I am a philosopher of science at John Carroll University in Cleveland, Ohio.

Originally from the UK, I studied economics and philosophy at the University of Nottingham. I did my graduate work in philosophy at the University of Nottingham and then at the University of Sheffield. While at Sheffield, I worked on the Innateness and the Structure of the Mind Project and the Culture and the Mind Project, both based in Hang Seng Center for Cognitive Studies. I moved to the US in 2009. I am currently Associate Professor of philosophy and holder of the Don Shula Chair in Philosophy at John Carroll University.

My primary research interests are in the philosophy of (non-human) animal cognition, empirical moral psychology, and issues related to the role of simplicity/parsimony in scientific reasoning. Among other topics, I have published on the question of whether morality exists in other animals, the problems with using Morgan's Canon as guideline for interpreting animal behaviour, argued for a reconfiguring of the debate over scientific realism, and defended a deflationary account of simplicity/parsimony in science.

Most recently, I have been working on issues relating to the evolution of social norms in humans and other animals, including co-organzing with Kristin Andrews an online workshop series, and with Kristin and Evan Westra an online conference, Normative Animals. See my recent paper "Chimpanzee Normativity" in Biology and Philosophy.

NEW! Two papers on social norms in animals:

Westra et al., "In search of animal normativity: a framework for studying social norms in non-human animals", forthcoming in Biological Reviews.

Andrews, Fitzpatrick, and Westra, "Human and nonhuman norms: a dimensional framework" for a special issue, "Social norm change: drivers and consequences" (Giulia Andrighetto, Sergey Gavrilets, Michele Gelfand, Ruth Mace, and Eva Vriens [eds.]), Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences.  

Kristin Andrews and I have also been exploring the implications of research on culture in animals for thinking about animal welfare. See "Animal Culture and Animal Welfare" in Philosophy of Science.