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Philosophy of Biology Graduate Programs

This wiki provides an unranked list of Ph.D. and terminal M.A. programs that have strengths in philosophy of biology. Since it's a wiki, you can edit it, so please do. The primary intended audience is prospective and 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. Follow us on Twitter and keep us appraised of comings and goings at graduate programs by emailing shamiller@ucdavis.edu. All content on this site is available under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Download the PDF: The entire list of Ph.D. and M.A. programs can be downloaded.

Contents

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:

  • By listing as many philosophy of biology graduate programs as possible.
  • By making research into those programs more efficient and convenient 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. Good luck!

Standards, Practices, and Guidelines

  1. The criterion for program inclusion is just that a philosophy (or HPS) program have at least one full-time faculty member who self-identifies as a philosopher of biology.
  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.
  4. Affiliated, part-time, and emeritus faculty who work closely with graduate students should be labeled as such inside parentheses next to their names.
  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.

A longer version of these guidelines is available.

Ph.D. Programs (Australasia)

All programs reside in philosophy departments, unless otherwise specified.

Australian National University

Department Website | Additional Program Information [yes]

Macquarie University

Department Website | Additional Program Information [no]

  • Rachael Brown
    • Ph.D. 2013 Australian National University
      • Thesis: Understanding Behavioural Innovation, Novelty and Evolvability
      • Advisor: Kim Sterelny
    • Specialties: The evolution of cognition and behaviour; the relationship between evolutionary developmental biology and the Neo-Darwinian Synthesis; model-based reasoning in biology and philosophy; and methodological issues in the study of animal behaviour and cognition (via website)
    • Website 1, 2, PhilPapers
  • Karola Stotz
    • Ph.D. 1999 University of Ghent
      • Advisor: Gertrudis Van de Vijver
    • Specialties: Evolutionary, developmental and molecular biology, psychobiology and cognition (via website)
    • Website, PhilPapers

University of Otago (New Zealand)

Department Website | Additional Program Information [no]

  • James Maclaurin
    • Ph.D. 1998 Australian National University
    • Specialties: Philosophy of Biology, including innateness, fitness, theoretical morphology, biological diversity and universal darwinism (via website)
    • Website, PhilPapers

University of Sydney

Department Website | Additional Program Information [no]

  • David Braddon-Mitchell
  • Paul Griffiths
    • Ph.D. 1989 Australian National University
    • Specialties: Causal foundations of biological information; evolutionary medicine; innateness and human nature; concept of the gene; developmental systems theory (via website)
    • Website 1, 2, PhilPapers

Waikato University (New Zealand)

Department Website | Additional Program Information [no]

Ph.D. Programs (Canada)

All programs reside in philosophy departments, unless otherwise specified.

University of Alberta

Department Website | Entry in APA Guide | Additional Program Information [yes]

  • Robert A. Wilson
    • Ph.D. 1992 Cornell University (with Cognitive Studies minor)
    • Specialties: Eugenics, disability, and reproductive technology, species and natural kinds, levels of selection, group-level cognition and collective intentionality, the nature of biological individuals and organisms, kinship, intersections between biology, mind, and sociality.
    • Willing to work with new students? Yes
    • Website, CV, PhilPapers

University of British Columbia

Department Website | Entry in APA Guide | Additional Program Information [no]

  • Christopher Stephens
    • Ph.D. 2000 University of Wisconsin-Madison
    • Specialties: Conceptual foundations of evolutionary theory, causation, the nature of evidence in evolutionary biology, reciprocal altruism, phylogenetic inference, and on models of the evolution of rationality (via website)
    • Website 1, 2, CV, PhilPapers

University of Calgary

Department Website | Entry in APA Guide | Additional Program Information [no]

  • Megan Delehanty
    • Ph.D. 2005 University of Pittsburgh (HPS)
      • Thesis: Empiricism and the Epistemic Status of Imaging Technologies
      • Advisor: Sandra Mitchell
    • Specialties: Models, explanation, causation (via PhilPapers entries)
    • Website, PhilPapers

University of Toronto

Department Website | Entry in APA Guide | Additional Program Information [no]

