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545Evolutionary Epistemology: Two Research Avenues, Three Schools, and A Single and Shared AgendaJournal for General Philosophy of Science / Zeitschrift für Allgemeine Wissenschaftstheorie 52 (2): 197-209. 2021.This special issue for the Journal for General Philosophy of Science is devoted to exploring the impact and many ramifications of current research in evolutionary epistemology. Evolutionary epistemology is an inter- and multidisciplinary area of research that can be divided into two ever-inclusive research avenues. One research avenue expands on the EEM program and investigates the epistemology of evolution. The other research avenue builds on the EET program and researches the evolution of epis…Read more
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218Assessing evolutionary epistemologyBiology and Philosophy 1 (4): 401-459. 1986.There are two interrelated but distinct programs which go by the name evolutionary epistemology. One attempts to account for the characteristics of cognitive mechanisms in animals and humans by a straightforward extension of the biological theory of evolution to those aspects or traits of animals which are the biological substrates of cognitive activity, e.g., their brains, sensory systems, motor systems, etc. (EEM program). The other program attempts to account for the evaluation of ideas, scie…Read more
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183Polanyi on the meno paradoxPhilosophy of Science 41 (2): 203. 1974.In [1] Michael Polanyi argues that in order to understand how scientists come to recognize problems as problems, we must invoke a concept of “tacit knowing.” Tacit knowledge is a kind of knowledge of which we are aware but which cannot be made explicit. Polanyi argues that a paradox discussed in the Meno cannot be solved without appeal to this notion of tacit knowledge. Here I want to argue, quite simply, that Polanyi's formulation of the “paradox” can be easily subverted without an appeal to ta…Read more
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108Evolutionary game theory meets the social contractBiology and Philosophy 14 (4): 607-613. 1999.
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105Recent developments in the physics of time and general cosmologyJournal of Chinese Philosophy 12 (4): 371-395. 1985.
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81Ontic realism and scientific explanationPhilosophy of Science 63 (3): 321. 1996.Wesley Salmon defends an ontic realism that distinguishes explanatory from descriptive knowledge. Explanatory knowledge makes appeals to (unobservable) theoretical acausal mechanisms. Salmon presents an argument designed both to legitimize attributing truth values to theoretical claims and to justify treating theoretical claims as descriptions. The argument succeeds but only at the price of calling the distinction between explanation and description into question. Even if Salmon's attempts to di…Read more
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74Epistemology from an evolutionary point of viewIn Elliott Sober (ed.), Conceptual Issues in Evolutionary Biology, The Mit Press. Bradford Books. pp. 453--476. 1994.
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73Recent Work on Criteria for Event Identity, 1967-1979Philosophy Research Archives 9 29-77. 1983.The paper reviews the arguments for and against a number of criteria for event identity. The proliferation of such criteria in the 1970’s raises the question of how one is to choose between them. Eight adequacy conditions, whose own adequacy has been argued for elsewhere, are determined to be insufticient for deciding among the criteria. Some concluding remarks about the role of the adequacy conditions and the problem of choosing a criterion are offered. Finally, questions about the nature of an…Read more
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66What's Wrong with Methodological Naturalism?Human Affairs 19 (2). 2009.The compatibility of Darwinism with religious beliefs has been the subject of vigorous debate from 1859 to the present day. Darwin himself did not think that there was any incompatibility between his theory of natural selection and the existence of God. However, he did not think that appeals to the direct or indirect activity of a Creator substantially increased our understanding of any natural phenomenon. In effect, Darwin endorsed what we would today label as ’methodological naturalism,’ rough…Read more
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60Rationality and the Objectivity of ValuesThe Monist 67 (3): 467-482. 1984.One of the central themes of Hilary Putnam’s recent book, Reason, Truth and History, is the objectivity of values. The objectivity of values is a central component of the position Putnam calls “internal realism.” Internal realism is an attempt to delimit a point of view which is, on the one hand, objective, and, on the other, non-absolutistic. Internal realism is located precariously between an absolutist position which Putnam calls “metaphysical realism” and a sceptical relativism. The trick is…Read more
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52Michael H. Robins, 1941-2002Proceedings and Addresses of the American Philosophical Association 76 (5). 2003.This is an obituary for Michael H. Robins.
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51A clash of competing metaphorsBehavioral and Brain Sciences 22 (5): 887-887. 1999.Metaphors have three important functions in scientific discourse: heuristic, rhetorical, and epistemic. I argue that, contrary to prevailing opinion, metaphors are indispensable components of scientific methodology as well as scientific communication. Insofar as the choice of metaphors reflects ideological commitments, all science is ideological. The philosophically vexed question is how to characterize the sense in which science is not merely ideological.
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50Scientific Method: The Hypothetico-Experimental Laboratory Procedure of the Physical Sciences (review)Philosophy of Science 40 (3): 467-468. 1973.
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50Ethics and evolution: The biological basis of moralityInquiry: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Philosophy 36 ( 1-2). 1993.
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49What does evolutionary biology tell us about philosophy and religion?Zygon 29 (1): 45-54. 1994.Considerations from evolutionary biology lead Michael Ruse, among others, to a naturalistic turn in philosophy. I assess some of the pragmatic and skeptical conclusions concerning ethics, religion, and epistemology that Ruse draws from his evolutionary naturalism. Finally, I argue that there is an essential tension between science and religion which forecloses the possibility of an ultimate reconciliation between the two as they are now understood.
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47Evolution and normativityIn Mohan Matthen & Christopher Stephens (eds.), Philosophy of Biology, Elsevier. pp. 201. 2007.
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46Lndividualism and Holism in the Social SciencesAnalyse & Kritik 24 (1): 87-99. 2002.Harold Kincaid’s Individualism and the Unity of Science is a subtle and nuanced analysis of the interlocking themes and issues surrounding the struggle between ‘holists’ and ‘individualists’ in the social sciences. Two major claims, one substantial and one methodological, emerge from this analysis. The substantial claim is a defense of a ‘non-reductive unity’ of the sciences. The methodological claim is that the disputes between reductionists and pluralists or between individualists and holists …Read more
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46Sociobiology and the roots of normativityThink 2 (6): 73-82. 2004.Michael Bradie challenges the assumption, common among sociobiologists and evolutionary psychologists, that it is to science, not philosophy, that we must look if we wish to answer the fundamental questions of ethics
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44The ‘new science of memetics’: The case againstThink 2 (5): 27-30. 2003.Michael Bradie does not share Blackmore's enthusiasm for the ‘new science of memetics’.
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41An Information-Theoretic Approach to Evolutionary Epistemology: Information and Meaning in Evolutionary Processes William F. Harms Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004 (review)Biological Theory 1 (4): 431-433. 2006.