-
9The cognitive map debate in insects: A historical perspective on what is at stakeStudies in History and Philosophy of Science Part A 98 (C): 62-79. 2023.
-
8Multiscale Modeling in Neuroethology: The Significance of the MesoscalePhilosophy of Science 1-17. forthcoming.Recent accounts of multiscale modeling investigate ontic and epistemic constraints imposed by relations between component models at varying relative scales (macro, meso, micro). These accounts often focus especially on the role of the meso, or intermediate, relative scale in a multiscale model. We aid this effort by highlighting a novel role for mesoscale models: they can function as a focal point, and rationale, for disagreement between researchers who otherwise share theoretical commitments. W…Read more
-
21From Karl von Frisch to Neuroethology: A Methodological Perspective on the Frischean Tradition's Expansion into Neuroethology*Berichte Zur Wissenschaftsgeschichte 45 (1-2): 30-54. 2022.Berichte zur Wissenschaftsgeschichte, EarlyView.
-
10Karl von Frisch and the Discipline of EthologyJournal of the History of Biology 54 (4): 739-767. 2021.In 1973, the discipline of ethology came into its own when three of its most prominent practitioners—Konrad Lorenz, Nikolaas Tinbergen, and Karl von Frisch—jointly received the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine. Historians have shown how Lorenz and Tinbergen were central to the practical and theoretical innovations that came to define ethology as a distinct form of animal behavior research in the twentieth century. Frisch is rarely mentioned in such histories. In this paper, I ask, What is …Read more
-
17What makes neurophysiology meaningful? Semantic content ascriptions in insect navigation researchBiology and Philosophy 35 (5): 1-22. 2020.In the course of investigating the living world, biologists regularly attribute semantic content to the phenomena they study. In this paper, I examine the case of a contemporary research program studying the navigation behaviors of ants and develop an account of the norms governing researchers’ ascriptions of semantic content in their research practices. The account holds that researchers assign semantic content to behaviors that reliably achieve a difficult goal-directed function, and it also s…Read more
Tempe Junction, Arizona, United States of America
Areas of Interest
18 more