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Chris Haufe

Visiting Assistant Professor

Department of Philosophy

Virginia Tech

B.A., Philosophy (Honors), University of Michigan (2001)

B.A., Women’s Studies, University of Michigan (2001)

Ph.D., Philosophy, Columbia University (2006)

I work on problems in the philosophy of science, both generally (e.g., what are laws of nature?) and as they arise in specific sciences (e.g., are there biological laws?). My dissertation contrasted the methods of explanation and confirmation used by evolutionary biologists with those of evolutionary psychologists. Here I argued that the research in evolutionary psychology was characterized by irrelevant or insufficient data and an inadequate grasp of conceptual issues in evolutionary biology. [see abstract]

My current research is structured around a large-scale project which aims to understand the ways in which the pursuit of hypotheses in a given scientific field are constrained (or otherwise affected) by principles that come from outside that particular field. The first installment in this project is a book about biological laws (or the possibility that there might be some), tentatively titled Nature’s Laws. Here I argue for three central theses: (1) that current accounts of biological lawhood (both positive and negative) have failed to give proper attention to the notion of natural necessity as it might arise in the biological world; (2) that an account of biological necessity can be derived by examining how biologists constrain the set of hypotheses that might possibly be true; and (3) that reflections on and references to laws across the history of biology suggest a picture of biological lawhood very much in line with the account of biological necessity on offer.

In addition to my work in the history and philosophy of science and biology, I also have current projects in metaphysics (on mereology), epistemology (on epistemic deference), science and religion (on the impact of Darwin on religious belief), and political philosophy (the rights of corporations).

Please email referee requests to hauferefs@gmail.com

My CV

Research

Peer-Refereed Publications
"Perverse Engineering" (forthcoming) Philosophy of Science

"Sexual Selection and Mate Choice in Evolutionary Psychology" Biology and Philosophy (2008) 23(1): 115 – 128

Under Review
Evolutionary Psychology and the Future of Evolutionary History (Report expected in late November)
"Lange, Lewis, and One Lonely Proton" (with Matthew Slater)
"Biological Lawhood: A Critique of Some Current Thought"

In Progress
Nature's Laws (book manuscript)
"What Were Biological Laws?"
"Evolutionary Theory: Out of this World" (w/ Robert Brandon)
"From Scientific Possibility to Natural Necessity"
"How Models Reveal Possibility"
"The Deference Paradox"
"The Circle of Life Science"