Narrative

My research concerns the nature of scientific knowledge and the conditions that make this knowledge possible. I believe that biology provides an illuminating context for investigating a number of philosophical issues concerning science, and I am fascinated by biologists’ efforts to investigate, manipulate, and understand life. I am particularly interested in evolutionary biology, where my research mostly concerns issues related to epistemic pluralism and causation, and in genetics and allied sciences, where my research concerns issues about realism, reductionism, and the structure of scientific knowledge. I am currently developing positions on these philosophical issues and working out new ideas about causation and causal reasoning to address a central question about contemporary biology: why is so much research attention centered on genes and DNA?