Two distinct groups of scholars engage in the process of building scientific knowledge: scientists and the humanists who study science (philosophers, historians, etc.). Despite potential synergy among these groups of scholars, the most fundamental disciplinary rift in modern academic training is between the sciences and the humanities. Science and the humanities differ not just in professional language, but also in their very cultures and modes of communication (e.g., style of writing, publication format, conventions of oral presentation). These differences present barriers to communication and collaboration that are detrimental to progress in each of these fields.
Intellectual merit. The objective of the proposed program in the History and Philosophy of Biology is to bring together historians and philosophers of biology with biologists studying ecology and evolutionary biology. Interdisciplinary teams of graduate students, a postdoctoral fellow, and faculty mentors will engage in original research in the history or philosophy of ecology and evolutionary biology. Graduate students and postdocs will also participate in courses, workshops and seminars that involve faculty and students from all departments. Outcomes of interdisciplinary research will include publishable papers, presentations at local and national meetings, and graduate students with an unusual breadth of training. Graduates of this program will have the tools to allow them to conduct stronger research in their own fields, be better educators and communicators, and act as leaders in collaborations between the various disciplines that study science. Further, this education and research program will serve as a starting point for a permanent interdisciplinary program for graduate students across History, Philosophy, and Biology at Florida State University. This will build upon an existing foundation of interactions between a recently established History and Philosophy of Science Program and the long-standing Ecology and Evolutionary Biology graduate program at Florida State University.
Broader Impacts. Through this fellowship program, nine graduate fellows and three postdoctoral fellows will receive training in research methods within and outside their disciplines. Through collaborative research and coursework, these fellows will gain a broader perspective on their own fields. This will produce students who will be leaders in future collaborative research, and teachers who can train the next generation of students to work across the science/humanities boundary. By focusing student attentions on the history and philosophy of ecology and evolutionary biology, the proposed program will also encourage research into the nature of the science at the heart of important current policy issues such as global warming, transgenic organisms, and the teaching of evolution. We foresee this program continuing as a permanent program at Florida State University. An improved understanding of the nature of these sciences will facilitate effective communication of the findings of these sciences to the public and to policy makers. Finally, there will be aggressive recruitment of excellent graduate student and postdoctoral fellows from among underrepresented groups, increasing diversity in our graduate and postdoctoral populations.
