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   Philosophy of Biology Graduate Programs</div>
 
   Philosophy of Biology Graduate Programs</div>
 
   <div id="pagetop">  
 
   <div id="pagetop">  
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, [[#How to Contribute|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 [http://twitter.com/philwikinet Twitter] and keep us appraised of comings and goings at graduate programs by emailing [mailto:shamiller@ucdavis.edu shamiller@ucdavis.edu]. All content on this site is available under a [http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License].
+
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, [[#How to Contribute|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. All content on this site is available under a [http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License]. Find us on [https://www.facebook.com/philwiki.net Facebook].
 
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== Note to Prospective Graduate Students ==
 
== 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:
+
The purpose of this wiki is to aid your search for philosophy of biology graduate programs that suit your tastes. It does so by:
  
* By listing as many philosophy of biology graduate programs as possible.
+
* 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.  
+
* 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&mdash;e.g., contact people within the programs<ref>This site is not in the business of giving prospective students advice&mdash;on how to select programs or anything else&mdash;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.</ref>&mdash;in order to put yourself in the best possible position to make an informed decision about where to apply. Good luck!
 
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&mdash;e.g., contact people within the programs<ref>This site is not in the business of giving prospective students advice&mdash;on how to select programs or anything else&mdash;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.</ref>&mdash;in order to put yourself in the best possible position to make an informed decision about where to apply. Good luck!
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:: - Thesis: [http://www.worldcat.org/title/a-theory-of-conceptual-advance-explaining-conceptual-change-in-evolutionary-molecular-and-evolutionary-developmental-biology/oclc/539498238&referer=brief_results A Theory of Conceptual Advance: Explaining Conceptual Change in Evolutionary, Molecular, and Evolutionary Developmental Biology]
 
:: - Thesis: [http://www.worldcat.org/title/a-theory-of-conceptual-advance-explaining-conceptual-change-in-evolutionary-molecular-and-evolutionary-developmental-biology/oclc/539498238&referer=brief_results A Theory of Conceptual Advance: Explaining Conceptual Change in Evolutionary, Molecular, and Evolutionary Developmental Biology]
 
:: -  Advisors: Anil Gupta and Paul Griffiths
 
:: -  Advisors: Anil Gupta and Paul Griffiths
 
* '''Robert A. Wilson''' | [http://www.artsrn.ualberta.ca/raw/ Website] | [http://www.artsrn.ualberta.ca/raw/cvmar13.pdf CV] | [http://philpapers.org/profile/1320 PhilPapers]
 
** 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
 
** Ph.D. 1992 Cornell University (with Cognitive Studies minor)
 
:: - Thesis: [http://www.worldcat.org/title/individualism-psychological-explanation-and-mental-representation/oclc/63527249&referer=brief_results Individualism, psychological explanation, and mental representation]
 
  
 
----
 
----
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:: - Thesis: [http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/6698407 Explanation and scientific inference]  
 
:: - Thesis: [http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/6698407 Explanation and scientific inference]  
  
----
+
----[lateschoolnews.com.ng]
  
 
=== University of Western Ontario ===
 
=== University of Western Ontario ===
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[http://hiw.kuleuven.be/eng/ Department Website]
 
[http://hiw.kuleuven.be/eng/ Department Website]
 
* '''Grant Ramsey''' | [http://www.theramseylab.org/ Website] | [http://www.theramseylab.org/ramsey-cv.pdf CV] | [http://philpapers.org/profile/54027 PhilPapers]
 
* '''Grant Ramsey''' | [http://www.theramseylab.org/ Website] | [http://www.theramseylab.org/ramsey-cv.pdf CV] | [http://philpapers.org/profile/54027 PhilPapers]
** Specialties: Philosophy of biology, fitness (via website)
+
** Specialties: Philosophy of biology, the conceptual foundations of evolutionary theory, the study of human and non-human animal behavior, the moral emotions, and the automated text mining of scientific literature.
 
** Ph.D. 2007 Duke University
 
** Ph.D. 2007 Duke University
 
:: - Thesis: [http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/297444850 Culture From Infrahumans to Humans: Essays in the Philosophy of Biology]
 
:: - Thesis: [http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/297444850 Culture From Infrahumans to Humans: Essays in the Philosophy of Biology]
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=== Indiana University (History and Philosophy of Science) ===
 
=== Indiana University (History and Philosophy of Science) ===
 
[http://www.indiana.edu/~hpscdept/ Department Website] [http://philbio.net/docs/apa-indianaHPS.pdf | Entry in APA Guide]
 
[http://www.indiana.edu/~hpscdept/ Department Website] [http://philbio.net/docs/apa-indianaHPS.pdf | Entry in APA Guide]
 
* '''Colin Allen''' | [http://www.indiana.edu/~hpscdept/people/allen.shtml Website] | [http://pages.iu.edu/~colallen/cv.html CV] | [http://philpapers.org/profile/2956 PhilPapers]
 
** Specialties: Philosophy of biology and cognitive science, with particular interests in animal behavior and cognition (via website)
 
** Ph.D. 1989 UCLA
 
:: - Thesis: [http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/20278164 Attributing intentional states to animals: philosophical issues arising in cognitive ethology]
 
:: - Advisor: Keith Donnellan
 
  
 
* '''Sander Gliboff''' | [http://www.indiana.edu/~hpscdept/people/gliboff.shtml Website] | [http://philpapers.org/s/sander%20gliboff PhilPapers]
 
* '''Sander Gliboff''' | [http://www.indiana.edu/~hpscdept/people/gliboff.shtml Website] | [http://philpapers.org/s/sander%20gliboff PhilPapers]
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** Willing to work with new students? Yes
 
** Willing to work with new students? Yes
 
** Ph.D. 2005 University of Pittsburgh (HPS)
 
** Ph.D. 2005 University of Pittsburgh (HPS)
:: - Thesis: [http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/762106064 Co-option, homology, and novelty in the evolution of gene expression patterns in the sea urchin genus Heliocidaris]  
+
:: - Thesis: [http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/762106064 Explaining evolutionary innovation and novelty: A historical and philosophical study of biological concepts]  
 
