Samir Okasha

Biography

Samir is Professor of Philosophy of Science. He joined Bristol University in September 2003; prior to that he worked at the University of York, the National University of Mexico, and the London School of Economics. He received his doctorate in 1998 from the University of Oxford.

Samir is Head of Department from 2008 to 2010.

Research Interests

Samir works primarily in philosophy of science, specializing in the philosophy of evolutionary biology; he also has research interests in general philosophy of science, epistemology and metaphysics and  philosophy of economics. He is particularly interested in inter-disciplinary work at the interface of philosophy, evolutionary biology, and economics.

Samir's most recent book is entitled Evolution and Levels of Selection (Oxford University Press 2006). The book provides a comprehensive examination of the controversy in evolutionary biology over the units and levels of selection, and has received favourable reviews in both the biological and philosophical presses. He has also published an introductory book, Philosophy of Science: a very short introduction (Oxford University Press 2002) and over fifty articles in leading journals in the field.

Samir is the Principal Investigator on a three-year Research Project entitled 'Evolution, Co-operation and Rationality', which was awarded an AHRC Research Grant of over £550,000 in July 2008, and is due to run from September 2008 to September 2011.  He is currently working on a series of articles exploring the conceptual connections between evolutionary theory and rational choice theory

Selected Publications

Books

Philosophy of Science: a very short introduction, Oxford University Press 2002

Evolution and the Levels of Selection, Oxford University Press 2006

    review by David Jablonski in Science

    review by Elliott Sober in Bioscience

    review by Elisabeth Lloyd in Trends in Ecology and Evolution

    review by Patrick Forber in Philosophical Review

    review by Matt Haber in Mind

    review by Mark Borrello in Quarterly Review of Biology

    review by Massimo Pigliucci in Biology and Philosophy

    review by Jonathan Kaplan in Human Nature Review

    review by Anya Plutynski in Metascience

    review by Alirio Rosales in Philosophy of Science

Articles

Philosophy of Biology

•  ‘Fisher’s ‘Fundamental Theorem’ of Natural Selection: a Philosophical Analysis’, British Journal for the Philosophy of Science 2008, 59, 319-351 pdf
• ‘Causation in Biology’, in P. Menzies and H. Beebee (eds.) Oxford Handbook of Causation, OUP (forthcoming)
•  ‘Biological Ontology and Hierarchical Organization: A Defense of Rank Freedom’, in K. Sterelny and B. Calcott (eds.) Major Transitions in Evolution Re-Considered, MIT Press (forthcoming)
•  ‘Units and Levels of Selection’, in S. Sarkar and A. Plutynski (eds.) A Companion to the Philosophy of Biology, Oxford: Blackwell, 2008 pdf
•  ‘Cultural Inheritance and Fisher’s Fundamental Theorem of Natural Selection’, Biological Theory, 2007, 2, 3, 290-299 pdf
•  ‘Rational Choice, Risk Aversion and Evolution’, Journal of Philosophy, CIV, 5, 217-235, 2007 pdf
• Evolution and the Levels of Selection, Oxford University Press 2006.
•  ‘Natural Selection’, in A.C. Grayling, A. Pyle and N. Goulder (eds.) Continuum Encyclopedia of British Philosophy, London: Continuum, 2006.
• ‘The Levels of Selection Debate’, Blackwell’s Philosophy Compass 1/1, 74-85, 2006, pdf
•  ‘Maynard Smith on the Levels of Selection Question’, Biology and Philosophy, 20, 5, 989-1010, 2005 pdf
• ‘Population Genetics’, Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy 2005 link
• ‘Adaptation’, in S. Sarkar and J. Pfeifer (eds.) Philosophy of Science Encyclopedia, London: Routledge, 2005.
•  ‘Multi-level Selection and the Major Transitions in Evolution’, Philosophy of Science 72, 1013-1028, 2005 pdf
•  ‘Altruism, Group Selection, and Correlated Interaction’, British Journal for the Philosophy of Science 56, 4, 703-24, 2005.
• ‘On Niche Construction and Extended Evolutionary Theory’, Biology and Philosophy 20, 1, 1-10, 2005 pdf
•  ‘Multi-level Selection, Covariance and Contextual Analysis’, British Journal for the Philosophy of Science 55, 481-504, 2004 pdf
• ‘Multi-level Selection and the Partitioning of Covariance: a Comparison of Three Approaches’, Evolution, 58, 3, 486-494, 2004 pdf
•  ‘The ‘Averaging Fallacy’ and the Levels of Selection’, Biology and Philosophy 19, 167-184, 2004 pdf
• ‘Multi-level Selection, Price’s Equation and Causality’, in LSE Discussion Papers Series: Causality - Metaphysics and Methods, 2003 pdf
• ‘Could Religion be a Group-Level Adaptation of Homo sapiens?’ Studies in the History and Philosophy of the Biological and Biomedical Sciences, 34, 699-705, 2003 pdf
• ‘The Levels of Selection Debate: Recent Developments’, Human Nature Review 3, 349-356, 2003 pdf
• ‘Does the Concept of ‘Clade Selection’ Make Sense?’, Philosophy of Science, 70, 739-751, 2003 pdf
• ‘The Concept of Group Heritability’, Biology and Philosophy, 18, 3, 445-461, 2003 pdf
• ‘Biological Altruism’, Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy 2003 link
• ‘Fodor on Cognition, Adaptationism and Modularity’, Philosophy of Science 70, 1, 68-88, 2003 pdf
• ‘Genetic Relatedness and the Evolution of Altruism’, Philosophy of Science, 69, 1, 138-149, 2002 pdf
• ‘Darwinian Metaphysics: Species and the Question of Essentialism’, Synthese, 131, 191-213, 2002 pdf
• ‘Why Won’t the Group Selection Controversy Go Away?’, British Journal for the Philosophy of Science, 52, 1, 25-50, 2001 pdf
• ‘Darwin’ in  W.H. Newton-Smith (ed.) A Companion to the Philosophy of Science, Oxford: Blackwell, 68-75, 2000.

