hpb etc.

New Author

The first post on this blog, back on February 16, 2006, stated its aims. One of those I described as follows:

I've just started the HPB Group. In fact, we don't meet until the spring term begins (or thereabouts). The idea is to get a group of interested graduate students together to maintain a high-level of activity in the history and philosophy of biology here at UC. To that end, there are five specific aims of the Group:

• host speakers in philosophy of biology
• read new and recent work in HPB
• talk out our own work in progress/give practice talks/etc.
• collaborate, where possible, with others in their research
• locate potential dissertation projects for students in the Group

This blog will be the "communications center" for the Group. Each of the members is an author.

Obviously, the group has been quiet. Nevertheless, I've added a new author, namely, Clement Loo, one of the new graduate students in my department who is interested in philosophy of biology, among other things. Clement was an Ereshefsky student in the philosophy department at the University of Calgary. Naturally, we expect great things from him.

TypePad Outage

On July 12, TypePad experienced a long outage during which bloggers weren't able to manage their blogs. It may be the case that I've lost some data here, particularly any comments/posts submitted between 12:30 and 10:30 AM the day of the outtage. If I can recover lost data, I will do so.

At any rate, don't miss the fresh post that didn't see the light day yesterday because of the outage: "Theory Choice and Underdetermination in Biology I" below.

Comments on Posts

At least temporarily, any comments that readers make on my (or others') posts will have to be approved by me before they will be made public. Argue with me or other authors as hard as you want. But don't get emotional. Any such comment will be deleted. In addition, anonymous posts will be deleted. Pseudonymous comments may be deleted (particularly if they lack a legitimate email or URL).

Hiatus: 4/26-4/30

I'll be in Chicago Wednesday (4/26) through Sunday (4/30) at the Central Division meetings of the APA. I'm commenting on a paper that explores the metaphysics of natural selection. My commentary on the positive view of the paper is here. I'll blog a bit about the discussion upon my return.

Hiatus: 4/12-4/15

I'll be at the Southern Society for Philosophy and Psychology Wednesday through Saturday, April 12-15. Unless I get a chance to blog about the conference from there, things on the blog will be quiet. Upon my return, I will at least say some things about the reaction to my talk, "Simplicity and Inference to the Best Explanation," much of which is covered in this post.

Inauguration

Welcome to "hpb etc." This blog is maintained by Robert Skipper, a historian and philosopher of biology in the Department of Philosophy at the University of Cincinnati. The purpose of the blog is to centralize, organize, and publicize my research, teaching, and other HPB activities, in particular, the UC HPB Group (see the sidebar on the right and the description below).

Features of this blog that deserve to be noticed are: (1) the blogroll, (2) the list of HPB journals, and (3) the list of HPB resource lists all on the left; (4) the UC HPB Group, (5) HPB current reading, (6) top 10 must-read books in biology, and (7) top 10 must-read books in HPB all on the right. I expect to add content to the existing parts in the future.

The stuff in the sidebar on the left is self-explanatory. The stuff on the right less so. I've just started the HPB Group. In fact, we don't meet until the spring term begins (or thereabouts). The idea is to get a group of interested graduate students together to maintain a high-level of activity in the history and philosophy of biology here at UC. To that end, there are five specific aims of the Group:

• host speakers in philosophy of biology
• read new and recent work in HPB
• talk out our own work in progress/give practice talks/etc.
• collaborate, where possible, with others in their research
• locate potential dissertation projects for students in the Group

This blog will be the "communications center" for the Group. Each of the members is an author.

The HPB current reading list is a litany of books I'm currently reading (or, more accurately, trying to read). The list will, in the future, list the current books the HPB Group is reading. The two top 10 lists are what I consider to be 20 books that any historian and philosopher of biology ought to have read. And I mean by the time they finish their PhDs. To be sure, these 20 books are not the only must-reads. Moreover, by listing only books I've locked out journal articles, arguably more important resources in history and philosophy of biology, and biology as well, than books.

Blogs take a lot of time and effort. And for those of us who are compulsive, even more time and effort. I'm hoping for success.