  • Paul Thompson
    • Ph.D. 1979 University of Toronto
    • Specialties: Evolutionary theory, population genetics, mathematical modelling in biology, theory structure in biology, philosophy of medicine, and ethics (via website)
    • Website 1, 2, CV, PhilPapers

University of Waterloo

Department Website | Entry in APA Guide | Additional Program Information [no]

  • Katie Plaisance
    • Ph.D. 2006 University of Minnesota
      • Thesis: Behavioral Genetics and the Environment: The Generation and Exportation of Scientific Claims
      • Advisor: C. Kenneth Waters
    • Specialties: Philosophy of biology, Philosophical issues in the human behavioral sciences, public understanding of science, interactional expertise, and Socially Relevant Philosophy Of Science
    • Website, PhilPapers
  • Paul Thagard
    • Ph.D. 1977 University of Toronto
    • Specialties: Philosophy of science and medicine, cognitive science, philosophy of mind. Specific topics include analogy, coherence, decision making, conceptual change, explanatory reasoning, theoretical neuroscience, discovery and innovation, emotions and consciousness, moral psychology, and theories and explanations in biomedicine (via website)
    • Website 1, 2, PhilPapers

University of Western Ontario

Department Website | Entry in APA Guide | Additional Program Information [no]

  • Eric Desjardins
    • Ph.D. 2009 University of British Columbia
    • Specialties: Philosophy of Science, Philosophy of Biology, Environmental Philosophy and Bioethics (via website)
    • Website, PhilPapers

Ph.D. Programs (Europe)

All programs reside in philosophy departments, unless otherwise specified.

KU Leuven

Department Website

Ph.D. Programs (United Kingdom)

All programs reside in philosophy departments, unless otherwise specified.

Birkbeck, University of London

Department Website | Additional Program Information [no]

  • Robert Northcott | Website | CV | PhilPapers
    • Specialties: Philosophy of science, and especially the ‘special sciences’ such as biology and economics; metaphysics, especially the notions of causation and causal explanation; analysis of use of statistical techniques to measure causation, the place of causal explanation in evolutionary theory; role played by formal theory in economics (via website)
    • Ph.D. 2004 London School of Economics
Thesis: Approximate truth and causal strength in science
Advisors: Colin Howson and Nancy Cartwright

University of Bristol

| Department Website
| Additional Program Information [no]
  • Samir Okasha, Ph.D. 1998 University of Oxford (advisor: Bill Newton-Smith)
    • Website, PhilPapers
    • Specialities: evolutionary theory, levels of selection, population genetics, social evolution, rational choice
    • Willing to work with new students? Yes

University of Cambridge (History and Philosophy of Science)

| Department Website
| Additional Program Information [no]
  • Tim Lewens, Ph.D. 2001 University of Cambridge (HPS)
    • Website, PhilPapers
    • Specialties: Philosophy of biology, philosophy of science, philosophical bioethics

University of Exeter (Sociology, Philosophy and Anthropology)

| Department Website
| Additional Program Information [no]
  • John Dupre, Ph.D. 1981 University of Cambridge
    • Website, CV, PhilPapers
    • Specialties: Particular interests include: biological classification, the relation of technical to everyday biological kinds and to traditional problems of essentialism; adaptationism and optimality; reductionism; indeterministic accounts of causality; evolution and the limitations of evolutionary psychology; and the biological basis of sex and gender. Also worked for several years on issues in the philosophy of economics (via website)
  • Sabina Leonelli, Ph.D. 2007 Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam (advisors: Henk de Regt and Hans Radder)
    • Website, PhilPapers
    • Specialties: Data-Intensive Science and Practices of Data Sharing and Re-Use; Open Science and Open Data; The Regulatory Role and Epistemic Impact of Bioinformatics in Biology and Biomedicine; Bio-Ontologies; History and Epistemic Status of Model Organism Research; History, Philosophy and Sociology of Plant Biology; The Role of Embodied Knowledge and Skills in Scientific Understanding; Abstraction and Modelling Processes in Biology; Distributed Cognition and Division of Scientific Labor; Unity, Disunity and Integration in Science: Early American Pragmatism; Science Policy and the Globalisation and Political Economy of Scientific Research (via website)
  • Staffan Muller-Wille, Ph.D. 1997 University of Bielefeld
    • Website, PhilPapers
    • Specialties: History and philosophy of systematics; history of heredity; history of race and kinship (via website)

