PhilBio.net

This wiki provides an unranked list of Philosophy of Biology Ph.D. and terminal M.A. programs. Links are provided to the websites, CVs, and PhilPapers profiles of the relevant faculty at each program. Additionally, when known, the specialties and willingness of faculty members to work with new graduate students are noted. The primary intended audience is prospective or current graduate students with interests in philosophy of biology who want to get the lay of the land by seeing who works where, and on what.

For convenience and linking purposes, please note that pointing your browser to PhilBio.net will bring you to this page.

Please note: If you want to create your own philosophy wiki, visit PhilWiki.net, which offers free setup, free hosting, and a free, i.e., Creative Commons, template. Shawn Standefer has used these resources to create the Philosophical Logic Ph.D. Programs wiki. Wikis are also being created for 20th Century Continental Philosophy, Formal Epistemology, and Philosophy of Mathematics, all of which will link at PhilWiki.net and on the sidebar. Keep up with these and other updates by Liking Us on Facebook or following on Twitter.

Note to Prospective Graduate Students

The purpose of this wiki is to aid your search for philosophy of biology graduate programs that suit your tastes. It does so in two ways. First, by listing as many philosophy of biology graduate programs as possible, and, second, by making research into those programs more convenient and efficient by identifying the relevant philosophy of biology faculty and providing easy access to their bios, research interests, CVs, partial publication lists, etc. However, while this site may be where your research into programs starts, it decidedly should not be where it ends. You need to dig around and do your due diligence—e.g., contact people within the programs^[1]—in order to put yourself in the best possible position to make an informed decision about where to apply. Best of luck!

How to Contribute

This is a wiki, so anyone can contribute. If programs or faculty have been overlooked—which is assuredly the case—you are encouraged to add them, even if you are not a member of that department. Also, information will date rapidly—especially, e.g., links to pdf CVs since their filenames often contain the (approximate) dates of creation, which change—so by all means help keep things up to date.

Wiki formatting/markup is very straightforward. Just click 'Edit' at the top of the page—or next to the entry you want to modify—and mimic the format of existing entries. Not all entries list the specialties of faculty members or whether faculty members are willing to work with new students. If that information is known, please add it, since that is very helpful to prospective students.

Every program listed also has a separate Wiki Program Page where additional information can be provided to prospective students. While the style and format of this main page should be kept consistent, individual Wiki Program Pages can take any form whatsoever. To edit one of these pages, simply follow the Wiki Program Page link underneath the department listing of interest and edit that page. To add a Wiki Program Page, follow the directions here.^[2]

Unless otherwise specified, Wiki Program Pages presently contain the same information as the front-page listing, though that should change over time.

Programs with significant participation of affiliated faculty are strongly urged to use Wiki Program Pages for the purpose of listing them and explaining their role and involvement with philosophy of biology graduate students. Simply linking on the main page to affiliated faculty in, e.g., a history department, law school, medical school, etc., is likely to be confusing to prospective students who do not know how these individuals are connected to the Ph.D. program they are researching.^[3]

This site does not pretend to provide an exhaustive list of philosophy of biology graduate programs, though that is the goal. Contributing will help to achieve that goal sooner rather than later.

Questions, comments, ideas? Let me know at shamiller@ucdavis.edu.

Standards, Practices, and Guidelines

The criterion for program inclusion is just that a philosophy (or a history and philosophy of science) Ph.D. program have at least one full-time faculty member who self-identifies as a philosopher of biology.^[4] Programs do not have to be in English-speaking departments. A separate list of M.A. programs can be found at the bottom of this page.
The standard of evidence required to make the list is an official (or personal) university-affiliated website—or a publicly-accessible CV—that lists philosophy of biology as a primary research interest.
Philosophers who have made contributions to the philosophy of biology but who do not list phil bio as an AOS/AOC are usually not listed. For the most part, this wiki simply reflects the self-reports of online faculty listings, which is a way to avoid having to make judgment calls about who counts as a philosopher of biology in borderline cases. The rule of thumb is: someone counts if they say they count. That said, erring on the side of being inclusive is generally a good policy since prospective students can peruse bios, CVs, and publication lists to help determine whether they think a borderline faculty member would be potentially helpful to their phil bio research interests.^[5]
Bioethics, environmental ethics, philosophy of neuroscience/cognitive science, philosophy of medicine, and history of biology—in and of themselves—are not counted as philosophy of biology, though philosophers of biology with those interests are listed.

Browse Programs by Category

Below are two ways to browse programs by category. The first sorts all programs by number of philosophy of biology faculty. The second sorts U.S. programs by state.

You can find a listing of Australasia and Canadian programs by specialty on this page. Once that list includes programs from other parts of the world, it will be moved to the front page.

The full program list below this table is sorted alphabetically by country/region. As always, prospective students should fact-check the faculty numbers listed because academics change jobs frequently. (Note: 'P' stands for Page.)

All Ph.D. Programs by Number of Faculty	U.S. Ph.D. Programs by State
► 1 Faculty Member‎ (19 P) ► 2 Faculty Members‎ (9 P) ► 3 Faculty Members‎ (10 P) ► 4 Faculty Members‎ (5 P) ► 5 Faculty Members‎ (3 P) ► 6+ Faculty Members‎ (2 P)	► Arizona‎ (1 P) ► California‎ (5 P) ► Florida‎ (1 P) ► Illinois‎ (1 P) ► Indiana‎ (2 P) ► Kansas‎ (1 P) ► Maryland‎ (1 P) ► Massachusetts‎ (1 P) ► Michigan‎ (1 P) ► Minnesota‎ (1 P) ► New York‎ (2 P) ► North Carolina‎ (1 P) ► Ohio‎ (1 P) ► Pennsylvania‎ (3 P) ► Texas‎ (2 P) ► Utah‎ (1 P) ► Wisconsin‎ (1 P)

Ph.D. Programs (Australasia)

All programs reside in philosophy departments, unless otherwise specified. Wiki Program Pages contain identical information to front-page listing, also unless otherwise specified.

Note to Prospective Graduate Students

How to Contribute

Standards, Practices, and Guidelines

Browse Programs by Category

Ph.D. Programs (Australasia)

Ph.D. Programs (Canada)

Ph.D. Programs (United Kingdom)

Ph.D. Programs (United States)

M.A. Programs

Notes

Wiki Editing Resources

Philosophy of Biology Graduate Programs