The Ramsey Lab

Gianmaria Dani presenting at ISHPSSB 2025. He stands in front of a projected slide in a small lecture hall with wood-paneled walls. The slide reads: 'Tests for cognitive capacities were originally designed for animals. How to adapt these tests to be suitable for plants?' Several attendees are seated in the tiered audience.

Alejandro Fábregas-Tejeda presenting at ISHPSSB 2025. He stands in front of a projected slide titled 'The Matrix Account of Niche Construction' with a stylized image of Morpheus from The Matrix. Alejandro is in a lecture hall with wood-paneled walls and a desk with conference materials and a computer.

We had a great time at #ISHPSSB2025! On the last day, Gianmaria Dani discussed methodological standards for investigating associative learning in🪴🌱, and @alejandrofabregastejeda.com & Grant Ramsey revamped the causal foundations of #nicheconstruction. We thank everyone who joined us! #HPbio #philsci

This week @universitypress.cambridge.org has granted free access to all titles in the collection of Cambridge Elements in the Philosophy of Biology, edited by Grant Ramsey. There are many options to choose from! Happy reading! 📕👇 www.cambridge.org/core/publica... #philsci #HPbio #evosky #ISHPSSB2025

Andra in front of screen text: Introduction • Philosophers of science have long departed from conceptions of science as axiomatic, unified and stable systems of inquiry > knowledge production as a highly dynamic, situated and collective process. • Epistemic standards play a key role in knowledge generation processes (Brigandt 2012, Jacoby 2023) and among these, evidential standards (e.g., Stegenga 2011; Tempini and Leonelli 2021). • In contexts of inquiry marked by 'epistemic scarcity' (Currie 2021) like paleoanthropology, evidential standards are frequently invoked in debated settings: How are evidential standards constructed, interpreted and enforced?

@andrameneganzin.bsky.social & Matteo Bedettti on "Homo naledi, Controversial Burials & Responsibility Failures" in session "Abusing Deep Time: Scientific Responsibility in the Paleosciences" at @ishpssb2025.bsky.social #ISHPSSB2025 #philsci #paleosky 🏺

Join our session on the first day of #ISHPPSB2025 to delve into epistemic and non-epistemic abuses of the deep past 👀
🕘 9 am, Anf. 1!

Feat: Homo naledi & evidential standards, misinterpretations of the role of women, speculation & risk in the paleosciences. 💀🧪🏺

#philbio #philsky #paleosky

Screenshot of a the ISHPSSB 2025 session "Abusing Deep Time: Scientific Responsibility in the Paleosciences" listing three academic presentations: "Homo naledi, Controversial Burials & Responsibility Failures" by Matteo Bedetti (University of Urbino Carlo BO, Italy) and Andra Meneganzin (Institute of Philosophy, KU Leuven, Belgium). "Inductive Risk & Speculation in the Paleosciences" by Adrian Currie (University of Exeter, United Kingdom). "From Invisible to Warrior: Prehistoric Women in Contemporary Society" by Enza Elena Spinapolice (Sapienza Università di Roma, Italy). The heading reads “IN THIS SYMPOSIUM,” and each entry is marked with a session number (59, 66, 70).

If you're going to #ISHPSSB2025 next week & don't know where to start, consider joining the session on scientific responsibility in the paleosciences that @andrameneganzin.bsky.social put together on Mon. morning! M Bedetti, @adrian-currie.bsky.social & EE Spinapolice will be there! #paleosky #HPbio

Screenshot of a journal article titled "Two ontogenetic challenges to trait individuation" by Alejandro Fábregas-Tejeda, published in Synthese (2025) 205:219. The abstract reads: "Trait individuation is an epistemically indispensable and heuristically fruitful practice in biological science. However, important ontological issues transcend an epistemology-only reading of what trait individuation entails (e.g., adaptation and homology), prompting scholars to advance models and frameworks to grapple with this problem. Here, I articulate two challenges that arise when advancing theories and frameworks to tackle trait individuation: the synchronicity and the diachronicity challenges. The synchronicity challenge involves specifying the traits an organism has at a given moment in ontogeny, whereas the diachronicity challenge involves understanding the causal processes that drive trait individuation in development and tracing these units across time. To delve deeper, I introduce extant functionalist and structuralist perspectives on trait individuation and evaluate how they address both challenges. Overcoming these challenges is necessary for such accounts to fulfill their theoretical promise of individuating the traits that organisms have in an ontologically sound way."

