Matt Haber portrait
  • Adjunct Associate Professor, School Of Biological Sciences
  • Associate Professor, Philosophy
  • Associated Faculty, Latin American Studies
  • Associated Faculty, Center for Quantitative Biology

Research Statement

My area of specialty is Philosophy of Biology and Philosophy of Science. I am interested in the philosophical and conceptual issues in systematics, particularly those stemming from a commitment to phylogenetic thinking. My current projects include elucidating the nature of phylogenetic inference, tracking conceptual debates in biological classification and nomenclature, examining the use of models in phylogenetics, the ontology of biological objects, and accounting for how (and why) scientists shift from one set of theoretical and conceptual commitments to another. Other topics of interest are research ethics, including a project on the ethics of research involving crossing species boundaries (especially the human/non-human boundary).

Research Keywords

  • Systematic Biology
  • Plant Taxonomy
  • Phylogenetics
  • Philosophy of Science
  • Philosophy of Biology
  • Philosophy
  • Animal Taxonomy

Philosophy of Biology Cafe

http://philbiocafe.utah.edu/

Publications

  • Haber, Matthew H. & Velasco, Joel (2021). Phylogenetic Inference. Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Published, 12/08/2021.
    https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/win2021/entrie...
  • Matthew H. Haber & Daniel J. Molter (2019). Species in the Age of Discordance: . Philosophy, Theory, and Practice in Biology. Published, 08/21/2019.
    http://dx.doi.org/10.3998/ptpbio.16039257.0011.012
  • Matthew H. Haber & Daniel J. Molter (2019). Species in the Age of Discordance (Special Issue). Vol. 11. Philosophy, Theory, and Practice in Biology. Published, 08/21/2019.
  • Matthew H. Haber (2019). Species in the Age of Discordance. Philosophy, Theory, and Practice in Biology. Vol. 11. Published, 08/21/2019.
    http://dx.doi.org/10.3998/ptpbio.16039257.0011.021
  • Matthew H. Haber (2019). Untangling the Forest From the Trees: Reconstructing the Evolutionary History of Bears. [Website/Blog]. Published, 06/28/2019.
  • Haber, M. H. (2016). The individuality thesis (3 ways). Biology & Philosophy, 31(6):913–930. doi: 10.1007/s10539-016-9548-9. Published, 11/2016.
  • “Transformation, Persistence, and Identity.” At: Extinct: The Philosophy of Paleontology Blog. Sept. 12 (2016) [http://www.extinctblog.org/extinct/2016/9/12/transformation-persistence-and-identity]. Published, 09/2016.
  • Haber, M. H. (2016). The biological and the mereological: Metaphysical implications of the individuality thesis. In Pradeu, T. and Guay, A., editors, Individuals Across Sciences, New York. Oxford University Press. Published, 01/2016.
  • Haber, Matthew H. and Bannon, Madeline (2015), "Mitochondrial Diversity and the Reversal Test" American Journal of Bioethics.. Published, 02/19/2015.
  • ``When Individuality Does Not Entail Mereology: The Metaphysical Implications of the Individuality Thesis.'' In Individuals Across the Sciences, Thomas Pradeu and Alexandre Guay, eds. Oxford University Press. (Forthcoming). Accepted, 12/2013.