Philosophy and the Sciences at UC

The Department of Philosophy offers the PhD in philosophy on our Sciences Track, emphasizing the life sciences in particular: biology, biomedical science, neuroscience, cognitive science, psychology, and mind. We are always actively recruiting talented students from philosophy and the sciences into our program.

UC's Department of Philosophy is internationally recognized for its strengths in philosophy of biology, neuroscience, cognitive science, and mind. Faculty are involved in cutting-edge philosophical research in each of these areas. 

Faculty involved in the Philosophy and the Sciences Track at UC include:

  • Zvi Biener, Philosophy (history and philosophy of science, Newton, philosophy of physics)
  • Tony Chemero, Philosophy (philosophy and the cognitive sciences, ecological psychology, embodied cognition)
  • Lucas Dunlap, Philosophy(philosophy of physics, philosophy of technology, metaphysics of science)
  • Melissa Jacquart, Philosophy (philosophy of physics, feminist philosophy of science, values in science, publicly engaged philosophy of science)
  • Peter Langland-Hassan, Philosophy (philosophy of mind, philosophy of pyschology, cognitive science) 
  • Elizabeth Lanphier, CCHMC (bioethics, medical ethics)
  • Heidi Maibom, Philosophy, (philosophy of mind, cognitive science, psychology)
  • Eduardo Martinez, Philosophy (environmental philosophy)
  • Nate Morehouse, Biology (Visual Ecology, Nutritional Ecology, Evolutionary Biology, Biophotonics, Sexual Selection)
  • Ken Petren, Biology, (evolutionary ecology)
  • Mihaela Pavlicev, CCHMC (Bioinformatics, Evolutionary Medicine, Female Reproductive Biology, Molecular Phylogenetics)
  • Michal Polak, Biology, (evolutionary ecology)
  • Thomas Polger, Philosophy, (philosophy of psychology & mind)
  • Angela Potochnik, Philosophy, (philosophy of biology, philosophy of science, 
  • publicly engaged philosophy of science)
  • Robert C. Richardson, Philosophy, (philosophy of biology, cognitive science)
  • Michael Riley, Psychology, (perceptual motor-dynamics)
  • Robert A. Skipper, Jr., Philosophy & Environmental Studies, (history and philosophy of biology, evolutionary theory)
  • George Uetz, Biology, (behavioral ecology)

Sciences Track PhD students must cultivate expertise in some specific science, including data analysis, in addition to a broad philosophical background. 

Some of our past Philosophy and the Sciences Track PhD students' projects have included the neural basis of desire, explanation in psychology, mechanisms in ecology, the structure of the synthesis of evolutionary and developmental biology, conservation biology, and philosophy of psychiatry.