Andrew S. Reynolds

BA (New Brunswick), MA, PhD (Western Ontario), 
SSHRC Postdoctoral Fellow (Harvard, 1998-99)
Associate Professor
Department of Philosophy and Religious Studies
Cape Breton University 
Office Hours: M,W 10-11; T,TH 10-11:30 CC-219
email: andrew_reynolds (at) cbu.ca

I am on Sabbatical from July 1-Dec. 31 2011 In the Winter term of 2012 I will be teaching:

 

My current research deals with the history and philosophy of cell biology, protistology (the study of single-cell organisms) and evolution. The broader philosophical context of this research is the use of metaphor in science, and to that end I have been looking at the cell concept as a particular instance of scientific metaphor. I am presently very interested in the use of electronics metaphors in cell communication research (e.g. 'signal transduction', cell 'circuits'), and in sociological metaphors in cell and molecular biology (e.g. 'cell sociology' in developmental biology). Cell 'suicide' as a genetic program permitting 'social control' by the organism as a whole over its component cell-units ties the electronic and social metaphors together nicely.

Recent publications:

Curriculum Vitae (pdf)

  Peirce's Scientific Metaphysics: The Philosophy of Chance, Law and Evolution,
                                                          (Nashville: Vanderbilt University Press, 2002).

 

   last updated: November 21, 2011