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14Review of Donald P. o'mathuna, Nanoethics: Big Ethical Issues with Small Technology (review)Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews 2010 (8). 2010.
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317What's the Harm? An Evolutionary Theoretical Critique of the Precautionary PrincipleKennedy Institute of Ethics Journal 20 (2): 181-206. 2010.The precautionary principle (“the Principle”) has been widely embraced as the new paradigm for contending with biological and environmental risk in the context of emerging technologies. Increasingly, it is being incorporated into domestic, supranational, and international legal regimes as part of a general overhaul of health and environmental regulation.1 Codifications of the Principle typically are vague, with their content intentionally left for scholars to debate, decision makers to interpret…Read more
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195Breaking Evolution's Chains: The Prospect of Deliberate Genetic Modification in HumansJournal of Medicine and Philosophy 36 (1): 6-27. 2011.Many philosophers invoke the "wisdom of nature" in arguing for varying degrees of caution in the development and use of genetic enhancement technologies. Because they view natural selection as akin to a master engineer that creates functionally and morally optimal design, these authors tend to regard genetic intervention with suspicion. In Part II, we examine and ultimately reject the evolutionary assumptions that underlie the master engineer analogy (MEA). By highlighting the constraints on ord…Read more
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1The Nature of Species and the Moral Significance of Their ExtinctionIn Tom Beauchamp (ed.), Oxford Handbook on Ethics and Animals, Oxford University Press. forthcoming.
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2The Law and Philosophy of Preventive War: An Institution-Based Approach to Collective Self-DefenseAustralian Journal of Legal Philosophy 32 67-89. 2007.
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341The Evolutionary Biological Implications of Human Genetic EngineeringJournal of Medicine and Philosophy 37 (1): 22. 2012.A common worry about the genetic engineering of human beings is that it will reduce human genetic diversity, creating a biological monoculture that could not only increase our susceptibility to disease but also hasten the extinction of our species. Thus far, however, the evolutionary implications of human genetic modification remain largely unexplored. In this paper, I consider whether the widespread use of genetic engineering technology is likely to narrow the present range of genetic variation…Read more
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105The Future of Human EvolutionBritish Journal for the Philosophy of Science 63 (1): 145-175. 2012.There is a tendency in both scientific and humanistic disciplines to think of biological evolution in humans as significantly impeded if not completely overwhelmed by the robust cultural and technological capabilities of the species. The aim of this article is to make sense of and evaluate this claim. In Section 2 , I flesh out the argument that humans are ‘insulated’ from ordinary evolutionary mechanisms in terms of our contemporary biological understandings of phenotypic plasticity, niche cons…Read more
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90Survey article: Constitutional democracy and the rule of international law: Are they compatible?Journal of Political Philosophy 16 (3): 326-349. 2008.No Abstract
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56Is convergence more than an analogy? Homoplasy and its implications for macroevolutionary predictabilityBiology and Philosophy 22 (4): 565-578. 2007.A number of authors have pointed to “convergent evolution” as evidence for the central role of natural selection in shaping predictable trajectories of macroevolution. However, there are numerous conceptual and empirical difficulties that arise in broadly appealing to the frequency of homoplasy as evidence for a non-contingently constrained adaptational design space. Most important is the need to distinguish between convergent (externally constrained) and parallel (internally constrained) evolut…Read more
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192The Limits of Evolutionary Explanations of Morality and Their Implications for Moral ProgressEthics 126 (1): 37-67. 2015.Traditional conservative arguments against the possibility of moral progress relied on underevidenced assumptions about the limitations of human nature. Contemporary thinkers have attempted to fill this empirical gap in the conservative argument by appealing to evolutionary science. Such “evoconservative” arguments fail because they overstate the explanatory reach of evolutionary theory. We maintain that no adequate evolutionary explanation has been given for important features of human morality…Read more
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46Major problems in evolutionary transitions: how a metabolic perspective can enrich our understanding of macroevolutionBiology and Philosophy 31 (2): 159-189. 2016.The model of major transitions in evolution devised by Maynard Smith and Szathmáry has exerted tremendous influence over evolutionary theorists. Although MTE has been criticized for inconsistently combining different types of event, its ongoing appeal lies in depicting hierarchical increases in complexity by means of evolutionary transitions in individuality. In this paper, we consider the implications of major evolutionary events overlooked by MTE and its ETI-oriented successors, specifically t…Read more
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