Gordon Purves, Ph.D.
Office Location
Dr. Purves’ interests tend to focus more on the applications of philosophical methods and ideas to more concrete problems. His main interests are in the philosophy of science, in particular in questions concerning what makes certain scientific methodologies and investigations successful (or unsuccessful) and producing true knowledge, and in applied ethics, principally animal ethics and environmental ethics. Dr. Purves joined the Department of Philosophy in 2012.
Degrees & Certifications
- Ph.D. in Philosophy from the University of South Carolina
- Bachelor’s degree in Philosophy and Physics from Bucknell University
Teaching Responsibilities
Dr. Purves primarily teaches philosophy in the contemporary Anglophone traditions, with forays into the late nineteenth and early twentieth Germanic traditions that inspired them.
- The Art of Thinking
- Introduction to Philosophy
- Philosophy of Science
- Environmental Ethics
- Analytic Philosophy
Research Interests
Much of Dr. Purves’ research has been in a prolonged investigation of the various ways that scientists use falsehoods in models that generate true knowledge of the world. He also has strong interests in interpretations of quantum theory, in particular quantum statistical mechanics and quantum field theory and a correlate interest in the representative power of abstract mathematical models. In addition to his work in philosophy of science, Dr. Purves done research in applied ethics, in particular environmental ethics and animal ethics and is currently completing a project on the nature of rationality and risk assessment in environmental policy.
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