Overview
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.
Current Appointments & Affiliations
Professor Emeritus of Philosophy
·
2023 - Present
Philosophy,
Trinity College of Arts & Sciences
Professor of Biology
·
2002 - Present
Biology,
Trinity College of Arts & Sciences
Affiliate of the Duke Initiative for Science & Society
·
2014 - Present
Duke Science & Society,
University Initiatives & Academic Support Units
Recent Publications
Philosophy of Biology
Chapter · January 1, 2023 Problems in the philosophy of biology go back to Spinoza, if not to Aristotle. They proliferate after Darwin and become pressing in the late twentieth-century revolution in biology. And these problems are as much those of biologists as philosophers, inters ... Full text CiteThe missing two-thirds of evolutionary theory
Book · March 26, 2020 In this Element, we extend our earlier treatment of biology's first law. The law says that in any evolutionary system in which there is variation and heredity, there is a tendency for diversity and complexity to increase. The law plays the same role in bio ... Full text CiteA quantitative formulation of biology's first law.
Journal Article Evolution; international journal of organic evolution · June 2019 The zero-force evolutionary law (ZFEL) states that in evolutionary systems, in the absence of forces or constraints, diversity and complexity tend to increase. The reason is that diversity and complexity are both variance measures, and variances tend to in ... Full text Open Access CiteRecent Grants
Post-doctoral/Graduate Research and Training Program in Philosophy of Biology
Inst. Training Prgm or CMECo-Principal Investigator · Awarded by National Science Foundation · 2004 - 2008Theory and Experiment in Population Biology
ResearchPrincipal Investigator · Awarded by National Science Foundation · 1994 - 1995The Concept of the Environment in the Theory of Natural Selection
ResearchPrincipal Investigator · Awarded by National Science Foundation · 1987 - 1988View All Grants
Education, Training & Certifications
Harvard University ·
1979
Ph.D.
University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill ·
1974
B.A.