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Prospects for a Cognitive Science of ScienceDissertation, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University. 1990.Cognitive science of science attempts to explain a range of phenomena familiar to philosophers of science, such as theory choice and scientific discovery. The appeal to cognitive science may be seen as an attempt to naturalize the philosophy of science. I examine and criticize several of the most important contributions to this new field. I argue that an unrecognized common defect of this work is its reliance on an explanatory approach that takes individuals' cognitive capacities as its units of…Read more
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3Diversifying Tenure-Line FacultyBlog of the American Philosophical Association. 2020.A blog post in the APA series on diversity in the profession. This post outlines some suggested practices for hiring and retention of tenure-line faculty with a particular focus on hiring women.
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39Shallow versus deep genetic causesBehavioral and Brain Sciences 46. 2023.We argue that Madole & Harden's distinction between shallow versus deep genetic causes can bring some clarity to causal claims arising from genome-wide association studies (GWASs). However, the authors argue that GWAS only finds shallow genetic causes, making GWAS commensurate with the environmental studies they hope to supplant. We also assess whether their distinction applies best to explanations or causes.
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5Herbert Simon’s Computational Models of Scientific DiscoveryPSA Proceedings of the Biennial Meeting of the Philosophy of Science Association 1990 (1): 97-108. 1990.Herbert Simon’s work on scientific discovery deserves serious attention by philosophers of science for several reasons. First, Simon was an early advocate of rational scientific discovery, contra Popper and logical empiricist philosophers of science (Simon 1966). This proposal spurred on investigation of scientific discovery in philosophy of science, as philosophers used and developed Simon’s notions of “problem solving” and “heuristics” in attempts to provide rational accounts of scientific dis…Read more
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7Are You Experienced?In Fritz Allhoff & Stephen E. Schmid (eds.), Climbing ‐ Philosophy for Everyone, Wiley‐blackwell. 2010-09-24.This chapter contains sections titled: Coda: Getting Something Back Notes.
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1The basic components of the human mind were not solidified during the Pleistocene epochIn Francisco José Ayala & Robert Arp (eds.), Contemporary debates in philosophy of biology, Wiley-blackwell. 2010.
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43Changes in heritability: Unpredictable and of limited useBehavioral and Brain Sciences 45. 2022.We argue that heritability estimates cannot be used to make informed judgments about the populations from which they are drawn. Furthermore, predicting changes in heritability from population changes is likely impossible, and of limited value. We add that the attempt to separate human environments into cultural and non-cultural components does not advance our understanding of the environmental multiplier effect.
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68An Early History of the Heritability Coefficient Applied to HumansBiological Theory 17 (2): 126-137. 2022.Fisher’s 1918 paper accomplished two distinct goals: unifying discrete Mendelian genetics with continuous biometric phenotypes and quantifying the variance components of variation in complex human characteristics. The former contributed to the foundation of modern quantitative genetics; the latter was adopted by social scientists interested in the pursuit of Galtonian nature-nurture questions about the biological and social origins of human behavior, especially human intelligence. This historica…Read more
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63HeritabilityStanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. 2019.Lucas Matthews and I substantially revised my SEP entry on Heritability. This version includes discussion of the missing heritability problem and other issues that arise from the use of Genome Wide Association Studies by Behavioral Geneticists.
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38Review of Maria Kronfeldner, What's Left of Human Nature (review)British Journal for the Philosophy of Science Review of Books. 2019.
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34The Role of Ancient DNA Research in ArchaeologyTopoi 40 (1): 285-293. 2019.In this paper I briefly introduce work on ancient-DNA and give some examples of the impact this work has had on responses to questions in archaeology. Next, I spell out David Reich’s reasons for his optimism about the contribution aDNA research makes to archaeology. I then use Robert Chapman and Alison Wylie’s framework to offer an alternative to Reich’s view of relations between aDNA research and archaeology. Finally, I develop Steven Mithen’s point about the different questions archaeologists …Read more
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19Book Review: Conquest of Abundance: A Tale of Abstraction versus the Richness of Being, The Worst Enemy of Science? Essays in Memory of Paul Feyerabend (review)Science, Technology, and Human Values 27 (1): 160-167. 2002.
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17Modeling scientific practice: Paul Thagard's computational approachNew Ideas in Psychology 11 (2): 229-243. 1993.In this paper I examine Paul Thagard's computational approach to studying science, which is a contribution to the cognitive science of science. I present several criticisms of Thagard's approach and use them to motivate some suggestions for alternative approaches in cognitive science of science. I first argue that Thagard does not clearly establish the units of analysis of his study. Second, I argue that Thagard mistakenly applies the same model to both individual and group decision making. Fina…Read more
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21A Philosophical Ethnography of Human-Computer InteractionSocial Epistemology 1 (1): 27-36. 1987.
