Publications

Publications

Below is a list of publications (for the past 5 years) authored by Theory and Method in Biosciences staff and students (current at the time of publication). Not all listed publications relate to research conducted within the team. Publications by former members are also included where the research was conducted wholly or largely within the team.

Forthcoming

Charbonneau, M., & Bourrat, P. (in press). Fidelity and the grain problem in cultural evolution. Synthese. Download
Griffiths, P. E. (n.d.). What are biological sexes?
Bourrat, P. (in press). Evolutionary Transitions in Individuality by Endogenization of Scaffolded Properties.

2025

2024

Griffiths, P. E., & Spencer, H. G. (2024). To explain sex, look to evolution. Nature, 631(8020), 275–275. https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-024-02248-1 Download
Brusse, C., & Sterelny, K. (Eds.). (2024). Religion and its Evolution: Signals, Norms and Secret Histories. Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781032628042
Lehtonen, J., & Parker, G. A. (2024). The correlation between anisogamy and sexual selection intensity—the broad theoretical predictions. Evolution Letters, qrae029. https://doi.org/10.1093/evlett/qrae029
Fang, W. (2024). Design principles as minimal models. Studies in History and Philosophy of Science, 105, 50–58. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.shpsa.2024.03.003
Fang, W., & Zhang, J. (2024). Proportionality, Determinate Intervention Effects, and High-Level Causation. Erkenntnis.
Rider, C. (2024). Closure of Constraints as a Theoretical Model. Philosophy of Science, 1–24. https://doi.org/10.1017/psa.2024.63 Download

2023

Sholl, J., & Raubenheimer, D. (2023). Who's afraid of nutritionism? The British Journal for the Philosophy of Science, 728785. https://doi.org/10.1086/728785 Download
Brusse, C. (2023). Adaptive signaling in a lineage explanation, needs to be adaptive. Religion, Brain & Behavior, 0(0), 1–3.
Serpico, D., Lynch, K. E., & Porter, T. M. (2023). New historical and philosophical perspectives on quantitative genetics. Studies in History and Philosophy of Science, 97, 29–33. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.shpsa.2022.11.009 Download
van Dooren, T., Price, C. J., Banks, P. B., Berger-Tal, O., Chrulew, M., Johnson, J., Lajeunesse, G., Lynch, K. E., McArthur, C., Parker, F. C. G., Oakey, M., Pitcher, B. J., St. Clair, C. C., Ward-Fear, G., Widin, S., Wong, B. B. M., & Blumstein, D. T. (2023). The ethics of intervening in animal behaviour for conservation. Trends in Ecology & Evolution. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tree.2023.04.011 Download
Nacko, S., Hall, M. A., Gloag, R., Lynch, K. E., Spooner-Hart, R. N., Cook, J. M., & Riegler, M. (2023). Heat stress survival and thermal tolerance of Australian stingless bees. Journal of Thermal Biology, 117, 103671. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jtherbio.2023.103671
Dooren, T. van, Price, C. J., Banks, P. B., Berger-Tal, O., Chrulew, M., Johnson, J., Lajeunesse, G., Lynch, K. E., McArthur, C., Parker, F. C. G., Oakey, M., Pitcher, B. J., Clair, C. C. S., Ward-Fear, G., Widin, S., Wong, B. B. M., & Blumstein, D. T. (2023). The ethics of intervening in animal behaviour for conservation. Trends in Ecology & Evolution, 38(9), 822–830. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tree.2023.04.011
Serpico, D., Lynch, K. E., & Porter, T. M. (2023). New historical and philosophical perspectives on quantitative genetics. Studies in History and Philosophy of Science, 97, 29–33. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.shpsa.2022.11.009
Lynch, K. E., Brown, R. L., Strasser, J., & Yeo, S. L. (2023). A disanalogy with RCTs and its implications for second-generation causal knowledge. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 46, e194. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0140525X22002242
Bourrat, P. (2023). Multilevel selection 1, multilevel selection 2, and the Price equation: a reappraisal. Synthese, 202(3), 72.
Bourrat, P. (2023). A coarse-graining account of individuality: how the emergence of individuals represents a summary of lower-level evolutionary processes. Biology & Philosophy, 38(4), 33.
Griffiths, P. E., & Bourrat, P. (2023). Integrating evolutionary, developmental and physiological mismatch. Evolution, Medicine, and Public Health, 11(1), 277–286. https://doi.org/10.1093/emph/eoad023
Griffiths, P. E., & Bourrat, P. (2023). Integrating evolutionary, developmental and physiological mismatch. Evolution, Medicine and Public Health. Download
Rider, C. (2023, August 19). Closure of constraints as a theoretical model. Sydney Philosophy of Psychology Conference 2023, Pearl Beach. Download
Artificial wombs and animal sex — philosophers weigh in on brave new futures. (2023, September 20). [Broadcast]. In Big Ideas. ABC Radio National.
Lean, C., & Jones, C. (2023). The Evolution of Multispecies Populations: A Multilevel Perspective. Biology and Philosophy, 38(40).
Alimardani, A., McCay, A., & Lean, C. (2023). Big Data, Behavioral Genetics and Risk of Future Offending. Law, Technology and Humans.
Lane, A. S., Lynch, K. E., Arnold, M., Dar-Nimrod, I., Morandini, J., Gawronski, S. A., & Griffiths, P. E. (2023). The undue influence of genetic information on senior medical students' treatment decisions. BMC Medical Education, 23(1), 938. Download
Griffiths, P. E., & Bourrat, P. (2023). Integrating evolutionary, developmental and physiological mismatch. Evolution, Medicine, and Public Health, 11(1), 277–286. Download
Christie, J. R., Wilkinson, Z., Gawronski, S. A., & Griffiths, P. E. (2023). Concepts of function in biology and biomedicine. In K. Hens & A. Deblock, Advances in Experimental Philosophy of Medicine (pp. 31–50). Bloomsbury Academic.