King's College London

| Department Website
| Additional Program Information [no]
  • Matteo Mameli, Ph.D. 2002 University of London (advisor: David Papineau)[10].
    • Website, PhilPapers
    • Specialties: Intersection of philosophy, the sciences of human behavior (biology, psychology, anthropology, sociology, economics, etc.), and moral and political theory (via website)
  • Nicholas Shea, Ph.D. 2003 King's College London (advisor: David Papineau)[11].
    • Website, PhilPapers
    • Specialties: Philosophy of mind and the philosophy of psychology, neuroscience and cognitive science; philosophical work on mental representation, consciousness and the metaphysics of mind; has published in scientific journals in collaboration with psychologists, cognitive neuroscientists and biologists (via website)

Lancaster University (Politics, Philosophy and Religion)

| Department Website
| Additional Program Information [no]
  • Brian Garvey, Ph.D. 2000 Trinity College Dublin
    • Website, PhilPapers
    • Specialties: Philosophy of science, philosophy of biology, philosophy of mind, psychoanalysis, Ryle, Austin, Dennett (via website)

University of Leeds

| Department Website
| Additional Program Information [no]
  • Gregory Radick, Ph.D. 2000 University of Cambridge (HPS)
    • Website 1, 2, PhilPapers
    • Specialties: History and Philosophy of Biology, especially evolutionary biology, genetics and animal behavior; History of the Human Sciences; Philosophy of Science; Philosophy of History; Intellectual Property (via website)

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

| Department Website
| Additional Program Information [no]
  • Jonathan Birch, Ph.D. 2013 University of Cambridge
    • 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)

| Department Website
| Additional Program Information [no]
  • Phyllis Illari, Ph.D. 2005 King's College London (adviser: David Papineau)[12]
    • Website, CV, PhilPapers
    • Specialties: Metaphysics, Epistemology and Methodology of Causality in the Sciences; wider research interests in Philosophy of Science, particularly Philosophy of Biology and Psychology, the still-expanding Mechanisms debate, and the Philosophy of Information (via website)

University of Oxford

| Department Website
| Additional Program Information [no]
  • Ellen Clarke, (currently a postdoc; moving to Leeds as a Lecturer in September 2016) Ph.D. 2010 University of Bristol
    • Website 1, 2, CV, PhilPapers
    • Specialties: Biological Individuality, Evolutionary Transitions, evolution of cooperation, natural selection, Philosophy of biology, philosophy of science

Ph.D. Programs (United States)

All programs reside in philosophy departments, unless otherwise specified.

Arizona State University (Center for Biology and Society)

Department Website | No Entry in APA Guide Available | Additional Program Information [no]

  • Manfred Laubichler | Website | CV | PhilPapers
    • Specialties: Theoretical biology and the history of biology using both empirical and conceptual approaches; role of gene regulatory networks in development and evolution; Theory of Complex Adaptive Systems, focusing on complexity as a unifying principle in the social and life sciences, including applications in biomedicine and the study of innovations (via website)
    • Ph.D. 1997 Yale University (Biology)
- Thesis: Identifying units of selection: conceptual and methodological issues
- Advisor: Gunter P. Wagner
  • Jane Maienschein | Website | CV | PhilPapers
    • Specialties: History and philosophy of biology and the way biology, bioethics and bio-policy play out in society; embryology, genetics, and cell biology; epistemological standards, theories, and laboratory practices; studies of people and institutions, as well as the changing social, political, and legal context in which science thrive (via website)
    • Ph.D. 1978 Indiana University (HPS)
- Thesis: Ross Harrison's crucial experiment as a foundation for modern American experimental embryology
- Advisor: Frederick B. Churchill
  • Jason Scott Robert | Website | CV
    • Specialties: Political and societal problems that intersect with life sciences; produces educational materials and tools for “talking productively” (via website)
    • Ph.D. 2000 McMaster University
- Thesis: Taking development seriously: toward a genuinely synthetic biology
- Advisor: B.G. Allen
  • Beckett Sterner (Starts fall semester 2016) | Website | CV
    • Specialties: History and philosophy of biology, especially mathematics in biology; information, individuality, species, modeling (via website)
    • Ph.D. 2012 University of Chicago (CHSS)
- Thesis: The practice of theorizing in computational biology: Function, information, and mechanism
- Advisor: William Wimsatt

