Patrick Forber
Biographic Data
| ID | 5911490 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Patrick Forber |
| GIVEN NAMES | Patrick |
| FAMILY NAME | Forber |
| SIGNATURE | FORBER P |
| AFFILIATIONS | Tufts University |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-5060-2187 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 12 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 60 |
| WORKS AS AUTHOR | 12 |
| WORKS AS EDITOR | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2005 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2025 |
| H-INDEX | 3 |
Cooperation, Cognition, and the Elusive Role of Joint Agency
We propose an approach to the evolution of joint agency and cooperative behavior that contrasts with views that take joint agency to be a uniquely human trait. We argue that there is huge variation in cooperative behavior and that while much human cooperative behavior may be explained by invoking cognitively rich capacities, there is cooperative behavior that does not require such explanation. On both comparative and theoretical grounds, complex …
Convention and the Origins of Ownership
We examine contemporary game-theoretic accounts of ownership as a convention. New results from dynamic networks complicate matters, suggesting that if ownership is conventional, it should not be as prevalent as it seems to be. In fact, such models reveal a tendency toward antiownership norms. The value of resources may be crucial: low stakes lead to conventional ownership, but ownership norms rarely evolve; high stakes lead to a predominance of o…
The Evolution of Spite, Recognition, and Morality
Recognition of and responsiveness to the behavioral dispositions of others are key features of moral systems for facilitating social cooperation and the mediation of punishment. Here we investigate the coevolutionary possibilities of recognition and conditional social behavior with respect to both altruism and spite. Using two evolutionary models, we find that recognition abilities can support both spite and altruism but that some can only coevol…
Biological Inheritance and Cultural Evolution in Nietzsche's Genealogy
Nietzsche's investigation into the origins of morality bears some striking similarities to contemporary investigations into human evolution. Here I investigate these similarities, using a comparison between Nietzsche's GM and Gould and Lewontin's influential “Spandrels” essay as a departure point. I argue that Nietzsche defends a proto-evolutionary psychology about morality, where the inheritance of enduring biological drives conflicts with our c…
The perils of tweaking
Conjecture and explanation
Reconceiving Eliminative Inference
Eliminative reasoning seems to play an important role in the sciences, but should it be part of our best theory of science? Statistical evidence, prevalent across the sciences, causes problems for eliminative inference, supporting the view that probabilistic theories of confirmation provide a better framework for reasoning about evidence. Here I argue that deductive elimination has an important inferential role to play in science, one that is com…
Confirmation and explaining how possible
Evolution and the Levels of Selection
Book Review| October 01 2008 Evolution and the Levels of Selection Samir Okasha, Evolution and the Levels of Selection. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 2006. xi + 263 pp. Patrick Forber Patrick Forber Search for other works by this author on: This Site Google The Philosophical Review (2008) 117 (4): 626–630. https://doi.org/10.1215/00318108-2008-023 Views Icon Views Article contents Figures & tables Video Audio Supplementary Data Peer Review Share Icon …
Can There Be Stochastic Evolutionary Causes
Do evolutionary processes such as selection and random drift cause evolutionary change, or are they merely convenient ways of describing or summarizing it? Philosophers have lined up on both sides of this question. One recent defense (Reisman and Forber 2005) of the causal status of selection and drift appeals to a manipulability theory of causation. Yet, even if one accepts manipulability, there are still reasons to doubt that genetic drift, in …
Nietzsche Was No Darwinian
John Richardson (2002, 2004) argues that Nietzsche's use of teleological notions, such as the "will to power" and psychological "drives," can be naturalized within the Darwinian framework of natural selection. Although this ambitious project has merit, the Darwinian framework does not provide the strong teleology necessary to interpret Nietzsche's explanatory project. Examining the logic of selection, the conceptual limitations on biological func…
Manipulation and the Causes of Evolution
Evolutionary processes such as natural selection and random drift are commonly regarded as causes of population-level change. We respond to a recent challenge that drift and selection are best understood as statistical trends, not causes. Our reply appeals to manipulation as a strategy for uncovering causal relations: if an appropriately controlled manipulation of variable A results in a systematic change in variable B , then A is a cause of B . …
Confirmation and explaining how possible
Manipulation and the Causes of Evolution
Evolutionary processes such as natural selection and random drift are commonly regarded as causes of population-level change. We respond to a recent challenge that drift and selection are best understood as statistical trends, not causes. Our reply appeals to manipulation as a strategy for uncovering causal relations: if an appropriately controlled manipulation of variable A results in a systematic change in variable B , then A is a cause of B . …
Reconceiving Eliminative Inference
Eliminative reasoning seems to play an important role in the sciences, but should it be part of our best theory of science? Statistical evidence, prevalent across the sciences, causes problems for eliminative inference, supporting the view that probabilistic theories of confirmation provide a better framework for reasoning about evidence. Here I argue that deductive elimination has an important inferential role to play in science, one that is com…
The perils of tweaking
Conjecture and explanation
Can There Be Stochastic Evolutionary Causes
