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Prof. Dr. Thomas Reydon
Prof. Dr. Thomas Reydon
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30159 Hannover
30159 Hannover
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Prof. Dr. Thomas Reydon
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Examination Board Philosophy of Science (Master of Arts)
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Institute of Philosophy
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Centre for Ethics and Law in the Life Sciences
Profile
Thomas Reydon was born in The Hague on the Dutch North Sea coast in 1969. He is a philosopher of science with a background in physics, philosophy, and theoretical biology, and a research focus in theoretical as well as practical philosophy of the life sciences. He holds two Master's degrees (one in physics, one in philosophy of science) and a Doctoral degree, all from Leiden University. He wrote his dissertation ("Species as Units of Generalization in Biological Science: A Philosophical Analysis”) at the (meanwhile abolished) Chair of Philosophy of Biology, which was located within the section of Theoretical Biology in Leiden's Institute of Biology.
After having finished the dissertation work in Leiden he moved to Leibniz Universität Hannover (Germany), where he subsequently was a Postdoc/Lecturer/Assistant Professor (= German “Wissenschaftlicher Mitarbeiter”) at the former ZEWW, a Junior Professor and then Professor of Philosophy of Biology, and now Professor of Philosophy of Science and Technology in the Institure of Philosophy with a cross appointment at the Centre for Ethics and Law in the Life Sciences (CELLS).
At earlier stages of his career he has been a trainee Policy Officer at the Dutch Ministry of Health, Welfare and Sport (VWS), where he worked on topics in GMO regulation and medical ethics, and a Visiting Fellow (twice, Fall 2008 & Fall 2013) at the Minnesota Center for Philosophy of Science (University of Minnesota - Twin Cities) and again in the Fall Semester 2013, as well as a Visiting Fellow at the Center for Interdisciplinarity (C4I) at Michigan State University in the Fall and Spring Semesters 2018-2019. He is Editor-in-Chief (with two colleagues) of the Journal for General Philosophy of Science, Editor-in-Chief (with two colleagues) of the book series History, Philosophy and Theory of the Life Sciences and co-founder of the German Society for Philosophy of Science (Gesellschaft für Wissenschaftsphilosophie).
For detailed information about his work, including a list of publications and teaching, please refer to his homepage at www.reydon.info
Main Areas of Research and Teaching
- Philosophy of biology
- General philosophy of science (epistemology & metaphysics)
- Bioethics
- Ethics in science
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Selected Publications
2019 Reydon, T.A.C.: 'What attitude should scientists have? Good academic practice as a precondition for the production of knowledge', in: McCain, K.R. & Kampourakis, K. (ed.): What is Scientific Knowledge? An Introduction to Contemporary Epistemology of Science, Abingdon: Routledge, in press.
2019 Reydon, T.A.C. & Kunz, W.: ‘Species as natural entities, instrumental units and ranked taxa: New perspectives on the grouping and ranking problems’, Biological Journal of the Linnean Society 126: 623-636. 2019 Reydon, T.A.C.: ‘Are species good units for biodiversity studies and conservation efforts?’, in: Casetta E., Marquez da Silva, J. & Vecchi, D. (ed.): From Assessing to Conserving Biodiversity: Beyond the Species Approach, Cham: Springer, pp. 167-193. 2017 Reydon, T.A.C.: ‘Philosophie der Biologie’, in: Lohse, S. & Reydon, T.A.C. (ed.): Grundriss Wissenschaftsphilosophie: Die Philosophien der Einzelwissenschaften, Hamburg: Felix Meiner Verlag, 253-286.
2016 Reydon, T.A.C.: ‘From a zooming-in model to a co-creation model: Towards a more dynamic account of classification and kinds’, in: Kendig, C.E. (ed.): Natural Kinds and Classification in Scientific Practice, London & New York: Routledge, 59-73.
2015 Reydon, T.A.C.: ‘The evolution of human nature and its implications for politics: A critique’, Journal of Bioeconomics 17: 17-36. 2015 Reydon, T.A.C. & Scholz, M.: ‘Searching for Darwinism in Generalized Darwinism’, British Journal for the Philosophy of Science 66: 561-589.
