I've got four talks coming up. Not to mention the several writing projects in which I'm currently engaged. Panicked? A little.
I'll be speaking in the Philosophy Department's Colloquium at the University of Kentucky, on Friday, March 3, from 4-6 PM. The talk, "Manipulating Scientific Controversy: A Case From Evolutionary Genetics," is based on the paper I co-wrote with Mike Dietrich (Biological Sciences, Dartmouth) briefly described here. Actually, the case-study that drives the talk is different from the one in the paper. Rather than the molecular clock controversy, I'll talk about Jerry Coyne, Nicholas H. Barton, and Michael Turelli's (1997, 2000) critique of Michael Wade and Charles Goodnight's (1991) experimental test of Sewall Wright's Shifting Balance Theory of evolution. I've written on this criticism before in an article that came out in Perspectives on Science in 2004.
Almost six weeks later, April 13-15, I'll be in Charleston, South Carolina for the Southern Society in Philosophy and Psychology (SSPP) meeting. I'm in a session on "Explanation in the Special Sciences" with Todd Grantham (Philosophy, College of Charleston) and Larry Shapiro (Philosophy, Wisconsin). The SSPP Philosophy Program Chair, Tom Polger (Philosophy, Cincinnati), put the session together. I'm last in the session, which starts at 9 AM on Friday, April 14. My talk is called "Simplicity and Inference to the Best Explanation." I've been doing a lot of thinking about the role of simplicity in scientific inference. But aside from what I've said before, I'm not sure if I can generate much heat or much light.
Shortly after SSPP, April 26-29, I go up to Chicago, Illinois for the American Philosophical Association (APA) Central Division meeting. On Thursday, April 26, between 1:30 and 2:30, I'm commenting on Matthew Haug's (Philosophy, Cornell) paper, "Natural Selection as a Realized Causal Process," in a session called, "Metaphysics of Science." Haug's paper is a critique of Andre Ariew (Philosophy, Rhode Island), Tim Lewens (HPS, Cambridge), Mohan Matthen (Philosophy, British Columbia), and Denis Walsh's (Philosophy/HPST, Toronto) views on the interpretation of natural selection theory (see Matthen and Ariew 2002 and Walsh, Lewens, and Ariew 2002). Roughly, ALMW argue that evolutionary theory is a purely statistical theory rather than a theory of forces (a la Sober). I've not been able to spend much time on Haug's paper, yet. But my quick skim has me hopeful. Haug thinks that both the statistical and force interpretations are mistaken: natural selection theory is not merely statistical and, moreover, it provides population-level causal explanations. Roberta Millstein (Philosophy, Cal State East Bay) has been talking to me about this, and has a paper coming out in the British Journal for the Philosophy of Science on the topic. Haug's argument looks to be quite different from Millstein's, however. But more on this when I get around to really focusing on Haug's paper.
The last talk I'm giving is at the Symposium of the Charles Phelps Taft Research Center, right here in Cincinnati, on Wednesday, May 3. This year, I'm a Fellow of the Research Center, which means I'm spending the year doing research rather than trying to do research while teaching and doing service. The Symposium is the Taft Center's big event for the year; it goes on all day. My talk is at 11 AM. The talk is called "Assessing Scientific Theories: From a Biological Point of View." I haven't narrowed down specifics, yet. But I'll either draw from the talk I'm giving at UK or the talk at SSPP.
Early next week, I'll blog a bit about the feedback I get on the "underdetermination talk" this Friday. I'll blog a bit about the others when the time comes. Come out and give me what for if your near any of these events.
References
Coyne, J. A., N. H. Barton, and M. Turelli (1997), “Perspective: A Critique of Sewall Wright’s Shifting Balance Theory of Evolution”, Evolution 51: 643-671.
Coyne, J. A., N. H. Barton, and M. Turelli (2000), “Is Wright’s Shifting Balance Process Important in Evolution?” Evolution 54: 306-317.
Matthen, M. and A. Ariew (2002), "Two Ways of Thinking About Fitness and Natural Selection", The Journal of Philosophy 99: 55-83.
Wade, M. and C. Goodnight (1991), "Sewall Wright's Shifting Balance Theory: An Experimental Test", Science 253: 1015-1018.
Walsh, D., T. Lewens, and A. Ariew (2002), "Trials of Life: Natural Selection and Random Drift", Philosophy of Science 69: 452-473.
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