Philosophical Issues I think about a lot:
How do scientists reconstruct the deep past?
Historical contingency and historical counterfactuals
Environmental aesthetics
Aesthetic values in the life, historical, and environmental sciences
Macroevolutionary theory (or the theory of evolution above the species level)
Narrative explanation
Species selection and extinction selectivity
The role of metaphor in science and environmental philosophy
Models for explaining evolutionary and ecological stability
Ecological care ethics and sense of place
A few samples of my writing:
D. Turner and J. Han (2023),"Living Fossils and Conservation Values"
D. Turner (2016), "Paleoaesthetics in the Bisti Badlands"
D. Turner (2023), "Nature's Beauty is Historical"
A. Currie and D. Turner (2017), "The Missing Fossils Matter"
Bio:
I grew up in Decatur, Illinois. Following a year in Germany as a Congress-Bundestag Youth Exchange student, I went to American University, in Washington, DC, where I studied philosophy and German. After graduating from AU, I returned to Germany on a Fulbright fellowship to study philosophy and history of science for a year at the University of Goettingen. I did my PhD at Vanderbilt University, in Nashville, Tennessee, where I worked with John F. Post.
Connecticut College has been a wonderful place to work with students while actively doing research. Along the way, I've also spent sabbatical semesters at the University of Pittsburgh's Center for Philosophy of Science; at the KLI in Klosterneuburg, Austria; and at the University of Calgary, Canada, where I had a Fulbright Visiting Research Chair in Philosophy of Science in 2017.
My spouse (and occasional co-author), Michelle I. Turner and I live with our dog, Toby, in Pawcatuck, Connecticut.
