Red

From Philosophy of Biology Graduate Programs
Revision as of 16:18, 3 January 2015 by Shawn (Talk | contribs) (Browse Programs by Number of Faculty or by U.S. State)

(diff) ← Older revision | Latest revision (diff) | Newer revision → (diff)
Jump to: navigation, search

This template from PhilWiki.net is made available under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which means that you can:

  • copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format
  • remix, transform, and build upon the material for any purpose, even commercially.

As long as you:

  • give appropriate credit, provide a link to the license, and indicate if changes were made. You may do so in any reasonable manner, but not in any way that suggests the licensor endorses you or your use.

This is the most accommodating, i.e., least restrictive, Creative Commons license available. Please do not feel constrained by the template. Modify to your heart's content. (And, of course, you should delete this message from your own wiki.)

Also, all red text is meant to be deleted from your own wiki.


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

This wiki is modeled on Shawn A. Miller’s PhilBio.net. [Note: You are not required to give attribution in this particular section or in this particular way.]

The URL to link here is PhilWiki.net/YOUR-URL.

Please note: If you want to create your own philosophy wiki, visit PhilWiki.net.

Note to Prospective Graduate Students[edit]

The purpose of this wiki is to aid your search for [PHILOSOPHY DISCIPLINE HERE] graduate programs that suit your tastes. It does so in two ways:

  • By listing as many [PHILOSOPHY DISCIPLINE HERE] 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. Best of luck!

Standards, Practices, and Guidelines[edit]

What follows is taken verbatim from PhilBio.net. Obviously, you will need to modify it for your own purposes. Looking at other wikis may be helpful. The reason there is a 'Short Version' and a 'Longer Version' of the guidelines is because, while visitors may be unlikely to read the longer version, giving lots of detail is more transparent and helps make sense of the program lists.

Short Version[edit]

  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 labelled 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.

Longer Version[edit]

  1. The criterion for program inclusion is just that a philosophy (or a history and philosophy of science) Ph.D. program have at least one full-time faculty member who self-identifies as a philosopher of biology.[2] Programs do not have to be in English-speaking departments. A separate list of M.A. programs can be found at the bottom of this page.
  2. The standard of evidence required to make the list is an official (or personal) university-affiliated website—or a publicly-accessible CV—that lists philosophy of biology as a primary research interest.
  3. Philosophers who have made contributions to the philosophy of biology but who do not list phil bio as an AOS/AOC are usually not listed. For the most part, this wiki simply reflects the self-reports of online faculty listings, which is a way to avoid having to make judgment calls about who counts as a philosopher of biology in borderline cases. The rule of thumb is: someone counts if they say they count. That said, erring on the side of being inclusive is generally a good policy since prospective students can peruse bios, CVs, and publication lists to help determine whether they think a borderline faculty member would be potentially helpful to their phil bio research interests.[3]
  4. Affiliated, part-time, and emeritus faculty who work closely with graduate students should be labelled as such inside parentheses next to their names, e.g., Joe Dumit (Science & Technology Studies) // website, CV, PhilPapers. It is often best to explain the role these individuals play in programs at greater length on Wiki Program Pages. The point of listing them to begin with is not to pad a department's stats by inflating the number of philosophers of biology, but rather to identify individuals who will potentially be of use to graduate students, but who might not be found on a department website.
  5. Bioethics, environmental ethics, philosophy of neuroscience/cognitive science, philosophy of medicine, and history of biology—in and of themselves—are not counted as philosophy of biology, though philosophers of biology with those interests are listed.

