Research Products

Our group creates a wide variety of research products, including academic books and papers, and materials for public audiences. We also give talks to groups of specialists and the public, worldwide. Check it all out below. For each publication, members of the lab are marked in bold.

Note that as a group, we discourage the posting of our work on for-profit sites like Academia.edu or ResearchGate. All our articles can instead both be found here and at a variety of other open-access preprint archives.

Publications

Books Articles Gray Literature Book Reviews Other Talks Outreach

Books

Pence, C.H. 2022. The Rise of Chance in Evolutionary Theory: A Pompous Parade of Arithmetic. London: Academic Press / Elsevier. ISBN: 978-0-323-91292-1 at the publisher
Announcement in fnrs.news (February 2022, FR) Quarterly Review of Biology Metascience Journal for General Philosophy of Science

Pence, C.H. 2021. The Causal Structure of Natural Selection. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. doi: 10.1017/9781108680691 ISBN: 978-1-108-74169-9 at the publisher
Philosophy of Science Brief introduction (by me)

Ramsey, G. & Pence, C.H., eds. 2016. Chance in Evolution. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. doi: 10.7208/chicago/9780226401911.001.0001 ISBN: 978-0-226-40188-1 at the publisher
Science & Education Perspectives on Science and Christian Faith History and Philosophy of the Life Sciences Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Metascience Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews The Casual Optimist (book cover of note, October 2016)

Articles and Book Chapters

Pence, C.H. & Conix, S. Submitted. “Mapping Controversy: A Cartography of Taxonomy and Biodiversity for the Philosophy of Biology.” In Experimental Philosophy and Corpus Analysis, Ulatowski, J., Weijers, D., & Sytsma, J., eds. London: Bloomsbury.

Pence, C.H. Forthcoming. “Popper y la interpretación propensivista de la probabilidad [Popper and the Propensity Interpretation of Probability, trans. V.J. Luque].” In Karl Popper y el legado del Positivismo Lógico, Pérez-González, S., Luque, V.J., & Gimeno-Simó, J., eds. València: Publicacions de la Universitat de València.

Gaillard, M., Pence, C.H., & Botbol-Baum, M. 2025. “Organoid Ethical Typology: Varieties of Three-Dimensional Stem Cell Constructs and the Many Issues They Raise in Bioethics.” Biology of the Cell 117 (1): e2400093. doi: 10.1111/boc.202400093

Bertoldi, N. & Pence, C.H. 2025. “‘Population’ in Biology and Statistics.” Studies in History and Philosophy of Science 109: 1–11. doi: 10.1016/j.shpsa.2024.12.014

Pence, C.H. 2024. “Putting Ambiguity to Work: Biodiversity and Rules of Engagement for Vagueness in Science.” Lato Sensu 11 (1): 5–15. doi: 10.20416/LSRSPS.V11I1.2

Casali, M., Michon, M., & Pence, C.H. 2024. “Introduction : Le vague dans les sciences.” Lato Sensu 11 (1): 1–4. doi: 10.20416/LSRSPS.V11I1.1

Pence, C.H. 2024. “The Modern Synthesis and ‘Progress’ in Evolution: A View from the Journal Literature.” History and Philosophy of the Life Sciences 46 (4): 39. doi: 10.1007/s40656-024-00634-6

Conix, S., Cuypers, V., & Pence, C.H. 2024. “Measuring and Explaining Disagreement in Bird Taxonomy.” European Journal of Taxonomy 943 (1): 288–307. doi: 10.5852/ejt.2024.943.2601

Pence, C.H. 2024. “John Herschel’s Methodology in the Scientific Community.” In The Cambridge Companion to John Herschel, Case, S. & Verburgt, L.M., eds. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 257–279. doi: 10.1017/9781009237727.013 ISBN: 978-1-009-23767-3

