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42Searching for Darwinism in Generalized DarwinismBritish Journal for the Philosophy of Science 66 (3): 561-589. 2015.While evolutionary thinking is increasingly becoming popular in fields of investigation outside the biological sciences, it remains unclear how helpful it is there and whether it actually yields good explanations of the phenomena under study. Here we examine the ontology of a recent approach to applying evolutionary thinking outside biology, the generalized Darwinism approach proposed by Geoffrey Hodgson and Thorbjørn Knudsen. We examine the ontology of populations in biology and in GD, and argu…Read more
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42On the nature of the species problem and the four meanings of ‘species’Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part C: Studies in History and Philosophy of Biological and Biomedical Sciences 36 (1): 135-158. 2005.
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42How to Fix Kind Membership: A Problem for HPC Theory and a SolutionPhilosophy of Science 76 (5): 724-736. 2009.Natural kinds are often contrasted with other kinds of scientific kinds, especially functional kinds, because of a presumed categorical difference in explanatory value: supposedly, natural kinds can ground explanations, while other kinds of kinds cannot. I argue against this view of natural kinds by examining a particular type of explanation—mechanistic explanation—and showing that functional kinds do the same work there as traditionally recognized natural kinds are supposed to do in “standard” …Read more
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41Philosophy of Behavioral Biology (edited book)Springer. 2011.This volume provides a broad overview of issues in the philosophy of behavioral biology, covering four main themes: genetic, developmental, evolutionary, and neurobiological explanations of behavior. It is both interdisciplinary and empirically informed in its approach, addressing philosophical issues that arise from recent scientific findings in biological research on human and non-human animal behavior. Accordingly, it includes papers by professional philosophers and philosophers of science, a…Read more
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37Editorial: A new turn in the study of the origin of lifeActa Biotheoretica 55 (2): 95-96. 2007.This paper compares two approaches that attempt to explain the origin of life, or biogenesis. The more established approach is one based on chemical principles, whereas a new, yet not widely known approach begins from a physical perspective. According to the first approach, life would have begun with—often organic—compounds. After having developed to a certain level of complexity and mutual dependence within a non-compartmentalised organic soup, they would have assembled into a functioning cell.…Read more
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36Symposium issue: Philosophy of biology in Flanders and the netherlandsActa Biotheoretica 53 (2): 55-56. 2005.
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36MATTHEW H. SLATER Are Species Real? An Essay on the Metaphysics of SpeciesBritish Journal for the Philosophy of Science (4): 1-5. 2014.
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33Philosophy of biology, German style: Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp, 2005; 457 pp., € 16,-, ISBN 3-518-29345-1 Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp, 2005; 457 pp., € 16,-, ISBN 3-518-29345-1 Review of Ulrich Krohs and Georg Toepfer : Philosophie der Biologie: Eine Einführung [Philosophy of Biology: An Introduction]Biology and Philosophy 22 (4): 619-626. 2007.
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33Roger Sansom and Robert N. Brandon (eds.): Integrating Evolution and Development: From Theory to Practice Content Type Journal Article Pages 81-86 DOI 10.1007/s10441-010-9121-x Authors Thomas A. C. Reydon, Institute of Philosophy & Center for Philosophy and Ethics of Science (ZEWW), Leibniz Universität Hannover, Im Moore 21, 30167 Hannover, Germany Journal Acta Biotheoretica Online ISSN 1572-8358 Print ISSN 0001-5342 Journal Volume Volume 59 Journal Issue Volume 59, Number 1
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29EPSA17: Selected papers from the biannual conference in ExeterEuropean Journal for Philosophy of Science 9 (1): 1. 2018.
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29Richard A. Richards: The Species Problem: A Philosophical AnalysisScience & Education 22 (2): 381-389. 2013.
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28Integrating Philosophy of Science into Research on Ethical, Legal and Social Issues in the Life SciencesPerspectives on Science 28 (6): 700-736. 2020.This paper argues that research on normative issues in the life sciences will benefit from a tighter integration of philosophy of science. We examine research on ethical, legal and social issues in the life sciences (“ELSI”) and discuss three illustrative examples of normative issues that arise in different areas of the life sciences. These examples show that important normative questions are highly dependent on epistemic issues which so far have not been addressed sufficiently in ELSI, RRI and …Read more
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28Psychopathy as a Scientifc Kind: On Usefulness and UnderpinningsIn Luca Malatesti, John McMillan & Predrag Šustar (eds.), Psychopathy: Its Uses, Validity and Status, Springr. pp. 169-187. 2022.This chapter examines the status of psychopathy as a scientific kind. I argue that the debate on the question whether psychopathy is a scientific kind as it is conducted at present (i.e., by asking whether psychopathy is a natural kind), is misguided. It relies too much on traditional philosophical views of what natural kinds (or: legitimate scientific kinds) are and how such kinds perform epistemic roles in the sciences. The paper introduces an alternative approach to the question what scientif…Read more
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26How can science be well-ordered in times of crisis? Learning from the SARS-CoV-2 pandemicHistory and Philosophy of the Life Sciences 42 (4): 1-4. 2020.The SARS-CoV-2 pandemic constituted a crisis situation in which science was very far from Kitcher’s ideal of well-ordered science. I suggest that this could and should have been different. Kitcher’s ideal should play a role in assessing the allocation of research resources in future crisis situations, as it provides a way to balance highly divergent interests and incorporate the common good into decision-making processes on research.