Boston University

Department Website | No Entry in APA Guide Available | Additional Program Information [no]

  • Tian Yu Cao | Website | PhilPapers
    • Specialties: Philosophy and History of Science (physics, biology and cognitive sciences), Epistemology, Metaphysics, Social and Political Philosophy, with special interests in philosophical issues related to (classical and global) modernity and postmodernity (via website)
    • Ph.D. University of Cambridge
  • Russell Powell | Website | CV, PhilPapers
    • Specialties: Conceptual and methodological problems in evolutionary theory; epistemological and metaphysical dimensions of debates in contemporary bioethics, especially in relation to emerging biotechnologies (via website)
    • J.D. 2002 New York University
    • Ph.D. 2009 Duke University
- Thesis: Reading the Book of Life: Contingency and Convergence in Macroevolution
- Advisor: Alexander Rosenberg

Carnegie Mellon University

Department Website | Entry in APA Guide | Additional Program Information [no]

City University of New York Graduate Center

Department Website | Entry in APA Guide | Additional Program Information [no]

  • Peter Godfrey-Smith
    • Ph.D. 1991 UC San Diego
    • Website 1, 2, CV, PhilPapers
    • Specialties: Philosophy of biology and the philosophy of mind; pragmatism (especially John Dewey), general philosophy of science, and some parts of metaphysics and epistemology (via website)
  • Massimo Pigliucci
    • Doctorate University of Ferrara (Genetics)
    • Ph.D. University of Connecticut (Biology)
    • Ph.D. 2003 University of Tennessee (Philosophy)
    • Website 1, 2, PhilPapers
    • Specialties: Philosophy of biology, in particular the structure and foundations of evolutionary theory, the relationship between science and philosophy, and the nature of pseudoscience (via website)

Columbia University

Department Website | No Entry in APA Guide Available | Additional Program Information [no]

  • Philip Kitcher[13]
    • Ph.D. 1974 Princeton University
    • Website 1, 2, CV, PhilPapers
    • Specialties: Conceptual and methodological issues in biology; questions about the relations of biological research to society and politics; role of scientific inquiry in democratic societies; pragmatism (especially William James and John Dewey) (via website)

Duke University

Department Website | Entry in APA Guide | Additional Program Information [yes]

  • Alexander Rosenberg
    • Ph.D. 1971 Johns Hopkins University
    • Website 1, 2, CV, PhilPapers
    • Specialties: problems in metaphysics, mainly surrounding causality, the philosophy of social sciences, especially economics, and most of all, the philosophy of biology, in particular the relationship between molecular, functional and evolutionary biology (via website)
  • Dan McShea
    • Ph.D. 1990 University of Chicago (Committee on Evolutionary Biology)
    • Website 1, 2, PhilPapers
    • Specialties: Paleobiology, with a focus on large-scale trends in the history of life, especially documenting and investigating the causes of the (putative) trend in the complexity of organisms; operationalizing concepts, such as complexity and hierarchy, as well as clarifying conceptual issues related to trends at larger scales (via website)

Florida State University

Department Website | Entry in APA Guide | Additional Program Information [no]

  • Michael Ruse
    • Ph.D. 1970 Bristol University
    • Website, CV, PhilPapers
    • Specialties: Philosophy of Biology (especially Darwinism), Ethics, the History and Philosophy of Science (via website)

Indiana University (History and Philosophy of Science)

Department Website | Entry in APA Guide | Additional Program Information [no]

Michigan State University

Department Website | Entry in APA Guide | Additional Program Information [no]

  • Fred Gifford
    • Ph.D. 1984 University of Pittsburgh (HPS)
    • Website, CV, PhilPapers
    • Specialties: Philosophy of Science (particularly philosophy of biology and medicine); Ethics (particularly ethics in health care and the life sciences)

New York University

Department Website | Entry in APA Guide Additional Program Information | [no]

