Research Projects
Here are some specific projects I am working on at this time and a list of others I worked on in the past
1. Causal Foundations of Biological Information
In 2014 I will begin work on this research project funded by a grant from the Templeton World Charity Foundation. The source of order in living systems has been the key question at the boundary of biology and philosophy since the eighteenth century. Today it is widely believed that living systems differ from non-living because they are driven by information, much of which has accumulated during evolution, and much of which is genetically transmitted. But there is at present no specifically biological measure of information that can underpin this vision. This project aims to fill that gap by grounding the idea of biological information in contemporary philosophical work on the nature of causation. Amongst other goals, the project will develop a measure of biological information inspired by the early theoretical insights of the co-discoverer of the structure of DNA, Francis Crick, but general enough to capture information-processing in gene regulatory networks, epigenetic information, and the emergence of new information in self-organising processes. The work will be conducted collaboratively with Prof Paul Griffiths (Sydney) and Dr Arnaud Pocheville (Sydney), and in cooperation with the Integrative Systems Laboratory at the Charles Perkins Centre.
2. Developmental Niche Construction as an integrative framework for exogenetic inheritance mechanisms
This work attempt to analyse the similarities between various mechanisms of non-genetic inheritence, such as Epigenetics, Parental Effects, and Ontogenetic Niche Construction. I have two papers in preparation on this topic, ‘Ontogentic Niche construction: From the genetic niche to developmental systems’ (first presented at AAP 2006) and ‘Epigenetics, Parental Effects, and Ontogenetic Niche Construction: A Philosophical Analysis of Extended Inheritance’ (first presented at the FDIGS workshop in St Louis in 2008).
3. Postgenomic Perspectives on Human Nature.
Recent work was been carried out under a five-year ARC Discovery Project (2008-12) held jointly with Prof. Paul Griffiths (Sydney). We start from the premise that there is something to be said about what humans are like. Human nature in the sense of an underlying cause is whatever explains human nature in this simple, descriptive sense. Hence, in our view, human nature is human development. I defended the resulting views of human nature Stotz K. (2010) Human nature and cognitive-developmental niche construction. Phenomenology and the Cognitive Sciences 9 (4):483-501. This research included some ‘experimental philosophy’ studies on the innateness concept, including Linquist, S., E. Machery, P.E. Griffiths & K. Stotz. (2011). “Exploring the Folkbiological Conception of Human Nature.” Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B 366: 444-453.
4. The Nature-Nurture Dichotomy
Resolving the dichotomy between nature and nurture and other ill-conceived dichotomies such as gene versus environment or innate versus acquired is a long-term interest of mine. To this end Colin Allen and I organized the symposium ‘Reconciling Nature and Nurture in the Study of Behavior’ at Indiana University at 2007. The outcome of this workshop is a special issue of Philosophical Psychology. My paper in this issue serves as a extensive introduction into the themes of the workshop (The ingredients for a postgenomic synthesis of nature and nurture Philosophical Psychology 21(3):359-381, 2007). For more information on this project go to the website http://nanu.dynalias.org/.
5. The Biology of Cognition
My other primary research field is the study of strictly naturalistic theories of life and mind, with a special interest in the relationship of contemporary theories of evolution and cognition. The goal of my dissertation was to examine the shortcomings of the received views of evolution and cognition and to provide an alternative picture that focuses on the active organism as the center of agency. See ???here??? an older paper coauthored with Paul Griffiths on “How the mind grows”. A forthcoming paper coauthored with Colin Allen, ‘From cell surface receptors to higher learning: a whole world of experience’, argues for a biologically informed psychology, a prerequisite of which would be the integration of the concepts of ‘development’ and ‘learning’ in different areas of cognition research. In 2006 Colin Allen and I formed the “Studygroup for Philosophy/ Psychology of Animal Cognition, Knowledge, Learning, Evolution and Development” (SPACKLED) (http://www.cogs.indiana.edu/spackled/). For more information on future projects go to http://www.hss.adelaide.edu.au/philosophy/cogbio/.
