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46Philosophy of Biology: A Very Short IntroductionOxford University Press. 2019.Covering some of science's most divisive topics, such as philosophical issues in genetics and evolution, the philosophy of biology also encompasses more traditional philosophical questions, such as free will, essentialism, and nature vs nurture. Here, Samir Okasha outlines the core issues with which contemporary philosophy of biology is engaged.
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44Review of From Darwin to Derrida by David Haig (review)Acta Biotheoretica 69 (3): 477-481. 2020.
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43Adaptation, fitness and the selection-optimality linksBiology and Philosophy 29 (2): 225-232. 2014.We critically examine a number of aspects of Grafen’s ‘formal Darwinism’ project. We argue that Grafen’s ‘selection-optimality’ links do not quite succeed in vindicating the working assumption made by behavioural ecologists and others—that selection will lead organisms to exhibit adaptive behaviour—since these links hold true even in the presence of strong genetic and developmental constraints. However we suggest that the selection-optimality links can profitably be viewed as constituting an axi…Read more
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42Cultural Inheritance and Fisher’s “Fundamental Theorem” of Natural SelectionBiological Theory 2 (3): 290-299. 2007.The idea that natural selection can operate on cultural as well as genetic variation is central to recent theories of cultural evolution. This raises an overarching question: how much of traditional evolutionary theory, which was formulated in population-genetic terms, can survive intact once the possibility of cultural inheritance is taken into account? This question is addressed in relation to R. A. Fisher’s “fundamental theorem” of natural selection. Though Fisher’s theorem may appear to be a…Read more
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41“Which processes are selection processes?”Behavioral and Brain Sciences 24 (3): 548-549. 2001.I argue that population-level selection does not necessarily have to be invoked to explain the polymorphism at the MHC locus. I argue that the authors' attempt to model operant conditioning in Darwinian terms faces a serious problem. Depending on how many operant responses we take to comprise a sequence, different conclusions about whether or not evolution is occurring in an operant lineage will be reached.
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39Reuniting philosophy and science to advance cancer researchBiological Reviews 98 (5): 1668-1686. 2023.Cancers rely on multiple, heterogeneous processes at different scales, pertaining to many biomedical fields. Therefore, understanding cancer is necessarily an interdisciplinary task that requires placing specialised experimental and clinical research into a broader conceptual, theoretical, and methodological framework. Without such a framework, oncology will collect piecemeal results, with scant dialogue between the different scientific communities studying cancer. We argue that one important wa…Read more
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38Emergent group traits, reproduction, and levels of selectionBehavioral and Brain Sciences 37 (3): 268-269. 2014.
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36How to be a selective QuineanDialectica 56 (1). 2002.This paper examines whether one can accept Quine's critique of the analytic/synthetic distinction while rejecting his indeterminacy of translation thesis. I argue that this is possible, appearances to the contrary notwithstanding. Holding that linguistic synonymy is a well‐defined relation, and that translation is thus a determinate matter, does not commit one to the existence of an analytic‐synthetic distinction capable of playing the explanatory role that the traditional distinction was suppos…Read more
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33The Concept of Agent in Biology: Motivations and MeaningsBiological Theory 19 (1): 6-10. 2024.Biological agency has received much attention in recent philosophy of biology. But what is the motivation for introducing talk of agency into biology and what is meant by “agent”? Two distinct motivations can be discerned. The first is that thinking of organisms as agents helps to articulate what is distinctive about organisms vis-à-vis other biological entities. The second is that treating organisms as agent-like is a useful heuristic for understanding their evolved behavior. The concept of age…Read more
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28The explanation of scientific belief: Reply to W.e. JonesInternational Studies in the Philosophy of Science 14 (3). 2000.This Article does not have an abstract
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24Review of William F. Harms, Information and Meaning in Evolutionary Processes (review)Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews 2005 (12). 2005.
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24Bayes, Levi, and the taxicabsBehavioral and Brain Sciences 23 (5): 693-693. 2000.Stanovich & West (S&W) are wrong to think that all “reject-the-norm” theorists simply wish to reduce the normative/descriptive gap. They have misunderstood Issac Levi's reasons for rejecting Tversky and Kahneman's normative assumptions in the “base-rate” experiments. In their discussion of the taxicab experiment, (S&W) erroneously claim that subjects' responses indicate whether they have reasoned in accordance with Bayesian principles or not.
