MELINDA BONNIE FAGAN portrait
  • Professor, Philosophy
801-581-7424

Research Summary

My research is in philosophy of science, focusing on experimental practice in biology (particularly stem cell and developmental biology), explanation, and conceptions of objectivity and evidence. Areas of Specialization: Philosophy of Science, Philosophy of Biology, Epistemology Areas of Competence: History of Science, Philosophy of Social Science

Education

  • PhD, History and Philosophy of Science, Indiana University, Bloomington. Project: Integrative Pragmatism and Scientific Inquiry
  • MA, Philosophy, University of Texas at Austin. Project: Mechanistic and Reductive Explanation in Biology: a Comparison of Recent Accounts
  • PhD, Biological Sciences, Stanford University. Project: Botryllus schlosseri historecognition locus and HSP70 genes
  • BA, Biology, Williams College

Biography

Melinda Bonnie Fagan is Associate Professor of Philosophy at the University of Utah, where she holds the Sterling McMurrin Chair.  Her research focuses on experimental practice in biology (particular stem cell and developmental biology), explanation, and philosophical conceptions of objectivity and evidence.  Before joining the philosophy faculty in 2014, she was Assistant Professor of Philosophy at Rice University (2007-2014) where she taught courses in philosophy of science, theory of knowledge and social epistemology. obtained degrees in History and Philosophy of Science (Ph.D. 2007, Indiana University), Philosophy (M.A. 2002, University of Texas at Austin) and Biology (B.A. 1992, Williams College; Ph.D. 1998, Stanford University).  Her research in biology focused on colonial organisms (plants and protochordates) and the evolution of histocompatibility.  She is currently working on a view of explanation focused on concepts of collaboration and interaction.