:: - Advisor: James Lennox  
 
:: - Advisor: James Lennox  
  
* '''William C. Wimsatt''' (part-time appointment, Fall semesters) | [http://www.philosophy.umn.edu/people/FacultyProfile.php?UID=wwim Website] | [http://philpapers.org/s/william%20c%20wimsatt PhilPapers]
+
* '''William C. Wimsatt''' (part-time appointment) | [http://www.philosophy.umn.edu/people/FacultyProfile.php?UID=wwim Website] | [http://philpapers.org/s/william%20c%20wimsatt PhilPapers]
 
** Specialties: history and philosophy of biology, cultural evolution, evolutionary developmental biology, complex systems
 
** Specialties: history and philosophy of biology, cultural evolution, evolutionary developmental biology, complex systems
 
** Willing to work with new students? Yes
 
** Willing to work with new students? Yes
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=== University of Missouri ===
 
=== University of Missouri ===
[https://philosophy.missouri.edu/ Department Website] [http://philbio.net/docs/apa-missouri.pdf | Entry in APA Guide] [[University of Missouri | Additional Program Information]]
+
[https://philosophy.missouri.edu/ Department Website] [http://philbio.net/docs/apa-missouri.pdf | Entry in APA Guide] | [[University of Missouri | Additional Program Information]]
  
 
* '''Andre Ariew''' | [https://philosophy.missouri.edu/index.php/people/15-/29-andre-ariew Website] | [https://philosophy.missouri.edu/images/documents/Ariewcv.pdf CV] | [http://philpapers.org/s/andre%20ariew PhilPapers]
 
* '''Andre Ariew''' | [https://philosophy.missouri.edu/index.php/people/15-/29-andre-ariew Website] | [https://philosophy.missouri.edu/images/documents/Ariewcv.pdf CV] | [http://philpapers.org/s/andre%20ariew PhilPapers]
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=== University of Pittsburgh (History and Philosophy of Science) ===
 
=== University of Pittsburgh (History and Philosophy of Science) ===
 
[http://www.hps.pitt.edu/ Department Website] [http://philbio.net/docs/apa-pittsburghHPS.pdf | Entry in APA Guide]
 
[http://www.hps.pitt.edu/ Department Website] [http://philbio.net/docs/apa-pittsburghHPS.pdf | Entry in APA Guide]
 +
 +
* '''Colin Allen''' [http://colinallen.dnsalias.org Website] | [http://colinallen.dnsalias.org/CV CV] | [https://philpapers.org/profile/2956 PhilPapers]
 +
** Specialties: Comparative Cognition, Computational HPS
 +
** Ph.D. 1989 UCLA
 +
:: - Thesis:  [http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/20278164 Attributing intentional states to animals : philosophical issues arising in cognitive ethology]
 +
:: - Advisor: Keith Donnellan
  
 
* '''Mazviita Chirimuuta''' | [http://www.hps.pitt.edu/profile/chirimuuta.php Website] | [http://www.hps.pitt.edu/documents/Chirimuuta%20CV%20summer_2013.pdf CV] | [http://philpapers.org/profile/8078 PhilPapers]
 
* '''Mazviita Chirimuuta''' | [http://www.hps.pitt.edu/profile/chirimuuta.php Website] | [http://www.hps.pitt.edu/documents/Chirimuuta%20CV%20summer_2013.pdf CV] | [http://philpapers.org/profile/8078 PhilPapers]
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== M.A. Programs ==
 
== M.A. Programs ==
 +
 +
=== [http://www.cla.csulb.edu/departments/philosophy/ California State University Long Beach] ===
 +
 +
* <strong>Alex Klein</strong> // website [http://web.csulb.edu/~aklein/ 1], [https://philpapers.org/profile/36191 PhilPapers]
 +
** Specialties: Pragmatism (esp. William James), Philosophy of Biology, History and Philosophy of Psychology, Logical Positivism, History of Science
 +
** Ph.D. 2007 Indiana University HPS
 +
* <strong>Cory Wright</strong> // website [https://philpapers.org/profile/6863 PhilPapers]
 +
** Specialties: Philosophy of Science, Semantics (esp. Truth), History and Philosophy of Psychology, Philosophy of Neuroscience
 +
** Ph.D. 2007 UC San Diego (Philosophy & Cognitive Science)
 +
* <strong>Wayne Wright</strong> // website [http://www.mindstuff.net/ 1]
 +
** Specialties: Vision Science (esp. Color Perception), Modeling, Philosophy of Mind, Philosophy of Science
 +
** Ph.D. 1999 Temple University
  
 
=== Concordia University, Montreal ===
 
=== Concordia University, Montreal ===
Line 1,073: Line 1,079:
 
=== University of Victoria ===
 
=== University of Victoria ===
 
[http://www.uvic.ca/humanities/philosophy/ Department Website]
 
[http://www.uvic.ca/humanities/philosophy/ Department Website]
 
* '''Jacob Stegenga''' | [http://individual.utor,onto.ca/jstegenga/Site/Welcome.html Website] | [http://individual.utoronto.ca/jstegenga/Site/Welcome_files/Stegenga%20CV%2015%20Feb%2016.pdf CV] | [http://philpapers.org/profile/14143 PhilPapers]
 
** Specialties: Philosophy of science, in particular: methodology of medical research, philosophy of biology, and foundational topics in theoretical and practical reasoning
 
** Ph.D. 2011 UC San Diego
 
:: - Thesis: [http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/730502265 Multimodal evidence]
 
:: - Advisor: Nancy Cartwright
 
  
 
* '''Scott Woodcock''' | [http://www.uvic.ca/humanities/philosophy/people/facultymembers/profiles/woodcock.php Website] | [http://web.uvic.ca/~woodcock/info/printCV.pdf CV] |
 
* '''Scott Woodcock''' | [http://www.uvic.ca/humanities/philosophy/people/facultymembers/profiles/woodcock.php Website] | [http://web.uvic.ca/~woodcock/info/printCV.pdf CV] |
Line 1,138: Line 1,138:
 
<categorytree showcount=on depth=0 mode=pages>Massachusetts</categorytree>
 
<categorytree showcount=on depth=0 mode=pages>Massachusetts</categorytree>
 
<categorytree showcount=on depth=0 mode=pages>Michigan</categorytree>
 
<categorytree showcount=on depth=0 mode=pages>Michigan</categorytree>
 +
<categorytree showcount=on depth=0 mode=pages>Missouri</categorytree>
 
<categorytree showcount=on depth=0 mode=pages>Minnesota</categorytree>
 
<categorytree showcount=on depth=0 mode=pages>Minnesota</categorytree>
 
<categorytree showcount=on depth=0 mode=pages>New York</categorytree>
 
<categorytree showcount=on depth=0 mode=pages>New York</categorytree>
Line 1,174: Line 1,175:
  
 
== Notes ==
 
== Notes ==
<references/>
 

Revision as of 02:03, 31 August 2018

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. All content on this site is available under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. Find us on Facebook.

