•  14
    Applied Ethics Primer
    Broadview Press. 2023.
    _The Applied Ethics Primer_ offers a concise introduction to both basic argumentation and normative ethical theory. The concepts discussed reflect the ethical theories that currently ground most professional ethics codes and debates in applied ethics. More inclusive than many similar resources, this primer gives students a sense of the truly global history of ethics, while remaining squarely focused on providing practical tools for ethical decision-making. Also available as an open educational …Read more
  •  22
    Scaffolds and scaffolding: an explanatory strategy in evolutionary biology
    with Celso Neto and Christopher T. Jones
    Biology and Philosophy 38 (2): 1-22. 2023.
    In recent years, the explanatory term “scaffold” has been gaining prominence in evolutionary biology. This notion has a long history in other areas, in particular, developmental psychology. In this paper, we connect these two traditions and identify a specific type of explanatory strategy shared between them, namely scaffolding explanations. We offer a new definition of “scaffold” anchored in the explanatory practices of evolutionary biologists and developmental psychologists that has yet to be …Read more
  •  6
    Scaffold: A Causal Concept for Evolutionary Explanations
    with Celso Neto
    Philosophy of Science 1-17. forthcoming.
    The concept of scaffold is widespread in science and increasingly common in evolutionary biology. While this concept figures in causal explanations, it is not clear what scaffolds are and what role they play in those explanations. Here we present evolutionary scaffolding explanation as a distinct type of explanatory strategy, distinguishing it from other types of evolutionary explanation. By doing so, we clarify the meaning of “scaffold” as a causal concept and its potential contribution to acco…Read more
  •  21
    The Scientific Imagination: Philosophical and Psychological Perspectives, edited by Arnon Levy and Peter Godfrey-Smith (2020), attempts to bring some much-neede.
  •  292
    The Philosophers' Brief in Support of Happy's Appeal
    with Gary Comstock, Sue Donaldson, Andrew Fenton, Tyler M. John, L. Syd M. Johnson, Robert C. Jones, Will Kymlicka, Nathan Nobis, David M. Peña-Guzmán, James Rocha, Bernard Rollin, Jeff Sebo, and Adam Shriver
    New York State Appellate Court. 2021.
    We submit this brief in support of the Nonhuman Rights Project’s efforts to secure habeas corpus relief for the elephant named Happy. The Supreme Court, Bronx County, declined to grant habeas corpus relief and order Happy’s transfer to an elephant sanctuary, relying, in part, on previous decisions that denied habeas relief for the NhRP’s chimpanzee clients, Kiko and Tommy. Those decisions use incompatible conceptions of ‘person’ which, when properly understood, are either philosophically inadequ…Read more
  •  20
    The basic thesis of Russell Powell’s Contingency and Convergence: Toward a Cosmic Biology of Body and Mind is that law-like evolutionary processes produce humanlike cognitive capacities, rendering such capacities common in the universe. There is an important caveat; key aspects of human cognition, those that undergird cumulative culture, are entirely contingent and likely very rare. To defend this thesis, Powell marshals a wealth of evidence from a variety of disciplines and develops some singul…Read more
  •  62
    Gendering animals
    Synthese 199 (1-2): 4287-4311. 2021.
    In this paper, we argue that there are good, scientifically credible reasons for thinking that some nonhuman animals might have genders. We begin by considering why the sex/gender distinction has been important for feminist politics yet has also been difficult to maintain. We contrast contemporary views that trouble gender with those typical of traditional sex difference research, which has enjoyed considerable feminist critique, and argue that the anthropocentric focus of feminist accounts of g…Read more
  • What’s Wrong with (Narrow) Evolutionary Psychology
    In Sharon Crasnow & Kristen Intemann (eds.), The Routledge Handbook of Feminist Philosophy of Science, Routledge. pp. 303-15. 2021.
    In this chapter, Meynell offers an overview of a specific scientific research program known as evolutionary psychology. She begins by defining two senses of this moniker in order to clearly circumscribe that which has been the target of most critique—feminist and otherwise. She reviews the key commitments of this problematic research program and rehearses common criticisms before illustrating them with a case study. The chapter concludes with some reflections on the rhetorical positioning of thi…Read more
  •  2
    In recent years there has been increasing interest in scientific understanding as an epistemic success term that is distinct from scientific knowledge (see, for example, De Regt, Leonelli and Eigner 2009). Although this literature is diverse, three dominant strands can be found that have rather deeper roots in the philosophy of science: understanding as unification (Friedman 1974; Kitcher 1981); understanding through mechanistic thinking as in certain types of causal modelling (Salmon 1998; Wood…Read more
  •  8
    Breaking Barriers to Ethical Research: An Analysis of the Effectiveness of Nonhuman Animal Research Approval in Canada
    with Caroline Vardigans and MacGregor Malloy
    Accountability in Research 26 (8): 473-497. 2019.
    In Canada, all institutions that conduct publicly funded, animal-based research are expected to comply with the standards of the Canadian Council on Animal Care (CCAC). The CCAC promotes the use of animal alternatives, and uses the “3Rs” principles of Replacement, Reduction, and Refinement as a guiding ethical framework. To ensure these standards are strictly enforced, internal ethics committees at each institution are tasked with creating “Animal Use Protocol” (AUP) forms to be filled out by re…Read more
  •  5
    Guest Editors' Introduction Susan Sherwin: Shaping a More Just Bioethics
    International Journal of Feminist Approaches to Bioethics 13 (2): 1-8. 2020.