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23Review of Philip Kitcher, In Mendel's Mirror: Philosophical Reflections on Biology (review)Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews 2003 (9). 2003.
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22On Hamilton’s Rule and Inclusive Fitness Theory with Nonadditive PayoffsPhilosophy of Science 83 (5): 873-883. 2016.Hamilton’s theory of inclusive fitness is a widely used framework for studying the evolution of social behavior, but controversy surrounds its status. Hamilton originally derived his famous rb > c rule for the spread of a social gene by assuming additivity of costs and benefits. However, it has recently been argued that the additivity assumption can be dispensed with, so long as the −c and b terms are suitably defined, as partial regression coefficients. I argue that this way of generalizing Ham…Read more
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22Re-reading: Frank Jackson, 'Grue', Journal of Philosophy 5 (1975)Philosophical Papers 36 (3). 2007.
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22Agents and Goals in EvolutionOxford University Press. 2018.Samir Okasha offers a critical study of agential thinking in biology, where evolved organisms are seen as agents pursuing a goal. He examines the justification for transposing concepts from rational humans to the biological world, and considers whether agential thinking is mere anthropomorphism or plays a more intellectual role in the science.
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19X *—Does Hume’s Argument Against Induction Rest on a Quantifier-Shift Fallacy?Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society 105 (1): 237-255. 2005.It is widely agreed that Hume’s description of human inductive reasoning is inadequate. But many philosophers think that this inadequacy in no way affects the force of Hume’s argument for the unjustifiability of inductive reasoning. I argue that this constellation of opinions contains a serious tension, given that Hume was not merely pointing out that induction is fallible. I then explore a recent diagnosis of where Hume’s sceptical argument goes wrong, due to Elliott Sober. Sober argues that Hu…Read more
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18Underdetermination, Holism and the Theory\textfractionsolidus{}Data DistinctionPhilosophical Quarterly 52 (208): 303-319. 2002.
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16A long-established consensus in the philosophy of biology holds that biological species are not natural kinds with intrinsic essences, despite what Putnam (1975) and Kripke (1980) thought. This anti-essentialist consensus has recently been challenged by Michael Devitt, who insists that it rests on a mistake. According to Devitt, philosophers of biology have failed to recognise the distinction between two quite different questions one can ask about species: the Category question and the Taxon que…Read more
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16The formal Darwinism project: editors' introductionBiology and Philosophy 29 (2): 153-154. 2014.
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16Evolution and Directionality: Lessons from Fisher's Fundamental TheoremIn Mauricio Suarez, Mauro Dorato & Miklos Redei (eds.), EPSA Philosophical Issues in the Sciences · Launch of the European Philosophy of Science Association, Springer. pp. 187--196. 2010.
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15How to be a Selective QuineanDialectica 56 (1): 37-47. 2002.This paper examines whether one can accept Quine's critique of the analytic/synthetic distinction while rejecting his indeterminacy of translation thesis. I argue that this is possible, appearances to the contrary notwithstanding. Holding that linguistic synonymy is a well‐defined relation, and that translation is thus a determinate matter, does not commit one to the existence of an analytic‐synthetic distinction capable of playing the explanatory role that the traditional distinction was suppos…Read more
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15On geometric mean fitness: a reply to Takacs and BourratBiology and Philosophy 37 (5): 1-7. 2022.In a recent paper, Takacs and Bourrat (Biol Philos 37:12, 2022) examine the use of geometric mean reproductive output as a measure of biological fitness. We welcome Takacs and Bourrat’s scrutiny of a fitness definition that some philosophers have adopted uncritically. We also welcome Takacs and Bourrat’s attempt to marry the philosophical literature on fitness with the biological literature on mathematical measures of fitness. However, some of the main claims made by Takacs and Bourrat are not c…Read more
Areas of Specialization
Philosophy of Biology |
General Philosophy of Science |
Areas of Interest
Philosophy of Social Science |
Philosophy of Probability |