Alan Love, University of Minnesota

My research focuses on conceptual issues that arise in different areas of biological science. Much of my work has concentrated on the concepts of evolutionary innovation and novelty, which have been at the center of the research agenda articulated by many biologists situated in evolutionary developmental biology (Evo-devo). I am also interested in issues that arise in developmental biology and functional morphology. I use a combination of approaches to investigate a variety of philosophical questions: conceptual change, explanatory pluralism, the structure of evolutionary theory, reductionism, the nature of historical science, and interdisciplinary epistemology. Another area of interest concerns methodological questions, such as the role of history in philosophical research and the nature of intuitions generated by thought experiments in philosophical inquiry.