Michael Ruse

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Michael Escott Ruse
Western Philosophy
SchoolAnalytic philosophy
InstitutionsFlorida State University (2000–present)
University of Guelph (1965–2000)
Main interests
Philosophy of biology
Philosophy of science
Notable ideas
Orthogenesis as the view that evolution has a kind of momentum of its own that carries organisms along certain tracks[1]

Michael Ruse

creation–evolution controversy, and the demarcation problem within science. Ruse currently teaches at Florida State University
.

Career

Ruse was born in Birmingham, England, attending Bootham School, York.[2] He took his undergraduate degree at the University of Bristol (1962), his master's degree at McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario (1964), and Ph.D. at the University of Bristol (1970).

Ruse taught at the University of Guelph in Ontario, Canada for 35 years. Since his retirement from Guelph, he has taught at Florida State University and is the Lucyle T. Werkmeister Professor of Philosophy (2000–present). In 1986, he was elected as a Fellow of both the Royal Society of Canada and the American Association for the Advancement of Science. He has received honorary doctorates from the University of Bergen, Norway (1990), McMaster University, Ontario, Canada (2003) and the University of New Brunswick, Fredericton, New Brunswick, Canada (2007). In September 2014 he was made an Honorary Doctor of Science by University College London.

Ruse was a key witness for the plaintiff in the 1981 test case (McLean v. Arkansas) of the state law permitting the teaching of "creation science" in the Arkansas school system.[3] The federal judge ruled that the state law was unconstitutional.

His 1996 book on the idea of progress in biology (orthogenesis), Monad to Man, had a mixed reception from other philosophers of biology. Peter J. Bowler described it as an important and controversial book on the status of evolutionism.[4] Ron Amundson called Ruse an analytic and empiricist philosopher, but found Ruse's handling of structuralism "less satisfactory" than of the adaptationist, Darwinian traditions.[4] He called Ruse's writing style "bluff, unselfconscious, and opinionated" and finds Ruse sarcastic, "scarcely a neutral observer".[4] Michael Ghiselin criticised Ruse as a "politically correct" "academic bigot", disagreed with Ruse's narrative about phylogenetics, and accused him of "completely ignor[ing] recent work such as by Carl Woese, "neglect[ing] data" that contradict his thesis. Ironically, in Ghiselin's view, Ruse's own epistemological ideal for science relied on the idea of Progress.[5]

Ruse delivered some of the 2001

Biology and Philosophy, of which he is now Emeritus Editor,[8] and has published numerous books and articles. He cites the influence of his late colleague Ernan McMullin.[9]

Since 2013, Ruse has been listed on the Advisory Council of the National Center for Science Education.[10]

In 2014, Ruse was named the

Bertrand Russell Society's award winner for his dedication to science and reason.[11]

Ruse has sought to reconcile science and religion, a position which has brought him into conflict with

P. Z. Myers has referred to me as a 'clueless gobshite.'" Ruse said new atheists do the side of science a "grave disservice", a "disservice to scholarship", and that "Dawkins in The God Delusion would fail any introductory philosophy or religion course",[13][14] and that The God Delusion makes him "ashamed to be an atheist". Ruse concluded, saying "I am proud to be the focus of the invective of the new atheists. They are a bloody disaster".[13][14]

Personal life

Ruse has two children from his first marriage, and has been married to his second wife since 1985, with whom he has three children. Ruse is an atheist. He rejects the New Atheism movement.[13]

Selected works

References

  1. ^ Ruse 1996, p. 261.
  2. ^ Bootham School Register. York, England: Bootham Old Scholars Association. 2011.
  3. ^ "Testimony of Dr. Michael Ruse". AntiEvolution.org. 1981. Retrieved 14 September 2010.
  4. ^
    JSTOR 688089
    .
  5. doi:10.1086/419959
    .
  6. Fortress Press
    .
  7. ^ Ruse, Michael (2000). Can a Darwinian be a Christian?. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
  8. ISSN 0169-3867
    .
  9. doi:10.1111/j.1467-9744.2012.01287.x
    .
  10. ^ "Advisory Council". ncse.com. National Center for Science Education. Archived from the original on 10 August 2013. Retrieved 30 October 2018.
  11. ^ Philosophy professor honored by Bertrand Russell Society for dedication to science and reason; Florida State University Arts and Sciences; May 20, 2014
  12. ^ Ruse, Michael (2 June 2010). "A Scientific Defense of the Templeton Foundation". Huffington Post. Retrieved 14 November 2014.
  13. ^ a b c d e Ruse, Michael (August 2009). "Why I Think the New Atheists are a Bloody Disaster". Beliefnet. The BioLogos Foundation as a columnist of Beliefnet. Retrieved 19 August 2015. … the new atheists do the side of science a grave disservice … these people do a disservice to scholarship … Richard Dawkins in The God Delusion would fail any introductory philosophy or religion course. Proudly he criticizes that whereof he knows nothing … the poor quality of the argumentation in Dawkins, Dennett, Hitchens, and all of the others in that group … the new atheists are doing terrible political damage to the cause of Creationism fighting. Americans are religious people … They want to be science-friendly, although it is certainly true that many have been seduced by the Creationists. We evolutionists have got to speak to these people. We have got to show them that Darwinism is their friend not their enemy. We have got to get them onside when it comes to science in the classroom. And criticizing good men like Francis Collins, accusing them of fanaticism, is just not going to do the job. Nor is criticizing everyone, like me, who wants to build a bridge to believers – not accepting the beliefs, but willing to respect someone who does have them … The God Delusion makes me ashamed to be an atheist … They are a bloody disaster …
  14. ^
    ISBN 9781844658312
    . Michael Ruse (2009) claimed that Dawkins in The God Delusion would fail 'any philosophy or religion course'; and for this reason Ruse says The God Delusion made him 'ashamed to be an atheist'

Sources

External links
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