2015 Ereshefsky, M. & Reydon, T.A.C.: ‘Scientific kinds’, Philosophical Studies 172: 969-986.
2014 Reydon, T.A.C. & Scholz, M.: ‘Darwinism and Organizational Ecology: A case of in-completeness or incompatibility?’, Philosophy of the Social Sciences 44: 364-373.
2014 Kampourakis, K., Reydon, T.A.C., Patrinos, G.P. & Strasser, B.J.: ‘Genetics and society – Educating scientifically literate citizens: Introduction to the thematic issue’, Science & Education 23: 251-258.
2014 Franssen, M.P.M., Kroes, P., Reydon, T.A.C. & Vermaas, P.E.: ‘Introduction: The ontology of technical artefacts’, in: Franssen, M.P.M., Kroes, P., Reydon, T.A.C. & Vermaas, P.E. (Hrsg.): Artefact Kinds: Ontology and the Human-Made World, Dordrecht: Springer, 1-14. 2014 Reydon, T.A.C.: ‘Metaphysical and epistemological approaches to developing a theory of artifact kinds’, in: Franssen, M.P.M., Kroes, P., Reydon, T.A.C. & Vermaas, P.E. (ed.): Artefact Kinds: Ontology and the Human-Made World, Dordrecht: Springer, 125-144.
2013 Reydon, T.A.C.: ‘Classifying life, reconstructing history and teaching diversity: Philosophical issues in the teaching of biological systematics and biodiversity’, Science & Education 22: 189-220.
2013 Scholz, M. & Reydon, T.A.C.: ‘On the explanatory power of Generalized Darwinism: Missing items on the research agenda’, Organization Studies 34: 993-999.
2013 MacLeod, M. & Reydon, T.A.C.: ‘Natural kinds in the life sciences: Scholastic twilight or new dawn?’, Biological Theory 7: 89-99. 2013 Reydon, T.A.C.: Wissenschaftsethik: Eine Einführung (UTB textbook series no. 4032), Stuttgart: Eugen Ulmer Verlag / UTB. Lohse, S. & Reydon, T.A.C. (2017): ‘Einleitung: Zur Ausdifferenzierung der Wissenschaftsphilosophie’, in: Lohse, S. & Reydon, T.A.C. (Hrsg.): Grundriss Wissenschaftsphilosophie: Die Philosophien der Einzelwissenschaften, Hamburg: Felix Meiner Verlag, 9-15.
2016 Reydon, T.A.C.: ‘A critical assessment of graph-based Generalized Darwinism’, in: Jagers op Akkerhuis, G.A.J.M. (ed.): Evolution and Transitions in Complexity: The Science of Hierarchical Organization in Nature, Cham: Springer, 125-135.
2016 Reydon, T.A.C.: ‘Die Wissenschaftsethik von Übermorgen: Zwischen Werten und Verantwortung’, in: Maring, M. (Hrsg.): Zur Zukunft der Bereichsethiken – Herausforderungen durch die Ökonomisierung der Welt, Karlsruhe: KIT Scientific Publishing, 303-316.
2015 Kirschning, A. & Reydon, T.A.C.: ‘Is organic chemistry science – and does this question make any sense at all?’, Beilstein Journal of Organic Chemistry 11: 893-896, open access at https://www.beilstein-journals.org/bjoc/.
2015 Reydon, T.A.C.: ‘Epistemologische Aspekte der Anwendung des Vorsorgeprinzips bei Biosicherheitsfragen’, Ordnung der Wissenschaft, issue 2 of 2015, 73-82, open access at http://www.ordnungderwissenschaft.de.
2015 Reydon, T.A.C.: ‘Plagiate als Professionalisierungsproblem’, in: Lahusen, C. & Markschies, C. (ed.): Zitat, Paraphrase, Plagiat: Wissenschaft zwischen guter Praxis und Fehlverhalten, Frankfurt a.M.: Campus, 293-304.
2013 Reydon, T.A.C.: ‘Symmetry and the explanation of organismal form: Commentary on Golubitsky’, in: Gähde, U., Hartmann, S. & Wolf, J.H. (ed.): Models, Simulations and the Re-duction of Complexity, Berlin: De Gruyter, 43-51.
2014 Franssen, M.P.M., Kroes, P., Reydon, T.A.C. & Vermaas, P.E. (ed.): Artefact Kinds: Ontology and the Human-Made World (Synthese Library, Vol. 365), Heidelberg: Springer.