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Department of	History and Philosophy of Science
	Sandra Mitchell
	My research is on epistemological and metaphysical issues in the philosophy of science. My interests have centered on scientific explanations of complex behavior, and how we might best represent multi-level, multi-component complex systems. I have published articles on functional explanation, units of selection in evolutionary biology, sociobiology, biological complexity and self-organization, and scientific laws. Current interests include emergence, the methodological consequences of biological robustness and problems in representing deep uncertainty for policy decisions. I am co-editor of Human by Nature: Between Biology and the Social Sciences edited by Peter Weingart, Sandra D. Mitchell, Peter Richerson and Sabine Maasen, Erlbaum Press, 1997, and Ceteris Parisbus Laws edited by John Earman, Clark Glymour and Sandra Mitchell, Erkenntnis, 2002 and author of Biological Complexity and Integrative Pluralism, Cambridge University Press 2003, Komplexitäten: Warum wir erst anfangen die Welt zu verstehen Suhrkamp Verlag, 2008 and (a revised English version) Unsimple Truths: Science, Complexity and Policy University of Chicago Press forthcoming in fall 2009. My most recent publications: - “Modularity: More than a Buzzword” Essay Review”, Biological Theory 2005, Vol. 1, Issue 1, pp. 98-101. - “Integration without Unification: An Argument for Pluralism in the Biological Sciences” co-authored with Michael R. Dietrich, American Naturalist. 2006. Vol. 168, pp. S73–S79. - “The Import of Uncertainty” The Pluralist, Volume 2, Number 1 Spring 2007: pp. 58–71. - “Explaining Complex Behavior” and “Taming Causal Complexity” in K. Kendler and J. Parnas (eds), Philosophical Issues in Psychiatry: Explanation, Phenomenology and Nosology, Johns Hopkins Press 2009. - “Exporting Causal Knowledge in Evolutionary and Developmental Biology” Philosophy of Science, forthcoming. - “Complexity and Explanation in the Social Sciences”, forthoming in C. Mantzavinos (ed.) Philosophy of Social Science, Oxford University Press. In the summer of 2003, I directed with Peter Machamer a 5-week NEH Summer Institute on “Science and Values”, here at the University of Pittsburgh, and I was program chair of the 2002 Biennial meeting of the Philosophy of Science Association, edited of the two special issues of Philosophy of Science publishing the proceedings. In June of 2004 taught a seminar on philosophy of social science at the Max Planck Institute for Social Theory in Cologne, Germany. In August 2008 I gave a series of lectures (a mini graduate seminar) in Philosophy of Biology at Tshinghua University, Beijing, China.
Books	Human by Nature: Between Biology and the Social Sciences , edited by Peter Weingart, Sandra D. Mitchell, Peter Richerson and Sabine Maasen. Erlbaum Press, 1997. Ceteris paribus Laws , edited by John Earman, Clark Glymour, Sandra Mitchell, Kluwer, 2003. Biological Complexity and Integrative Pluralism , Cambridge University Press, 2003. Komplexitäten: Warum wir erst anfangen, die Welt zu verstehen, Suhrkamp, 2008. Unsimple Truths: Science, Complexity and Policy, University of Chicago Press, 2009.
Articles & Reviews	"Competing Units of Selection? - A Case of Symbiosis", Philosophy of Science , September 1987, pp. 351-67. "Can Sociobiology Adapt to Cultural Selection?" in P. Machamer and A. Fine (Eds.) PSA 1986, Volume 2 , Philosophy of Science Association, East Lansing, Michigan, 1987, pp. 87-96. "The Causal Background for Functional Explanations", International Studies in the Philosophy of Science Vol. 3, No. 2, 1989, pp. 213-230. "The Units of Behavior in Evolutionary Explanations", in M. Bekoff and D. Jamieson (Eds.) Explanation and Interpretation in the Study of Animal Behavior: Comparative Perspectives , Westview Press, 1990, pp. 63-83. Reprinted in M. Bekoff and D. Jamieson (Eds.) Readings in Animal Cognition MIT Press, 1996, pp. 129-142. "Self Organization and Adaptation in Insect Societies" co-authored with Robert E. Page, Jr. in A. Fine, M. Forbes, and L. Wessels (Eds.) PSA 1990, Volume 2 , Philosophy of Science Association, East Lansing , Michigan , 1991, pp. 289-298. "On Pluralism and Integration in Evolutionary Explanations", American Zoologist , vol. 32, 1992, pp. 135-144. "Idiosyncratic Paradigms and the Revival of the Superorganism", co-authored with Robert E. Page, Jr., Report NR. 26/92 of the Research Group on Biological Foundations of Human Culture , Bielefeld , Germany , 1992. "Dispositions or Etiologies: A Comment on Bigelow and Pargetter", Journal of Philosophy , XC, No. 5, May 1993, pp. 249-259. "Rough Waters Between Genes and Culture: An Anthropological and Philosophical View on Coevolution", with Monique Borgerhoff Mulder (a review article), Biology and Philosophy , vol. 9, 1994, pp. 471-487. "The Superorganism Metaphor: Then and Now", in S. Maasen, E. Mendelsohn and P. Weingart (Eds.): Biology as Society, Society as Biology: Metaphors. Yearbook in the Sociology of Science , Kluwer Academic