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:
- the role of metaphor in science
- conceptual and historical foundations of scientism
- the epistemology of the humanities
Books
Do The Humanities Create Knowledge?
Cambridge University Press (2023)
Fruitfulness: Science, Metaphor, and the Puzzle of Promise.
Oxford University Press (2024).
In Press
- Illusory Riches: the False Promise of Evolutionary Psychology. New York: 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)