Roberta L. Millstein

I am a Professor in the Department of Philosophy at UC Davis; in addition, I am on the STS Program Committee, I'm a trainer for the REACH IGERT – Responding to Rapid Environmental Change, and I am affiliated with the John Muir Institute of the Environment.

I am currently on the Governing Board for the Philosophy of Science Association and a co-chair for the PSA Women's Caucus. I periodically blog for the New APPS group blog.

<< Jim Griesemer and I co-run a philosophy of biology lab.

Contacting me:

By snail mail:

Professor Roberta L. Millstein
Department of Philosophy
University of California, Davis
One Shields Avenue
Davis, CA 95616-8673

By email: RLMillstein@ucdavis.edu

By phone: 530-554-1398 (Skype #; will go to voice mail)

Research

My research is in the philosophy of science and the history & philosophy of biology as well as environmental ethics.

My research interests include the way that general topics in the philosophy of science, such as causation, mechanisms, probability, and determinism, illuminate and are illuminated by topics in evolutionary biology and ecology. I am also particularly interested in intersections between evolutionary biology, ecology, and environmental issues.

Recent work examines the concepts of 'fitness,' 'population', and 'random drift'; race and sexual selection; and connections between population genetics and ecology. I am currently working on projects exploring Patricia Gowaty's adaptively flexible sex role model, on the importance of interconnectedness in Aldo Leopold's Land Ethic, and on different types of field experiments (in contrast to laboratory experiments).

I am a co-editor of the forthcoming Mechanism and Causality in Biology and Economics with Hsiang-Ke Chao and Szu-Ting Chen. I have published in journals such as Philosophy of Science, Biology and Philosophy, The British Journal for the Philosophy of Science, Studies in History and Philosophy of Biological and Biomedical Sciences, Journal of the History of Biology, and Biological Theory.

>> See my curriculum vitae for links to papers I've written and other information about my research and teaching.

Teaching

2012-2013

• On sabbatical

Past quarters

• Introduction to Philosophy of Science (Phi 30)
• Introduction to Philosophy of Biology (Phi 38)
• Philosophy of Biological Sciences (Phi 108)
• Problems in Normative Ethics (Phi 115) – Taught as environmental ethics
• Philosophy of Biology (Phi 208)
• Philosophy of Science (Phi 210)
• Environmental Ethics (Phi 220)

Useful/Interesting Links: