Alan C Love
Biographic Data
| ID | 459642 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Alan C Love |
| GIVEN NAMES | Alan C |
| FAMILY NAME | Love |
| SIGNATURE | LOVE A C |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Minnesota |
| ORCID | 0000-0003-4422-7779 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 20 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 53 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 18 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 2 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2003 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 5 |
Measuring Biological Function in Biomechanics
Although functional reasoning is ubiquitous in biology, and philosophers have concentrated intensely on theorizing function naturalistically, the measurement of function has largely been ignored. Given its centrality in life science practices, there is good reason to scrutinize functional measurement in detail. I undertake a preliminary analysis of this issue by focusing on the measurement of function in the context of biomechanics to make severa…
The freedom to believe in free will
Philosophers and psychologists alike have long debated the etiology of beliefs about human agency. Recently, empirical investigations have shown that lay beliefs about free will and determinism represent stable and important individual differences. Despite a perennial interest in the sources of agentic belief, genetic and environmental influences on such beliefs have never been studied. We administered a battery of items assessing these beliefs t…
The Philosophy of Evolutionary Theory
Many of us are familiar with the phenomenon of a box set. Successful musical acts collect their greatest hits into a single package that often includes previously unreleased or hard to find tracks. The box set serves as a nice analogy for Elliott Sober’s latest book on philosophical issues in evolutionary biology. Sober has been blazing a philosophical trail for decades through penetrating analyses of fitness, natural selection, species, systemat…
The Interdisciplinary Entanglement of Characterization and Explanation
Darwin Mythology
Facts, Objectivity, Failure, and Trust
A common picture of the enterprise of science is the pursuit of truth based on facts and objectivity. However, the ubiquity of idealizations – intentional misrepresentations – in scientific reasoning and difficulties with the value-free ideal suggest a revised picture is needed. This picture must incorporate a role for trust in heterogeneous scientific communities, failure as a normal part of research, and diversity in how scientists undertake in…
Positional Information and the Measurement of Specificity
Philosophical discussions of information and specificity in biology are now commonplace, but no consensus exists about whether the privileging of genetic causation in investigation and explanation is justified. However, little effort has been expended on understanding practices when scientists experimentally measure information or causal specificity. An example of this type of practice—measuring positional information in gene expression during pa…
Beyond the Meme
New Perspectives on Reductionism in Biology
The Oxford Handbook of Philosophy of Science
Advertisement for the philosophy of the computational sciences / Oron Shagrir -- Part I. Overviews. Philosophy of the social sciences : naturalism and anti-naturalism in the philosophy of social science / Francesco Guala -- Philosophy of biology / Ben Fraser and Kim Sterelny -- Philosophy of the psychological and cognitive sciences / Mark Sprevak -- Philosophy of the physical sciences / Carl Hoefer and Chris Smeenk -- Having science in view : gen…
Collaborative explanation, explanatory roles, and scientific explaining in practice
The Idealization of Causation in Mechanistic Explanation
Causal relations among components and activities are intentionally misrepresented in mechanistic explanations found routinely across the life sciences. Since several mechanists explicitly advocate accurately representing factors that make a difference to the outcome, these idealizations conflict with the stated rationale for mechanistic explanation. We argue that these idealizations signal an overlooked feature of reasoning in molecular and cell …
Conceptual Change in Biology
Multilevel Research Strategies and Biological Systems
Multilevel research strategies characterize contemporary molecular inquiry into biological systems. We outline conceptual, methodological, and explanatory dimensions of these multilevel strategies in microbial ecology, systems biology, protein research, and developmental biology. This review of emerging lines of inquiry in these fields suggests that multilevel research in molecular life sciences has significant implications for philosophical unde…
Dimensions of integration in interdisciplinary explanations of the origin of evolutionary novelty
Philosophical Lessons from Scientific Biography
An abstract is not available for this content so a preview has been provided. Please use the Get access link above for information on how to access this content
Aspects of Reductive Explanation in Biological Science
The inapplicability of variations on theory reduction in the context of genetics and their irrelevance to ongoing research has led to an anti-reductionist consensus in philosophy of biology. One response to this situation is to focus on forms of reductive explanation that better correspond to actual scientific reasoning (e.g. part–whole relations). Working from this perspective, we explore three different aspects (intrinsicality, fundamentality, …
