Collaborators: Choate, DM, MJ Michel, AK Baldridge, MA Barnes, D Hoekman, CJ Patrick, J Rüegg, TA Crowl, TE Miller.

Although philosophy is indeed the mother of modern science, the relationship between philosophy and ecology remains ambiguous to most practicing ecologists.

Is there some value of philosophy to ecology?

I have been fortunate to be around those that think there is some role of philosophy for ecologists.  Subsequently, I have been exposed to and given the academic freedom to explore this relationship during my graduate degree and while at an interdisciplinary postdoc at the University of Florida.  Intellectually, this freedom has resulted in a series of papers, talks and a seminar all exploring various aspects of this question, and I share these here. I have greatly enjoyed the many discussions and critical thinking about science that I’ve undertaken as a result of this interest and invite any comments, criticisms or feedback as I still struggle with this question and exactly how to tackle it.

Prather, CM, DM Choate, MJ Michel. 2009. Putting the Ph. back in PhD: framing graduate research in a theoretical context. Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment. 7: 389-390. (PDF)

Choate, DM*, CM Prather*, MJ Michel, AK Baldridge, MA Barnes, D Hoekman, CJ Patrick, J Rüegg, TA Crowl. Integrating Theory: a Graphical Model for Graduate Students and Researchers. Bioscience. (Accepted; *=authors contributed equally to manuscript). (PDF)

Prather, CM. The rise and fall of philosophy in ecology. 2011.  Ecological Society of America, Austin, TX. (PDF of abstract)

Prather CM and TE Miller. Reading list for seminar (PDF): The value of philosophy for ecology and evolutionary biology.