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  1.  60
    Does Environmental Pragmatism Shirk Philosophical Duty?Christopher H. Pearson - 2014 - Environmental Values 23 (3):335-352.
    Environmental pragmatism is routinely characterised as an environmental philosophy that rejects the traditional values questions within environmental ethics. Critics of environmental pragmatism, in turn, complain that it cannot be characterised as an environmental philosophy, since it evades precisely the philosophical issues with which environmental philosophers are supposed to engage. This essay works to defend environmental pragmatism against the charge that it necessarily evades the central questions of environmental ethics. I argue that environmental pragmatism need not reject foundational questions regarding values (...)
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  2.  33
    Pattern Cladism, Homology, and Theory-Neutrality.Christopher H. Pearson - 2010 - History and Philosophy of the Life Sciences 32 (4).
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  3.  15
    Theoricity and homology: a reply to Roffe, Ginnobili, and Blanco.Christopher H. Pearson - 2018 - History and Philosophy of the Life Sciences 40 (4):62.
    Roffe et al. develop a rather creative line of response to Pearson’s :475–492, 2010) critique of pattern cladisma response centering on a structuralist approach to the homology concept. In this brief reply I attempt to demonstrate, however, that Roffe, and Ginnobili, and Blanco subtly mis-characterize the target of Pearson’s critique. The consequence of this mischaracterization is that even though the structuralist framework may help make sense of pattern cladism, it does not undermine Pearson’s critique of it.
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  4.  77
    (1 other version)Is heritability explanatorily useful?Christopher H. Pearson - 2007 - Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part C: Studies in History and Philosophy of Biological and Biomedical Sciences 38 (1):270-288.
    The paper addresses the question of whether heritability can be useful in establishing genetics as an explanation for an individual’s display of some trait or behavior. After reviewing the fundamental philosophical challenge to heritability—that heritability is a population level measure—an argument is presented for rethinking the role heritability occupies in both causal and explanatory claims. It is argued that heritability can be useful for genetically based explanations of individual traits, if the conditions for proper genetic explanation are modestly reconceived, and (...)
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  5.  59
    Exploitation: A Missing Element to Our Understanding of Environmental Justice.Christopher H. Pearson - 2023 - Ethics, Policy and Environment 26 (3):374-386.
    Environmental justice crucially depends on issues of distributive justice. However, absent from philosophical examinations of environmental justice has been careful consideration of the role exploitation should occupy in our moral evaluations of some cases the initially present as instances of environmental injustice. This paper seeks to both motivate the importance of understanding the significance exploitation has in select cases of environmental justice, as well as provide a conceptual framework for how to assess the ethics of those cases.
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  6.  41
    Reduction, Explanation, and the New Science of Religion.Christopher H. Pearson & Matthew P. Schunke - 2015 - Sophia 54 (1):47-60.
    In this essay, we set out to survey and critically assess various attitudes and understandings of reductionism as it appears in discussions regarding the scientific study of religion. Our objective in the essay is twofold. First, we articulate what we will refer to as three ‘meta-interpretative’ frameworks, which summarize the distinct positions one can witness in response to the explanations coming out of research within the new science of religion. Second, and more importantly, we seek to demonstrate that under no (...)
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  7.  30
    Are homologies really natural kinds?Christopher H. Pearson - 2019 - Biology and Philosophy 34 (4):42.
    The metaphysical nature of homologies has been variously characterized as natural kind, individualist, and pluralist-pragmatic. In this essay, I aim to build on the work of proponents of a natural kinds ontology for homologies using Richard Boyd’s influential HPC account of natural kinds. I aim to advance this position by showing the unique fit of extending the HPC account to homologies, deflecting individualist critiques, as well as the pluralist-pragmatic alternative, showing that homologies have a determinate metaphysical character as kinds. As (...)
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  8.  37
    Description, Explanation, and Explanatory Depth in Developmental Biology.Christopher H. Pearson - 2013 - In Vassilios Karakostas & Dennis Dieks (eds.), EPSA11 Perspectives and Foundational Problems in Philosophy of Science. Cham: Springer. pp. 345--356.
  9.  96
    Methodological Naturalism, Intelligent Design, and Lessons from the History of Embryology.Christopher H. Pearson - 2010 - Philo 13 (1):67-79.
    Intelligent Design proponents consistently deny that science is rightfully governed by the norm of methodological naturalism—that independent of one’s actual metaphysical commitments regarding the natural/supernatural, a scientist, qua scientist, must behave as if the world is constituted by the natural, material world. This essay works to develop more fully a pragmatic justification for methodological naturalism, one that focuses on a number of key elements found in 17th and 18th century embryology.
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  10.  78
    Bryan Norton: A Pragmatist’s Take on Sustainable Development: Review of Sustainability: A Philosophy of Adaptive Ecosystem Management: University of Chicago Press, 2005. [REVIEW]Christopher H. Pearson - 2010 - Science and Engineering Ethics 16 (2):419-422.