Robert N Brandon, Professor edit
Office Location: 209 West Duke Building
Office Phone: +1·919·660·3067, +1 919-660-3050
Fax: (919) 660-3060
Email Address: 
- Specialties:
-
Philosophy of Biology
Logic
- Research Interests:
- Robert N. Brandon (Ph.D. 1979, Harvard) joined the Duke Faculty in fall of 1979. He holds a joint appointment in Philosophy and Biology . He has published articles in Philosophy of Science, Studies in History and Philosophy of Science, Biology and Philosophy, PSA 1980 and PSA 1982, some of which have subsequently been anthologized. He has co-edited (with Richard Burian) Genes, Organisms, Populations: Controversies over the Units of Selection (Bradford Books, MIT Press, 1984), and his book, Adaptation and Environment was published by Princeton University Press in 1990. His most recent book Concepts and Methods in Evolutionary Biology (Cambridge) was published in 1996. During the spring of 1984 he had a visiting appointment at the Department of History and Philosophy of Science, University of Pittsburgh. Brandon is a member of Duke's Center for the Philosophy of Biology.
- Areas of Interest:
- Philosophy of Science,
Philosophy of Biology,
Logic
- PHIL 97FCS.01, Evolution and human nature
- Friedl Bdg 126, Tu 02:50 PM-05:20 PM
- FOCUS 99FCS.03, Special topics in focus
- Friedl Bdg 107, Tu 06:00 PM-07:30 PM
- PHIL 234S.01, Philosophy of biology
- West Duke 100, W 03:05 PM-05:55 PM
Teaching (Spring 2010):
- PHIL 103.01, Symbolic logic
Synopsis
- West Duke 08A, TuTh 04:25 PM-05:40 PM
- PHIL 196S.01, Seminar philosophy (top)
Synopsis
- West Duke 100, W 03:05 PM-05:35 PM
- Recent Publications
- with Roger Samson. Integrating Development and Evolution. Edited by Roger Samson and Robert Brandon. The MIT Press, 2007. [author's comments]
- "The Principle of Drift: Biology's First Law." The Journal of Philosophy CII.7 (July, 2006): 319-335.
- with H. Frederick Nijhout. "The Empirical Non-equivalence of Genic and Genotypic Models of Selection: a (Decisive) Refutation of Genic Selectionism and Pluralistic Genic Selectionism." Philosophy of Science (Accepted, 2006). [abs]
- with Grant Ramsey. "What's Wrong with the Emergentist Statistical Interpretation of Natural Selection and Random Drift." The Cambridge Companion to Philosophy of Biology (Accepted, 2006). [abs]
- with Grant Ramsey. "Toward a Pluralistic Account of Altruism: Why Reciprical Alturism is Not a Kind of Group Selection." Philosophy of Science (Submitted, 2006). [abs]