Bertoldi, N., Lareau, F., Pence, C.H., & Malaterre, C. 2024. “A Quantitative Window on the History of Statistics: Topic-Modelling 120 Years of Biometrika.” Digital Scholarship in the Humanities 39: 13–29. doi: 10.1093/llc/fqad072

Evans, N.G. & Pence, C.H. 2024. “Gain of Function Research and Model Organisms in Biology.” Journal of Medical Ethics 50 (3): 201–206. doi: 10.1136/jme-2022-108853

Lean, O.M., Rivelli, L., & Pence, C.H. 2023. “Digital Literature Analysis for Empirical Philosophy of Science.” British Journal for the Philosophy of Science 74 (4): 875–898. doi: 10.1086/715049
BJPS Short Reads BJPS Short Reads (local copy)

Pence, C.H. & Hicks, D.J. 2023. “Challenges for ‘Community’ in Science and Values: Cases from Robotics Research.” HUMANA.MENTE Journal of Philosophical Studies 16 (44): 1–32. at the publisher

Lien, A.M., Banki, O., Barik, S.K., Buckeridge, J.S., Christidis, L., Cigliano, M.M., Conix, S., Costello, M.J., Hobern, D., Kirk, P.M., Kroh, A., Montogomery, N., Nikolaeva, S., Orrell, T.M., Pyle, R.L., Raz, L., Thiele, K., Thomson, S.A., van Dijk, P.P, Wambiji, N., Whalen, A., Zachos, F.E., Zhang, Z.-Q., & Garnett, S.T. 2023. “Widespread Support for a Global Species List with a Formal Governance System.” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 120 (45): e2306899120. doi: 10.1073/pnas.2306899120
Discussion in The Conversation (October 2023)

Conix, S., Cuypers, V., Zachos, F.E., & De Block, A. 2023. “Taxonomic Disagreement About Ranks in Gray-Area Taxa: A Vignette Study.” BioScience 73 (10): 728–737. doi: 10.1093/biosci/biad081

Pence, C.H. 2023. “Origin’s Chapter IX and X: From Old Objections to Novel Explanations: Darwin on the Fossil Record.” In Understanding Evolution in Darwin's “Origin”: The Emerging Context of Evolutionary Thinking, Brzezinski Prestes, M. E., ed. Cham: Springer, pp. 321–331. doi: 10.1007/978-3-031-40165-7_20 ISBN: 978-3-031-40164-0

Conix, S., Cuypers, V., Zachos, F., Artois, T., & Monnens, M. 2023. “A Plea for Preregistration in Taxonomy.” Megataxa 10 (1): 1–14. doi: 10.11646/megataxa.10.1.1

Pence, C.H. 2022. “Un seuil entre deux mondes ? Les animaux et les êtres humains de Darwin à nos jours.” Revue Théologique de Louvain 53 (4): 436–452. doi: 10.2143/RTL.53.4.3291310

Pence, C.H. 2022. “Charles Darwin (1809–1882).” In Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy, Fieser, J. & Dowden, B., eds. at the publisher

Pence, C.H. 2022. “How Not to Fight About Theory: The Debate Between Biometry and Mendelism in Nature, 1890–1915.” In The Dynamics of Science: Computational Frontiers in History and Philosophy of Science, Ramsey, G. & De Block, A., eds. Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press, pp. 147–163. ISBN: 978-0-822-94737-0 at the publisher

Pence, C.H. & Rivelli, L. 2022. “Editorial Introduction to “Digital Studies of Digital Science”.” Synthese 200: 328. doi: 10.1007/s11229-022-03802-y

Pence, C.H. 2022. “Of Stirps and Chromosomes: Generality Through Detail.” Studies in History and Philosophy of Science 94: 177–190. doi: 10.1016/j.shpsa.2022.06.015

Pence, C.H. 2022. “Testing and Discovery: Responding to Challenges to Digital Philosophy of Science.” Metaphilosophy 53 (2-3): 238–253. doi: 10.1111/meta.12549
Shan, Y., ed. 2023. Examining Philosophy Itself, pp. 111–132. New York: John Wiley & Sons.