More worry and less love
Explaining Evolutionary Innovations and Novelties
It is a common complaint that antireductionist arguments are primarily negative. Here I describe an alternative nonreductionist epistemology based on considerations taken from multidisciplinary research in biology. The core of this framework consists in seeing investigation as coordinated around sets of problems (problem agendas) that have associated criteria of explanatory adequacy. These ideas are developed in a case study, the explanation of e…
Evolvability, Dispositions, and Intrinsicality
In this paper I examine a dispositional property that has been receiving increased attention in biology, evolvability. First, I identify three compatible but distinct investigative approaches, distinguish two interpretations of evolvability, and treat the difference between dispositions of individuals versus populations. Second, I explore the relevance of philosophical distinctions about dispositions for evolvability, isolating the assumption tha…
Explaining Evolutionary Innovations and Novelties
It is a common complaint that antireductionist arguments are primarily negative. Here I describe an alternative nonreductionist epistemology based on considerations taken from multidisciplinary research in biology. The core of this framework consists in seeing investigation as coordinated around sets of problems (problem agendas) that have associated criteria of explanatory adequacy. These ideas are developed in a case study, the explanation of e…
The Idealization of Causation in Mechanistic Explanation
Causal relations among components and activities are intentionally misrepresented in mechanistic explanations found routinely across the life sciences. Since several mechanists explicitly advocate accurately representing factors that make a difference to the outcome, these idealizations conflict with the stated rationale for mechanistic explanation. We argue that these idealizations signal an overlooked feature of reasoning in molecular and cell …
Dimensions of integration in interdisciplinary explanations of the origin of evolutionary novelty
Aspects of Reductive Explanation in Biological Science
The inapplicability of variations on theory reduction in the context of genetics and their irrelevance to ongoing research has led to an anti-reductionist consensus in philosophy of biology. One response to this situation is to focus on forms of reductive explanation that better correspond to actual scientific reasoning (e.g. part–whole relations). Working from this perspective, we explore three different aspects (intrinsicality, fundamentality, …
Multilevel Research Strategies and Biological Systems
Multilevel research strategies characterize contemporary molecular inquiry into biological systems. We outline conceptual, methodological, and explanatory dimensions of these multilevel strategies in microbial ecology, systems biology, protein research, and developmental biology. This review of emerging lines of inquiry in these fields suggests that multilevel research in molecular life sciences has significant implications for philosophical unde…
Evolvability, Dispositions, and Intrinsicality
In this paper I examine a dispositional property that has been receiving increased attention in biology, evolvability. First, I identify three compatible but distinct investigative approaches, distinguish two interpretations of evolvability, and treat the difference between dispositions of individuals versus populations. Second, I explore the relevance of philosophical distinctions about dispositions for evolvability, isolating the assumption tha…
The Interdisciplinary Entanglement of Characterization and Explanation
Positional Information and the Measurement of Specificity
Philosophical discussions of information and specificity in biology are now commonplace, but no consensus exists about whether the privileging of genetic causation in investigation and explanation is justified. However, little effort has been expended on understanding practices when scientists experimentally measure information or causal specificity. An example of this type of practice—measuring positional information in gene expression during pa…
Collaborative explanation, explanatory roles, and scientific explaining in practice
Evolvability, Dispositions, and Intrinsicality
In this paper I examine a dispositional property that has been receiving increased attention in biology, evolvability. First, I identify three compatible but distinct investigative approaches, distinguish two interpretations of evolvability, and treat the difference between dispositions of individuals versus populations. Second, I explore the relevance of philosophical distinctions about dispositions for evolvability, isolating the assumption tha…
More worry and less love
Explaining Evolutionary Innovations and Novelties
It is a common complaint that antireductionist arguments are primarily negative. Here I describe an alternative nonreductionist epistemology based on considerations taken from multidisciplinary research in biology. The core of this framework consists in seeing investigation as coordinated around sets of problems (problem agendas) that have associated criteria of explanatory adequacy. These ideas are developed in a case study, the explanation of e…
