Current Research
I am interested in many areas of biology and psychobiology, and in the social impact of these fields. I am willing to supervise postgraduate research projects on most topics in the philosophy of biology, many topics in the naturalistic philosophy of mind, and a range of topics in the general philosophy of science. Here are some specific projects I am working on at this time and a few relevant publications. A full list of my publications can be found on the Publications page
- The changing concept of the gene, both for its intrinsic interest and as a case study of conceptual change in science. This work is mostly conducted jointly with Dr Karola Stotz (Indiana). My recent article in The Australian newspaper, posted here gives an accessible introduction to some of this work. To find out more, visit the Representing Genes Project: http://representinggenes.org
- Idealisation in the experimental biosciences. This work has two strands, first work on the homology concept, a topic on which Ingo Brigandt (Alberta) and I are editing the 2007 special issue of Biology and Philosophy, and second a radical new interpretation of Dobzhansky's dictum that 'nothing in biology make sense except in the light of evolution'. I'm submitting a string of papers on these topics in 2007, but the only thing in print is Griffiths, Paul E (2006). "Function, Homology and Character Individuation", Philosophy of Science, 73(1): 1-25.
- Innateness and human nature. This work takes off from my (2002) What is Innateness? The Monist, 85(1): 70-85. I start from the premiss 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'm very excited about this work, which includes an 'experimental philosophy' study on the innateness concept being conducted jointly with Edouard Machery (Pittsburgh) and Stefan Linquist (Guelph). I'll be presenting preliminary results at AAP 2007. I hope the work will lead to a thoroughgoing reconstruction of both these ideas consistent with what we know about development.
- Developmental Systems Theory. Recent publications on this topic include: Griffiths, P. E., and R. Gray. (2005). Three Ways to Misunderstand Developmental Systems Theory. Biology & Philosophy, 20:417-425 and Griffiths, P. E., & Gray, R. D. (2004) The Developmental Systems Perspective: Organism-environment systems as units of evolution. In The Evolutionary Biology of Complex Phenotypes Preston, K & Pigliucci, M (Eds.) Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press.
- I continue to be interested in the history of ethology and of developmental psychobiology, but am not actively writing on this topic at the present time. My most recent publication on this topic is Griffiths, P.E. (In Press). Ethology, Sociobiology, Evolutionary Psychology, in Sarkar, S and Plutyinski, A Blackwell's Companion to Philosophy of Biology, Oxford: Blackwells.
- I continue to be interested in the sciences of emotion, but am not actively writing on this topic at the present time. My most recent publication on this topic is: Griffiths, P.E. and Andrea Scarantino (In Press). Emotions in the Wild: The situated perspective on emotion, in P. Robbins and M. Aydede (eds.) Cambridge Handbook of Situated Cognition, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, xxx-xxx.
Paul Griffiths and Karola Stotz at ISHPSSB 2005