6. Experimental Philosophy (“X-phi”).
As a result of Paul Griffiths and my work on the empirical ‘Representing Genes’ project I became interested in advancing the rather new and fledging field of “Experimental Philosophy of Science”. Together with Brendon Larson from UC Davis I am currently preparing a publication on the methodological issues of our empirical work, and I am a member of Jonathan Weinberg’s Experimental Epistemology Laboratory (http://www.indiana.edu/~eel/, http://www.unc.edu/~knobe/ExperimentalPhilosophy.html). I organized a symposium for the PSA 2006 meeting on x-phi, a mini-symposium with the papers is forthcoming, Philosophy in the Trenches: From Naturalized Philosophy to Experimental Philosophy (of Science). Minisymposium in Studies in History and Philosophy of Science A 39 (4). My own contribution in this issue is ‘Experimental philosophy of biology: Notes from the field’. Studies in History and Philosophy of Science A 39 (4): XXX-XXX. See also Paul Griffiths and my encyclopedia article on this issue 'Experimental Philosophy of Science', Philosophy Compass, 3 (3):507-721, 2008.
7. Philosophy of Biology as Biohumanities
For a more general statement of my vision of what philosophy of biology should accomplish, see Stotz, K. and P. E. Griffiths (2008). Biohumanities: Rethinking the relationship between biosciences, philosophy and history of science, and society (Quarterly Review of Biology 83(1):37-45. For more information go to Paul Griffiths’ Biohumanities archive site.
8. The Changing Concept of the Gene
both for its intrinsic interest and as a case study of conceptual change in science. This work was mostly conducted jointly with Prof. Paul Griffiths and an overview is given in Griffiths, P. E. and K. Stotz (2013). Genetics and Philosophy: An introduction. CUP. An article in The Australian newspaper, posted here, gives an accessible introduction to some of this work. Amongst other things, this work provided the molecular underpinnings for the view of human nature mentioned above. Go to the Representing Genes Project website: www.representinggenes.org/
Here are some specific projects I am working on at this time and a list of others I worked on in the past
1. Causal Foundations of Biological Information
In 2014 I will begin work on this research project funded by a grant from the Templeton World Charity Foundation. The source of order in living systems has been the key question at the boundary of biology and philosophy since the eighteenth century. Today it is widely believed that living systems differ from non-living because they are driven by information, much of which has accumulated during evolution, and much of which is genetically transmitted. But there is at present no specifically biological measure of information that can underpin this vision. This project aims to fill that gap by grounding the idea of biological information in contemporary philosophical work on the nature of causation. Amongst other goals, the project will develop a measure of biological information inspired by the early theoretical insights of the co-discoverer of the structure of DNA, Francis Crick, but general enough to capture information-processing in gene regulatory networks, epigenetic information, and the emergence of new information in self-organising processes. The work will be conducted collaboratively with Prof Paul Griffiths (Sydney) and Dr Arnaud Pocheville (Sydney), and in cooperation with the Integrative Systems Laboratory at the Charles Perkins Centre.
2. Developmental Niche Construction as an integrative framework for exogenetic inheritance mechanisms
This work attempt to analyse the similarities between various mechanisms of non-genetic inheritence, such as Epigenetics, Parental Effects, and Ontogenetic Niche Construction. I have two papers in preparation on this topic, ‘Ontogentic Niche construction: From the genetic niche to developmental systems’ (first presented at AAP 2006) and ‘Epigenetics, Parental Effects, and Ontogenetic Niche Construction: A Philosophical Analysis of Extended Inheritance’ (first presented at the FDIGS workshop in St Louis in 2008).