Pence, C.H. 2022. “Whatever Happened to Reversion?.” Studies in History and Philosophy of Science 92: 97–108. doi: 10.1016/j.shpsa.2022.01.019

Pence, C.H. 2021. “W.F.R. Weldon Changes His Mind.” European Journal for Philosophy of Science 11 (3): 61. doi: 10.1007/s13194-021-00384-3

Pence, C.H. 2019. “Locating Uncertainty in Stochastic Evolutionary Models: Divergence Time Estimation.” Biology & Philosophy 34: 21. doi: 10.1007/s10539-019-9683-1

Pence, C.H. & Ramsey, G. 2018. “How to Do Digital Philosophy of Science.” Philosophy of Science 85 (5): 930–941. doi: 10.1086/699697

Pence, C.H. 2018. “Sir John F. W. Herschel and Charles Darwin: Nineteenth-Century Science and its Methodology.” HOPOS 8 (1): 108–140. doi: 10.1086/695719
HPS&ST Note (February 2018)

Pence, C.H. & Swaim, D.G. 2018. “The Economy of Nature: The Structure of Evolution in Linnaeus, Darwin, and the Modern Synthesis.” European Journal for Philosophy of Science 8 (3): 435–454. doi: 10.1007/s13194-017-0194-0

Pence, C.H. 2017. “Is Genetic Drift a Force?.” Synthese 194 (6): 1967–1988. doi: 10.1007/s11229-016-1031-2

Mendelson, T.C., Fitzpatrick, C.L., Hauber, M.E., Pence, C.H., Rodriguez, R.L., Safran, R.J., Stern, C.A., & Stevens, J.R. 2016. “Cognitive Phenotypes and the Evolution of Animal Decisions.” Trends in Ecology and Evolution 31 (11): 850–859. doi: 10.1016/j.tree.2016.08.008
UMBC News (press release)

Ramsey, G. & Pence, C.H. 2016. “Chance in Evolution from Darwin to Contemporary Biology.” In Chance in Evolution, Ramsey, G. & Pence, C.H., eds. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, pp. 1–11. doi: 10.7208/chicago/9780226401911.001.0001

Ramsey, G. & Pence, C.H. 2016. “evoText: A New Tool for Analyzing the Biological Sciences.” Studies in History and Philosophy of Biological and Biomedical Sciences 57: 83–87. doi: 10.1016/j.shpsc.2016.04.003

Pence, C.H. 2016. “RLetters: A Web-Based Application for Text Analysis of Journal Articles.” PLoS ONE 11 (1): e0146004. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0146004

Pence, C.H. & Ramsey, G. 2015. “Is Organismic Fitness at the Basis of Evolutionary Theory?.” Philosophy of Science 82 (5): 1081–1091. doi: 10.1086/683442

Pence, C.H. 2015. “The Early History of Chance in Evolution.” Studies in History and Philosophy of Science 50: 48–58. doi: 10.1016/j.shpsa.2014.09.006

Pence, C.H. 2015. “Military Genomic Testing: Proportionality, Expected Benefits, and the Connection between Genotypes and Phenotypes.” Journal of Law and the Biosciences 2 (1): 85–91. doi: 10.1093/jlb/lsu035

Pence, C.H. & Ramsey, G. 2013. “A New Foundation for the Propensity Interpretation of Fitness.” British Journal for the Philosophy of Science 64 (4): 851–881. doi: 10.1093/bjps/axs037
2013 Karl Popper Prize Citation (BSPS) 2013 Karl Popper Prize Citation (from charlespence.net)

Ramsey, G. & Pence, C.H. 2013. “Fitness: Philosophical Problems.” In eLS, Clarke, A., ed. Milton Park, UK: John Wiley & Sons. doi: 10.1002/9780470015902.a0003443.pub2

