Charles H. Pence
I am a philosopher of science, specializing in the philosophy and history of biology. I work at the University of Notre Dame.
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Who Am I?
These days, I’m located in sunny (?) South Bend, Indiana. I’m currently working my way toward a Ph.D. in the History and Philosophy of Science program at the University of Notre Dame. When I’m not working (which is fairly rare), I’m a technology addict, clarinet player, gaming aficionado, and audiophile.
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My Work
I work primarily in the philosophy and history of evolutionary biology. Philosophically, I’m most interested in the conceptual and metaphysical structure of evolution by natural selection. Historically, I find the reception of Darwin’s theory in the late 19th and early 20th centuries particularly exciting. I’m also hard at work on the digital humanities, as applied to the history and philosophy of biology.
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Find Me
office [carrel]: 405 Hesburgh Library, Notre Dame
office hours: Not teaching AY 2011-2012e-mail: charles@charlespence.net
mailing [work]:- University of Notre Dame
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Program in History and Philosophy of Science
453 Geddes Hall
Notre Dame, Indiana 46615 USA
et cetera: Academic genealogy, Erdös number; Geek Code; PGP key…
online:
Research and Publications
I’m currently engaged in several projects. I’m working on a dissertation project on the role of “chance” (and other related/conflated topics) in evolutionary theory. I have an ongoing collaboration with Grant Ramsey on the concept of fitness. I’m working on developing digital humanities tools to enable the study of the historical and conceptual development of evolutionary theory. Finally, a few historical projects mentioned below round out my current research.
Copies of all these papers, as well as a few talks that aren’t available here, can be found at my profile on Academia.edu (see also PhilPapers or Mendeley). Google Scholar offers an index of citations of these articles.
Articles:
» Pence, C.H. 2011. “‘Describing Our Whole Experience’: The Statistical Philosophies of W.F.R. Weldon and Karl Pearson.” Studies in History and Philosophy of Biological and Biomedical Sciences 42(4):475–485 doi: 10.1016/j.shpsc.2011.07.011 [preprint | PDF] [details]
I argue here for a new view of the philosophy of W.F.R. Weldon, distinct in interesting and important ways from the positivism of Karl Pearson.
» Pence, C.H. 2011. “Nietzsche’s Aesthetic Critique of Darwin.” History and Philosophy of the Life Sciences 33(2):165–190 [preprint | PDF] [details]
A reinterpretation of Nietzsche’s critique of Darwin, seen in the light of his early work on aesthetics. (Several of the Nietzsche citations in the published version are missing, despite my best efforts. The preprint has them all, for those interested.)
Programming and digital humanities:
» Philip, J.T., Pence, C.H. & Goodson, H.V. Forthcoming. “MTBindingSim: Simulate Protein Binding to Microtubules.” Bioinformatics doi: 10.1093/bioinformatics/btr684 [PDF]
Book reviews:
» Pence, C.H., Hollocher, H., Nichols, R., Ramsey, G., Siu, E., and Sportiello, D. 2011. “[Review of] Elliott Sober: Did Darwin Write the Origin Backwards? Philosophical Essays on Darwin’s Theory.” Philosophy of Science 78(4):705–709 doi: 10.1086/661775 [PDF]
» Hollocher, H., Fuentes, A., Pence, C.H., Ramsey, G., Sportiello, D.J. and Wirth, M. 2011. “[Review of] On the Origin of Stories: Evolution, Cognition, and Fiction.” The Quarterly Review of Biology 86(2):137–138 doi: 10.1086/659913 [PDF]
» Ramsey, G., Hollocher, H., Fuentes, A., Pence, C.H. and Siu, E. 2010. “[Review of] Darwinian Populations and Natural Selection.” The Quarterly Review of Biology 85(4):499–500 doi: 10.1086/656856 [PDF]
In preparation and under review:
» Pence, C.H. & Ramsey, G. Under review. “How the incoherence of a pervasive concept of trait fitness undermines the causalist-statisticalist debates.” [details]
Many of the current arguments over the concept of “trait fitness” in the philosophy of biology are founded on an incoherent notion of trait fitness, resulting in problems for several claims in the debate over ‘causal’ and ‘statistical’ interpretations of evolution.
» Pence, C.H. & Ramsey, G. Under review. “A New Foundation for the Propensity Interpretation of Fitness.” [details]
We apply some results from mathematical biology to show that there is no reason to think that a modified formulation of the propensity interpretation of fitness cannot survive several common counterexamples to the traditional PIF.
» Pence, C.H. In preparation. “The Conflation of ‘Chance’ in Evolution.” [preprint] [details]
I derive four notions of “chance,” based on three well-known distinctions, and demonstrate that conflation of these four notions has important bearing on our understanding of core debates in the philosophy of biology.
Electronic working papers (e-prints):
» Pence, C.H. E-Print. “Charles Darwin and Sir John F. W. Herschel: Nineteenth-Century Science and its Methodology.” [preprint | PDF] [details]
A brief paper reviewing current literature on Darwin’s relationship to John Herschel. Darwin’s methodology in the Origin is very Herschellian, though most commentators misunderstand the form of this influence.
Teaching
| Spring 2010 | PLS 20412 Fundamental Concepts in Natural Science |
| Fall 2009 | PHIL 20602 Medical Ethics |
| Summer 2009 | HPS 63722 Evolution, Heredity, and the History of Biology |
| Spring 2009 | PLS 20412 Fundamental Concepts in Natural Science |
| Fall 2008 | PHIL 10010 Introduction to Philosophy |