Chris Haufe

Hi. I’m Chris Haufe. I work on problems in the history and philosophy of knowledge across a variety of disciplines.

I grew up in Saginaw, Michigan. As an undergraduate, I studied philosophy, economics, and women’s studies at the University of Michigan. I moved to New York City in August 2001 to study philosophy at Columbia University, from which I graduated in 2006.

I’ve been working at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland since 2011, where I live with my amazing wife and three spectacular children.

These are my current projects:

  1. the role of metaphor in science
  2. conceptual and historical foundations of scientism
  3. the epistemology of the humanities

Books

Do The Humanities Create Knowledge?

Cambridge University Press (2023)

How Knowledge Grows: the Evolutionary Development of Scientific Practice.

MIT Press (2022)

Fruitfulness: Science, Metaphor, and the Puzzle of Promise.

Oxford University Press (2024).

Illusory Riches: the False Promise of Evolutionary Psychology

Oxford University Press (2025).

Under Contract

  • The Substructure of Scientific Revolutions. University of Chicago Press (a historical companion to Kuhn’s Structure of Scientific Revolutions, written with John Huss. probably 2026)
  • Richard Lewontin: Natural Philosopher. Philosophical Outsiders. Oxford University Press (probably 2027).

In Progress

Thinking Through Climate Change (with Cyrus Taylor)

Articles

  • (2024) “The Puzzle of Promise” in Wray (ed.) Kuhn’s The Structure of Scientific Revolutions at 60. Cambridge University Press.
  • (2022) “Punctuated Equilibrium” in The SAGE Encyclopedia of Theory in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics
  • (2017) “Anthropogenic Mass Extinction,” Oxford Handbook of Environmental Ethics. New York: Oxford University Press, (427 – 437) (with Jeremy Bendik-Keymer)
  • (2016) “Testing Philosophical Theories” Studies in the History and Philosophy of Science 59(1): 68-73
  • (2015) “Gould’s Laws” Philosophy of Science 82(1): 1-20
  • (2013) “Why Do Funding Agencies Favor Hypothesis Testing?” Studies in the History and Philosophy of Science 44(3): 363-374
  • (2013) “From Necessary Chances to Biological Laws” British Journal for the Philosophy of Science 64(2): 279-295
  • (2012) “Darwin’s Laws” Studies in the History and Philosophy of Biological and Biomedical Sciences 43(1): 269-280
  • (2010) “Machine Science: What’s Missing” Science 330(6002): 317-318 (with Maureen O’Malley, Richard Burian, and Kevin Elliott)
  • (2009) “Philosophies of Funding” Cell 138(4): 611–615 (with Maureen O’Malley, Richard Burian, and Kevin Elliott)
  • (2009) “Where No Mind Has Gone Before: Exploring Laws in Distant and Lonely Worlds” International Studies in the Philosophy of Science 23(3): 265–276 (with Matthew Slater)
  • (2008) “Perverse Engineering” Philosophy of Science 75(4): 437–446
  • (2008) “Sexual Selection and Mate Choice in Evolutionary Psychology” Biology and Philosophy 23(1):115–128

Recent and Upcoming Talks

  • “There’s Nothing Neutral About Random Models in Evolutionary Biology” Department of Philosophy, Duke University (2024)
  • “The Garbage Man” Department of Philosophy, Columbia University (2022)
  • “Philosophy of Science Journalism” Philosophy of Science Association Biennial Meeting (2022)
  • “The Puzzle of Promise” Conference on 60th Anniversary of Kuhn’s The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, Aarhus University (2022)
  • “Philosophical Problems Exemplified by Kepler’s Discoveries” Kepler at 450: An Interdisciplinary Celebration, Case Western Reserve University (2021)
  • “Trust Issues” Philosophy of Science Association Biennial Meeting (2021)
  • “Of Interest” Baker-Nord Center for the Humanities, Case Western Reserve University (2021)
  • “The Perception of Promise” APA Eastern Division Meeting, Symposium on Theoretical Virtues (2020)
  • “The Priority of Promise” University of Buffalo (2019)
  • “Humanities Research Problems” Humanities Center, University of Rochester (2019)
  • “The Hoax and The Humanities” Humanities Center, University of Rochester (2018)
  • “The Evolutionary Fixation of Ideas” Philosophy of Science Association Biennial Meeting (2018)
  • “The Evolutionary Nature of Scientific Progress” Oberlin College (2018)
  • “The Directionality of Science” History of Science Society Annual Meeting (2016)
  • “On the Epistemic Significance of Predictive Success” Philosophy of Science Association Biennial Meeting (2016)