Dr Peter Woodford

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Peter Woodford
About
Teaching and learning
Research

About

I completed a Ph.D at Stanford University in Modern Western Philosophy, Ethics, and Religious Thought.  My research focused on Post-Kantian European philosophy, particularly the philosophical stakes of Nietzsche's concept of life.  Between 2014-2017, I was a post-doc at the University of Cambridge in philosophy of biology, where I examined philosophical issues raised by contemporary theories of social evolution and evolutionary approaches to human behaviour.  Between 2018-2019, I  was an Assistant Professor at Union College, NY.  I joined the Centre for Research in Modern European Philosophy as a Lecturer in late 2019.

Academic responsibilities

Lecturer

Qualifications

  • B.A., University of Pennsylvania
  • Ph.D., Stanford University

Teaching and learning

Postgraduate courses taught

Research

My research engages with a variety of topics at the intersection of philosophy, evolutionary biology, and the study of religion.  Previously, I worked on the philosophical reception of Darwin in Nietzsche's "Lebensphilosophie" and in late-19th century Neo-Kantianism.  My research on this period was motivated by an interest in the relationship between concepts of life and theories of the nature and perception of value.  My recent work attempts to apply resources from the tradition of European philosophy to contemporary debates surrounding the philosophical implications of evolutionary biology.  I have collaborated with scientists on topics that intersect the sciences and philosophy such as animal ethics, animal agency, and the differences between humans and other animals.  My current research critically examines assumptions about human values derived from evolutionary theory, and I am also currently a co-PI with a primatologist on a project investigating primate social awareness.

Publications

Jump to: Article | Book
Number of items: 12.

Article

Woodford, Peter J. (2020) Philosophy in the science classroom : how should biology teachers explain the relationship between science and religion to students? Cultural Studies of Science Education, 15(4), pp. 937-950. ISSN (print) 1871-1502

Webb, Christine E., Woodford, Peter and Huchard, Elise (2020) The study that made rats jump for joy, and then killed them : the gap between knowledge and practice widens when scientists fail to engage with the ethical implications of their own work. BioEssays, 42(6), p. 2000030. ISSN (print) 0265-9247

Webb, Christine E., Woodford, Peter and Huchard, Elise (2019) Animal ethics and behavioral science : an overdue discussion? BioScience, 69(10), pp. 778-788. ISSN (print) 0006-3568

Woodford, Peter and Carter, Alecia (2019) Science, social critique, and the need for ethics. Animal Sentience, 4(25), p. 34. ISSN (online) 2377-7478

Woodford, Peter (2019) Evaluating inclusive fitness. Royal Society Open Science, 6(6), p. 190644. ISSN (online) 2054-5703

Woodford, Peter (2019) The many meanings of "cost" and "benefit" : biological altruism, biological agency, and the identification of social behaviors. Biology & Philosophy, 34(4), pp. 1-23. ISSN (print) 0169-3867

Woodford, Peter (2019) Response to Shawn Thompson on 'Supporting ape rights : finding the right fit between science and the law'. ASEBL Journal, 14(1), pp. 38-41. ISSN (online) 1944-401X

Woodford, Peter (2017) The evolution of altruism and its significance for environmental ethics. Environmental Ethics, 39(4), pp. 413-436. ISSN (print) 0163-4275

Woodford, Peter (2017) The very possibility of a science of religion : Ernst Troeltsch and neo-Kantianism. The Journal of Religion, 97(1), pp. 56-78. ISSN (print) 0022-4189

Woodford, Peter (2016) Neo-Darwinism and Neo-Aristotelianism : how to talk about natural purpose. History and Philosophy of the Life Sciences, 38(23), pp. 1-23. ISSN (print) 0391-9714

Woodford, Peter (2012) Specters of the nineteenth century : Charles Taylor and the problem of historicism. Journal Of Religious Ethics, 40(1), pp. 171-192. ISSN (print) 0384-9694

Book

Woodford, Peter J. (2018) The moral meaning of nature : Nietzsche's Darwinian religion and its critics. Chicago, IL : University of Chicago Press. 208p. ISBN 9780226539751

This list was generated on Sun Apr 18 06:45:30 2021 BST.