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Current Research Projects

1. Ancestry and Lineages in Complex Evolution and Classification - The concepts of "ancestry" and “lineages” are taken for granted in many biological and philosophical discussions, but a closer look suggests that they have different meanings, scientific roles, and ontological assumptions depending on the context. These differences have significant ramifications for biology and philosophy. Additionally, complex cases of micro and macroevolution challenge the role of lineages, ancestry, and related concepts in evolution and classification.    

2. Race and Values - Are races real? Social values influence the answer of philosophers, scientists, and citizens to this question. For instance, recent defenses of biological racial realism are pluralistic: one accepts that more than one concept of race is legitimate. But how can we distinguish legitimate from illegitimate concepts of race? I consider how social values should play a role in answering this question. In particular, I investigate how philosophical argumentation (about race) itself depends on social values. 

Publications

 

Neto, C., & Meynell, L (2023) Scaffold: A Causal Concept for Evolutionary Explanations Philosophy of Science  https://doi.org/10.1017/psa.2023.14

Neto, C., Meynell, L., & Jones, T. C (2023) Scaffolds and Scaffolding: An Explanatory Strategy in Evolutionary Biology. Biology & Philosophyhttps://doi.org/10.1007/s10539-023-09897-y

Jones, Christopher, Meynell, L., Neto, C., et al. (2023) The role of the ecological scaffold in the origin and maintenance of whole-group trait altruism in microbial populations. BMC Ecology and Evolution.

Neto, C., & Doolittle, F (2022) The Chemostat Model of Evolution by Persistence, and its Relevance to Clade Selection Philosophy of Science https://doi.org/10.1017/psa.2022.11

Neto, C (2021) From Idealizations to Social Practices in Science: The case of Phylogenetic Trees Synthese Online First DOI 10.1007/s11229-021-03271-9

Neto, C (2020) When Imprecision is a Good Thing, or How Imprecise Concepts promote Integration in Biology Biology & Philosophy 35 (6); 1-21 

Neto, C (2019) What is a Lineage? Philosophy of Science  86 (5): 1099-1110 

Neto, C (2016) Rethinking Species Cohesion and Individuality Biological Theory  11(3): 138-149 
Neto, C (2012) Indivíduos ou Tipos Naturais? Estatuto Ontológico e Natureza Histórica das Espécies Biológicas em David Hull  (Individuals or Natural Kinds? The Ontological Status and Historical Nature of Species) in: Revista Rumos da Epistemologia, vol.11, UFSC, original in portuguese

Neto, C (2011) Considerações Críticas sobre o papel do conceito de “coesão” na tese espécies –como–indivíduos de David Hull (Critical remarks on the role of cohesion in David Hull's individuality thesis) in: História e Filosofia da Biologia, vol.6, n.2, original in portuguese. 

  
Work in Progress 

 

The Risk of Biological Race Realism (under review) 

Collective Reproduction without Levels (under review) - with Makmiller Pedroso

Scientific Metaphysics and Values (in preparation) - with Marc Ereshefsky 

Ancestry DNA and Human Lineages (in preparation)

Dissertation

Biological Lineages in Philosophical Focus (University of Calgary, 2020)

Research
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