2022

Kemp, D., Lynch, K., Jean, S. S., Kemp, D., Lynch, K., & Jean, S. S. (2022). Variation in boldness behaviour across individuals, sexes, and strains of the guppy (Poecilia reticulata). Marine and Freshwater Research.
Veit, W., & Browning, H. (2022). Has the Socio-Political Role of Neuroethics Been Neglected? AJOB Neuroscience, 13(1), 23–25. https://doi.org/10.1080/21507740.2021.2001079
Browning, H., & Veit, W. (2022). On the Relevance of Experimental Philosophy to Neuroethics. AJOB Neuroscience, 13(1), 55–57. https://doi.org/10.1080/21507740.2021.2001080
Bourrat, P., & Charbonneau, M. (2022). Grains of description in biological and cultural transmission. Journal of Cognition and Culture.
Lu, Q., & Bourrat, P. (2022). On the causal interpretation of heritability from a structural causal modeling perspective. Studies in History and Philosophy of Science, 94, 87–98. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.shpsa.2022.05.005
Brusse, C. (2022). From the inside looking out. Metascience.
Brusse, C., Handfield, T., & Zollman, K. J. S. (2022). Explaining costly religious practices: credibility enhancing displays and signaling theories. Synthese, 200(3), 249.
Takacs, P., & Bourrat, P. (2022). The arithmetic mean of what? A Cautionary Tale about the Use of the Geometric Mean as a Measure of Fitness. Biology & Philosophy, 37(2), 12. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10539-022-09843-4
Bourrat, P. (2022). Unifying Heritability in Evolutionary Theory. Studies in History and Philosophy of Science, 91, 201–210.
Griffiths, P. E. (2022). What are biological sexes? Download
Christie, J. R., Brusse, C., Bourrat, P., Takacs, P., & Griffiths, P. E. (2022). Are Biological Traits Explained by Their 'Selected Effect' Functions? Australasian Philosophical Review, 6(4), 335–359. Download
Christie, J. R., Brusse, C., Bourrat, P., Takacs, P., & Griffiths, P. E. (2022). Let's Get to Work: A Response to Our Commentators. Australasian Philosophical Review, 6(4), 429–439. Download
Fang, W. (2022). Design principles and mechanistic explanation. History and Philosophy of the Life Sciences, 44(4), 55.
Christie, J. R., Brusse, C., Bourrat, P., Takacs, P., & Griffiths, P. E. (2022). Target Article: Do Proper Functions Explain the Existence of Traits? Australasian Philosophical Review, 6(4), 335–339. https://doi.org/10.1080/24740500.2024.2370630 Download

