I am interested in the methodology and reasoning used in the biological sciences.
I am particularly interested in evolutionary theory and how evolutionary thinking is used to understand cognition, behaviour and culture.

IN PROGRESS OR UNDER REVIEW

  • Adamska, M.,Brown, R., Hua, X., Noble, D., Phillips, B., Sanders, K., & Xie, L. (under review) “Evolutionary Science for a Changing World: A whitepaper prepared for the Australian Academy of Science” Australian Academy of Science
  • Brown, R. L. & Frieman, C. (under review) "Top down or bottom up: What evolutionary thinking can, and can’t, contribute to our understanding of knowledge transmission and innovation".
  • Taylor, A. H., Bastos, A. P. M. , Brown, R. L., Allen, C. (under review) "The signature-testing approach to mapping biological and artificial intelligences".
  • Brown, R.L. (in prep. under contract) The Evolved Mind . Monograph under contract for series; Ruse, M. & Ramsey, G. (Eds.) Cambridge Elements in PHilosophy of Biology by Cambridge University Press.​

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PUBLICATIONS

  1. Brown, R.L., Pain, R. (forthcoming) "No tinkering allowed: When the end-goal requires a highly specific or risky, and complex action sequence, expect ritualistic scaffolding" Behavioral and Brain Sciences.  
  2. Brown, R.L. (in press) "Structuralism and Selectionism: Friends or Foes?", Seminars in Cell & Developmental Biology ​Open Access
  3. Brown, R. L. (in press ) "Mapping out the Landscape: A multi-dimensional approach to behavioural innovation", Philosophy of Science Pre-print
  4. Moore, R. & Brown, R. L. (forthcoming) Social Inheritance and the Social Mind, Synthese.
  5. Brown, R.L. (2021) Is cultural evolution always fast? Challenging the idea that cognitive gadgets would be capable of rapid and adaptive evolution. Synthese. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11229-021-03190-9.
  6. Brown R.L., Brusse C, Heubner B & Pain R. (2020) “Unification at the Cost of Realism and Precision” Behavioral and Brain Sciences. 43, e95.
  7. Pain, R. & Brown R.L. (2020) “Mind the gap: A more evolutionarily plausible role for technical reasoning in cumulative technological culture”, Synthese https://doi.org/10.1007/s11229-020-02894-8.
  8. Brown, R.L. (2020) “Proximate-Ultimate Causation” in The Evolutionary Developmental Biology Reference Guide (Laura Nuño de la Rosa, Gerd B. Müller and Alan Love eds.). Springer. Pre-print
  9. Brown, R. L. (2020) “Why philosophers and scientists should work together” The Biologist, 67(2): 6-7.
  10. Brown, R.L. (2019) “Infer with care: A critique of the argument from animals” Mind & Language. 34(1): 21-36.
  11. Brown, R.L. (2018) “Animal Traditions: what are they and why do they matter?”, in The Routledge Handbook of Philosophy of Animal Minds (Kristin Andrews & Jacob Beck eds.). Routledge.
  12. Brown, R.L. (2017) “Not statistically significant, but still scientific” Animal Sentience, 16(14).
  13. Brown, R. L. (2015) “A clear-eyed defense of philosophy of biology” Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part C: Studies in History and Philosophy of Biological and Biomedical Sciences, 49: 63-65.​
  14. Brown, R. L. (2015) “Why development matters” Biology & Philosophy, 30(6): 889-899. Volume 30, Issue 6, pp 889-899.
  15. Brown, R. L. (2014) “What Evolvability Really Is.” British Journal for the Philosophy of Science. 65(3): 549-572. 
  16. Brown, R. L. (2014) “Rethinking Behavioural Evolution,” in Entangled Life: Organism and Environment in the Biological and Social Sciences, Barker, Desjardins & Pearce (eds.) Springer Netherlands, Dordrecht, pp 237-260.
  17. Brown, R. L. (2014) “Identifying Behavioral Novelty” Biological Theory. 9(2): 135-148.
  18. Brown, R. L. (2013) “Learning, Evolvability and Exploratory Behaviour: Extending the Evolutionary Reach of Learning.” Biology & Philosophy. 28(6): 933-955.
  19. McNamara, K., Brown, R. L., Elgar, M. & Jones, T. (2008) “Paternity Costs from Polyandry Compensated by Increased Fecundity in the Hide Beetle.” Behavioral Ecology, 19: 433-440.