Last modified on 24 November 2014, at 19:39

Philosophy of Biology Ph.D. Programs

Revision as of 19:39, 24 November 2014 by Shawn (Talk | contribs)

This wiki provides an unranked list of Ph.D. (and terminal M.A.) programs that have strengths in philosophy of biology. 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.

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.

Separate Program Pages can be created on the wiki to provide additional information to prospective students. So, if you are a faculty member or a student in a department—or are just a fan—you are heartily encouraged to create a separate page where prospective students can learn more about the program. Programs with significant participation of affiliated faculty are also strongly urged to create 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.[2]

While the style and format of this main page should be kept consistent, individual Program Pages can take any form whatsoever. See the 3-step directions for creating Program Pages here. Examples of Program Pages can be found here and here.

This site was published on Nov. 19, 2014, which makes it very, very new. Accordingly, it 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

  1. 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.[3] 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.
  2. 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.
  3. 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.[4]
  4. 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.

Ph.D. Programs (Australasia)

All programs reside in philosophy departments, unless otherwise specified.

Australian National University

University of Otago (New Zealand)

University of Sydney

Ph.D. Programs (Canada)

All programs reside in philosophy departments, unless otherwise specified.

University of Alberta

  • Ingo Brigandt // website, CV, PhilPapers
    • Specialties: Evolutionary developmental biology, molecular biology, systems biology, science and values
    • Willing to work with new students? Yes
  • Robert A. Wilson // website, CV, PhilPapers

University of British Columbia

University of Calgary

University of Toronto

University of Waterloo

University of Western Ontario

Ph.D. Programs (United Kingdom)

All programs reside in philosophy departments, unless otherwise specified.

Birkbeck, University of London

University of Bristol

University of Cambridge (History and Philosophy of Science)

University of Exeter (Sociology, Philosophy and Anthropology)

King's College London

Lancaster University (Politics, Philosophy and Religion)

University of Leeds

London School of Economics (Philosophy, Logic and Scientific Method)

  • Jonathan Birch // website, PhilPapers
    • Specialities: Natural selection, evolution of social behaviour, evolutionary transitions, human evolution.
    • Willing to work with new students? Yes

University College London (Science and Technology Studies)

Ph.D. Programs (United States)

All programs reside in philosophy departments, unless otherwise specified

Arizona State University (Center for Biology and Society)

Boston University

Carnegie Mellon University

City University of New York Graduate Center

Columbia University

Duke University

Florida State University

Indiana University (History and Philosophy of Science)

Michigan State University

Stanford University

University of California, Davis

[Expanded Program Information]

  • James R. Griesemer // website 1, 2, 3, CV, PhilPapers
    • Specialties: Evolutionary biology, genetics, developmental biology, ecology, and systematics
    • Willing to work with new students? Yes
  • Roberta L. Millstein // website 1, 2, 3, CV, PhilPapers
    • Specialties: History and philosophy of evolutionary biology and ecology, causation, chance, environmental ethics
    • Willing to work with new students? Yes

University of California, Irvine (Logic and Philosophy of Science)

University of California, San Diego

University of California, Santa Cruz

  • Rasmus Grønfeldt Winther // website 1, 2, PhilPapers
    • Willing to work with new students? Yes

University of Chicago (Conceptual and Historical Studies of Science)

  • David Jablonski (has been on CHSS dissertation committees) // website

University of Cincinnati

[Expanded Program Information]

  • Tony Chemero // website, PhilPapers
    • Specialties: neuroscience, ecological psychology, artificial life, dynamical systems and complex systems, cognitive science
    • Willing to work with new students? Yes
  • Valerie Hardcastle // website, PhilPapers
    • Specialties: neurobiology, neuropsychiatry and the law, embodied cognition
    • Willing to work with new students? Yes
  • Koffi N. Maglo // website, PhilPapers
    • Specialties: philosophy of biomedicine, genomics and race, race-based medicine, bioethics
    • Willing to work with new students? Yes
  • Thomas W. Polger // website 1, 2, CV, PhilPapers
    • Specialties: multiple realization and realization; explanation in life, brain, and cognitive sciences; role of evolutionary theory in thinking about minds and consciousness; neuroscience and cognitive sciences
    • Willing to work with new students? Yes
  • Angela Potochnik // website 1, 2, CV, PhilPapers
    • Specialties: methodology of population biology, behavioral ecology, explanation, idealization, socially engaged philosophy of science, logical empiricism
    • Willing to work with new students? Yes
  • Robert C. Richardson // website, PhilPapers
    • Specialties: evolutionary theory, developmental biology, cognitive science, theory change
    • Willing to work with new students? Yes
  • Robert A. Skipper, Jr. // website 1, 2, PhilPapers
    • Specialties: history of evolutionary genetics, evolutionary genetics, obesity science, controversies, explanation, socially engaged philosophy of science
    • Willing to work with new students? Yes

University of Maryland, College Park

University of Minnesota, Twin Cities[6]

University of Notre Dame

University of Pennsylvania

University of Pittsburgh (History and Philosophy of Science)

University of Texas at Austin

University of Utah

University of Wisconsin-Madison

Washington University in St. Louis

  • Carl F. Craver // website 1, 2, PhilPapers
    • Specialties: Philosophy of neuroscience, theories of explanation, philosophy of psychology, cognitive neuropsychology
    • Willing to work with new students? Yes
  • Dennis DesChene // website, CV, PhilPapers
  • Ron Mallon // website, PhilPapers
  • Anya Plutynski // website, PhilPapers
    • Specialties: History and philosophy of biology, general philosophy of science, cancer biology, early 20th Century genetics, evolutionary theory, explanation, modeling.
    • Willing to work with new students? Yes

M.A. Programs

Concordia University, Montreal

Louisiana State University

Oregon State University

Tufts University

University of North Carolina at Charlotte (Ethics & Applied Philosophy)

Notes

  1. ↑ This site is not in the business of giving prospective students advice—on how to select programs or anything else—but it can be very helpful and illuminating to contact graduate students currently enrolled in departments you are considering and asking if they would be willing to share their impressions of and experience in the programs. The worst that can happen is that they say 'no'. Of course, what they share must be taken with a grain of salt since everyone's experiences differ, and disgruntled students will paint a radically different picture than contented ones. For that reason, seeking out multiple sources can be worthwhile.
  2. ↑ The other downside of listing on the main page affiliated faculty whose connection to a philosophy of biology graduate program is unclear is that other contributors may remove them. This is, after all, a wiki.
  3. ↑ For the most part, free-standing Science & Technology Studies (or Science Studies) departments aren't listed. The rationale for this is that since this wiki's intended audience is prospective philosophy/HPS Ph.D. students, the assumption is that they aren't targeting STS programs. Of course, there are borderline departments that aren't strictly philosophy or history and philosophy of science, e.g., the University of Exeter's Department of Sociology, Anthropology and Philosophy; the University of Chicago's Committee on the Conceptual and Historical Studies of Science; and Arizona State University's Center for Biology and Society, all of which are listed.
  4. ↑ Also, as long as a department has one full-time, self-described philosopher of biology, the graduate program is listed, which makes the determination of whether other faculty count as philosophers of biology less crucial.
  5. ↑ Though he does not list philosophy of biology as a current AOS, Kitcher writes on his faculty profile page—accessed 2014-11-18—that he is willing to work with philosophy of biology graduate students.
  6. ↑ Some of the Resident Fellows at the Minnesota Center for Philosophy of Science also have philosophy of biology interests.

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