  • Laura Franklin-Hall
    • Ph.D. 2008 Columbia University
    • Website, [ PhilPapers]
    • Specialties: philosophy of biology, the general philosophy of science, and metaphysics (via website)

Stanford University

Department Website | Entry in APA Guide | Additional Program Information [no]

  • Helen Longino,
    • Ph.D. 1973 Johns Hopkins University
    • Website, CV, PhilPapers
    • Specialties: The underdetermination problem in the context of a probabilistic epistemology/metaphysics; analyzing the differences between weak and strong social epistemology; understanding ecological explanation (via website)
  • Brian Skyrms (1/3 time appointment; at Stanford every Spring)
    • Ph.D. 1964 University of Pittsburgh
    • Website, CV, PhilPapers
    • Specialties: Evolution of conventions and the social contract; inductive logic, decision theory, rational deliberation, the metaphysics of logical atomism, causality, and Truth (via website)

Texas A&M University

Department Website | Entry in APA Guide | Additional Program Information [no]

University of California, Davis

Department Website | Entry in APA Guide | Additional Program Information [yes]

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

Department Website | Entry in APA Guide | Additional Program Information [no]

  • Simon Huttegger
    • Ph.D. 2006 Universität Salzburg
      • Advisor: Reinhard Kleinknecht[19]
    • Website, CV, PhilPapers
    • Specialties: Game and Decision Theory, Probability, Philosophy of Science, Philosophy of Biology, Measurement Theory (via CV)
  • Cailin O'Connor
    • Ph.D. 2013 UC Irvine (LPS)
    • Website, CV, PhilPapers
    • Specialties: Philosophy of Biology, Philosophy of Science, Evolutionary Game Theory, Philosophy, Evolutionary Biology, Game Theory, Epistemology, Animal Behaviour, Social behavior in animals, Natural (Naturalised) Philosophy, Culture Evolution--Retardant/Accelerant of Genetic Evolution, Psychology, Neuroscience, Cognitive Neuroscience, Philosophy of Cognitive Science, Developmental Biology, Epigenetics, Philosophy of perception, Animal Cognition, Visual Neuroscience, Kinds of Inheritance System: Genes, Cultures, Learning, Ambiguity, Vagueness, Peter Godfrey-Smith, Naturalized ethics, Bargaining, Experimental Economics, Cultural Evolution, Decision And Game Theory, Evolution of cooperation (Evolutionary Biology), and Social Epistemology (via academia.edu)
  • P. Kyle Stanford
    • Ph.D. 1997 UC San Diego (Philosophy/Science Studies)
    • Website, CV, PhilPapers
    • Specialties: Centrally concerned with what we know and how we know it; philosophy of biology, the history of modern philosophy (especially the writings of Locke and Hume), and the philosophy of language (via website)
  • Brian Skyrms
    • Ph.D. 1964 University of Pittsburgh
    • Website, CV, PhilPapers
    • Specialties: Evolution of conventions and the social contract; inductive logic, decision theory, rational deliberation, the metaphysics of logical atomism, causality, and Truth (via website)

University of California, San Diego

Department Website | Entry in APA Guide | Additional Program Information [no]

  • William Bechtel
    • Ph.D. 1977 University of Chicago
    • Thesis: Intentionality and Quine's epistemological enterprise
      • Advisors: Manley Thompson and Daniel Garber
    • Website, PhilPapers
    • Specialties: Philosophy of the life sciences, including systems biology, cell and molecular biology, biochemistry, neuroscience, cognitive science, and mechanisms; chronobiology, which over the past twenty years which has revealed critical components and organization of the intercellular oscillators responsible for circadian behavior in mammals, insects, and plants, as well as their entrainment and sychronization, as a model science; interest is coupled with an interest in how neural systems generally "compute" via dynamic synchronization of endogenously active (oscillating) local populations of neurons (via website)

University of California, Santa Cruz

Department Website | Entry in APA Guide | Additional Program Information [no]

University of Chicago (Conceptual and Historical Studies of Science)

Department Website | No Entry in APA Guide Available | Additional Program Information [no]

University of Cincinnati

Department Website | Entry in APA Guide | Additional Program Information [yes]