Philip, J.T., Pence, C.H. & Goodson, H.V. 2012. “MTBindingSim: Simulate Protein Binding to Microtubules.” Bioinformatics 28 (3): 441–443. doi: 10.1093/bioinformatics/btr684

Pence, C.H. & Buchak, L. 2012. “Oyun: A New, Free Program for Iterated Prisoner’s Dilemma Tournaments in the Classroom.” Evolution: Education and Outreach 5 (3): 467–476. doi: 10.1007/s12052-012-0434-x

Pence, C.H. 2011. “‘Describing Our Whole Experience’: The Statistical Philosophies of W.F.R. Weldon and Karl Pearson.” Studies in History and Philosophy of Biological and Biomedical Sciences 42 (4): 475–485. doi: 10.1016/j.shpsc.2011.07.011

Pence, C.H. 2011. “Nietzsche’s Aesthetic Critique of Darwin.” History and Philosophy of the Life Sciences 33 (2): 165–190. at the publisher

Gray Literature

Gaillard, M., Pence, C.H., & Botbol-Baum, M. 2022. “Typology for artificial biological entities.” HYBRIDA: Embedding a comprehensive ethical dimension to organoid-based research and resulting technologies [EU H2020 SwafS]. doi: 10.3030/101006012 at the publisher

Gaillard, M., Pence, C.H., & Botbol-Baum, M. 2022. “The challenging history of organoid research and its implications for ontology and ethics.” HYBRIDA: Embedding a comprehensive ethical dimension to organoid-based research and resulting technologies [EU H2020 SwafS]. doi: 10.3030/101006012 at the publisher

Gaillard, M., Pence, C.H., & Botbol-Baum, M. 2022. “Identification and discussion of conceptual uncertainties relating to organoids, chimeric entities, and hybrids.” HYBRIDA: Embedding a comprehensive ethical dimension to organoid-based research and resulting technologies [EU H2020 SwafS]. doi: 10.3030/101006012 at the publisher

Book Reviews

Pence, C.H. Forthcoming. “Quantitative Studies of Philosophy [Review of Eugenio Petrovich, A Quantitative Portrait of Philosophy: Looking Through the Margins].” Metascience. doi: 10.1007/s11016-024-01039-8

Pence, C.H. 2025. “[Review of] Disputed Inheritance: The Battle over Mendel and the Future of Biology. By Gregory Radick.” Quarterly Review of Biology 100 (1): 30–31. doi: 10.1086/734513

Pence, C.H. 2024. “[Review of] Evolution and the Machinery of Chance, Marshall Abrams.” BJPS Review of Books. at the publisher

Bautista Perpinyà, M. & Pence, C.H. 2023. “[Review of] Catastrophic Thinking, David Sepkoski.” BJPS Review of Books. at the publisher

Deleuze, C. & Pence, C.H. 2022. “Compte rendu [Review of] : Béatrice Desvergne. De la biologie à la médecine personnalisée : mieux soigner demain ?.” Lato Sensu 9 (1): 21–22. doi: 10.20416/LSRSPS.V9I1.3

Pence, C.H. 2022. “The Proof of the Pudding. [Review of Yafeng Shan, Doing Integrated History and Philosophy of Science: A Case Study of the Origin of Genetics].” Metascience 31 (2): 179–181. doi: 10.1007/s11016-022-00744-6

Pence, C.H. 2020. “[Review of] How Biology Shapes Philosophy, David Livingstone Smith.” BJPS Review of Books. at the publisher

Pence, C.H. 2020. “[Review of] Evolutionary Causation: Biological and Philosophical Reflections. Vienna Series in Theoretical Biology edited by Tobias Uller and Kevin N. Laland.” The Quarterly Review of Biology 95 (2): 150–151. doi: 10.1086/709062

Pence, C.H. 2018. “[Review of] Buckets from an English Sea: 1832 and the Making of Charles Darwin by Louis B. Rosenblatt.” The Quarterly Review of Biology 93 (4): 356. doi: 10.1086/700773