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26Classifying Life, Reconstructing History and Teaching Diversity: Philosophical Issues in the Teaching of Biological Systematics and BiodiversityScience & Education 22 (2): 189-220. 2013.
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25Evolutionary Thinking Across Disciplines: Problems and Perspectives in Generalized Darwinism (edited book)Springer Verlag. 2023.This volume aims to clarify the epistemic potential of applying evolutionary thinking outside biology, and provides a survey of the current state of the art in research on relevant topics in the life sciences, the philosophy of science, and the various areas of evolutionary research outside the life sciences. By bringing together chapters by evolutionary biologists, systematic biologists, philosophers of biology, philosophers of social science, complex systems modelers, psychologists, anthropolo…Read more
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22Editorial: Fifty Years Journal for General Philosophy of ScienceJournal for General Philosophy of Science / Zeitschrift für Allgemeine Wissenschaftstheorie 50 (1): 1-8. 2019.
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21Genetics and Society—Educating Scientifically Literate Citizens: Introduction to the Thematic IssueScience & Education 23 (2): 251-258. 2014.
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21Species and kinds: a critique of Rieppel’s “one of a kind” account of speciesCladistics 25 (6): 660-667. 2009.A major issue in philosophical debates on the species problem concerns the opposition between two seemingly incompatible views of the metaphysics of species: the view that species are individuals and the view that species are natural kinds. In two recent papers in this journal, Olivier Rieppel suggested that this opposition is much less deep than it seems at first sight. Rieppel used a recently developed philosophical account of natural kindhood, namely Richard Boyd’s “homeostatic property clust…Read more
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20Misconceptions, conceptual pluralism, and conceptual toolkits: bringing the philosophy of science to the teaching of evolutionEuropean Journal for Philosophy of Science 11 (2): 1-23. 2021.This paper explores how work in the philosophy of science can be used when teaching scientific content to science students and when training future science teachers. I examine the debate on the concept of fitness in biology and in the philosophy of biology to show how conceptual pluralism constitutes a problem for the conceptual change model, and how philosophical work on conceptual clarification can be used to address that problem. The case of fitness exemplifies how the philosophy of science o…Read more
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20Taxa hold little information about organisms: Some inferential problems in biological systematicsHistory and Philosophy of the Life Sciences 41 (4): 40. 2019.The taxa that appear in biological classifications are commonly seen as representing information about the traits of their member organisms. This paper examines in what way taxa feature in the storage and retrieval of such information. I will argue that taxa do not actually store much information about the traits of their member organisms. Rather, I want to suggest, taxa should be understood as functioning to localize organisms in the genealogical network of life on Earth. Taxa store information…Read more
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20A Conceptual Analysis of Evolutionary Theory for Teacher EducationScience & Education 19 (6-8): 655-677. 2010.
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19The proper role of history in evolutionary explanationsNoûs 57 (1): 162-187. 2023.Evolutionary explanations are not only common in the biological sciences, but also widespread outside biology. But an account of how evolutionary explanations perform their explanatory work is still lacking. This paper develops such an account. I argue that available accounts of explanations in evolutionary science miss important parts of the role of history in evolutionary explanations. I argue that the historical part of evolutionary science should be taken as having genuine explanatory force,…Read more
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19Generalized darwinism as modest unificationAmerican Philosophical Quarterly 58 (1): 79-94. 2021.This paper examines the nature of Hodgson and Knudsen’s version of Generalized Darwinism, asking to what extent it has explanatory force. The paper develops two criteria for potential explanatory transfer of theories between disciplines, and argues that Generalized Darwinism does not meet these. The paper proposes that Hodgson and Knudsen’s version of Generalized Darwinism is best understood as a research program aimed at modest unificationism sensu Kitcher, that provides a heuristic perspective…Read more
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17Why does the species problem still persist?Bioessays 26 (3): 300-305. 2004.Despite many years of discussion, the species problem has still not been adequately resolved. Why is this the case? Here I discuss two recent suggested answers to this question that place the blame on the species problem's empirical aspects or on its philosophical aspects. In contrast, I argue that neither of these two faces of the species problem constitute the principal cause of the species problem's persistence. Rather, they are merely symptoms of the real cause: the species problem has not y…Read more
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17Grete Henry-HermannJournal for General Philosophy of Science / Zeitschrift für Allgemeine Wissenschaftstheorie 51 (4): 511-511. 2020.
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Universität HannoverInstitute of Philosophy
Centre for Ethics and Law in the Life Sciences (CELLS)Professor
Leiden University
PhD, 2005
East Lansing, MI, United States of America
Areas of Specialization
Philosophy of Biology |
General Philosophy of Science |
Metaphysics |
Areas of Interest
1 more
Philosophy of Biology |
Metaphysics |
Epistemology |
Metaphilosophy |
Philosophy of Social Science |
General Philosophy of Science |