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 by:

  • Listing as many philosophy of biology graduate programs as possible.
  • 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]

  • Kim Sterelny | Website | PhilPapers
    • Specialties: Philosophy of Biology, Evolution, Philosophy of Psychology and Philosophy of Mind, Palaeoecology (via website)
    • Ph.D. 1977 University of Sydney
- Thesis: Problems in syntactic theory: a study in semantics and variation theory
- Advisor: Bill Bonney[2]

Macquarie University

Department Website

  • Rachael Brown | Website | PhilPapers
    • 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)
    • Ph.D. 2013 Australian National University
- Thesis: Understanding Behavioural Innovation, Novelty and Evolvability
- Advisor: Kim Sterelny
  • Karola Stotz | Website | PhilPapers
    • Specialties: Evolutionary, developmental and molecular biology, psychobiology and cognition (via website)
    • Ph.D. 1999 University of Ghent
- Advisor: Gertrudis Van de Vijver

University of Otago (New Zealand)

Department Website

  • James Maclaurin | Website, PhilPapers
    • Specialties: Philosophy of Biology, including innateness, fitness, theoretical morphology, biological diversity and universal darwinism (via website)
    • Ph.D. 1998 Australian National University
- Thesis: The Metaphysics of Biodiversity
- Advisor: Kim Sterelny[3]

University of Sydney

Department Website

  • David Braddon-Mitchell | Website | PhilPapers
    • Specialties: Philosophy of Mind and metaphysics, and cross borders into philosophy of science, philosophy of biology, ethics and political philosophy from time to time (via website)
    • Ph.D. 1988 Australian National University
- Thesis: Explanation: A Causally Constrained Pragmatic Account
- Advisors: J.J.C. Smart and Philip Pettit[4]
  • Paul Griffiths | Website | PhilPapers
    • Specialties: Causal foundations of biological information; evolutionary medicine; innateness and human nature; concept of the gene; developmental systems theory (via website)
    • Ph.D. 1989 Australian National University
- Thesis: Emotion and Evolution
- Advisor: Kim Sterelny[5]

Waikato University (New Zealand)

Department Website

  • Justine Kingsbury | Website, PhilPapers
    • Specialties: Philosophy of mind; philosophy of biology; critical thinking; aesthetics (especially philosophy of music) (via website)
    • Ph.D. 1999 Rutgers University
- Thesis: Content and function: a defense of Millikanian teleosemantics
- Advisor: Frances Egan

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

  • Ingo Brigandt | Website | CV | PhilPapers
    • Specialties: Evolutionary developmental biology, molecular biology, systems biology, science and values
    • Willing to work with new students? Yes
    • Ph.D. 2006 University of Pittsburgh (HPS)
- Thesis: A Theory of Conceptual Advance: Explaining Conceptual Change in Evolutionary, Molecular, and Evolutionary Developmental Biology
- Advisors: Anil Gupta and Paul Griffiths

University of British Columbia

Department Website | Entry in APA Guide

  • John Beatty | Website | CV | PhilPapers
    • Specialties: Theoretical foundations, methodology, and socio-political dimensions of genetics and evolutionary biology (via website)
    • Ph.D. 1979 Indiana University (HPS)
- Thesis: Traditional and semantic accounts of evolutionary theory
- Advisor: Ronald Giere[6]
  • Margaret Schabas | Website | CV | PhilPapers
    • Specialties: Overlap of biology and economics and the formation of bioeconomics (via website)
    • Ph.D. 1983 University of Toronoto
- Thesis: William Stanley Jevons and the emergence of mathematical economics in Britain
- Advisor: Trevor Levere
  • Christopher Stephens | Website, CV, PhilPapers
    • 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)
    • Ph.D. 2000 University of Wisconsin-Madison
- Thesis: Why be rational?: Prudence, rational belief, and evolution
- Advisor: Elliott Sober

University of Calgary

Department Website | Entry in APA Guide

  • Megan Delehanty | Website | PhilPapers
    • Specialties: Models, explanation, causation (via PhilPapers entries)
    • Ph.D. 2005 University of Pittsburgh (HPS)
- Thesis: Empiricism and the Epistemic Status of Imaging Technologies
- Advisor: Sandra Mitchell
  • Marc Ereshefsky | Website | CV | PhilPapers
    • Specialties: Species; Natural Kinds; Scientific Classification; Biological Individuality; Homology; Historicity; Microbiology (via website)
    • Ph.D. 1988 University of Wisconsin-Madison
- Thesis: The ontological status of species : a study of individuality and its role in evolutionary theory
- Advisor: Elliott Sober
  • C. Kenneth Waters | Website | CV | PhilPapers
    • Specialties: Causation, explanation, molecular biology, genetics, pluralism (via PhilPapers entries)
    • Ph.D. 1985 Indiana University (HPS)
- Thesis: Models of natural selection: From Darwin Dawkins
- Advisor: Ronald Giere[7]

University of Toronto

Department Website | Entry in APA Guide

- Thesis: Categories, translation, and linguistic theory
- Advisor: Paul Benacerraf
  • Mohan Matthen | Website | PhilPapers
    • Specialties: Philosophy of mind, especially perception, philosophy of biology, natural selection (via PhilPapers profile)
    • Ph.D. 1976 Stanford University
- Thesis: Essentialism and non-contradiction: a study in Aristotelian and contemporary metaphysics
- Advisor: Julius Moravcsik[8]
  • Paul Thompson | Website | CV | PhilPapers
    • Specialties: Evolutionary theory, population genetics, mathematical modelling in biology, theory structure in biology, philosophy of medicine, and ethics (via website)
    • Ph.D. 1979 University of Toronto
- Thesis: Genetic explanation schemes in biology
  • Denis Walsh | Website | PhilPapers
    • Specialties: Models, mechanisms, fitness, causation (via PhilPapers entries)
    • Ph.D. 1988 McGill University (Biology)
- Thesis: Systematics of the caecilians (Amphibia: Gymnophiona)
- Advisor: R. L. Carroll