2021

Constant, A., Clark, A., & Friston, K. (2021). Representation Wars: Enacting an Armistice Through Active Inference. Frontiers in Psychology. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2020.598733
Browning, H., & Veit, W. (2021). Evolutionary biology meets consciousness: essay review of Simona Ginsburg and Eva Jablonka's The Evolution of the Sensitive Soul. Biology & Philosophy, 36(1), 5. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10539-021-09781-7
Doulcier, G., Takacs, P., & Bourrat, P. (2021). Taming fitness: Organism-environment interdependencies preclude long-term fitness forecasting. BioEssays, 43(1), 2000157. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1002/bies.202000157
Bourrat, P. (2021). Facts, Conventions, and the Levels of Selection (Cambridge University Press).
Killin, A., Brusse, C., Currie, A., & Planer, R. J. (2021). Not by signalling alone: Music's mosaicism undermines the search for a proper function. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 44. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0140525X20001107
Brusse, C. (2021). The Archaeology and Philosophy of Health: Navigating the New Normal Problem. In A. Killin & S. Allen-Hermanson (Eds.), Explorations in Archaeology and Philosophy (pp. 101–122). Springer International Publishing.
Veit, W., Anomaly, J., Singer, P., Agar, N., Minerva, F., & Fleischman, D. (2021). Can “Eugenics” Be Defended? In Monash Bioethics Review.
Veit, W., Brown, R., & Earp, B. D. (2021). In Science We Trust? Being Honest About the Limits of Medical Research During COVID-19. American Journal of Bioethics, 21(1), 22–24. https://doi.org/10.1080/15265161.2020.1845861
Browning, H., & Veit, W. (2021). Freedom and Animal Welfare. Animals, 11(4), 1148. https://doi.org/10.3390/ani11041148
Bourrat, P. (2021). Function, persistence, and selection: Generalizing the selected-effect account of function adequately. Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part A, 90, 61–67. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.shpsa.2021.09.007
Bourrat, P. (2021). Review of Inheritance Systems and the Extended Evolutionary Synthesis by Eva Jablonka and Marion Lamb. BJPS Review of Books.
Bourrat, P. (2021). Measuring Causal Invariance Formally. Entropy (Basel, Switzerland), 23(6), 690. https://doi.org/10.3390/e23060690
Doulcier, G., Hammerschmidt, K., & Bourrat, P. (2021). Life history tradeoffs, division of labor and evolutionary transitions in individuality. 2020.10.23.352948. https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.10.23.352948
Bourrat, P., Doulcier, G., Rose, C. J., Rainey, P. B., & Hammerschmidt, K. (2021). Beyond Fitness Decoupling: Tradeoff-breaking during Evolutionary Transitions in Individuality (p. 2021.09.01.458526). https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.09.01.458526
Bourrat, P. (2021). Transitions in evolution: a formal analysis. Synthese, 198(4), 3699–3731.
Veit, W., Brown, R., & Earp, B. D. (2021). In Science We Trust? Being Honest About the Limits of Medical Research During COVID-19. The American Journal of Bioethics, 21(1), 22–24. https://doi.org/10.1080/15265161.2020.1845861
Chapman, R., & Veit, W. (2021). "The essence of autism: fact or artefact?" Molecular Psychiatry, 26(5), 1440–1441. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41380-020-00959-1
Veit, W., & Browning, H. (2021). Perspectival pluralism for animal welfare. European Journal for Philosophy of Science, 11(1), 9. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13194-020-00322-9
Veit, W. (2021). Does birth matter? Journal of Medical Ethics, medethics-2020-107034. https://doi.org/10.1136/medethics-2020-107034
Browning, H., & Veit, W. (2021). Evolutionary biology meets consciousness: essay review of Simona Ginsburg and Eva Jablonka's The Evolution of the Sensitive Soul. Biology & Philosophy, 36(1), 5. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10539-021-09781-7
Veit, W. (2021). Biological normativity: a new hope for naturalism? Medicine, Health Care and Philosophy, 24(2), 291–301. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11019-020-09993-w
Browning, H., & Veit, W. (2021). Freedom and Animal Welfare. Animals, 11(4), 1148. https://doi.org/10.3390/ani11041148
Veit, W. (2021). Model diversity and the embarrassment of riches. Journal of Economic Methodology, 28(3), 291–303. https://doi.org/10.1080/1350178X.2021.1898660
