Michael Ruse

From Philosopedia

Michael Ruse and Charles Darwin

Ruse's tatoo of an extinct arthropod known as a trilobite

Ruse, Michael (21 June 1940 - )

Ruse, who was born in Birmingham, England, took his undergraduate degree in 1962 at the University of Bristol, his master's degree in 1964 at McMaster University in Canada, and his Ph. D. in 1970 at the University of Bristol.

For 35 years he taught at the University of Guelph in Canada, has taught at Florida State University, and since 2000 is its Lucyle T. Werkmeister Professor of Philosophy.

In 1981 he was a witness for the plaintiff in a test case - McLean v. Arkansas - of a state law that permitted the teaching of "creation science," a case that the federal judge ruled the Arkansas law was unconstitutional.

Ruse, an agnostic, is author of Homosexuality: A Philosophical Inquiry (1990) and holds that “the war against prejudice can be won” but regrets that many who say they are believers in democracy do not believe that “a free society means letting people do what they want because they want to, and not because society approves.”

Selected Works

The Philosophy of Biology (London: Hutchinson, 1973)

The book also has been translated into Spanish, Russian, and Italian.

Sociobiology: Sense or Nonsense? (Dordrecht: Reidel, 1979.

Second edition, with new Afterword, 1985.

Also translated into Spanish, Portuguese and Italian.

The Darwinian Revolution: Science Red in Tooth and Claw. (Chicago: University

of Chicago Press, 1979, Second edition, with new Afterword, 1999.

Also translated into Spanish and Italian

Is Science Sexist? And Other Problems in the Biomedical Sciences. (Dordrecht:

Reidel, 1981. Collected Essays)

Darwinism Defended: A Guide to the Evolution Controversies

(Reading, Mass.: Addison-Wesley, 1982

Nature Animated. (Dordrecht: Reidel, 1980. Edited volume of conference papers.)

Taking Darwin Seriously: A Naturalistic Approach to Philosophy (Oxford:

Blackwell, 1986. Also translated into Spanish, Italian, Portuguese).

Homosexuality: A Philosophical Inquiry. (Oxford: Blackwell, 1988)

The Philosophy of Biology (New York: Macmillan, 1989, edited volume)

New edition with additional material 1998)

But Is It Science? The Philosophical Question in the Evolution/Creation

Controversy. (Edited Volume) Buffalo: Prometheus, 1988; second edition

with Robert Pennock, 2008.