3. Postgenomic Perspectives on Human Nature.
Recent work was been carried out under a five-year ARC Discovery Project (2008-12) held jointly with Prof. Paul Griffiths (Sydney). We start from the premise that there is something to be said about what humans are like. Human nature in the sense of an underlying cause is whatever explains human nature in this simple, descriptive sense. Hence, in our view, human nature is human development. I defended the resulting views of human nature Stotz K. (2010) Human nature and cognitive-developmental niche construction. Phenomenology and the Cognitive Sciences 9 (4):483-501. This research included some ‘experimental philosophy’ studies on the innateness concept, including Linquist, S., E. Machery, P.E. Griffiths & K. Stotz. (2011). “Exploring the Folkbiological Conception of Human Nature.” Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B 366: 444-453.
4. The Nature-Nurture Dichotomy
Resolving the dichotomy between nature and nurture and other ill-conceived dichotomies such as gene versus environment or innate versus acquired is a long-term interest of mine. To this end Colin Allen and I organized the symposium ‘Reconciling Nature and Nurture in the Study of Behavior’ at Indiana University at 2007. The outcome of this workshop is a special issue of Philosophical Psychology. My paper in this issue serves as a extensive introduction into the themes of the workshop (The ingredients for a postgenomic synthesis of nature and nurture Philosophical Psychology 21(3):359-381, 2007). For more information on this project go to the website http://nanu.dynalias.org/.
5. The Biology of Cognition
My other primary research field is the study of strictly naturalistic theories of life and mind, with a special interest in the relationship of contemporary theories of evolution and cognition. The goal of my dissertation was to examine the shortcomings of the received views of evolution and cognition and to provide an alternative picture that focuses on the active organism as the center of agency. See ???here??? an older paper coauthored with Paul Griffiths on “How the mind grows”. A forthcoming paper coauthored with Colin Allen, ‘From cell surface receptors to higher learning: a whole world of experience’, argues for a biologically informed psychology, a prerequisite of which would be the integration of the concepts of ‘development’ and ‘learning’ in different areas of cognition research. In 2006 Colin Allen and I formed the “Studygroup for Philosophy/ Psychology of Animal Cognition, Knowledge, Learning, Evolution and Development” (SPACKLED) (http://www.cogs.indiana.edu/spackled/). For more information on future projects go to http://www.hss.adelaide.edu.au/philosophy/cogbio/.
6. Experimental Philosophy (“X-phi”).
As a result of Paul Griffiths and my work on the empirical ‘Representing Genes’ project I became interested in advancing the rather new and fledging field of “Experimental Philosophy of Science”. Together with Brendon Larson from UC Davis I am currently preparing a publication on the methodological issues of our empirical work, and I am a member of Jonathan Weinberg’s Experimental Epistemology Laboratory (http://www.indiana.edu/~eel/, http://www.unc.edu/~knobe/ExperimentalPhilosophy.html). I organized a symposium for the PSA 2006 meeting on x-phi, a mini-symposium with the papers is forthcoming, Philosophy in the Trenches: From Naturalized Philosophy to Experimental Philosophy (of Science). Minisymposium in Studies in History and Philosophy of Science A 39 (4). My own contribution in this issue is ‘Experimental philosophy of biology: Notes from the field’. Studies in History and Philosophy of Science A 39 (4): XXX-XXX. See also Paul Griffiths and my encyclopedia article on this issue 'Experimental Philosophy of Science', Philosophy Compass, 3 (3):507-721, 2008.
7. Philosophy of Biology as Biohumanities
For a more general statement of my vision of what philosophy of biology should accomplish, see Stotz, K. and P. E. Griffiths (2008). Biohumanities: Rethinking the relationship between biosciences, philosophy and history of science, and society (Quarterly Review of Biology 83(1):37-45. For more information go to Paul Griffiths’ Biohumanities archive site.
8. The Changing Concept of the Gene
both for its intrinsic interest and as a case study of conceptual change in science. This work was mostly conducted jointly with Prof. Paul Griffiths and an overview is given in Griffiths, P. E. and K. Stotz (2013). Genetics and Philosophy: An introduction. CUP. An article in The Australian newspaper, posted here, gives an accessible introduction to some of this work. Amongst other things, this work provided the molecular underpinnings for the view of human nature mentioned above. Go to the Representing Genes Project website: www.representinggenes.org/