University of Waterloo

Department Website | Entry in APA Guide

  • Carla Fehr | Website | CV | PhilPapers
    • Specialties: Philosophy of biology, Feminist Epistemology and Philosophy of Science, Feminist Science Studies, Philosophy of Science, evolution (via website)
    • Ph.D. 1999 Duke University
- Thesis: A natural history of the evolution of sexual reproduction: the virtues of explanatory pluralism
- Advisor: Robert Brandon
  • Katie Plaisance | Website | PhilPapers
    • Specialties: Philosophy of biology, Philosophical issues in the human behavioral sciences, public understanding of science, interactional expertise, and Socially Relevant Philosophy Of Science
    • Ph.D. 2006 University of Minnesota
- Thesis: Behavioral Genetics and the Environment: The Generation and Exportation of Scientific Claims
- Advisor: C. Kenneth Waters
  • Paul Thagard | Website | PhilPapers
    • 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)
    • Ph.D. 1977 University of Toronto
- Thesis: Explanation and scientific inference

[lateschoolnews.com.ng]

University of Western Ontario

Department Website | Entry in APA Guide

  • Gillian Barker | Website | PhilPapers
    • Specialties: Philosophy of Biology, Philosophy of Science
    • Ph.D. 1997 UC San Diego
- Thesis: Abstraction, analogy and induction: toward a general account of ampliative inference
- Advisor: Philip Kitcher
  • Eric Desjardins | Website | PhilPapers
    • Specialties: Philosophy of Science, Philosophy of Biology, Environmental Philosophy and Bioethics (via website)
    • Ph.D. 2009 University of British Columbia
- Thesis: Historicity in biology
- Advisor: John Beatty[9]
  • Devin Henry | Website | CV | PhilPapers
    • Specialties: Ancient Philosophy, History & Philosophy of Science (esp. Philosophy of Biology) (via website)
    • Ph.D. 2004 King’s College, University of London
- Thesis: How to build an animal: the metaphysics of Aristotle's ontogeny
- Advisors: Richard Sorabji and M. M. McCabe

Ph.D. Programs (Europe)

All programs reside in philosophy departments, unless otherwise specified.

KU Leuven

Department Website

  • Grant Ramsey | Website | CV | PhilPapers
    • Specialties: Philosophy of biology, the conceptual foundations of evolutionary theory, the study of human and non-human animal behavior, the moral emotions, and the automated text mining of scientific literature.
    • Ph.D. 2007 Duke University
- Thesis: Culture From Infrahumans to Humans: Essays in the Philosophy of Biology
- Advisors: Robert Brandon and Alex Rosenberg

Ph.D. Programs (United Kingdom)

All programs reside in philosophy departments, unless otherwise specified.

Birkbeck, University of London

Department Website

  • 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

  • Samir Okasha | Website, PhilPapers
    • Specialities: evolutionary theory, levels of selection, population genetics, social evolution, rational choice
    • Willing to work with new students? Yes
    • Ph.D. 1998 University of Oxford
- Thesis: Epistemology and the underdetermination of theory by evidence
- Advisor: Bill Newton-Smith

University of Cambridge (History and Philosophy of Science)

Department Website

  • Tim Lewens | Website, PhilPapers
    • Specialties: Philosophy of biology, philosophy of science, philosophical bioethics
    • Ph.D. 2001 University of Cambridge (HPS)
- Thesis: Organisms and artefacts : design in nature and elsewhere

University of Exeter (Sociology, Philosophy and Anthropology)

Department Website

  • John Dupre | 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)
    • Ph.D. 1981 University of Cambridge
- Thesis: Reductionism, natural kinds, and the disunity of science
  • Sabina Leonelli | 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)
    • Ph.D. 2007 Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam
- Thesis: Weed for thought: using Arabidopsis thaliana to understand plant biology
- Advisors: Henk de Regt and Hans Radder
  • Staffan Muller-Wille | Website | PhilPapers
    • Specialties: History and philosophy of systematics; history of heredity; history of race and kinship (via website)
    • Ph.D. 1997 University of Bielefeld
- Thesis: Botanik und weltweiter Handel zur Begründung eines natürlichen Systems der Pflanzen durch Carl von Linné (1707 - 78)

King's College London

Department Website

  • Matteo Mameli | Website | PhilPapers
    • Specialties: Intersection of philosophy, the sciences of human behavior (biology, psychology, anthropology, sociology, economics, etc.), and moral and political theory (via website)
    • Ph.D. 2002 University of London
- Thesis: Darwinism and non-genetic inheritance
- Advisor: David Papineau
  • Nicholas Shea | 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)
    • Ph.D. 2003 King's College London
- Thesis: Empirical lessons for philosophical theories of mental content
- Advisor: David Papineau

Lancaster University (Politics, Philosophy and Religion)

Department Website

  • Brian Garvey | Website | PhilPapers
    • Specialties: Philosophy of science, philosophy of biology, philosophy of mind, psychoanalysis, Ryle, Austin, Dennett (via website)
    • Ph.D. 2000 Trinity College Dublin
- Thesis: Freud's psychoanalysis of religion

University of Leeds

Department Website

  • Gregory Radick | Website | 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)
    • Ph.D. 2000 University of Cambridge (HPS)
- Thesis: Animal language in the Victorian evolutionary debates

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

Department Website

  • Jonathan Birch | Website | PhilPapers
    • Specialities: Natural selection, evolution of social behaviour, evolutionary transitions, human evolution.
    • Willing to work with new students? Yes
    • Ph.D. 2013 University of Cambridge

University College London (Science and Technology Studies)

Department Website

  • Phyllis Illari | 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)
    • Ph.D. 2005 King's College London
- Adviser: David Papineau[10]

University of Oxford

Department Website

  • Ellen Clarke (currently a postdoc; moving to Leeds as a Lecturer in September 2016) | Website | CV | PhilPapers
    • Specialties: Biological Individuality, Evolutionary Transitions, evolution of cooperation, natural selection, Philosophy of biology, philosophy of science
    • Ph.D. 2010 University of Bristol
- Thesis: Biological individuality and the levels of selection

Ph.D. Programs (United States)

All programs reside in philosophy departments, unless otherwise specified.