Philosophical Lessons from Scientific Biography
An abstract is not available for this content so a preview has been provided. Please use the Get access link above for information on how to access this content
Aspects of Reductive Explanation in Biological Science
The inapplicability of variations on theory reduction in the context of genetics and their irrelevance to ongoing research has led to an anti-reductionist consensus in philosophy of biology. One response to this situation is to focus on forms of reductive explanation that better correspond to actual scientific reasoning (e.g. part–whole relations). Working from this perspective, we explore three different aspects (intrinsicality, fundamentality, …
Dimensions of integration in interdisciplinary explanations of the origin of evolutionary novelty
Conceptual Change in Biology
Multilevel Research Strategies and Biological Systems
Multilevel research strategies characterize contemporary molecular inquiry into biological systems. We outline conceptual, methodological, and explanatory dimensions of these multilevel strategies in microbial ecology, systems biology, protein research, and developmental biology. This review of emerging lines of inquiry in these fields suggests that multilevel research in molecular life sciences has significant implications for philosophical unde…
Collaborative explanation, explanatory roles, and scientific explaining in practice
The Idealization of Causation in Mechanistic Explanation
Causal relations among components and activities are intentionally misrepresented in mechanistic explanations found routinely across the life sciences. Since several mechanists explicitly advocate accurately representing factors that make a difference to the outcome, these idealizations conflict with the stated rationale for mechanistic explanation. We argue that these idealizations signal an overlooked feature of reasoning in molecular and cell …
The Oxford Handbook of Philosophy of Science
Advertisement for the philosophy of the computational sciences / Oron Shagrir -- Part I. Overviews. Philosophy of the social sciences : naturalism and anti-naturalism in the philosophy of social science / Francesco Guala -- Philosophy of biology / Ben Fraser and Kim Sterelny -- Philosophy of the psychological and cognitive sciences / Mark Sprevak -- Philosophy of the physical sciences / Carl Hoefer and Chris Smeenk -- Having science in view : gen…
New Perspectives on Reductionism in Biology
Beyond the Meme
Positional Information and the Measurement of Specificity
Philosophical discussions of information and specificity in biology are now commonplace, but no consensus exists about whether the privileging of genetic causation in investigation and explanation is justified. However, little effort has been expended on understanding practices when scientists experimentally measure information or causal specificity. An example of this type of practice—measuring positional information in gene expression during pa…
Facts, Objectivity, Failure, and Trust
A common picture of the enterprise of science is the pursuit of truth based on facts and objectivity. However, the ubiquity of idealizations – intentional misrepresentations – in scientific reasoning and difficulties with the value-free ideal suggest a revised picture is needed. This picture must incorporate a role for trust in heterogeneous scientific communities, failure as a normal part of research, and diversity in how scientists undertake in…
Darwin Mythology
The freedom to believe in free will
Philosophers and psychologists alike have long debated the etiology of beliefs about human agency. Recently, empirical investigations have shown that lay beliefs about free will and determinism represent stable and important individual differences. Despite a perennial interest in the sources of agentic belief, genetic and environmental influences on such beliefs have never been studied. We administered a battery of items assessing these beliefs t…
The Philosophy of Evolutionary Theory
Many of us are familiar with the phenomenon of a box set. Successful musical acts collect their greatest hits into a single package that often includes previously unreleased or hard to find tracks. The box set serves as a nice analogy for Elliott Sober’s latest book on philosophical issues in evolutionary biology. Sober has been blazing a philosophical trail for decades through penetrating analyses of fitness, natural selection, species, systemat…
The Interdisciplinary Entanglement of Characterization and Explanation
Measuring Biological Function in Biomechanics
Although functional reasoning is ubiquitous in biology, and philosophers have concentrated intensely on theorizing function naturalistically, the measurement of function has largely been ignored. Given its centrality in life science practices, there is good reason to scrutinize functional measurement in detail. I undertake a preliminary analysis of this issue by focusing on the measurement of function in the context of biomechanics to make severa…
Epistemology (16 works) · Philosophy (16 works) · Philosophy and History of Science (14 works) · Computer Science (9 works) · Biology (7 works) · Philosophy of science (7 works) · Sociology (7 works) · Political science (6 works) · Gene Regulatory Network Analysis (5 works) · Psychology (5 works)