Welcome
Hello, hola, hej! As a philosophy professor, I investigate the philosophical foundations of evolutionary biology, genetics and genomics, cognition and consciousness, and biotechnology and neurotechnology. Such foundations need to be placed in their historical, psychological, and sociological contexts. Much to do! And as a citizen, I am obsessed with the promises and dangers of our diverse scientific theories and practices.
rgwinther@gmail.com
1. Education and Appointments? My passion for exploring the relation between science and philosophy, in the context of a variety of scientific cultures, is perhaps reflected in the various contexts in which I have been fortunate enough to study and work:
- Graduate studies in philosophy, biology, and history and philosophy of science were done in the Department of Philosophy of Stanford University, and in the Department of Biology and Department of History and Philosophy of Science of Indiana University.
- Assistant Professor (current) in the Department of Philosophy of the University of California, Santa Cruz. I previously worked in the Instituto de Investigaciones Filosóficas, UNAM in Mexico City.
- Guest researcher at the Center for the Philosophy of Nature and Science Studies (University of Copenhagen) and the Center for Models of Life (Niels Bohr Institute).
Academic CV
2. General research content? Abstraction and pluralism are two focal concepts of my research. Below please find some questions addressed in my publications.
+ Abstraction
- What is the relation between the concrete and the abstract? Three concrete-abstract pairs that interest me:
- (a) reality and scientific theory
- (b) technology and functional design
- (c) body and cognition/consciousness
- What is pernicious reification? (called "vicious abstractionism" by William James) In particular:
- (a) When and how do we overgeneralize, ontologize, and insist on our abstractions (e.g., evolutionary models; mathematical and mechanistic theories of "race", cognition/consciousness, and IQ)?
- (c) How can we pull together abstractions into a powerful integration network, thereby avoiding pernicious reification?
+ Pluralism
- Which sorts of units of scientific research exist in a plurality of ways? Examples:
- (b) disciplines
- (d) micro-research groups (e.g., "the Wade lab")
3. 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 Archeology of the practices, theories, and ontologies of these fields:
- (i) the genetics of "race" (Wir sind alle Afrikaner)
- (ii) network science
- (iii) consciousness studies
+ Prediction and hypothesis testing (frequentist & Bayesian) as empirical methodologies
+ The nature of distinctions, classifications, and kind-making
+ The realism-empiricism-constructivism debate
4. Other intellectual interests? Physics, psychology, literature and poetry, art, architecture, and the study of multiculturalism.
5. Languages? I speak Danish, English, and Spanish. Perhaps one day my French, German, and Latin will improve.
6. Other personal webpages?
Check out the rest of my webpage, if you are interested! Please send me your feedback.
The Quote Bestiary
"Hypostatic abstraction [is] the chief engine of mathematical thought."
(C. S. Peirce, ca. 1901, Collected Papers 2.364)
"[The scientist] therefore must appear to the systematic epistemologist as a type of unscrupulous opportunist: he appears as realist insofar as he seeks to describe a world independent of the acts of perception; as idealist insofar as he looks upon the concepts and theories as the free inventions of the human spirit (not logically derivable from what is empirically given); as positivist insofar as he considers his concepts and theories justified only to the extent to which they furnish a logical representation of relations among sensory experiences. He may even appear as a Platonist or Pythagorean insofar as he considers the viewpoint of logical simplicity as an indispensable and effective tool of his research."
(A. Einstein, 1949, "Reply to Criticisms" in Albert Einstein. Philosopher-Scientist (Library of Living Philosophers), p. 684)
"[Paradigms] are also... constitutive of science in other respects... paradigms provide scientists not only with a map but also with some of the directions essential for map-making."
(T. S. Kuhn, 1962, The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, p. 109)
"The problem for science is to understand the proper domain of explanation of each abstraction rather than become its prisoner."
(R. Levins and R. Lewontin, 2006, The Dialectical Biologist, p. 150)
"[E]xperience has taught me that the history of various forms of rationality is sometimes more effective in unsettling our certitudes and dogmatism than is abstract criticism."
(M. Foucault, 1979, "Omnes et Singulatim: Towards a Criticism of 'Political Reason'".)
"Hypostatic abstraction [is] the chief engine of mathematical thought."
(C. S. Peirce, ca. 1901, Collected Papers 2.364)
"[The scientist] therefore must appear to the systematic epistemologist as a type of unscrupulous opportunist: he appears as realist insofar as he seeks to describe a world independent of the acts of perception; as idealist insofar as he looks upon the concepts and theories as the free inventions of the human spirit (not logically derivable from what is empirically given); as positivist insofar as he considers his concepts and theories justified only to the extent to which they furnish a logical representation of relations among sensory experiences. He may even appear as a Platonist or Pythagorean insofar as he considers the viewpoint of logical simplicity as an indispensable and effective tool of his research."
(A. Einstein, 1949, "Reply to Criticisms" in Albert Einstein. Philosopher-Scientist (Library of Living Philosophers), p. 684)
"[Paradigms] are also... constitutive of science in other respects... paradigms provide scientists not only with a map but also with some of the directions essential for map-making."
(T. S. Kuhn, 1962, The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, p. 109)
"The problem for science is to understand the proper domain of explanation of each abstraction rather than become its prisoner."
(R. Levins and R. Lewontin, 2006, The Dialectical Biologist, p. 150)
"[E]xperience has taught me that the history of various forms of rationality is sometimes more effective in unsettling our certitudes and dogmatism than is abstract criticism."
(M. Foucault, 1979, "Omnes et Singulatim: Towards a Criticism of 'Political Reason'".)
The blind men and the elephant. How can we overcome reifying six partial perspectives?
[N.b. each blind man can be thought of as a partial scientific theory or paradigm, and the elephant as the complex world investigated by science. ]
[N.b. each blind man can be thought of as a partial scientific theory or paradigm, and the elephant as the complex world investigated by science. ]
Neues Museum, Berlin, 2010.
Photo courtesy of
Ola JakupJoensen, Niels Bohr Institute
Ola JakupJoensen, Niels Bohr Institute
Upcoming Talks
Recent Talks
Short Essay
A general essay on philosophy as the study of distinction-making:
