Philosophy of Science
Alkistis Elliott-Graves
Philosophy of Biology (Cultural Evolution, Adaptationism)
Philosophy of Science
Philosophy of the Social Sciences
MSc Philosophy of the Social Sciences, London School of Economics and Political Science
B.A. European Social and Political Studies, University College London
"Why early humans did not think deductively", ISHPSSB 2009 Brisbane
Ryan Muldoon
My dissertation project, "Diversity and the Social Contract", is an attempt to lay the foundations for a novel formulation of social contract theory in which diversity is a central concern. To do this, I offer a new moral stance that allows for substantive, fundamental moral disagreement, and then use this moral stance to develop a bargaining model in which agents can cooperate with only minimal conditions on their agreement. I demonstrate that, up to certain limits, a more diverse population is one that is more able to provide public goods. This framework is then used to argue that we ought to replace a notion of toleration with a more aggressive embrace of diversity. I see this project as an attempt to bring Mill's conception of experiments in living into the fold of contract theory.
M.A. in Philosophy, University of Pennsylvania
B.S. in Philosophy (with honors), University of Wisconsin - Madison
B.S. in Mathematics, University of Wisconsin - Madison
"Robust Simulations" Philosophy of Science 74 (December 2007)
"Epistemic Landscapes and the Division of Cognitive Labor" (With Michael Weisberg) Philosophy of Science (Forthcoming)
"Robustness and Idealization in Models of Cognitive Labor" (With Michael Weisberg) (Under Review)
"The View from Everywhere"
The Epistemology of Liberal Democracy – Free Speech, Disagreement and Common Belief
University of Copenhagen, Denmark, November 2008
"Epistemic Diversity and Epistemic Landscapes"
Biennial Meeting of the Philosophy of Science Association, Pittsburgh, November 2008
"Toward a Mechanism for Realizing Mill’s Experiments in Living"
Tenth Conference of the International Society for Utilitarian Studies
Kadish Center for Morality, Law and Public Affairs, UC – Berkeley, September 2008
"Agreeing to Disagree: How Conflicting Norms Can be Mutually Reinforcing"
Fundacion Urrutia Elejalde XI Summer School on Economics and Philosophy: Social Norms
San Sebastian, Spain, July 2008
"Spatial Models of Bargaining"
Formal Methods in Philosophy Workshop
University of Pennsylvania, May 2008
"Diversity and the Public Sphere"
Democracy, Constitutionalism and Citizenship Graduate Workshop,
University of Pennsylvania, November 2007.
"Correlating Strategies With Neighbors Even When The Goal is Anti-Correlation" 2007 Meeting of the International Society for the History, Philosophy, and Social Studies of Biology, Exeter, England, July 2007
"Diversity and the Social Contract"
Santa Fe Institute Graduate Workshop in Computational Social Science Modeling and Complexity, Santa Fe, New Mexico, July 2007
"Social Epistemology and Individual Rationality"
Fourth Annual Formal Epistemology Workshop,
Carnegie Mellon University, May 2007
"How Computer Simulations are like Telescopes and Microscopes"
Philosophy of Science Association 2006 Biennial Meeting,
Vancouver, November 2006
Comments on Epsen's "Games with Zero-Knowledge Signaling"
Third Annual Formal Epistemology Workshop, UC - Berkeley, May 2006
"The Emergence of Trust: Preventing Conflicts with Covenants"
Mind, Brain, and Behavior Graduate Student Conference,
Harvard University, May 2006
"The Need for a Plurality of Fairness Norms: An Evolutionary Account"
Computing and Philosophy Conference (CAP 2005),
Oregon State University, August, 2005
"Fairness Plurality: An Evolutionary Account"
Social Network Analysis: Advances and Applications Forum,
Oxford University, July, 2005
"Modeling the Emergence of Multiple Fairness Norms" (with Cristina Bicchieri) Social Dynamics Workshop, Santa Fe Institute, April, 2005
"On The Validity of Model-Based Arguments"
Graduate Philosophy Conference, University of Pittsburgh and Carnegie Mellon University,
April 2005
2007: Summer School Support and Travel Award Santa Fe Institute
2007: Dean's Summer Fellowship in Philosophy Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, University of Pennsylvania
2006: PSA Travel Grant Philosophy of Science Association and the National Science Foundation
2006: Summer School Support and Travel Award Santa Fe Institute
2006: Summer Research Grant
Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, University of Pennsylvania
2005: Russell Ackoff Doctoral Student Fellowship for Research on Human Decision Processes Center for Risk and Decision Processes, The Wharton School
2005: Provost's Travel Grant to attend Symposium on Risk and Uncertainty University of Pennsylvania
2005: Philosophy, Politics, and Economics Summer Research Travel Grant University of Pennsylvania
2004: Philosophy, Politics, and Economics Conference Travel Grant University of Pennsylvania
Cristina Bicchieri, Adrienne Martin, Samuel Freeman, Michael Weisberg
Matt Bateman
Michael Weisberg
Murad Akhundov
Jonathan Moreno
David and Lyn Silfen University Professor Professor of Medical Ethics, History and Sociology of Science, and Philosophy
Mind Wars: Brain Research and National Defense (2006)
Ethical Guidelines for Innovative Surgery (2006)
Is There an Ethicist in the House? On the Cutting Edge of Bioethics (2005)
In the Wake of Terror: Medicine and Morality in a Time of Crisis (2003)
Steven O. Kimbrough
(with M. Weber) "An Empirical Comparison of Utility Assessment Programs." European Journal of Operational Research75 (1994). (with J. Oliver and C. Pritchett) "On Post-Evaluation Analysis: Candle Lighting and Surrogate Models." Interfaces 23.3 (May-June 1993). (with H.K. Bhargave) "Model Management: An Embedded Languages Approach." Decision Support Systems 10 (1993).
Susan Schneider
Assistant Professor of Philosophy, University of Pennsylvania.
Faculty Member, Center for Neuroscience and Society, Institute for Research in Cognitive Science (IRCS) and Center for Cognitive Neuroscience (CCN), University of Pennsylvania.
Fellow, Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies (IEET).
I work mainly in philosophy of mind and metaphysics. I am now working on two projects. First, I am considering the scope and limits of cognitive science, and in particular, the plausibility of computational theories of mind. And second, I am rethinking the traditional positions on the mind-body problem, reframing conceptions of property dualism and physicalism.
Books:
- The Blackwell Companion to Consciousness, (with Max Velmans), Oxford: Blackwell Publishing, January 2007, 768 pp.
- Science Fiction and Philosophy, Oxford: Blackwell Publishing, 2009, 250 pp.
Some Recent Articles and Book Chapters:
- "The Nature of Symbols in the Language of Thought", Mind and Language, Winter, 2009.
- "LOT, CTM and the Elephant in the Room," Synthese, Winter, 2009.
- “The Language of Thought”, Routledge Companion to Philosophy of Psychology, Paco Calvo and John Symons, eds. NY: Routledge, 2009.
- “Fodor’s Critique of the Classical Computational Theory of Mind” (with Kirk Ludwig), Mind and Language, 2008, 23, 2008.
- Transcending and Enhancing the Human Brain”, in Science Fiction and Philosophy. Reprinted in, Brains, Minds, Selves and Others, James Giordrano, ed., Cambridge University Press, forthcoming.
- “Thought Experiments: Science Fiction as a Window into Philosophical Puzzles”, in Science Fiction and Philosophy, Susan Schneider, editor. Oxford: Blackwell Publishing, 2009.
- "What is the Significance of the Intuition that the Laws of Nature Govern?" Australasian Journal of Philosophy, June, 2007, pp. 307-324.
- “Daniel Dennett’s Theory of Consciousness,” in The Blackwell Companion to Consciousness, Oxford: Blackwell Publishing, Jan. 2007, pp. 313-324.
- “Yes, It Does: A Diatribe on Jerry Fodor’s Mind Doesn’t Work that Way,” Psyche, Spring 2007, pp. 1-15.
- “Direct Reference, Psychological Explanation, and Frege Cases,” Mind and Language, Volume 20 Issue 4, September 2005, pp. 223-447.
Gary Hatfield
Adam Seybert Professor in Moral and Intellectual Philosophy
Sector A Advisor, Visual Studies
Zoltan Domotor
Professor of Philosophy Director of Undergraduate Studies
Michael Weisberg
My primary research concerns the philosophical issues surrounding the scientific method. Specifically, I am interested in the construction, development, and analysis of theories and models in computationally complex sciences such as population biology and chemistry. I pursue these interests in a variety of projects spanning traditional as well as novel areas in philosophy of science, including philosophy of biology, philosophy of chemistry, and the social structure of science.
