Johns Hopkins University
Department of Philosophy
PhD, 1971
Durham, North Carolina, United States of America
  •  246
    Reductionism redux: Computing the embryo (review)
    Biology and Philosophy 12 (4): 445-470. 1997.
    This paper argues that the consensus physicalist antireductionism in the philosophy of biology cannot accommodate the research strategy or indeed the recent findings of molecular developmental biology. After describing Wolperts programmatic claims on its behalf, and recent work by Gehring and others to identify the molecular determinants of development, the paper attempts to identify the relationship between evolutionary and developmental biology by reconciling two apparently conflicting account…Read more
  •  33
    Can physicalist antireductionism compute the embryo?
    Philosophy of Science 64 (4): 371. 1997.
    It is widely held that (1) there are autonomous levels of organization above that of the macromolecule and that (2) at least sometimes macromolecular processes are best explained in terms of such autonomous kinds. I argue that molecular developmental biology honors neither of these claims, and I show that the only way they can be rendered consistent with a minimal physicalism is through the adoption of controversial claims about causation and explanation which undercut the force of these two ant…Read more