Research Interests
Paul Griffiths and Karola Stotz at ISHPSSB 2005 Ruth Millikan, Karola Stotz and Evelyn Keller A full list of my publications can be found on the Publications page
Two recent articles about my work are "What is a Gene?" and "The Sociable Gene"
- Research Strategies in Postgenomic Biology.
- This work investigates the implications, that the latest research into the complexities of gene expression had or likely will have on both a simplistic genetic determinism and research chauvinism, and more generally the ideal of a reductionistic research strategy that favors the molecular explanatory level above all else. See Molecular epigenesis: distributed specificity as a break in the Central Dogma (History and Philosophy of the Life Sciences 26(4):527-544, 2006). Also read a short version of a paper in preparation, ‘How (not) to be a reductionist in a complex universe’. Preprint in PhilSci Archives.
- The Changing Concept of the Gene.
- A major interest of mine is tracking and explaining the changing concept of the gene and other genomic elements, especially during the current shift in molecular biology from genetics to postgenomics and systems biology. This question was the focus in the NSF funded study “Representing Genes: Testing competing philosophical analyses of the gene concept in contemporary molecular biology” (Principal investigator: Paul Griffiths, Co-PI: Karola Stotz). The follow-up NSF project “Conceptual Issues in the Reception and Dissemination of Genomics” (PI: Karola Stotz; formerly: Paul Griffiths) investigated which role the different concepts of the gene play in the reception and dissemination of genomic research. This study was conducted in collaboration with Egenis, John Dupre’s ESRC Center for Genomics in Society at the University of Exeter. To find out more, visit the Representing Genes Project: http://representinggenes.org.
Press on ‘Representing Genes’: This research has figured in an article in the journal of the European Molecular Biological Organisation (Turney, Jon (2005), "The Sociable Gene", EMBO reports 6 (9):809-810), and later in an article in the journal Nature (Pearson, Helen (2007), “What is a gene? Nature 441: 398-401).
- Developmental System Theory.
- My interest in genes is partially fuelled by the role genes play in both development and evolution, and to put genes in their justified place in nature is part of having a more naturalized and realistic view of development, evolution, psychology and culture. If you read German, follow the links to see my (textbook level) take on Developmental Systems Theory and on Evo-Devo. See my reinterpretation of Susan Oyama’s claim about the “Ontogeny of Information”, With genes like this, who needs an environment? Postgenomics’s argument for the “Ontogeny of Information” (Philosophy of Science 73(5):905-917, 2006.)
- The Nature-Nurture Dichotomy.
- Resolving the dichotomy between nature and nurture and other ill-conceived dichotomies such as gene versus environment or innate versus acquired is a long-term interest of mine. To this end Colin Allen and I organized the symposium ‘Reconciling Nature and Nurture in the Study of Behavior’ at Indiana University at 2007. The outcome of this workshop is a special issue of Philosophical Psychology. My paper in this issue serves as a extensive introduction into the themes of the workshop (The ingredients for a postgenomic synthesis of nature and nurture Philosophical Psychology 21(3):359-381, 2007). For more information on this project go to the website http://nanu.dynalias.org/.
- A Philosophical Analysis of Extended Inheritance.
- This work attempt to analyse the similarities between various mechanisms of non-genetic inheritence, such as Epigenetics, Parental Effects, and Ontogenetic Niche Construction. I have two papers in preparation on this topic, ‘Ontogentic Niche construction: From the genetic niche to developmental systems’ (first presented at AAP 2006) and ‘Epigenetics, Parental Effects, and Ontogenetic Niche Construction: A Philosophical Analysis of Extended Inheritance’ (first presented at the FDIGS workshop in St Louis in 2008).
- Postgenomic Perspectives on Human Nature.
- I believe that there is something to be said about what people are like. Human nature in the sense of an underlying cause is whatever explains human nature in this simple, descriptive sense. Hence, in my view, human nature is human developmental biology. I hope the project, in collaboration with Paul Griffiths, will lead to a thoroughgoing reconstruction of ideas about nature and innateness consistent with what we know about development.
- The Biology of Cognition.
- My other primary research field is the study of strictly naturalistic theories of life and mind, with a special interest in the relationship of contemporary theories of evolution and cognition. The goal of my dissertation was to examine the shortcomings of the received views of evolution and cognition and to provide an alternative picture that focuses on the active organism as the center of agency. See ???here??? an older paper coauthored with Paul Griffiths on “How the mind grows”. A forthcoming paper coauthored with Colin Allen, ‘From cell surface receptors to higher learning: a whole world of experience’, argues for a biologically informed psychology, a prerequisite of which would be the integration of the concepts of ‘development’ and ‘learning’ in different areas of cognition research.
In 2006 Colin Allen and I formed the “Studygroup for Philosophy/ Psychology of Animal Cognition, Knowledge, Learning, Evolution and Development” (SPACKLED) (http://www.cogs.indiana.edu/spackled/).
For more information on future projects go to http://www.hss.adelaide.edu.au/philosophy/cogbio/.
- Experimental Philosophy (“X-phi”).
- As a result of Paul Griffiths and my work on the empirical ‘Representing Genes’ project I became interested in advancing the rather new and fledging field of “Experimental Philosophy of Science”. Together with Brendon Larson from UC Davis I am currently preparing a publication on the methodological issues of our empirical work, and I am a member of Jonathan Weinberg’s Experimental Epistemology Laboratory (http://www.indiana.edu/~eel/, http://www.unc.edu/~knobe/ExperimentalPhilosophy.html). I organized a symposium for the PSA 2006 meeting on x-phi, a mini-symposium with the papers is forthcoming, Philosophy in the Trenches: From Naturalized Philosophy to Experimental Philosophy (of Science). Minisymposium in Studies in History and Philosophy of Science A 39 (4). My own contribution in this issue is ‘Experimental philosophy of biology: Notes from the field’. Studies in History and Philosophy of Science A 39 (4): XXX-XXX. See also Paul Griffiths and my encyclopedia article on this issue 'Experimental Philosophy of Science', Philosophy Compass, 3 (3):507-721, 2008.
- Philosophy of Biology as Biohumanities.
- For a more general statement of my vision of what philosophy of biology should accomplish, see Stotz, K. and P. E. Griffiths (2008). Biohumanities: Rethinking the relationship between biosciences, philosophy and history of science, and society (Quarterly Review of Biology 83(1):37-45. For more information go to Paul Griffiths’ Biohumanities archive site.