  • Tony Chemero
    • Ph.D. 1999 Indiana University (Philosophy and Cognitive Science)
    • Website, PhilPapers
    • Specialties: neuroscience, ecological psychology, artificial life, dynamical systems and complex systems, cognitive science
    • Willing to work with new students? Yes
  • Valerie Hardcastle
    • Ph.D. 1994 UC San Diego (Philosophy and Cognitive Science)
    • Website, PhilPapers
    • Specialties: neurobiology, neuropsychiatry and the law, embodied cognition
    • Willing to work with new students? Yes
  • Thomas W. Polger
    • Ph.D. 2000 Duke University
    • 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
    • Ph.D. 2007 Stanford University
    • 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

University of Kansas

Department Website | No Entry in APA Guide Available | Additional Program Information [no]

  • Armin Schulz
    • Ph.D. 2010 University of Wisconsin-Madison
    • Website, CV, PhilPapers
    • Specialties: How and when evolutionary theory can be used to illuminate issues that are not obviously evolutionary biological (especially ones in psychology, social science, and philosophy); and how and when theories from psychology, social science, and philosophy can be used to illuminate evolutionary biological issues (via website)

University of Maryland, College Park

Department Website | No Entry in APA Guide Available | Additional Program Information [no]

  • Lindley Darden
    • Ph.D. 1974 University of Chicago (Conceptual Foundations of Science)
    • Website 1, 2, CV, PhilPapers
    • Specialties: Reasoning in scientific change; development of scientific knowledge as progressing through iterative cycles of construction, evaluation, and revision of hypotheses; conceptual aspects of discovery of biological mechanisms from the nineteenth through the twenty-first century, such as evolutionary and genetic mechanisms (via websites)
  • Erin Eaker
    • Ph.D. 2002 UCLA
    • Website, CV
    • Specialties: Natural kinds and scientific realism in the philosophy of biology; philosophy of language, metaphysics and epistemology; the concept of belief (via website)
  • Aidan Lyon
    • Ph.D. 2009 Australian National University
    • Website 1, 2, CV, PhilPapers
    • Specialties: Philosophy of Science, Philosophy of Probability, Formal Epistemology and Philosophy of Mathematics; also interested in topics in Philosophy of Physics and Biology; the notion of objective probability in various scientific theories, with a focus on Classical Statistical Mechanics and Evolutionary Theory (via website)

University of Minnesota, Twin Cities[21]

Department Website | Entry in APA Guide | Additional Program Information [yes]

University of Missouri

Department Website | Entry in APA Guide | Additional Program Information [no]

  • Andre Ariew
    • Ph.D. 1997 University of Arizona
      • Advisor: Robert Cummins
    • Website 1, 2, CV, PhilPapers
    • Specialties: Philosophy of science, philosophy of biology, fitness, causation (via website)

University of Pennsylvania

Department Website | No Entry in APA Guide Available | Additional Program Information [yes]

  • Cristina Bicchieri
    • Ph.D. 1984 Cambridge University
    • Website, CV, PhilPapers
    • Specialties: evolutionary game theory, evolution of social norms

University of Pittsburgh (History and Philosophy of Science)

Department Website | Entry in APA Guide | Additional Program Information [no]

  • Peter Machamer
    • Ph.D. 1972 University of Chicago
    • Website, CV, PhilPapers
    • Specialties: History and philosophy of science, primarily on 16th- and 17th-century topics, especially Galileo, Descartes and Hobbes, and in the philosophy of cognitive psychology and neuroscience, and social science, and on values and science.
  • Sandra Mitchell
    • Ph.D. 1987 University of Pittsburgh (HPS)
      • Advisor: Peter Machamer
    • Website 1, 2, PhilPapers
    • Specialties: Epistemological and metaphysical issues in the philosophy of science; scientific explanations of complex behavior, representing multi-level, multi-component complex systems; functional explanation, units of selection in evolutionary biology, sociobiology, biological complexity and self-organization, and scientific laws (via website)
  • James Woodward
    • Ph.D. 1977 University of Texas at Austin
    • Website, PhilPapers
    • Specialties: Theories of causation, explanation and inductive inference in general philosophy of science, philosophy of psychology, and philosophy of social science; empirical psychology of causal learning and judgment (via website)

University of Texas at Austin

Department Website | Entry in APA Guide | Additional Program Information [no]