Arizona State University (Center for Biology and Society)

Department Website

  • 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

  • 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

  • Kevin J.S. Zollman | Website | CV, PhilPapers
    • Specialties: Game theory, agent based modeling, philosophy of science
    • Ph.D. 2007 UC Irvine (LPS)
- Thesis: Network epistemology
- Advisor: Brian Skyrms

City University of New York Graduate Center

Department Website | Entry in APA Guide

  • Peter Godfrey-Smith | Website | 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)
    • Ph.D. 1991 UC San Diego
- Thesis: Teleonomy and the philosophy of mind
- Advisor: Philip Kitcher
  • Massimo Pigliucci | Website | 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)
    • Doctorate University of Ferrara (Genetics)
    • Ph.D. University of Connecticut (Biology)
    • Ph.D. 2003 University of Tennessee (Philosophy)
- Thesis: Dangerous habits: examining the philosophical baggage of biological research
- Advisor: Jonathan Kaplan, Philosophy
  • Thomas Teufel | Website | PhilPapers
    • Specialties: Philosophy of biology, Kant, 18th Century philosophy, philosophy of art (via website)
    • Ph.D. 2006 Harvard University
- Thesis: Purpose and purposiveness in Kant's Critque of the power of judgement
- Advisor: Richard Moran

Columbia University

Department Website

  • Philip Kitcher[11]
    • 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)
    • Ph.D. 1974 Princeton University
- Thesis: Mathematics and certainty
- Advisor: Paul Benacerraf[12]

Website | CV | PhilPapers


Duke University

Department Website | Entry in APA Guide | Additional Program Information

  • Robert N. Brandon | Website | CV | PhilPapers
    • Specialties: Philosophy of biology, philosophy of science, logic (via website)
    • Ph.D. 1979 Harvard University
- Thesis: Philosophical investigations in evolutionary biology
- Advisor: Hilary Putnam[13]
  • Alexander Rosenberg | Website | 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)
    • Ph.D. 1971 Johns Hopkins University
- Thesis: Microeconomic general statements: a philosophical analysis
- Advisor: Peter Achinstein[14]
  • Karen Neander | Website | PhilPapers
    • Specialties: Philosophy of Mind, Philosophy of Biology, Cognitive Science (via website)
    • Ph.D. 1983 La Trobe University
- Thesis: Abnormal psychobiology: a thesis on the 'anti-psychiatry debate' and the relationship between psychology and biology
- Advisor: Kim Sterelny[15]
  • Dan McShea | Website | 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)
    • Ph.D. 1990 University of Chicago (Committee on Evolutionary Biology)
- Thesis: Complexity and evolution
- Advisor: David Raup

Florida State University

Department Website | Entry in APA Guide

  • James Justus | Website | CV | PhilPapers
    • Specialties: Philosophy of Science (esp. biology), Carnap, Epistemology (esp. formal and naturalized), Environmental Philosophy, History of Analytic Philosophy (via website)
    • Ph.D. 2007 University of Texas at Austin
- Thesis: The stability-diversity-complexity debate of theoretical community ecology : a philosophical analysis
- Advisor: Sahotra Sarkar
  • Michael Ruse | Website | CV | PhilPapers
    • Specialties: Philosophy of Biology (especially Darwinism), Ethics, the History and Philosophy of Science (via website)
    • Ph.D. 1970 Bristol University

Indiana University (History and Philosophy of Science)

Department Website | Entry in APA Guide

  • Sander Gliboff | Website | PhilPapers
    • Specialties: History of biology, especially evolution and genetics, and the science in modern Germany and Austria (via website)
    • Ph.D. 2001 Johns Hopkins University
- Thesis: The pebble and the planet: Paul Kammerer, Ernst Haeckel, and the meaning of Darwinism
- Advisor: Sharon Kingsland
  • Elisabeth Lloyd | Website | CV | PhilPapers
    • Specialties: Philosophy of biology, general philosophy of science, the role of models in science, and gender issues in science (via website)
    • Ph.D. 1984 Princeton University
- Thesis: A semantic approach to the structure of evolutionary theory
- Advisor: Bas van Fraassen

Michigan State University

Department Website | Entry in APA Guide

  • Fred Gifford | Website | CV | PhilPapers
    • Specialties: Philosophy of Science (particularly philosophy of biology and medicine); Ethics (particularly ethics in health care and the life sciences)
    • Ph.D. 1984 University of Pittsburgh (HPS)
- Thesis: Explanation and causation in genetics
- Advisor: Kenneth F. Schaffner
  • Robert T. Pennock | Website | CV | PhilPapers
    • Specialties: Evolution and computing (via publication list)
    • Ph.D. 1991 University of Pittsburgh (HPS)
- Thesis: Causally licensed inference and the confirmation relation
- Advisor: Wesley Salmon
  • Sean Valles | Website | PhilPapers
    • Specialties: Philosophy of population health, from the use of evidence in medical genetics to the roles played by race concepts in epidemiology (via website)
    • Ph.D. 2010 Indiana University (HPS)
- Thesis: Explaining the evolution of common genetic disease
- Advisor: Elisabeth Lloyd

New York University

Department Website | Entry in APA Guide

  • Laura Franklin-Hall | Website | [ PhilPapers]
    • Specialties: philosophy of biology, the general philosophy of science, and metaphysics (via website)
    • Ph.D. 2008 Columbia University
- Thesis: From a Microbiological Point of View
- Advisor: Philip Kitcher

Stanford University

Department Website | Entry in APA Guide

  • Helen Longino | 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)
    • Ph.D. 1973 Johns Hopkins University
- Thesis: Inference and discovery
- Advisor: Peter Achinstein[16]
  • Brian Skyrms (1/3 time appointment; at Stanford every Spring) | 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)
    • Ph.D. 1964 University of Pittsburgh
- Thesis: The concept of physical necessity
- Advisor: Nicholas Rescher

Texas A&M University

Department Website | Entry in APA Guide

  • Roger Sansom | Website | CV | PhilPapers
    • Specialties: Philosophy of biology, philosophy of science (via website)
    • Ph.D. 2002 University of North Carolina
- Thesis: Development as an adaptation: a philosophical contribution to the developmental synthesis
- Advisor: William G. Lycan

University of California, Davis

Department Website | Entry in APA Guide Additional Program Information

  • James R. Griesemer | Website | 2 | CV | PhilPapers
    • Specialties: Evolutionary biology, genetics, developmental biology, ecology and systematics
    • Willing to work with new students? Yes
    • Ph.D. 1983 University of Chicago (Conceptual Foundations of Science)
- Thesis: Communication and scientific change: an analysis of conceptual maps in the macroevolution controversy
- Advisor: William Wimsatt
  • Roberta L. Millstein | Website | CV | PhilPapers
    • Specialties: History and philosophy of evolutionary biology and ecology, causation, chance, environmental ethics
    • Willing to work with new students? Yes
    • Ph.D. 1997 University of Minnesotta, Twin Cities
- Thesis: The chances of evolution: an analysis of the roles of chance in microevolution and macroevolution
- Advisors: John Beatty and C. Kenneth Waters