How to Contribute[edit]

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

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

Every program listed also has a separate Wiki Program Page where additional information can be provided to prospective students. While the style and format of this main page should be kept consistent, individual Wiki Program Pages can take any form whatsoever. To edit one of these pages, simply follow the Wiki Program Page link underneath the department listing of interest and edit that page. To add a Wiki Program Page, follow the directions here.[4]

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

Programs with significant participation of affiliated faculty are strongly urged to use Wiki Program Pages for the purpose of listing them and explaining their role and involvement with [PHILOSOPHY DISCIPLINE HERE] graduate students. Simply linking on the main page to affiliated faculty in, e.g., a history department, law school, medical school, etc., is likely to be confusing to prospective students who do not know how these individuals are connected to the Ph.D. program they are researching.[5]

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

Questions, comments, ideas? Let me know at yourEmail@address.com.

Browse Programs by Number of Faculty or by U.S. State[edit]

For this section to work on your wiki, you need to create the appropriate categories and tag pages accordingly. Unless you know how to do that, you should delete this section. You can add it back in later.

Below is a listing of programs by number of philosophy of biology faculty or by U.S. state. The full program list below this table is sorted alphabetically by country/region. As always, prospective students should fact-check the faculty numbers listed because academics change jobs frequently. (Note: 'P' stands for Page.)

All Ph.D. Programs by Number of Faculty U.S. Ph.D. Programs by State
1 Faculty Member(19 P)
2 Faculty Members(9 P)
3 Faculty Members(10 P)
4 Faculty Members(5 P)
5 Faculty Members(3 P)
6+ Faculty Members(2 P)


Arizona(1 P)
California(5 P)
Florida(1 P)
Illinois(1 P)
Indiana(2 P)
Maryland(1 P)
Massachusetts(1 P)
Michigan(1 P)
Minnesota(1 P)
New York(2 P)
North Carolina(1 P)
Ohio(1 P)
Pennsylvania(3 P)
Texas(2 P)
Utah(1 P)
Wisconsin(1 P)

Ph.D. Programs (Australasia)[edit]

This Australasia section of the template is the only one populated with actual programs. All the rest are left blank (except for the UC Davis entry), which shows the use of the "<-- Page contains additional program information" pointer.

The Running List is a collection of properly formatted links to philosophy Ph.D. programs that may help get you started.

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

Macquarie University[edit]

{Wiki Program Page}

  • Rachael Brown // website 1, 2, 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)
  • Karola Stotz // website, PhilPapers
    • Specialties: Evolutionary, developmental and molecular biology, psychobiology and cognition (via website)

University of Otago (New Zealand)[edit]

{Wiki Program Page}

  • James Maclaurin // website, PhilPapers
    • Specialties: Philosophy of Biology, including innateness, fitness, theoretical morphology, biological diversity and universal darwinism (via website)

Ph.D. Programs (Canada)[edit]

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

Ph.D. Programs (Europe)[edit]

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

Ph.D. Programs (United Kingdom)[edit]

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

Ph.D. Programs (United States)[edit]

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

University of California, Davis[edit]

{Wiki Program Page} <-- Page contains additional program information

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

M.A. Programs[edit]

Notes[edit]

  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. For the most part, free-standing Science & Technology Studies (or Science Studies) departments aren't listed. The rationale for this is that since this wiki's intended audience is prospective philosophy/HPS Ph.D. students, the assumption is that they aren't targeting STS programs. Of course, there are borderline departments that aren't strictly philosophy or history and philosophy of science, e.g., the University of Exeter's Department of Sociology, Anthropology and Philosophy; the University of Chicago's Committee on the Conceptual and Historical Studies of Science; and Arizona State University's Center for Biology and Society, all of which are listed.
  3. Also, as long as a department has one full-time, self-described philosopher of biology, the graduate program is listed, which makes the determination of whether other faculty count as philosophers of biology less crucial.
  4. If adding a new Wiki Program Page seems too daunting, that's fine. One is likely to be created for you after a period of time.
  5. The other downside of listing on the main page affiliated faculty whose connection to a [PHILOSOPHY DISCIPLINE HERE] graduate program is unclear is that other contributors may remove them. This is, after all, a wiki.

Wiki Editing Resources[edit]