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87Evolutionary PsychologyStanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. 2014.This is an updated version of my Stanford Encyclopedia entry on Evolutionary Psychology. The 2018 version contains a new section on Human Nature as well as some new material on recent developments in Evolutionary Psychology.
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530Scientific Imperialism and explanatory appeals to evolution in the social sciencesIn Uskali Mäki, Adrian Walsh & Manuela Fernández Pinto (eds.), Scientific Imperialism: Exploring the Boundaries of Interdisciplinarity, Routledge. pp. 224-236. 2018.
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611Evolutionary PsychologyIn Lee C. McIntyre & Alexander Rosenberg (eds.), The Routledge Companion to Philosophy of Social Science, Routledge. pp. 330-339. 2016.
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38Variability of AggressionIn Todd K. Shackelford & Viviana A. Weekes-Shackelford (eds.), Encyclopedia of Evolutionary Psychological Science, Springer Verlag. 2018.Variability of aggression: human aggressive behavior varies on a number of dimensions. We argue that this variability is best understood through an interdisciplinary evolutionary approach.
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106Human Nature: An OverviewIn Richard Joyce (ed.), The Routledge Handbook of Evolution and Philosophy, Routledge. pp. 155-166. 2016.Debates about human nature inform every philosophical tradition from their inception (see Stevenson 2000 for many examples). Evolutionarily based criticisms of human nature are of much more recent origin. Ironically, most evolutionarily based criticisms of human nature are directed at work whose avowed goal is to biologicize human nature and even to place human nature within an evolutionary frame. Here I will focus on accounts of human nature that begin with and come after E.O. Wilson’s sociobio…Read more
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19How Biology Shapes Philosophy: New Foundations for Naturalism by Livingstone Smith, David (ed.) (review)Evolutionary Studies in Imaginative Culture 1 (2): 149-152. 2017.
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13Evolutionary psychology is not the only productive evolutionary approach to understanding consumer behaviorJournal of Consumer Psychology 23 (3): 400-403. 2013.I respond to Vladas Griskevicius and Douglas T. Kendrick (G&K) and Gad Saad's (S) defenses of the view that Consumer Studies would benefit from the appeal to evolution in all work aimed at understanding consumer behavior. I argue that G&K and S's reliance on one theoretical perspective, that of evolutionary psychology, limits their options. Further, I point out some specific problems with the theoretical perspective of evolutionary psychology. Finally, I introduce some alternative evolutionary a…Read more
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4The Disunity of Science: Boundaries, Contexts, and Power by Peter Galison; David J. Stump (review)Isis 88 517-518. 1997.
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36The basic components of the human mind were not solidified during the Pleistocene epochIn Francisco José Ayala & Robert Arp (eds.), Contemporary debates in philosophy of biology, Wiley-blackwell. 2010.There are a number of competing hypotheses about human evolution. For example, Homo habilis and Homo erectus could have existed together, or one could have evolved from the other, and paleontological evidence may allow us to decide between these two hypotheses (see, e.g., Spoor et al., 2007). For most who work on the biology of human behavior, there is no question that human behavior is in some large part a product of evolution. But, there are competing hypotheses in this area as well. Some clai…Read more
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527Alternative Splicing, the Gene Concept, and EvolutionHistory and Philosophy of the Life Sciences 26 (1). 2004.Alternative splicing allows for the production of many gene products from a single coding sequence. I introduce the concept of alternative splicing via some examples. I then discuss some current hypotheses about the explanatory role of alternative splicing, including the claim that splicing is a significant contributor to the difference in complexity between the human genome and proteosome. Hypotheses such as these bring into question our working concepts of the gene. I examine several gene conc…Read more
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100Some recent developments in evolutionary approaches to the study of human cognition and behaviorBiology and Philosophy 16 (5): 575-94. 2001.In this paper I review some theoretical exchanges and empiricalresults from recent work on human behavior and cognition in thehope of indicating some productive avenues for critical engagement.I focus particular attention on methodological debates between Evolutionary Psychologists and behavioral ecologists. I argue for a broader and more encompassing approach to the evolutionarily based study of human behavior and cognition than either of these two rivals present
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22Simulating Science: Heuristics, Mental Models, and Technoscientific Thinking. Michael E. Gorman (review)Isis 85 (1): 195-197. 1994.
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57Truth, selection and scientific inquiryBiology and Philosophy 15 (3): 425-442. 2000.In this paper I examine various ways in whichphilosophers have made connections between truth andnatural selection. I introduce several versions ofthe view that mechanisms of true belief generationarise as a result of natural selection and argue thatthey fail to establish a connection between truth andnatural selection. I then turn to scientific truthsand argue that evolutionary accounts of the origin ofscientific truth generation mechanisms also fail. Iintroduce David Hull's selectionist model …Read more
Salt Lake City, Utah, United States of America
Areas of Specialization
Philosophy of Biology |
Philosophy of Cognitive Science |
Philosophy of Social Science |
Philosophy of Probability |