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

Department Website | Entry in APA Guide

  • Simon Huttegger | Website | CV | PhilPapers
    • Specialties: Game and Decision Theory, Probability, Philosophy of Science, Philosophy of Biology, Measurement Theory (via CV)
    • Ph.D. 2006 Universität Salzburg
- Advisor: Reinhard Kleinknecht[17]
  • Cailin O'Connor | 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)
    • Ph.D. 2013 UC Irvine (LPS)
- Thesis: Categories, generalization, and vagueness
- Advisors: P. Kyle Stanford, and Brian Skyrms
  • P. Kyle Stanford | 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)
    • Ph.D. 1997 UC San Diego (Philosophy/Science Studies)
- Thesis: A pragmatic theory of causation
- Advisor: Philip Kitcher
  • Brian Skyrms | 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)
    • Ph.D. 1964 University of Pittsburgh
- Thesis: The concept of physical necessity
- Advisor: Nicholas Rescher

University of California, San Diego

Department Website | Entry in APA Guide

  • William Bechtel | 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)
    • Ph.D. 1977 University of Chicago
    • Thesis: Intentionality and Quine's epistemological enterprise
- Advisors: Manley Thompson and Daniel Garber

University of California, Santa Cruz

Department Website | Entry in APA Guide

  • Rasmus Grønfeldt Winther |

Website | PhilPapers

    • Specialties: Philosophy of Science, Philosophy of Biology (Genetics, Evolutionary Theory) (via website)
    • Willing to work with new students? Yes
    • Ph.D. 2003 Indiana University (HPS)
- Thesis: Formal biology and compositonal biology as two kinds of biological theorizing
- Advisor: Elisabeth Lloyd

University of Chicago (Conceptual and Historical Studies of Science)

Department Website

  • Karl Matlin (Department of Surgery) | Website
    • Specialties: Understanding the biogenesis of apical-basal polarity in epithelial cells (via website)
    • Ph.D. 1979 Rockefeller University
- Thesis: Studies in chloroplast protein synthesis in vivo and in vitro
  • David Jablonski (has been on CHSS dissertation committees) | Website | CV
    • Specialties: Combining of data from living and fossil organisms to study the origins and the fates of lineages and adaptations (via website)
    • Ph.D. 1979 Yale University
- Thesis: Paleoecology, paleobiogeography and evolutionary patterns of late Cretaceous Gulf and Atlantic coastal plain mollusks
  • Robert J. Richards | Website | PhilPapers
    • Specialties: history and philosophy of psychology and biology. This includes particular interest in evolutionary theory, biopsychology, ethology, and sociobiology (via website)
    • Ph.D. St. Louis University
    • Ph.D. 1978 University of Chicago
- Thesis: The evolution of behavior: theories of instinct in the nineteenth century with an essay on animal instinct and intelligence before Darwin
  • William C. Wimsatt | | Website | CV | PhilPapers
    • Specialties: history and philosophy of biology, cultural evolution, evolutionary developmental biology, complex systems
    • Ph.D. 1971 University of Pittsburgh
- Thesis: Modern science and the new teleology: The conceptual foundations of functional analysis.
- Advisor: Joseph Lee Camp, Jr.[18]

University of Cincinnati

Department Website | Entry in APA Guide | Additional 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
    • Ph.D. 1999 Indiana University (Philosophy and Cognitive Science)
- Thesis: How to be an anti-representationalist
- Advisor: Brian Cantwell Smith
  • Valerie Hardcastle | Website | PhilPapers
    • Specialties: neurobiology, neuropsychiatry and the law, embodied cognition
    • Willing to work with new students? Yes
    • Ph.D. 1994 UC San Diego (Philosophy and Cognitive Science)
- Thesis: Explaining consciousness
- Advisor: Gerald Doppelt
  • Koffi N. Maglo | Website | PhilPapers
    • Specialties: philosophy of biomedicine, genomics and race, race-based medicine, bioethics
    • Willing to work with new students? Yes
    • Ph.D. 1998 University of Burgundy
- Thesis: Science et imaginaire: la tension: une lecture non-bachelardienne de Newton
  • Thomas W. Polger | | Website | 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
    • Ph.D. 2000 Duke University
- Thesis: Natural minds
- Advisor: Owen Flanagan
  • Angela Potochnik | Website | 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
    • Ph.D. 2007 Stanford University
- Thesis: Evolution, explanation, and unity of science
- Advisor: Michael Friedman
  • Robert C. Richardson | Website | PhilPapers
    • Specialties: evolutionary theory, developmental biology, cognitive science, theory change
    • Willing to work with new students? Yes
    • Ph.D. 1977 University of Chicago
- Thesis: Intentionality, infallibility, and identity: In defense of the perennial philosophy
  • Robert A. Skipper, Jr. | Website | PhilPapers
    • Specialties: history of evolutionary genetics, evolutionary genetics, obesity science, controversies, explanation, socially engaged philosophy of science
    • Willing to work with new students? Yes
    • Ph.D. 2000 University of Maryland, College Park (Committee on the History and Philosophy of Science)
- Thesis: The R.A. Fisher-Sewall Wright controversy in philosophical focus: theory evaluation in population genetics
- Advisor: Lindley Darden

University of Kansas

Department Website

  • Armin Schulz | 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)
    • Ph.D. 2010 University of Wisconsin-Madison
- Thesis: Evolutionary theory and the belief / desire model of the mind
- Advisor: Elliott Sober

University of Maryland, College Park

Department Website

  • Lindley Darden | Website | 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)
    • Ph.D. 1974 University of Chicago (Conceptual Foundations of Science)
- Thesis: Reasoning and scientific change: the field of genetics at its beginnings
- Advisor: Dudley Shapere
  • Erin Eaker | 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)
    • Ph.D. 2002 UCLA
- Thesis: Reporting attitudes
- Advisor: David Kaplan
  • Aidan Lyon | Website | 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)
    • Ph.D. 2009 Australian National University
- Thesis: Three concepts of probability
- Advisor: Al Hayek