Veit, W. (2021). Nancy Cartwright, Nature, the Artful Modeler: Lectures on Laws, Science, How Nature Arranges the World and How We Can Arrange It Better . Chicago: Open Court (2019), 172 pp., $24.95 (paper). Philosophy of Science, 88(2), 366–369. https://doi.org/10.1086/711505
Veit, W., & Browning, H. (2021). Phenomenology Applied to Animal Health and Suffering. In S. Ferrarello (Ed.), Phenomenology of Bioethics: Technoethics and Lived-Experience (Vol. 84, pp. 73–88). Springer International Publishing. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-65613-3_6
Veit, W. (2021). Scaffolding Natural Selection. Biological Theory. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13752-021-00387-6
Veit, W., & Browning, H. (2021). Ethics of mixed martial arts. In J. Holt & M. Ramsay, The Philosophy of Mixed Martial Arts (1st ed., pp. 134–149). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003122395-12
Veit, W., & Browning, H. (2021). Extending animal welfare science to include wild animals. Animal Sentience, 1(7). https://doi.org/10.51291/2377-7478.1675
Veit, W., Anomaly, J., Agar, N., Singer, P., Fleischman, D. S., & Minerva, F. (2021). Can 'eugenics' be defended? Monash Bioethics Review, 39(1), 60–67. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40592-021-00129-1
Veit, W., Earp, B. D., Browning, H., & Savulescu, J. (2021). Evaluating Tradeoffs between Autonomy and Wellbeing in Supported Decision Making. The American Journal of Bioethics, 21(11), 21–24. https://doi.org/10.1080/15265161.2021.1980134
Veit, W., & Browning, H. (2021). Ethics of mixed martial arts. In J. Holt & M. Ramsay, The Philosophy of Mixed Martial Arts (1st ed., pp. 134–149). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003122395-12
Veit, W. (2021). Samir Okasha's Philosophy. Lato Sensu: Revue de La Société de Philosophie Des Sciences, 8(3), 1–8. https://doi.org/10.20416/LSRSPS.V8I3.1
Veit, W. (2021). Agential thinking. Synthese. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11229-021-03380-5
Veit, W., & Ney, M. (2021). Metaphors in arts and science. European Journal for Philosophy of Science, 11(2), 44. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13194-021-00351-y
Browning, H., & Veit, W. (2021). Utilitarian Lessons from the COVID-19 Pandemic for Non-Pandemic Diseases. The American Journal of Bioethics, 21(12), 39–42. https://doi.org/10.1080/15265161.2021.1991035
Dar-Nimrod, I., Kuntzman, R., MacNevin, G., Lynch, K., Woods, M., & Morandini, J. (2021). Genetic essentialism: The mediating role of essentialist biases on the relationship between genetic knowledge and the interpretations of genetic information. European Journal of Medical Genetics, 64(1), 104119. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ejmg.2020.104119
Lynch, K. E. (2021). The Meaning of "Cause" in Genetics. Cold Spring Harbor Perspectives in Medicine, 11(9), a040519. https://doi.org/10.1101/cshperspect.a040519
Veit, W., & Browning, H. (2021). Developmental Programming, Evolution, and Animal Welfare: A Case for Evolutionary Veterinary Science. Journal of Applied Animal Welfare Science, 1–13. https://doi.org/10.1080/10888705.2021.2014838
Browning, H., & Veit, W. (2021). Does utilitarianism need a rethink? Review of Louis Narens and Brian Skyrms' The Pursuit of Happiness: The pursuit of happiness: philosophical and psychological foundations of utility, by Louis Narens and Brian Skyrms, Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2020, 208 pp., £25 (hardback), ISBN:9780198856450. Journal of Economic Methodology, 1–5. https://doi.org/10.1080/1350178X.2021.1985755
Veit, W. (2021). Experimental philosophy of medicine and the concepts of health and disease. Theoretical Medicine and Bioethics. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11017-021-09550-3
Takacs, P., & Bourrat, P. (2021). Fitness: static or dynamic? European Journal for Philosophy of Science, 11(4), 112.
Veit, W. (2021). Biological normativity: a new hope for naturalism? Medicine, Health Care and Philosophy, 24(2), 291–301. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11019-020-09993-w Download
Charbonneau, M., & Bourrat, P. (2021). Fidelity and the grain problem in cultural evolution. Synthese, 199(3), 5815–5836.
Bourrat, P., & Griffiths, P. E. (2021). The idea of mismatch in evolutionary medicine. The British Journal For The Philosophy of Science.
Fang, W. (2021). Towards Mechanism 2.1: A Dynamic Causal Approach. Philosophy of Science, 88(5), 796–809. PhilSci-Archive.
Fang, W. (2021). The Explanatory Autonomy of the Biological Sciences. Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003148029