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Biography
Ph.D., Princeton University (1974)
Areas of Specialization
Philosophy of science, biology and
mathematics
I have taught at Vassar College, the University of
Vermont, the University of Michigan, the University of Minnesota and UC San
Diego before coming to Columbia. My teaching and research interests are in the
philosophy of science, with particular emphasis on general questions in the
philosophy of science, problems in the philosophy of biology, and issues in the
philosophy of mathematics. I attempt to connect these questions with the central
philosophical issues of epistemology, metaphysics and ethics, with the history
of philosophy (especially the history of modern philosophy), and with the
practice and findings of the sciences, past and present.
Examples of
Publications
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Abusing Science: The Case Against
Creationism, MIT Press, 1982.
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The Nature of Mathematical Knowledge, Oxford University Press, 1983.
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Vaulting Ambition: Sociobiology and the Quest for Human
Nature, MIT Press, 1985.
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The Advancement of Science,
Oxford University Press, 1993.
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The Lives to Come: The Genetic Revolution and Human
Possibilities, Simon & Schuster, 1996.
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Science, Truth and Democracy,
University Press, 2001.
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In Mendel's Mirror: Philosophical Reflections on
Biology, Oxford University Press, 2002.
Recent Articles
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"Real Realism", Philosophical Review, 2001.
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"Parfit's Puzzle", Nous, 2000.
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"An Argument about Free Inquiry", Nous, 1997.
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"The Evolution of Human Altruism," Journal of Philosophy, 1993.
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"The Naturalists Return," Philosophical Review, 1992.
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"The Division of Cognitive Labor," Journal of Philosophy, 1990.
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"Explanatory Unification and the Causal Structure of the
World," Minnesota Studies in the Philosophy of
Science, XIII, 1989.
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"The Return of the Gene," (with Kim
Sterelny), Journal of Philosophy, 1988.
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"Precis of Vaulting Ambition and Reply to Peer
Commentary," The Behavioral and Brain
Sciences, 1987.
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"Van Fraassen on Explanation," (with Wesley Salmon),
Journal of Philosophy, 1987.
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"Two Approaches to Explanation," Journal of Philosophy, 1985.
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"1953 and All That: A Tale of Two Sciences," Philosophical Review, 1984.
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"Species," Philosophy of
Science, 1984.
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"Genes," British Journal
for the Philosophy of Science, 1982.
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"Explanatory Unification," Philosophy of Science, 1981.
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"A Priori Knowledge," Philosophical Review, 1980.
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"Frege's Epistemology," Philosophical Review, 1979.
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"Theories, Theorists, and Theoretical Change,"
Philosophical Review, 1978.
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"Kant and the Foundations of Mathematics," Philosophical Review,
1975.
Website
www.columbia.edu/~psk16
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