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Robert N. Brandon

Professor Emeritus of Philosophy
Philosophy
Duke Box 90743, Durham, NC 27708-0743
209 West Duke Bldg, Durham, NC 27708

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 Cite

The 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 Cite

A 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 Cite
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Recent 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 - 2008

Theory and Experiment in Population Biology

ResearchPrincipal Investigator · Awarded by National Science Foundation · 1994 - 1995

The Concept of the Environment in the Theory of Natural Selection

ResearchPrincipal Investigator · Awarded by National Science Foundation · 1987 - 1988

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Education, Training & Certifications


Harvard University · 1979 Ph.D.
University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill · 1974 B.A.