University of Minnesota, Twin Cities[19]

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

  • Alan C. Love | Website | 2 | CV | PhilPapers
    • Specialties: History and philosophy of evolutionary developmental biology, evolutionary theory, developmental biology, functional morphology, conceptual change, explanatory pluralism, reductionism, the nature of historical science, interdisciplinary epistemology, and the structure of scientific problems
    • Willing to work with new students? Yes
    • Ph.D. 2005 University of Pittsburgh (HPS)
- Thesis: Explaining evolutionary innovation and novelty: A historical and philosophical study of biological concepts
- Advisor: James Lennox
  • William C. Wimsatt (part-time appointment) | Website | PhilPapers
    • Specialties: history and philosophy of biology, cultural evolution, evolutionary developmental biology, complex systems
    • Willing to work with new students? Yes
    • Ph.D. 1971 University of Pittsburgh
- Thesis: Modern science and the new teleology: The conceptual foundations of functional analysis.
- Advisor: Joseph Lee Camp, Jr.[20]

University of Missouri

Department Website | Entry in APA Guide | Additional Program Information

  • Andre Ariew | Website | CV | PhilPapers
    • Specialties: Philosophy of science, philosophy of biology, fitness, causation (via website)
    • Ph.D. 1997 University of Arizona
- Advisor: Robert Cummins
  • Paul Weirich | Website | CV
    • Specialties: Decision theory and game theory
    • Ph.D. 1977 UCLA
- Advisor: Tyler Burge
  • Andrew Melnyk | Website | CV
    • Specialties: scientific metaphysics, inter-level relations, physicalism, naturalism, reduction, supervenience, realization
    • Ph.D. 1991 Oxford University

University of Pennsylvania

Department Website | Additional Program Information

  • Cristina Bicchieri | Website | CV | PhilPapers
    • Specialties: evolutionary game theory, evolution of social norms
    • Ph.D. 1984 Cambridge University
  • Karen Detlefsen | Website | CV | PhilPapers
    • Specialties: history of philosophy of biology
    • Ph.D. 2001 University of Toronto
- Thesis: Generation and the individual in Descartes, Malebranche and Leibniz
- Advisor: Andre Gombay
  • Gary Hatfield | Website | CV | PhilPapers
    • Specialties: history of philosophy of biology, perception, neuroscience and psychology
    • Ph.D. 1979 University of Wisconsin-Madison
- Thesis: Mind and space from Kant to Helmholtz: the development of the empiristic theory of spatial vision
- Advisor: Fred Dretske
  • Quayshawn Spencer | Website | CV | PhilPapers
    • Specialties: population genetics, phylogenetics, biology and race
    • Ph.D. 2009 Stanford University
- Thesis: Is cladistic race a genuine kind?
- Advisor: Michael Friedman
  • Michael Weisberg | Website | CV | PhilPapers
    • Specialties: tradeoffs and Idealization in modeling, agent-based models in evolution and ecology, origin of life, biology and race
    • Ph.D. 2003 Stanford University
- Thesis: When less is more: tradeoffs and idealization in model building
- Advisor: Peter Godfrey-Smith

University of Pittsburgh (History and Philosophy of Science)

Department Website | Entry in APA Guide

  • Colin Allen Website | CV | PhilPapers
    • Specialties: Comparative Cognition, Computational HPS
    • Ph.D. 1989 UCLA
- Thesis: Attributing intentional states to animals : philosophical issues arising in cognitive ethology
- Advisor: Keith Donnellan
  • Mazviita Chirimuuta | Website | CV | PhilPapers
    • Specialties: Relationship between neuroscience and the philosophy of mind and perception; color vision, developing a theory of color that acknowledges the complexities of visual function revealed by recent perceptual science (via website)
    • Ph.D. 2004 University of Cambridge
- Thesis: A psychophysical and computational study of contrast coding in primary visual cortex
  • James G. Lennox | Website | CV | PhilPapers
    • Specialties: Ancient Greek philosophy and science, William Harvey, Darwin, and Darwinism (via website)
    • Ph.D. 1978 University of Toronoto
- Thesis: A study of the interaction between Aristotle's Methaphysics and his biological works
  • Peter Machamer | 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.
    • Ph.D. 1972 University of Chicago
- Thesis: Points about observation in science
  • Edouard Machery | Website | CV | PhilPapers
    • Specialties: Theoretical issues raised by psychology and cognitive science; concepts; evolution, culture, cognition; experimental philosophy (via website)
    • Ph.D. 2004 Université Paris-Sorbonne
- Thesis: Les concepts ne sont pas une espèce naturelle: la notion de concept en psychologie cognitive
  • Sandra Mitchell | Website | 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)
    • Ph.D. 1987 University of Pittsburgh (HPS)
- Advisor: Peter Machamer
  • Kenneth F. Schaffner | Website | PhilPapers
    • Specialties: Human behavioral and psychiatric genetics (via website)
    • M.D. University of Pittsburgh
    • Ph.D. 1967 Columbia University
- Thesis: The logic and methodology of reduction in the physical and biological sciences
  • James Woodward | 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)
    • Ph.D. 1977 University of Texas at Austin
- Thesis: Explanation in science and history

University of Texas at Austin

Department Website | Entry in APA Guide

  • Sahotra Sarkar | Website | PhilPapers
    • Specialties: History and philosophy of science, particularly in both philosophy of biology and physics (via website)
    • Ph.D. 1989 University of Chicago
- Thesis: Reductionism and molecular biology: a reappraisal
- Advisor: William Wimsatt[21]

University of Utah

Department Website | Entry in APA Guide

  • Stephen M. Downes | Website | PhilPapers
    • Specialties: Philosophy of Science and Philosophy of Biology; Biology of Human Behavior and Models and Images in Science (via website)
    • Ph.D. 1990 Virginia Tech (STS)
- Thesis: Prospects for a cognitive science of science
- Advisor: Steve Fuller
  • Melinda B. Fagan | Website | CV | PhilPapers
    • Specialties: Philosophy of science, focusing on experimental practice in biology (particularly stem cell and developmental biology), explanation, and conceptions of objectivity and evidence (via website)
    • Ph.D. 2007 Indiana University (HPS)
- Thesis: Objectivity in practice : integrative social epistemology of scientific inquiry
- Advisor: Elisabeth Lloyd
  • Matt Haber | 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)
    • Ph.D. 2005 UC Davis (Philosophy, Population Biology Affiliate)
- Thesis: The centrality of phylogenetic thinking
- Advisor: James R. Griesemer
  • James Tabery | 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)
    • Ph.D. 2007 University of Pittsburgh (HPS)
- Advisors: Sandra Mitchell and Paul Griffiths