University of Utah

Department Website | Entry in APA Guide | Additional Program Information [no]

  • Matt Haber
    • Ph.D. 2005 UC Davis (Philosophy, Population Biology Affiliate)
    • Website, CV, PhilPapers
    • Specialties: Philosophy of Biology and Philosophy of Science; philosophical and conceptual issues in systematics, particularly those stemming from a commitment to phylogenetic thinking (via website)
  • James Tabery
    • Ph.D. 2007 University of Pittsburgh (HPS)
      • Advisors: Sandra Mitchell and Paul Griffiths
    • Website, CV, PhilPapers
    • Specialties: Philosophy of science and applied ethics, as well as the intersection between those domains; causation and explanation in biology and their ethical, legal, and social implications (via website)

University of Wisconsin-Madison

Department Website | Entry in APA Guide | Additional Program Information [no]

  • Elliott Sober
    • Ph.D. 1974 Harvard University
    • Website, CV, PhilPapers
    • Specialties: Philosophy of evolutionary biology, confirmation, explanation, reductionism, modeling, probability and statistics, parsimony
    • Willing to work with new students? Yes

Washington University in St. Louis

Department Website | Entry in APA Guide | Additional Program Information [no]

  • Carl F. Craver
    • Ph.D. 1998 University of Pittsburgh
      • Advisor: Peter Machamer
    • Website 1, 2, PhilPapers
    • Specialties: Philosophy of neuroscience, theories of explanation, philosophy of psychology, cognitive neuropsychology
    • Willing to work with new students? Yes
  • Anya Plutynski
    • Ph.D. 2002 University of Pennsylvania
    • 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

| Department Website
| No Entry in APA Guide Available
| Additional Program Information [no]
  • Matthew Barker, Ph.D. 2010 University of Wisconsin-Madison (advisor: Elliott Sober)
    • Website, CV, PhilPapers
    • Specialties: Philosophy of biology, value theory, philosophy of psychology, general philosophy of science, and 17th and 18th century philosophy
  • David Morris, Ph.D. 1997 University of Toronto
    • Website, PhilPapers
    • Specialties: Phenomenology (esp. Merleau-Ponty) with a focus on the philosophy of the body, mind and nature in relation to current biology and cognitive science (via website)

Louisiana State University

| Department Website
| Entry in APA Guide
| Additional Program Information [no]
  • Charles H. Pence, Ph.D. 2014 University of Notre Dame (advisor: Grant Ramsey)
    • Website, CV, papers, PhilPapers
    • Specialties: History and philosophy of biology, foundations of evolutionary theory, chance and evolution, fitness, causation (via website)
    • Willing to work with new students? Yes

Oregon State University

| Department Website
| No Entry in APA Guide Available
| Additional Program Information [no]
  • Jonathan Kaplan, Ph.D. 1996 Stanford University (advisor: John Dupre)
    • Website 1, 2, CV, PhilPapers
    • Specialties: Philosophy of Biology, Philosophy of Science, Political Philosophy (via website)

Tufts University

| Department Website
| Entry in APA Guide
| Additional Program Information [no]
  • Patrick Forber, Ph.D. 2006 Stanford University (advisor: Elliott Sober)
    • Website 1, 2, CV, PhilPapers
    • Specialties: Confirmation, explanation, and idealization in science, especially in evolutionary biology and ecology (via website)

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

| Department Website
| Entry in APA Guide
| Additional Program Information [no]
  • Trevor Pearce, Ph.D. 2010 University of Chicago (advisors: William Wimsatt and Robert J. Richards, Committee on Conceptual and Historical Studies of Science)
    • Website, CV, PhilPapers
    • Specialties: History and philosophy of biology, focusing on how research in experimental biology, ecology, and paleobiology, suitably understood, can help answer broader questions about the relative importance of different causal factors in evolutionary history (via website)

University of Victoria

| Department Website
| No Entry in APA Guide Available
  • Jacob Stegenga, Ph.D. 2011 UC San Diego (advisor: Nancy Cartwright)
    • Website, CV, PhilPapers
    • Specialties: Philosophy of science, in particular: methodology of medical research, philosophy of biology, and foundational topics in theoretical and practical reasoning
  • Scott Woodcock, Ph.D. 2001 University of Toronto (advisor: Paul Thompson)
    • Website, CV,
    • Specialties: Explanations for altruism, levels of selection, and ethics and naturalism