“Traits” are central units of biological analysis—but how should they be individuated, and relative to which ontogenetic frame of reference? In my new paper, I argue that answering this isn’t easy—and matters more than it seems. 📃👇 link.springer.com/article/10.1... #philsci #HPBio #evosky #evodevo

Screenshot of the first page of a journal article titled "Developmental Channeling and Evolutionary Dappling" by Grant Ramsey and Cristina Villegas, published in Philosophy of Science (2024), Volume 91, pages 869–886. The page includes logos of the Philosophy of Science Association and the journal Philosophy of Science.

How does #development steer #evolution? Through 'developmental channeling'—organisms’ dispositions to develop in some ways, not others—yielding 'evolutionary dappling,' where only parts of the morphospace get filled. Check out our recent 📃👇 www.cambridge.org/core/journal... #evodevo #philsci #HPbio

3-year Postdoc in philosophy of biology w/ @lucielaplane.bsky.social in Paris on cell lineages; interdisciplinary project w/ mathematicians & biologists. Conceptually-minded historians & social scientists also welcome to apply. Project start in early 2026. Application opens soon #HPS #hpbio #STS

Screenshot of the first page of a journal article titled "Developmental Channeling and Evolutionary Dappling" by Grant Ramsey and Cristina Villegas, published in Philosophy of Science (2024), Volume 91, pages 869–886. The page includes logos of the Philosophy of Science Association and the journal Philosophy of Science.

How does #development steer #evolution? Through 'developmental channeling'—organisms’ dispositions to develop in some ways, not others—yielding 'evolutionary dappling,' where only parts of the morphospace get filled. Check out our recent 📃👇 www.cambridge.org/core/journal... #evodevo #philsci #HPbio

🚨What is behavioral innovativeness? And how can we make sense of claims that individuals or taxa are 'more innovative' than others? In their new EJPS paper, Grant Ramsey & @andrameneganzin.bsky.social defend a novel, multidimensional & multilevel account of innovativeness.👇

#philsci #HPbio #evobio

Poster for an interdisciplinary workshop titled "Behavior Across the Tree of Life: Theoretical and Methodological Challenges", taking place September 26–27, 2025. Organized by Gianmaria Dani, Alejandro Fábregas-Tejeda, and Grant Ramsey (Institute of Philosophy, KU Leuven). The call invites theoretical and empirical researchers—philosophers and scientists—to submit abstracts (max. 500 words, excluding references) on comparative behavioral biology and its conceptual foundations. Submission deadline: July 14, 2025. Notification: July 18, 2025. Abstracts must include affiliation and contact info and be sent to gianmaria.dani@kuleuven.be and alejandro.fabregastejeda@kuleuven.be. Invited speakers: Kristin Aleklett (Lund University), Silvia Guerra (University of Padua), Tobias Starzak (Ruhr University Bochum), Kirsty Y. Wan (University of Exeter). On the lower left side, the poster features a collage illustrating diverse biological behaviors across life forms: orange and yellow lichens growing on rock (symbiotic behavior), a close-up of bacteria (microbial interactions), leafcutter ants cooperating to carry a leaf (social insect behavior), a sundew plant trapping an insect (plant predation), and phylogenetic trees representing evolutionary relationships.

What theoretical and methodological challenges emerge when investigating #behavior across the tree of life? 📢Final days to send your abstract for an interdisciplinary workshop (September 26-27) at KU Leuven! Come join us, and please help us share! hiw.kuleuven.be/clps/events/... #HPS #HPbio #evobio

What can slime mould teach us about biological memory? | Aeon Essays Certain slime moulds can make decisions, solve mazes and remember things. What can we learn from the blob?

What can slime moulds teach us about biological memory? Quite a bit, it turns out. Matthew Sims (@philosobio.bsky.social) dives into this question in a wonderfully engaging piece for @aeon.co. Give it a read—before it slips your mind! 👇 aeon.co/essays/what-... #HPS #philsky #HPbio #evobio #neurosky

Great paper on the degrees and levels of innovativeness, contributing to the ongoing debate on how to compare innovations & the ability to innovate !!
(Nb. to be distinguished from the propensity to invent, which we are studying in chacma baboons @animalinvention.bsky.social ).

