Assistant Instructor / PhD Candidate, Philosophy
Buffalo State College, Undeclared
ERIE-IGERT Fellow
University at Buffalo (PhD candidate; assistant instructor) / Buffalo State College (lecturer)
Thesis Title: Models, Emergence, and Explanation: a Scientific Realism with Applications to Environmental Science for Policy
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Kenneth Shockley (co-supervisor)
Neil E. Williams (co-supervisor) Alan Rabideau (committee) |
About
I am currently developing a meta-theory of ‘emergent entities,’ including those found in scientific theories [e.g. atoms, organisms, ecosystems, and solar systems]. My dissertation is titled “Models, Emergence, and Explanation: a Scientific Realism with Applications to Environmental Science for Policy.” In it, I present key portions of my view in the form of resolutions to critical debates in both ecology, about the existential status of ecosystems, and in environmental policy and the philosophy thereof, regarding whether and how analytic “ecosystem theories” [particular sorts of models] can be used for purposes of policy and intervention. Responding to these issues as a jumping-off point, I reveal the general nature of emergent entities, their ontological status, and the role our conceptions of them often play in causal explanations and predictions.
This project contributes to philosophy and the humanities more generally by drawing together and addressing two questions at the forefront of multi-disciplinary discussions on topics falling at the intersections of science and philosophy. These are: (1) that of the general nature and explanatory functions of “analytic” models and, (2), that of the nature and ontological status of “emergent entities.” I enter into providing a general theory of emergence and of the roles our conceptions of emergent entities play in explanation and prediction generation by assessing how “ecosystem theories” [paradigmatic analytic models] can be used in generating causal hypotheses for purposes of environmental policy. Recognizing often unnoticed conceptual functions of those models provides insights into the manner in which we naturally parse the world with our conceptions of the things philosophers and scientists identify as “emergent entities.”
The project also contributes directly to ecology, the theoretical sciences in general, and environmental policy discourse. I clear up confusions about possible heuristic and explanatory functions of often misinterpreted ecological models and advance a general theory of emergent properties that dissolves the debate in ecology about whether and the manner in which ecosystems are emergent. Moreover, the completed project will be itself demonstrative of how modes of analysis from the humanities [i.e. meta-theory] can bridge pedagogical hurdles to success in cooperative problem solving among multi-disciplinary groups [i.e. policy makers and ecologists]—that is, how such analysis can aid in translating between discipline specific jargons. Additionally, it speaks to issues outside the purview of the natural sciences that are addressed in subfields of the humanities. For example, questions in science studies and historiography about the nature of “analytic narratives,” in action and political theory about properties of social collectives and “collective intentionality,” and in art studies and aesthetics about representation, realism, and interpretation to name but a few.
I will be on the job market in Fall 2012. Please see my CV; I can provide evidence of excellence in teaching upon request.
