John McEvoy
Ph.D., 1975, University of Pittsburgh (HPS)

john.mcevoy@uc.edu

Department of Philosophy
University of Cincinnati
P. O. Box 210374
Cincinnati, OH 45221-0374

Areas of Specialization

John McEvoy works in science studies and political philosophy. He has published extensively on the history and philosophy of science, focusing mainly on the Chemical Revolution, which occurred in the eighteenth century and is generally regarded as the origins of modern chemistry, and twentieth-century interpretations of this important event. He is currently working on more general issues pertaining to the historiography of science and is keen to show how the discipline of the history of science is shaped by wider philosophical and cultural influences. McEvoy also teaches political philosophy, focusing on the classical texts of Marx and Engels and the twentieth-century writings of the Frankfurt School, Foucault, and Althusser. He also teaches courses on the philosophy of technology and the historical and philosophical relations between magic, science, and the occult. He is currently consulting on the Media Working Group's BioScience Documentary Project.

Selected Publications

Edited volume (with A. T. Schwartz), Motion Toward Perfection: The Achievement of Joseph Priestley, (Skinner, 1990). (Includes "Introductory Essay" and "Joseph Priestley and the Chemical Revolution: A Thematic Overview.")

"Modernism, Postmodernism, and the Historiography of Science," Historical Studies in the Physical and Biological Sciences (forthcoming).

Entries on "Heat," "Pneumatics,"  "Joseph Priestley," in The Encyclopedia of the Enlightenment, ed. Alan Charles Kors, 4 vols. (Oxford University Press, 2002), 2: 199-201; 3: 296-298; 3: 361-364.

"In Search of the Chemical Revolution: Interpretive Patterns in the History of Science," Foundations of Chemistry (2000), 2: 47-73.

"Positivism, Whiggism, and the Chemical Revolution: A Study in the Historiography of the Chemical Revolution," History of Science, (1997), 35: 1-33.

"Priestley Responds to Lavoisier’s Nomenclature: Language, Liberty, and Chemistry in the English Enlightenment," Lavoisier in European Context  Negotiating a New Language for Chemistry, ed. Bernadette Bensaude-Vincent and Ferdinando Abbri (Science History Publications, 1995), pp. 123-142.

"Continuity and Discontinuity in the Chemical Revolution," Osiris, Volume 4: The Chemical Revolution: Essays in Reinterpretation, ed. Arthur Donovan (The History of Science Society, 1988), pp. 195-213.

"The Enlightenment and the Chemical Revolution," Metaphysics and Philosophy of Science in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries: Essays in Honor of Gerd Buchdahl, ed. Roger Woolhouse (Kluwer Academic Publisher, 1988), pp. 307-325.

(with J. E. McGuire), "God and Nature: Priestley's Way of Rational Dissent," Historical Studies in the Physical Sciences, volume 6, ed. Russell McCormmach (Princeton University Press, 1975), pp. 325-404.