Last modified on 26 January 2015, at 04:17

Longer Version

  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.[1] 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.[2]
  4. Affiliated, part-time, and emeritus faculty who work closely with graduate students should be labelled as such inside parentheses next to their names, e.g., Joe Dumit (Science & Technology Studies) // website, CV, PhilPapers. It is often best to explain the role these individuals play in programs at greater length on Wiki Program Pages. The point of listing them to begin with is not to pad a department's stats by inflating the number of philosophers of biology, but rather to identify individuals who will potentially be of use to graduate students, but who might not be found on a department website.
  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.

Notes

  1. ↑ 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.
  2. ↑ 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.