General Philosophy of Science

• ‘What does Goodman’s ‘grue’ problem really show? A re-reading of 'Grue' by Frank Jackson’, Philosophical Papers, 36, 3, 483-502, 2007 pdf
• ‘Philosophy of Science in Britain’, in in A.C. Grayling, A. Pyle and N. Goulder (eds.) Continuum Encyclopedia of British Philosophy, London: Continuum, 2006.
• ‘Bayesianism and the Traditional Problem of Induction’, Croatian Journal of Philosophy, vol. 14, pp. 1-14, 2005.
• ‘Does Hume’s argument against induction rest on a quantifier-shift fallacy?’, Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society 105, 2, pp. 253-271, 2005 pdf
• ‘Wright on the Transmission of Support: a Bayesian Analysis’, Analysis, 64.2, pp.139-146, 2004 pdf
•  ‘Probabilistic Induction and Hume’s Problem: reply to Lange’, Philosophical Quarterly 53, 212, 419-424, 2003 pdf
• ‘Scepticism and its Sources’, Philosophy and Phenomenological Research, LXVII, 3, 610-632, 2003 pdf
• ‘Underdetermination, Holism and the Theory/Data Distinction’, Philosophical Quarterly, 52, 208, 303-319, 2002 pdf
• Philosophy of Science: a very short introduction, Oxford University Press 2002.
• ‘How to be a Selective Quinean’, Dialectica, 56, 1, 37-47, 2002 pdf
• ‘What did Hume Really Show about Induction?’, Philosophical Quarterly, 2001, 51, 204, 307- 328, 2001 pdf
• ‘Verificationism, Realism and Scepticism’, Erkenntnis, 55, 3, 371-385, 2001 pdf
• ‘Holism about Meaning and about Evidence’, Erkenntnis 52,1, 39-61, 2000 pdf
• ‘The Underdetermination of Theory by Data and the ‘Strong Programme’ in the Sociology of  Knowledge’, International Studies in the Philosophy of Science 14, 3, 283-297, 2000 pdf
• Van Fraassen’s Critique of Inference to the Best Explanation’, Studies in History and Philosophy of Science, 31, 4, 691-710, 2000 pdf
• ‘The Explanation of Scientific Belief: reply to W.E. Jones’, International Studies in the Philosophy of Science 14, 3, 213-4, 2000.
• ‘Epistemic Justification and Deductive Closure’, Critica 92, 37-51, 1999 pdf
• ‘Laudan and Leplin on Empirical Equivalence’, British Journal for the Philosophy of Science, 48, 251-256, 1997 pdf

Office hours:

Mondays 10-11 and Wednesdays 12-1

Room B.37, Telephone 0117 9287829 or 0786 6670747
Email: samir.okasha 'at' bristol.ac.uk