    We are preparing this special issue celebrating the work of Susan Sherwin under extraordinary circumstances. We are sitting in our homes, isolating ourselves from each other, in order to support and protect each other. Each of us is curtailing our preferences in order not only to protect ourselves but to protect everyone else in our community—local and global—from COVID-19. In this historic moment it is abundantly clear that our lives are inescapably relational—that, through our own decisions an…Read more
  •  9
    Susan Sherwin: Shaping a More Just Bioethics
    International Journal of Feminist Approaches to Bioethics 13 (2): 1-8. 2020.
  •  35
    Dredging the Third Wave: Reflections on the Feminism of the Nineties
    Social Philosophy Today 17 179-201. 2001.
    In this paper I examine third wave leminism in the hopes of shedding light on its relationship to the concurrent contemporary backlash against leminism. I investigate this by attempting to answer two questions. First, given the nature of the first and second waves, is the third wave appropriately so called? I tentatively conclude that it is not. Second, I ask whether the issue of identity, which is central to third wave analysis, is addressed well by third wavers. I suggest that there are seriou…Read more
  •  3775
    In December 2013, the Nonhuman Rights Project (NhRP) filed a petition for a common law writ of habeas corpus in the New York State Supreme Court on behalf of Tommy, a chimpanzee living alone in a cage in a shed in rural New York (Barlow, 2017). Under animal welfare laws, Tommy’s owners, the Laverys, were doing nothing illegal by keeping him in those conditions. Nonetheless, the NhRP argued that given the cognitive, social, and emotional capacities of chimpanzees, Tommy’s confinement constituted …Read more
  •  43
    Picturing Feynman Diagrams and the Epistemology of Understanding
    Perspectives on Science 26 (4): 459-481. 2018.
    In "Why Feynman Diagrams Represent", I argued that Feynman diagrams have two distinct functions: they are both calculational devices, developed to keep track of the long mathematical expressions of quantum electrodynamics,1 and they are pictorial representations. This challenges the common view that FDs are calculational devices alone and that it is misleading, if not an outright error, to think of them as pictorial. Following Kendall Walton's account of representation, I drew out what it means …Read more
  •  13
    The Power and Promise of Developmental Systems Theory
    Les Ateliers de L’Ethique 3 (2): 88-105. 2008.
    I argue that it is time for many feminists to rethink their attitudes towards evolutionary biology, not because feminists have been wrong to be deeply sceptical about many of its claims, both explicit and implicit, but because biology itself has changed. A new appreciation for the importance of development in biology has become mainstream and a new ontology, associated with developmental systems theory, has been introduced over the last two decades. This turn challenges some of the features of e…Read more
  •  81
    On Political Correctness
    Dialogue 56 (4): 799-804. 2017.
    What I propose in this article are ways to think about and discuss cases of political correctness so as to avoid polarizing polemics and increase mutual understanding. The goal is to help us envision and create a more just and equitable institution by talking with each other rather than talking past each other. I maintain that politically correct interventions are motivated by the following three claims about the current term or practice that they seek to reform: 1) the term or practice, is con…Read more
  •  826
    The Philosophers' Brief on Chimpanzee Personhood
    Proposed Brief by Amici Curiae Philosophers in Support of the Petitioner-Appelllant Court of Appeals, State of New York,. 2018.
    In this brief, we argue that there is a diversity of ways in which humans (Homo sapiens) are ‘persons’ and there are no non-arbitrary conceptions of ‘personhood’ that can include all humans and exclude all nonhuman animals. To do so we describe and assess the four most prominent conceptions of ‘personhood’ that can be found in the rulings concerning Kiko and Tommy, with particular focus on the most recent decision, Nonhuman Rights Project, Inc v Lavery.
  • Introduction: Minding Bodies.–Sue campbell, Letitia Meynell, Susan Sherwin
    In Sue Campbell, Letitia Meynell & Susan Sherwin (eds.), Embodiment and Agency, Pennsylvania State University Press. pp. 1--21. 2009.
  •  76
    Embodiment and Agency (edited book)
    with Sue Campbell and Susan Sherwin
    Pennsylvania State University Press. 2009.
    "A collection of essays in feminist philosophy.
  •  68
    Why feynman diagrams represent
    International Studies in the Philosophy of Science 22 (1). 2008.
    There are two distinct interpretations of the role that Feynman diagrams play in physics: (i) they are calculational devices, a type of notation designed to keep track of complicated mathematical expressions; and (ii) they are representational devices, a type of picture. I argue that Feynman diagrams not only have a calculational function but also represent: they are in some sense pictures. I defend my view through addressing two objections and in so doing I offer an account of representation th…Read more
  •  142
    Meynell’s contention is that feminists should attend to pictures in science as distinctive bearers of epistemic content that cannot be reduced to propositions. Remarks on the practice and function of medical illustration—specifically, images Nancy Tuana used in her discussion of the construction of ignorance of women’s sexual function (2004)—show pictures to be complex and powerful epistemic devices. Their affinity with perennial feminist concerns, the relation between epistemic subject and obje…Read more
  •  39
  •  70
    In 2002, Evolution and Human Behavior published a study purporting to show that the differences in toy preferences commonly attributed to girls and boys can also be found in male and female vervet monkeys, tracing the origin of these differing preferences back to a common ancestor. Despite some flaws in its design and the prima facie implausibility of some of its central claims, this research received considerable attention in both scientific circles and the popular media. In what follows, I sur…Read more
  • Parsing pictures: on analyzing the content of images in science
    The Knowledge Engineering Review 28 (3). 2013.
    In this paper I tackle the question of what basic form an analytical method for articulating and ultimately assessing visual representations should take. I start from the assumption that scientific images, being less prone to interpretive complication than artworks, are ideal objects from which to engage this question. I then assess a recent application of Nelson Goodman's aesthetics to the project of parsing scientific images, Laura Perini's ‘The truth in pictures’. I argue that, although her p…Read more