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Daniel McKaughan

philosophy department

Assistant Professor

Ph.D. History and Philosophy of Science, Notre Dame
M. Div. Princeton Theological Seminary
B.A. University of Oregon

Stokes N351
Boston College
Chestnut Hill, MA 02467-3859

Phone: 617-552-3866
Cell: 617-999-5130
Fax: 617-552-3874
Email: daniel.mckaughan@bc.edu

Personal web site

Professional Career

Prior to joining the Boston College faculty in 2008, Professor McKaughan was at the University of Notre Dame, where he was a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellow and, subsequently, a Sorin Postdoctoral Fellow.

Fields of Interest

  • Philosophy of science
  • Philosophy of biology
  • Epistemology
  • Philosophy of religion

Current Teaching

  • New Scientific Visions (Perspectives IV)
  • Philosophy of Biology (Darwin, Genes, and Embryology)
  • Philosophy of Science
  • Science and Religion
  • Analytic Epistemology

Recent Publications

  • “Voles, Vasopressin, and Infidelity: A Molecular Basis for Monogamy, a Platform for Ethics, and More?” Biology and Philosophy, forthcoming.
  • “Speech Acts, Attitudes, and Scientific Practice: Can Searle Handle Assuming for the Sake of Hypothesis?” Pragmatics and Cognition, forthcoming.
  • “Delbrück, Max” in Oxford Encyclopedia of the History of Science, Medicine, and Technology in America (Oxford: Oxford University Press), forthcoming.
  • “Models,” in New Catholic Encyclopedia (Supplement 2012-13: Ethics and Philosophy). Robert Fastiggi, et al. (Detroit: Gale-Cengage Learning and the Catholic University of America Press), forthcoming.
  • “Was Delbrück a Reductionist?” in Creating a Physical Biology: The Three Man Paper and Early Molecular Biology, Phillip R. Sloan and Brandon Fogel, eds. (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2011).
  • “How Values in Scientific Discovery and Pursuit Alter Theory Appraisal” (with Kevin Elliott, University of South Carolina) Philosophy of Science, Vol. 76, No. 5, December 2009, 598-611.
  • “From Ugly Duckling to Swan: C. S. Peirce, Abduction, and the Pursuit of Scientific Theories,” Transactions of the Charles S. Peirce Society, Vol. 44, Issue No. 3, Summer 2008, 446-468.
  • “The Influence of Niels Bohr on Max Delbrück: Revisiting the Hopes Inspired by ‘Light and Life’,” Isis, December 2005, Volume 96 Number 4:507-529.