James F Woodward
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James F Woodward | |
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| Born | 1946 (age 77–78) |
| Nationality | American |
| Education | Carleton College |
| Alma mater | University of Texas at Austin |
| Occupation | Philosopher |
James Frances Woodward (born 1946) is an American philosopher who works mainly in philosophy of science with particular emphasis on causation and scientific explanation. In addition, Woodward has published in moral and political philosophy as well as philosophy of psychology. Woodward is Professor Emeritus in History and Philosophy of Science at the University of Pittsburgh and was previously J.O. and Juliette Koepfli Professor of the Humanities at Caltech.
Education and career
Woodward received his B.A. in Mathematics from Carleton College in 1968 and his Ph.D. in philosophy from the University of Texas at Austin in 1977. He taught at Caltech (1992-2010) and the University of Pittsburgh (2010-2022). He became the J. O. and Juliette Koepfli Professor of the Humanities at Caltech in 2001 and a Distinguished Professor at the University of Pittsburgh in 2010.
He served as the President of the Philosophy of Science Association from 2010-2012, during which he gave a Presidential Address on the merits of functional accounts of causation, as opposed to metaphysical or intuitive accounts. [1]
Philosophical Work
Woodward’s main research is on the topics of causation, causal reasoning, and scientific explanation. This work has broad applicability to many sciences, including biology, neuroscience, psychology, medicine, economics, physics, among others. His research is characteristic of general philosophy of science—this is due to the centrality of the topics he examines (causation and explanation) and wide breadth of his research to many scientific fields.
Woodward is best known for providing a novel account of causation and causal explanation, referred to as the interventionist account.[2] This account is detailed in many of his publications and in his book Making
Things Happen (2003), which won the 2005 Lakatos Award and continues to receive significant attention.
Jenann Ismael states that Woodward’s (2003) book is “arguably the most important philosophical book about causation to appear in decades” [3] and Alison Gopnik states that Woodward’s work has
“revolutionized the philosophical discussion of causation"[4]. A more recent book Causation with a Human Face (2021) explores the empirical psychology of human causal cognition.
Awards and honors
In 2005, Woodward’s book Making Things Happen won the Lakatos Award in Philosophy of Science.
Study in the Social and Behavioral Sciences for 2015-16.
Bibliography
Books
Woodward, James F. 2003 Making things happen.
Woodward, James F. 2021 Causation with a human face.
Selected Journal Articles
"Saving the Phenomena," The Philosophical Review, (July 1988), 303-352. Co-authored with James Bogen.
"Explanation and Invariance in the Special Sciences." The British Journal for the Philosophy of Science.2000, 197-254.
"Causation in Biology: Stability, Specificity, and the Choice of Levels of Explanation”. 2010. Biology and Philosophy 25: 287-318.
"The Non-Identity Problem," Ethics, (July 1986), 804-831.
"Moral Intuition: Its Neural Substrates and Normative Significance" (co-authored with John Allman)
Journal of Physiology- Paris 101 (2007), pp. 179–202.
References
- ↑ http://www.sfu.ca/phil-workshop/Woodward%20PSA%20Pres%20Address%20Functional%20Acct%20Causation.pdf
- ↑ Woodward, James (2005-10-27). Making Things Happen: A Theory of Causal Explanation. Oxford Studies in Philosophy of Science. Oxford, New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-518953-7.
- ↑ https://global.oup.com/academic/product/causation-with-a-human-face-9780197585412?cc=us&lang=en&#
- ↑ https://global.oup.com/academic/product/causation-with-a-human-face-9780197585412?cc=us&lang=en&#
External links
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