WELCOME
As a philosophy professor, I investigate the structure, dynamics, and functions of scientific theories and models. How do models about cognition and climate change influence technology, and how is that technology used? What is the historical and normative context of evolutionary and psychological theories, and how are these theories used, perhaps illegitimately, to draw conclusions about race, sex/gender, and intelligence? I have lectured and published on a wide variety of topics in philosophy of science as well as on science more generally. 

rgw@ucsc.edu

ACADEMIC CV (Updated March 2, 2015).
Here are my areas of interest: philosophy of science, philosophy of biology, philosophy of cartography, political philosophy, ethics, metaphysics and epistemology, philosophy of mind and cognitive science, philosophy of mathematics, philosophy of the social sciences, Pragmatism, History of Philosophy of Science (HOPOS), Kant, post-structuralism, Latin American Philosophy.

1. Education and Appointments?

2. Professional Service?
  • Reviewer for 25+ journals, publishers, and funding agencies.

3. General research content? 
  • Abstraction-Reification
  • What is the relation between the concrete (e.g., reality, material technology, and the body) and the abstract (e.g., theory, functional design, and consciousness)? 
  • Pluralism
  • Which categories of scientific research exist in a plurality of ways? 


4. Current specific projects? 
+Pragmatic aspects of models and modeling: 
  • (i) mathematical models (especially in genomics, climate studies, and physics)
  • (ii) diagrammatic models (especially of biological mechanisms, and "Tree of life" vs. "Network of life")
  • (iii) narrative models (especially in Evo-Devo)
+ Assumption Archaeology of the practices, theories, and ontologies of these fields:
  • (i) the genomics of "race" (Wir sind alle Afrikaner)
+ Prediction and hypothesis testing (frequentist & Bayesian) as stringent and probative empirical methodologies

5. Other intellectual interests? Physics, psychology, literature and poetry, art, architecture, and the study of multiculturalism.

6. Languages? I speak Danish, English, and Spanish. Perhaps one day my French, German, and Latin will improve. 

7. Other personal webpages?

Check out the rest of my webpage, if you are interested. Please send me your feedback.
Neues Museum, Berlin, 2010.
Photo courtesy of 
Ola Jakup Joensen, Niels Bohr Institute
UPCOMING TALKS AND CONFERENCES 

"The Pragmatic Cartography of Population Biology: Army Ants, Flour Beetles, and the Lab-Field Border"
(Session organized by 
Sabina Leonelli and 
Rachel A. Ankeny)
ISHPSSB, July 8-10
2015.

"Extending Philosophy of Biology: A Roundtable on New Methodologies and Domains, from Cartography to Cancer"
ISHPSSB, July 8-10 2015.

"Maps and Scientific Representation"
Conference:
 Pictures & Proofs, University of South Carolina, Columbia, SC, March 19-21

"Do we need a universalizing paradigm for rational decision-making?"
with David Teira
Conference:
"How to be a pluralist in the social sciences"
@ Erasmus University, Rotterdam, Nov. 21, 2014

"The Structure of Scientific Theories,"
​IHPST, 
University of Toronto, 
"Philosophy of Scientific Practices Roundtable I: Modelings, Representings, and Intervenings," 
June 27, 2014  

Practices of Abstraction: The View from Cartography and Geography
(poster)
IIF, UNAM, Mexico City, May 20, 2014

Conference:"Genomics and Philosophy of Race"
(website; poster)
Paper: Are Races Like Constellations? (abstract ; slides)
Kresge College, UC Santa Cruz, April 12-13, 2014.

"The Stanford School of Philosophy of Science" Conference
Organizer
Stanford, CA


SHORT ESSAY
Deductive vs.
synthetic styles of thinking, in science and in everyday life.
"Take Your Time"
RASMUS GRØNFELDT WINTHER
When Maps Become the World 
(University of Chicago Press, book under contract).