Publishers, 1995, pp. 231-48. "Function, Fitness and Disposition", Biology and Philosophy, vol.10, 1995, pp. 39-54. Reprinted in: C. Allen, M. Bekoff and G. Lauder (Eds.): Nature's Purposes: Analyses of Function and Design in Biology , MIT Press, 1998, pp. 395-415. "The Why's and How's of Interdisciplinarity", Sandra D. Mitchell, Lorraine Daston, Gerd Gigerenzer, Nevin Sesardic and Peter Sloep, in Human by Nature: Between Biology and the Social Sciences , Erlbaum Press, 1997, pp. 103-150. "Pragmatic Laws", in L. Darden (Ed.) PSA 1996: Part II, Symposia Papers, Philosophy of Science (special issue), 1997, pp. S468-S479. "Self organization and the evolution of division of labor" co-authored with Robert E. Page, Jr., Apidologie , vol. 29, 1998, pp. 101-120. "Dimensions of Scientific Law" Philosophy of Science , June 2000, pp. 242-265. “Integrative Pluralism” Biology and Philosophy, 17, January 2002, pp. 55-70. “The Import of Uncertainty” forthcoming in O. Ryder (ed.) Genetic Resources for the New Century “Contingent Generalizations:  Lessons from Biology”, 2002 in Renate Mayntz (ed.) Akteure, Mechanismen, Modelle. Zur Theoriefähigkeit makro-sozialer Analysen, Campus Verlag, 179-195. “Ceteris Paribus – An Inadequate Representation for Biological Contingency”, forthcoming in Erkenntnis special issue John Earman, Clark Glymour and Sandra Mitchell (eds.) “Anthropomorphism: Cross-species modeling” forthcoming in R. Daston and G. Mitman (eds.) Thinking with Animals , Columbia University Press. “The Prescribed and Proscribed Values in Science Policy”, in Peter Machamer and Gereon Wolters (eds.) Science, Values and Objectivity, University of Pittsburgh Press, 2004, pp.245-255. "Why Integrative Pluralism”, Emergence, Complexity and Organization, Vol 6, No 1 & 2, Fall 2004, pp.81-91. “Life is not so simple: the epistemology of Complexity” in Jahrbuch 2003/2004 Wissenchaftskolleg zu Berlin, 2005, pp. 246-262. “Modularity:  More than a Buzzword” Essay Review”, Biological Theory 2005, Vol. 1, Issue 1, pp. 98-101. “Integration without Unification: An Argument for Pluralism in the Biological Sciences” co-authored with Michael R. Dietrich,  American Naturalist. 2006. Vol. 168, pp. S73–S79. “The Import of Uncertainty” The Pluralist, Volume 2, Number 1 Spring 2007: pp. 58–71. "Explaining Complex Behavior” (forthcoming) in Kenneth Kendler and Josef Parnas (eds.), Philosophical issues in psychiatry: Natural kinds, mental taxonomy and causation. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.
Professional Service	Co-Organizer, Dibner Institute in the History of Science Summer Workshop, "Individuality - Understanding Units and Levels of Organization in Biology", Marine Biology Laboratory, Woods Hole, Massachusetts , August 2-9, 1992 . Co-Organizer, The Center for the Philosophy of the Natural and Social Sciences, London School of Economics Workshop: Biodiversity: Philosophical, Biological and Social Scientific Perspectives, London , England , March 3, 1995. International Congress for Systematics and Evolutionary Biology V , Co-Organizer, Symposium on "The Evolution of Social Insects" at the Budapest , Hungary , August 19, 1996 . International Society for the History, Philosophy and Social Studies of Biology Nominating Committee, 1993-1994. Organizer, Two Symposia on Complexity and Biology, meeting in Louvain , Belgium . July 1995. Elected to Governing Council, 2004-2009. Philosophy of Science Association Nominating Committee, 1994-1996. Governing Board Member 1998 - 2001. Philosophy of Science , Editorial Board, 1994 - present. Program Chair,  PSA2002, Eighteenth Biennial Meeting of Philosophy of Science Association, November 7-10. Milwaukee , Wisconsin. Elected to Governing Board, 2007-2009. National Science Foundation Biology and the Law , participant, March 1995, June 1996. Science and Technology Studies Panel, 1997-2000. Referee: Philosophy of Science, Biology and Philosophy, Journal for Theoretical Biology, BioScience .
Education	B.A. (with honors) Philosophy, Pitzer College , Claremont , California , 1973. M.Sc. (with a Mark of Distinction) Logic, Philosophy and Scientific Method, London School of Economics , London , England , 1975. Ph.D. History and Philosophy of Science, University of Pittsburgh , Pittsburgh , Pennsylvania , 1987.
Academic Appointments	The Ohio State University , Department of Philosophy, 1985 to 1989: Instructor and Assistant Professor. The University of California at San Diego , Department of Philosophy and Science Studies Program, 1989 to 1993: Assistant Professor, 1993 to 1999: Associate Professor. University of Pittsburgh , Department of History and Philosophy of Science, 2000-present: Professor.
Visiting Positions	Zentrum fur Interdisziplinare Forschung, Universitat Bielefeld, Germany, 1991-92: Research Fellow. Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin , Institute for Advanced Studies, Berlin, Germany, 1993-94: Research Fellow. Center for the Philosophy of Science, University of Pittsburgh , 1999 (Fall). Research Fellow.
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