Proofs and Research Programmes: Lakatos at 100 This open access book offers new insights into issues raised in philosophy of mathematics and in philosophy of science by Imre Lakatos.

New publication: “Trade-offs and Progress in Cancer Science”, open access here: link.springer.com/book/10.1007...
Thank you to Adrian Currie for the feedback, and to Frigg and Worrall for their invitation to contribute. (This was the Lakatos lecture.)

Poster for the Interdisciplinary Workshop “Behavior Across the Tree of Life: Theoretical and Methodological”, taking place on September 26–27, 2025 at the Institute of Philosophy, KU Leuven. The event is organized by Gianmaria Dani, Alejandro Fábregas-Tejeda, and Grant Ramsey. The poster features circular images of diverse biological organisms (lichens, bacteria, ants, carnivorous plants) surrounding a central announcement. Call for Applications: Deadline: July 14th, 2025 Notification: July 18th, 2025 Open to philosophers and scientists interested in comparative behavioral biology and its theoretical and methodological foundations. Abstracts of up to 500 words (excluding references), including affiliation and contact info, should be sent to: gianmaria.dani@kuleuven.be alejandro.fabregastejeda@kuleuven.be Invited Speakers: Kristin Aleklett (Lund University) Silvia Guerra (University of Padua) Tobias Starzak (Ruhr University Bochum) Kirsty Y. Wan (University of Exeter)

What theoretical and methodological challenges emerge when investigating #behavior across the tree of life? 📢 Final reminder: CfA for an interdisciplinary workshop (September 26-27) at KU Leuven! Come join us, and please help us share! hiw.kuleuven.be/clps/events/... #philsci #HPbio #evosky #ecology

ABSTRACT. The levels-of-selection debate is generally taken to be a debate about how natural selection can occur at the various levels of biological organization. In this article, we argue that questions about levels of selection should be analysed separately from questions about levels of organization. In the deflationary proposal we defend, all that is necessary for multilevel selection is that there are cases in which particles are nested in collectives, and that both the collectives and the particles that compose them each separately undergo natural selection. We argue that adopting this deflationary account helps to disentangle the levels of selection and the levels of organization, and thereby contributes to advancing the levels-of-selection debate.

From the new issue:

Markus Eronen & Grant Ramsey
‘What Are the "Levels" in Levels of Selection?'

Read it here: www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/10.1086/...

#philsci #philsky #hps #hpbio

Multilevel innovativeness and cross-species comparisons - European Journal for Philosophy of Science Behavioral innovativeness—the propensity of an individual organism or higher group to innovate—is frequently invoked as a measurable trait allowing for cross-species comparisons. Individuals or specie...

link.springer.com/article/10.1...

🚨What is behavioral innovativeness? And how can we make sense of claims that individuals or taxa are 'more innovative' than others? In their new EJPS paper, Grant Ramsey & @andrameneganzin.bsky.social defend a novel, multidimensional & multilevel account of innovativeness.👇

#philsci #HPbio #evobio

Introduction to “Formalization and the Meaning of ‘Theory’ in the Inexact Biological Sciences” Jim Griesemer papers are typically rich, creative, and challenging. One of my favorite things about a Griesemer paper is that some of the best bits are doing double duty as framing. That is well on di...

Excited to share that "Scaffolding: Selected Contributions of James R. Griesemer to History, Philosophy, and Biology" is out. I introduce Jim's chapter on formalization. (My original title, "Undermining Dichotomies and the Friends You Make Along the Way."

doi.org/10.1007/978-...

It's July, the month of the #ISHPSSB2025 conference 😊! If you haven't registered yet, don't forget that 10 July is the deadline for registration (for presenters or visitors)!
[and if you think this is of interest, please spread the word]
#hpbio #philsci #histstm #histsci #philbio #hbio #sts

Folks! Just two weeks left to submit an abstract to this fantastic workshop here at KU Leuven! Gianmaria and @alejandrofabregastejeda.com are cooking up some really cool work...

