Reader
- About
-
50-52 College Bounds
Room CB504
Biography
I am a Reader in Philosophy in the School of Divinity, History, Philosophy and History of Art, which I joined in 2009. In 2016, I was a Visiting Professor for the Philosophy of the Life Sciences at Utrecht University. Before coming to Aberdeen, I was a British Academy Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Cambridge and King’s College London, and a Teaching Associate at the University of Bristol. I received my MA and PhD from King’s College London and, prior to that, studied biology in Germany.
Qualifications
- Philosophy2006 - King's College London
PhD
- Philosophy2003 - King's College London
MA
- Zoology2000 - University of Wuerzburg
Dr. rer. nat.
- Biology1996 - University of Bremen
Diplom-Biologe
Memberships and Affiliations
- Internal Memberships
-
Head of Philosophy
- External Memberships
-
Member of the Nominations Committee, International Society for the History, Philosophy, and Social Studies of Biology
- Research
-
Research Overview
Philosophy of Science, especially the History and Philosophy of Biology
My research focuses on genetic causation, the nature of purportedly informational or representational phenomena, and the role of diagrams in mechanistic modelling. Much of my work addresses these issues in the context of molecular biology and animal behaviour studies. The overall goal of my work is a better understanding of biology as it is actually practiced, its fundamental concepts, its ontological commitments, its tools and methods. Some of my work employs historical research to address the philosophical issues at stake.
Research Areas
Accepting PhDs
I am currently accepting PhDs in Philosophy.
Please get in touch if you would like to discuss your research ideas further.
Research Specialisms
- Philosophy of Science
- History of Science
- History of Medicine
Our research specialisms are based on the Higher Education Classification of Subjects (HECoS) which is HESA open data, published under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International licence.
Supervision
My current supervision areas are: Philosophy.
Supervision is offered in general philosophy of science (e.g. models, visual representations, causation, explanation, experimentation) and the history and philosophy of the life sciences (including neuroscience and biomedicine).
Funding and Grants
Several funding organisations have supported my research, including the British Academy, the Wellcome Trust, and the Carnegie Trust.
- Teaching
-
Programmes
- Undergraduate, 4 year, September start
- Postgraduate, , September start
- Postgraduate, 2 stage, September start
- Postgraduate, 3 stage, September start
- Postgraduate, 3 stage, January start
- Undergraduate, 4 year, September start
- Undergraduate, 4 year, September start
- Undergraduate, 4 year, September start
- Undergraduate, 4 year, September start
- Undergraduate, 4 year, September start
- Undergraduate, 4 year, September start
- Undergraduate, 5 year, September start
- Publications
-
Page 1 of 3 Results 1 to 10 of 25
A willow drawing from 1786: the earliest depiction of intraspecific trait variation in plants?
Annals of Botany, vol. 127, no. 4, pp. 411-412Contributions to Journals: Articles- [ONLINE] DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/aob/mcaa091
- [OPEN ACCESS] http://aura.abdn.ac.uk/bitstream/2164/16423/1/Stegmann_AoB_AWillowDrawing_AAM.pdf
- [ONLINE] View publication in Scopus
Scientific modelling with diagrams
Synthese, vol. 198, pp. 2675-2694Contributions to Journals: ArticlesMedical toolkit organisms and Covid-19
History and Philosophy of the Life Sciences, vol. 43, 14Contributions to Journals: ArticlesPhysical models and embodied cognition
Synthese, vol. 197, no. 10, pp. 4387-4405Contributions to Journals: ArticlesEvolution and information: an overview
Routledge Handbook of Evolution and Philosophy. Joyce, R. (ed.). Routledge, pp. 79-90, 12 pagesChapters in Books, Reports and Conference Proceedings: ChaptersThe Content of Animal Signals
The Routledge Handbook of Philosophy of Animal Minds. Andrews, K., Beck, J. (eds.). Routledge, pp. 324-332, 9 pagesChapters in Books, Reports and Conference Proceedings: Chapters‘Genetic Coding’ Reconsidered: An Analysis of Actual Usage
British Journal for the Philosophy of Science, vol. 67, no. 3, pp. 707-730Contributions to Journals: ArticlesThe Philosophy of Communication and Information
The Routledge Handbook of Philosophy of Information. Floridi, L. (ed.). Routledge, pp. 304-317, 15 pagesChapters in Books, Reports and Conference Proceedings: Chapters- [ONLINE] DOI: https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315757544.ch25
- [OPEN ACCESS] http://aura.abdn.ac.uk/bitstream/2164/11093/1/2016_Floridi_Draft.pdf
Prospects for probabilistic theories of natural information
Erkenntnis, vol. 80, no. 4, pp. 869-893Contributions to Journals: Articles- [ONLINE] DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10670-014-9679-9
- [OPEN ACCESS] http://aura.abdn.ac.uk/bitstream/2164/6298/1/Prob_Info_13_B.pdf
Causal control and genetic causation
Noûs, vol. 48, no. 3, pp. 450-465Contributions to Journals: Articles