Do evolutionary processes such as selection and random drift cause evolutionary change, or are they merely convenient ways of describing or summarizing it? Philosophers have lined up on both sides of this question. One recent defense (Reisman and Forber 2005) of the causal status of selection and drift appeals to a manipulability theory of causation. Yet, even if one accepts manipulability, there are still reasons to doubt that genetic drift, in …
Nietzsche Was No Darwinian
John Richardson (2002, 2004) argues that Nietzsche's use of teleological notions, such as the "will to power" and psychological "drives," can be naturalized within the Darwinian framework of natural selection. Although this ambitious project has merit, the Darwinian framework does not provide the strong teleology necessary to interpret Nietzsche's explanatory project. Examining the logic of selection, the conceptual limitations on biological func…
Biological Inheritance and Cultural Evolution in Nietzsche's Genealogy
Nietzsche's investigation into the origins of morality bears some striking similarities to contemporary investigations into human evolution. Here I investigate these similarities, using a comparison between Nietzsche's GM and Gould and Lewontin's influential “Spandrels” essay as a departure point. I argue that Nietzsche defends a proto-evolutionary psychology about morality, where the inheritance of enduring biological drives conflicts with our c…
Manipulation and the Causes of Evolution
Evolutionary processes such as natural selection and random drift are commonly regarded as causes of population-level change. We respond to a recent challenge that drift and selection are best understood as statistical trends, not causes. Our reply appeals to manipulation as a strategy for uncovering causal relations: if an appropriately controlled manipulation of variable A results in a systematic change in variable B , then A is a cause of B . …
Can There Be Stochastic Evolutionary Causes
Do evolutionary processes such as selection and random drift cause evolutionary change, or are they merely convenient ways of describing or summarizing it? Philosophers have lined up on both sides of this question. One recent defense (Reisman and Forber 2005) of the causal status of selection and drift appeals to a manipulability theory of causation. Yet, even if one accepts manipulability, there are still reasons to doubt that genetic drift, in …
Nietzsche Was No Darwinian
John Richardson (2002, 2004) argues that Nietzsche's use of teleological notions, such as the "will to power" and psychological "drives," can be naturalized within the Darwinian framework of natural selection. Although this ambitious project has merit, the Darwinian framework does not provide the strong teleology necessary to interpret Nietzsche's explanatory project. Examining the logic of selection, the conceptual limitations on biological func…
Evolution and the Levels of Selection
Book Review| October 01 2008 Evolution and the Levels of Selection Samir Okasha, Evolution and the Levels of Selection. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 2006. xi + 263 pp. Patrick Forber Patrick Forber Search for other works by this author on: This Site Google The Philosophical Review (2008) 117 (4): 626–630. https://doi.org/10.1215/00318108-2008-023 Views Icon Views Article contents Figures & tables Video Audio Supplementary Data Peer Review Share Icon …
Confirmation and explaining how possible
Conjecture and explanation
Reconceiving Eliminative Inference
Eliminative reasoning seems to play an important role in the sciences, but should it be part of our best theory of science? Statistical evidence, prevalent across the sciences, causes problems for eliminative inference, supporting the view that probabilistic theories of confirmation provide a better framework for reasoning about evidence. Here I argue that deductive elimination has an important inferential role to play in science, one that is com…
Biological Inheritance and Cultural Evolution in Nietzsche's Genealogy
Nietzsche's investigation into the origins of morality bears some striking similarities to contemporary investigations into human evolution. Here I investigate these similarities, using a comparison between Nietzsche's GM and Gould and Lewontin's influential “Spandrels” essay as a departure point. I argue that Nietzsche defends a proto-evolutionary psychology about morality, where the inheritance of enduring biological drives conflicts with our c…
The perils of tweaking
The Evolution of Spite, Recognition, and Morality
Recognition of and responsiveness to the behavioral dispositions of others are key features of moral systems for facilitating social cooperation and the mediation of punishment. Here we investigate the coevolutionary possibilities of recognition and conditional social behavior with respect to both altruism and spite. Using two evolutionary models, we find that recognition abilities can support both spite and altruism but that some can only coevol…
Convention and the Origins of Ownership
We examine contemporary game-theoretic accounts of ownership as a convention. New results from dynamic networks complicate matters, suggesting that if ownership is conventional, it should not be as prevalent as it seems to be. In fact, such models reveal a tendency toward antiownership norms. The value of resources may be crucial: low stakes lead to conventional ownership, but ownership norms rarely evolve; high stakes lead to a predominance of o…
Cooperation, Cognition, and the Elusive Role of Joint Agency
We propose an approach to the evolution of joint agency and cooperative behavior that contrasts with views that take joint agency to be a uniquely human trait. We argue that there is huge variation in cooperative behavior and that while much human cooperative behavior may be explained by invoking cognitively rich capacities, there is cooperative behavior that does not require such explanation. On both comparative and theoretical grounds, complex …
Epistemology (10 works) · Philosophy (10 works) · Computer Science (9 works) · Evolutionary Game Theory and Cooperation (6 works) · Philosophy and History of Science (5 works) · Sociology (5 works) · Artificial Intelligence (4 works) · Artificial Intelligence (4 works) · Evolution and Genetic Dynamics (4 works) · Mathematics (4 works)