Virginia Tech

| Department Website
| Entry in APA Guide
| Additional Program Information [no]
  • Benjamin Jantzen, Ph.D. 2010 Carnegie Mellon University (advisor: Mara Harrell, Logic, Computation, and Methodology)
    • Website 1, 2, CV, PhilPapers
    • Specialties: Philosophy of Biology, Philosophy of Physics, General Philosophy of Science, Biophysics
    • Willing to work with new students? Yes
  • Richard M. Burian, Ph.D. 1971 University of Pittsburgh (advisor: Wilfrid Sellars)
    • Website, CV, PhilPapers
    • Specialties: Philosophy of Biology, History of Philosophy of Biology, History of Philosophy of Science, Science Studies
    • Willing to work with new students? Possibly; write to ask.

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 Australasian and Canadian programs by specialty on this page. Once that list includes programs from other parts of the world, they will be incorporated. 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
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)
U.S. Ph.D. Programs by State
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)

How to Contribute

This is a wiki, so anyone can contribute. No account is needed—though you are encouraged to create one—and all changes can be rolled back, so edit with a free hand.

Making Edits

You can make edits in one of two ways: by clicking 'Edit', which enables WYSIWYG (or visual) editing, ala a wordprocessor. Alternately, you can click 'Edit source', which allows you to edit the wiki markup in plaintext. Use whichever method you prefer. It takes a little longer to open the editing window in visual mode because the server has to translate wiki markup to html on the fly. So be patient. If things are too sluggish, you can switch over to 'Edit source'.

Wiki formatting/markup is very straightforward, and all you need to do is mimic the current entries since formatting is standardized.

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, so by all means help keep things up to date.

Additional Program Information

Every program listed also has a separate page where additional information can be provided to prospective students. While the style and format of this main page should be kept consistent, individual pages can take any form whatsoever. To edit one of these pages, simply follow the link entitled 'Additional Program Information' underneath the department listing of interest and edit that page.

The following programs have added considerably to their pages. Feel free to mimic them.

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. ↑ Source: philosophyfamilytree.wikispaces.com.
  3. ↑ Source: philosophyfamilytree.wikispaces.com.
  4. ↑ Source: philosophyfamilytree.wikispaces.com.
  5. ↑ Source: philosophyfamilytree.wikispaces.com.
  6. ↑ Source: philosophyfamilytree.wikispaces.com.
  7. ↑ Source: philosophyfamilytree.wikispaces.com.
  8. ↑ Source: philosophyfamilytree.wikispaces.com.
  9. ↑ Source: [philosophyfamilytree.wikispaces.com https://philosophyfamilytree.wikispaces.com/John+Beatty].
  10. ↑ Source: philosophyfamilytree.wikispaces.com.
  11. ↑ Source: philosophyfamilytree.wikispaces.com.
  12. ↑ Source: philosophyfamilytree.wikispaces.com.
  13. ↑ 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.
  14. ↑ Source: https://philosophyfamilytree.wikispaces.com/Philip+Kitcher
  15. ↑ Source: https://philosophyfamilytree.wikispaces.com/Robert+Brandon.
  16. ↑ Source: https://philosophyfamilytree.wikispaces.com/Alexander+Rosenberg.
  17. ↑ Source: https://philosophyfamilytree.wikispaces.com/Karen+Neander.
  18. ↑ Source: philosophyfamilytree.wikispaces.com.
  19. ↑ Source: philosophyfamilytree.wikispaces.com.
  20. ↑ Source: https://philosophyfamilytree.wikispaces.com/William+C.+Wimsatt.
  21. ↑ Some of the Resident Fellows at the Minnesota Center for Philosophy of Science also have philosophy of biology interests.
  22. ↑ Source: https://philosophyfamilytree.wikispaces.com/William+C.+Wimsatt.
  23. ↑ Source: philosophyfamilytree.wikispaces.com/
  24. ↑ Source: https://philosophyfamilytree.wikispaces.com/Daniel+Hausman philosophyfamilytree.wikispaces.com].
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