Pence, C.H. 2018. “[Review of] Origins of Darwin’s Evolution: Solving the Species Puzzle Through Time and Place by J. David Archibald.” The Quarterly Review of Biology 93 (2): 128–129. doi: 10.1086/698027

Pence, C.H. 2017. “[Review of] Robert J. Richards and Michael Ruse, Debating Darwin.” HOPOS 7 (2): 397–400. doi: 10.1086/693430

Pence, C.H. 2015. “The Many Chances of Charles Darwin [Essay Review].” Studies in History and Philosophy of Biological and Biomedical Sciences 53: 107–110. doi: 10.1016/j.shpsc.2015.07.008

Pence, C.H. 2015. “[Review of] Darwin’s Dice: The Idea of Chance in the Thought of Charles Darwin.” Reports of the National Center for Science Education 35 (6): 11.

Pence, C.H. 2014. “Busting Myths about ‘Species’ [Review of Species: A History of the Idea, by John Wilkins].” Evolution: Education and Outreach 7: 21. doi: 10.1186/s12052-014-0021-4

Pence, C.H. 2013. “[Review of] Staffan Müller-Wille and Hans-Jörg Rheinberger, A Cultural History of Heredity.” HOPOS 3 (1): 168–172. doi: 10.1086/668913

Hollocher, H., Pence, C.H., Ramsey, G., & Wirth, M.M. 2013. “A Path to Success? A Review of Evolution, Development, and the Predictable Genome by David L. Stern.” Evolution and Development 15 (1): 80–82. doi: 10.1111/ede.12016

Hollocher, H., Fuentes, A., Pence, C.H., Ramsey, G., Sportiello, D.J. & Wirth, M.M. 2011. “[Review of] On the Origin of Stories: Evolution, Cognition, and Fiction.” The Quarterly Review of Biology 86 (2): 137–138. doi: 10.1086/659913

Pence, C.H., Hollocher, H., Nichols, R., Ramsey, G., Siu, E., & Sportiello, D.J. 2011. “[Review of] Elliott Sober: Did Darwin Write the Origin Backwards? Philosophical Essays on Darwin’s Theory.” Philosophy of Science 78 (4): 705–709. doi: 10.1086/661775

Ramsey, G., Hollocher, H., Fuentes, A., Pence, C.H., & Siu, E. 2010. “[Review of] Darwinian Populations and Natural Selection.” The Quarterly Review of Biology 85 (4): 499–500. doi: 10.1086/656856

Preprints / Other

Pence, C.H. Dissertation. Chance in Evolutionary Theory: Fitness, Selection, and Genetic Drift in Philosophical and Historical Perspective. doi: 10.6084/m9.figshare.988695

Talks

Upcoming Engagements

The lab is always interested in talking about our work to any audiences who would like to hear about it. Send Prof. Pence an email and we’d love to set something up.

Recent Talks

August 22, 2024, 16h: Author Meets Critics: Eugenio Petrovich, A Quantitative Portrait of Analytic Philosophy
Quantitative Studies of Philosophy | August 21–22, 2024
Lab Speaker(s): Pence

August 21, 2024, 16h: Historical Analysis and the Shifting Journal Article
Quantitative Studies of Philosophy | August 21–22, 2024
Lab Speaker(s): Pence

June 8, 2024, 11h: John Herschel's Philosophy of Science
John Herschel, The Last Polymath | June 8, 2024
Lab Speaker(s): Pence

May 28, 2024, 11h: Metascience and the Philosophy of Science
Philosophy of Science Meets Quantitative Studies of Science | May 27–29, 2024
Lab Speaker(s): Pence

May 22, 2024, 11h: Journal Articles as Ephemeral Texts
Ephemeral Media of Knowledge, Le Studium, Tours | May 22–23, 2024
Lab Speaker(s): Pence

A complete archive of older talks can be found here.

Outreach

A complete archive of outreach and media activities can be found here.