University of Wisconsin-Madison

Department Website | Entry in APA Guide

  • Daniel Hausman | Website | PhilPapers
    • Specialties: Rational choice theory, game theory, the concept of measurement and health
    • Ph.D. 1978 Columbia University
- Thesis: Economic models : a philosophical inquiry into capital theory
- Advisor: Sidney Morgenbesser[22]
  • Elliott Sober | Website | CV | PhilPapers
    • Specialties: Philosophy of evolutionary biology, confirmation, explanation, reductionism, modeling, probability and statistics, parsimony
    • Willing to work with new students? Yes
    • Ph.D. 1974 Harvard University
- Thesis: Simplicity
- Advisor: Hilary Putnam
  • Russ Shafer-Landau | Website | PhilPapers
    • Specialties: Evolutionary debunking arguments targeting morality
    • Ph.D. 1992 University of Arizona
- Thesis: Moral indeterminacy
- Advisor: Joel Feinberg
  • Lawrence Shapiro | Website | CV | PhilPapers
    • Specialties: Philosophy of psychology and philosophy of mind; issues concerning multiple realization and embodied cognition (via website)
    • Ph.D. 1992 University of Pennsylvania
- Thesis: Representational content in cognitive psychology
- Advisor: Gary Hatfield
  • Michael Titelbaum | Website | CV | PhilPapers
    • Specialties: Bayesian epistemology
    • Ph.D. 2008 UC Berkeley
- Thesis: Quitting certainties: a doxastic modeling framework
- Advisor: Branden Fitelson

Washington University in St. Louis

Department Website | Entry in APA Guide

  • Carl F. Craver | Website | PhilPapers
    • Specialties: Philosophy of neuroscience, theories of explanation, philosophy of psychology, cognitive neuropsychology
    • Willing to work with new students? Yes
    • Ph.D. 1998 University of Pittsburgh
- Advisor: Peter Machamer
- Thesis: Cartesian science sensation, experience and representation
  • Ron Mallon | Website | PhilPapers
    • Specialties: Race, social construction, moral psychology, experimental philosophy
    • Ph.D. 2000 Rutgers University
- Thesis: Making up your mind: the social construction of human kinds and its implications
- Advisor: Stephen Stich
  • 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
    • Ph.D. 2002 University of Pennsylvania
- Thesis: Modeling Evolution
- Advisor: Gary Hatfield

M.A. Programs

California State University Long Beach

  • Alex Klein // website 1, PhilPapers
    • Specialties: Pragmatism (esp. William James), Philosophy of Biology, History and Philosophy of Psychology, Logical Positivism, History of Science
    • Ph.D. 2007 Indiana University HPS
  • Cory Wright // website PhilPapers
    • Specialties: Philosophy of Science, Semantics (esp. Truth), History and Philosophy of Psychology, Philosophy of Neuroscience
    • Ph.D. 2007 UC San Diego (Philosophy & Cognitive Science)
  • Wayne Wright // website 1
    • Specialties: Vision Science (esp. Color Perception), Modeling, Philosophy of Mind, Philosophy of Science
    • Ph.D. 1999 Temple University

Concordia University, Montreal

Department Website

  • Matthew Barker | Website | CV | PhilPapers
    • Specialties: Philosophy of biology, value theory, philosophy of psychology, general philosophy of science, and 17th and 18th century philosophy
    • Ph.D. 2010 University of Wisconsin-Madison
- Thesis: The philosophy of species : conceptual, metaphysical, and ethical insights concerning biological species
- Advisor: Elliott Sober
  • David Morris | 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)
    • Ph.D. 1997 University of Toronto
- Thesis: The sense of space: an essay on spatial perception and embodiment in the spirit of Merleau-Ponty's Phenomenology of perception

Louisiana State University

Department Website | Entry in APA Guide

  • Charles H. Pence | Website | CV | 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
    • Ph.D. 2014 University of Notre Dame
- Thesis: Chance in evolutionary theory: fitness, selection, and genetic drift in philosophical and historical perspective
- Advisor: Grant Ramsey

Oregon State University

Department Website

  • Jonathan Kaplan | Website | 2 | CV | PhilPapers
    • Specialties: Philosophy of Biology, Philosophy of Science, Political Philosophy (via website)
    • Ph.D. 1996 Stanford University
- Thesis: Networks of support politics and genes in contemporary society
- Advisor: John Dupre

Tufts University

Department Website | Entry in APA Guide

  • Patrick Forber | Website | 2 | CV | PhilPapers
    • Specialties: Confirmation, explanation, and idealization in science, especially in evolutionary biology and ecology (via website)
    • Ph.D. 2006 Stanford University
- Thesis: The traces of change: evidence in evolutionary biology
- Advisor: Elliott Sober

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

Department Website | Entry in APA Guide

  • Trevor Pearce | 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)
    • Ph.D. 2010 University of Chicago (Committee on Conceptual and Historical Studies of Science)
- Thesis: "A perfect chaos": Organism-environment interaction and the causal factors of evolution
- Advisors: William Wimsatt and Robert J. Richards

University of Victoria

Department Website

  • Scott Woodcock | Website | CV |
    • Specialties: Explanations for altruism, levels of selection, and ethics and naturalism
    • , Ph.D. 2001 University of Toronto
- Thesis: The genealogy of moral memes: a new synthesis for evolutionary ethics
- Advisor: Paul Thompson

Virginia Tech

Department Website | | Entry in APA Guide

  • Benjamin Jantzen | Website | CV | PhilPapers
    • Specialties: Philosophy of Biology, Philosophy of Physics, General Philosophy of Science, Biophysics
    • Willing to work with new students? Yes
    • Ph.D. 2010 Carnegie Mellon University (Logic, Computation, and Methodology)
- Advisor: Mara Harrell
  • Richard M. Burian | 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.
    • Ph.D. 1971 University of Pittsburgh
- Thesis: Scientific realism, commensurability, and conceptual change: a critique of Paul Feyerabend's philosophy of science
- Advisor: Wilfrid Sellars

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)
Missouri(2 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 ==


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