My research falls chiefly in the philosophy of mind and cognitive science, the philosophy of biology, and general philosophy of science, but I also have ongoing interests in ethics, metaphysics and epistemology, and 17th and 18th century philosophy. Over the last three years I have been reading and thinking about eugenics, the contemporary uses of biotechnology, and the philosophy of psychiatry, amongst other things.  I am also involved in several large-scale research projects that fall under the question What Sorts of People Should There Be?, which now has a mighty fine blog that's worth checking out.

Over the last 17 years I have taught courses in ethics, the philosophy of mind and psychology, logic and language, naturalistic epistemology, philosophy of science, and the philosophy of biology.  I welcome inquiries from graduate and undergraduate students regarding courses and opportunities for study; grad students might also be interested in this 12 Projects document, briefly described below.   In January 2010 I teach Phil 217 (Biology, Society, and Values) and Phil 450/550 (Special topic: "What Sorts of People Should There Be?"). Full syllabi for both courses are available by clicking on the course links above, or in the left-hand scroll bar.

I am also currently continuing work on a series of books under the general title The Individual in the Fragile Sciences, a project that ranges across the cognitive, biological, and social sciences. A 3-year SSHRC grant with teaching release awarded in 2001 allowed me to finish two books in this project, Boundaries of the Mind (2004) and Genes and the Agents of Life (2005), both published with Cambridge University Press.  Another 3-year SSHRC grant awarded in 2005 should allow me to complete work on the third book in the series during 2008; its working title (at least today) is Terra Socialis. Last year I drafted five chapters that I expect to form the core of this book, whose scope--given the focus on kinship and sociality in these chapters--may well be narrower than "individuals in the social sciences". (Oh well.) Even with the help of a half-sabbatical in the first half of 2009 I was unable to kill the beast, however. (Oh well, again.)   There are a number of other projects that I have started but a few years ago deemed myself unlikely to find time to make much progress on alone in the near future, and you should click here for an overview of 12 Projects that fit this description. (Some of them, as you'll see, now lead a phoenix-like existence.)

You can find a bunch of recent papers in the recent papers section of this website.   A complete list of publications is available from my c.v.. For the food that fuels all this, and how it is to be eaten, click here.

I am also the general editor, with Kim Sterelny, of the book series Life and Mind: Philosophical Issues in Biology and Psychology.  We've published 15 books to date; recent additions include Scott Atran and Doug Medin's The Native Mind and the Cultural Construction of Nature, Russell Hurlburt and Eric Schwitzgebel's Describing Inner Experience? Proponent Meets Skeptic, and Bob Richardson's Evolutionary Psychology as Maladapted Psychology. I am also, most importantly, along with my esteemed paleobiological colleague Mike Caldwell , a member of the Luxuriant Flowing Hair Club for Scientists scroll to the end of that site for Mike's picture; he's the one on the left.)