Matthew Barker is Department Chair, August 2018 – July 2021. He specializes in philosophy of biology and connects this with his work in general philosophy of science, philosophy of psychology, virtue ethics and applied ethics and value theory, and history of the philosophy of science. He attempts to clarify the nature of scientific categories such as “species”, and “evolving group”, and “individual” in biology, and “well-being”, “humility”, and “cognitive system” in psychology; he also studies epistemic and ethical issues associated with such categories, especially in connection with biotechnology and the interplay between data, evidence and human values. His work has appeared in The Journal of Philosophy, Philosophy of Science, The British Journal for the Philosophy of Science, Philosophical Topics, Cognitive Systems Research, The Journal of Applied Philosophy, The Journal of Agricultural and Environmental Ethics, and other scholarly venues.

Education

Ph.D. ,University of Wisconsin-Madison (2010)
MA, University of Wisconsin-Madison (2009)
MA, University of Alberta (2005)
BA, Lakehead University (2003)
BSc, Lakehead University (1998)

View current CV

Matthew.Barker@concordia.ca