@theramseylab.bsky.social is restless—and so should you be.

Please circulate widely!

#philsky #philbio #hpbio #philsci🧪

Positively misleading errors - Synthese Positively misleading errors are errors of statistical reasoning in which adding data to an analysis will systematically and reliably strengthen support for an erroneous hypothesis over a correct one....

Very happy to see my "Positively Misleading Errors" finally published (it's been a long road). It generalizes an error of statistical reasoning discovered by Joe Felsenstein in 1978. Really happy with how it turned out.

Currently free to access and download, so go for it!

doi.org/10.1007/s112...

Promotional image for the call for applications for an academic workshop titled “Behavior Across the Tree of Life: Theoretical and Methodological Challenges.” The topic is Comparative Behavioral Biology, organized by Gianmaria Dani, Alejandro Fábregas-Tejeda, and Grant Ramsey (Institute of Philosophy, KU Leuven). Invited speakers include Kristin Aleklett (Lund University), Silvia Guerra (University of Padua), Tobias Starzak (Ruhr University Bochum), and Kirsty Y. Wan (University of Exeter). The call for applications lists a submission deadline of July 14th, 2025, and a notification date of July 18th, 2025. Abstracts of max. 500 words (excluding references) are invited from philosophers and scientists. Contact emails for submissions are provided. The poster features circular images of fungi, microbes, a phylogenetic tree, ants on a leaf, and a carnivorous plant.

What challenges emerge when investigating #behavior across the tree of life? We have an open CfA for a workshop on comparative behavioral biology (Sept. 26-27). Scientists & philosophers are welcome! Please help us spread the word! 📢👇 hiw.kuleuven.be/clps/events/... #philsci #evosky #HPbio #Paleosky

View over the Douro River from Porto; on the other side of the river (Vila Nova de Gaia), a few Port wine cellars.

Sunset over Jardins do Palácio de Cristal with tree in the foreground (plane trees and lime trees).

One month to go to the #ISHPSSB2025!
#hpbio #philsci #histstm #histsci #philbio #hbio #sts

Promotional image for the call for applications for an academic workshop titled “Behavior Across the Tree of Life: Theoretical and Methodological Challenges.” The topic is Comparative Behavioral Biology, organized by Gianmaria Dani, Alejandro Fábregas-Tejeda, and Grant Ramsey (Institute of Philosophy, KU Leuven). Invited speakers include Kristin Aleklett (Lund University), Silvia Guerra (University of Padua), Tobias Starzak (Ruhr University Bochum), and Kirsty Y. Wan (University of Exeter). The call for applications lists a submission deadline of July 14th, 2025, and a notification date of July 18th, 2025. Abstracts of max. 500 words (excluding references) are invited from philosophers and scientists. Contact emails for submissions are provided. The poster features circular images of fungi, microbes, a phylogenetic tree, ants on a leaf, and a carnivorous plant.

What challenges emerge when investigating #behavior across the tree of life? We have an open CfA for a workshop on comparative behavioral biology (Sept. 26-27). Scientists & philosophers are welcome! Please help us spread the word! 📢👇 hiw.kuleuven.be/clps/events/... #philsci #evosky #HPbio #Paleosky

I was thrilled to take part in the 43rd Altenberg workshop on Conrad Hal Waddington at the KLI! Thanks to @alejandrofabregastejeda.com and @fvergara-silva.bsky.social for being such great organizers! (pun very much intended)

Link to the article 📄👉: www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/full/10....

Screenshot of the cover of the paper “What are the ‘Levels’ in the Levels of Selection?” by Markus Eronen and Grant Ramsey, just published in The British Journal for the Philosophy of Science (cover shown on the right).

Fresh off the press on @thebjps.bsky.social! Markus Eronen & Grant Ramsey argue that questions about levels of selection shouldn't be conflated with those about levels of biological organization and defend a deflationary perspective to help disentangle the two.

#philbio #philsky #philsci #evobio 🧪

Featuring a Ramsey Lab article…

I am so happy that this paper co-authored with John Duprè is out! Open access journals.publishing.umich.edu/ptpbio/artic...
Please share with others who might be interested! #philsci #philbio 🌱