Research Interests for Robert N. Brandon

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

Recent Publications

1. McShea, DW; Wang, SC; Brandon, RN, A quantitative formulation of biology's first law., Evolution; international journal of organic evolution, vol. 73 no. 6 (June, 2019), pp. 1101-1115 [doi] [abs]
2. Brandon, RN; Nijhout, HF, The Empirical Nonequivalence of Genic and Genotypic Models of Selection: A (Decisive) Refutation of Genic Selectionism and Pluralistic Genic Selectionism, in Philosophy of Evolutionary Biology: Volume I (January, Accepted, 2017), pp. 383-404, ISBN 9780754627531 [abs]
3. Brandon, RN; Rausher, MD, TESTING ADAPTATIONISM: A COMMENT ON ORZACK AND SOBER, in Philosophy of Evolutionary Biology: Volume I (January, Accepted, 2017), pp. 133-146, ISBN 9780754627531 [abs]
4. Brandon, RN; Carson, S, THE INDETERMINISTIC CHARACTER OF EVOLUTIONARY THEORY: NO "NO HIDDEN VARIABLES PROOF" BUT NO ROOM FOR DETERMINISM EITHER, in Philosophy of Evolutionary Biology: Volume I (January, Accepted, 2017), pp. 213-236, ISBN 9780754627531 [abs]
5. Fleming, L; Brandon, R, Why flying dogs are rare: A general theory of luck in evolutionary transitions., Studies in history and philosophy of biological and biomedical sciences, vol. 49 (February, 2015), pp. 24-31 [doi] [abs]