Daniel W McShea, Affiliated Faculty of Philosophy and Associate Professor of Biology
 - Contact Info:
- Specialties:
-
Evolution
Organismal Biology and Behavior
- Research Interests:
Dan McShea (Ph.D. 1990, University of
Chicago) arrived at Duke in 1996 with a
primary appointment in Biology, and now
holds a secondary appointment in Philosophy.
From 1991-93 he joined the Michigan Society
of Fellows as a postdoctoral fellow, and from
1994-95 held a postdoc at the Santa Fe
Institute. His major papers are in the field of
paleobiology, with a focus on large-scale
trends in the history of life, especially
documenting and investigating the causes of
the (putative) trend in the complexity of
organisms. A significant part of this work
involves operationalizing certain concepts,
such as complexity and hierarchy, as well as
clarifying conceptual issues related to trends
at larger scales. He publishes regularly in the
journals, Evolution,
Paleobiology, and Biology
and Philosophy. He serves on the
editorial board of Biology and
Philosophy and as a book-review co-editor
for the journal Complexity . McShea is
a member of Duke's
Center for the Philosophy of Biology.
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