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Benjamin Jantzen

Benjamin Jantzen, Associate Professor

Benjamin Jantzen, Associate Professor
Benjamin Jantzen, Associate Professor

Department of Philosophy
226 Major Williams 
220 Stanger Street
Blacksburg, VA 24061
540-231-1766 | bjantzen@vt.edu

Benjamin Jantzen is an associate professor in the Department of Philosophy. Up-to-date information on his current research is available on his website and blog at www.ratiocination.org.

  • Methods of Automated Scientific Discovery
  • Interpretation of Physical Theory
  • Information Theory in Biology
  • Design Argument for the Existence of God
  • Insect Flight
  • PhD in Logic, Computation, and Methodology, Carnegie Mellon University
  • MA in Philosophy, Carnegie Mellon University
  • MS in Physics, Cornell University
  • Assistant Professor of Computer Science, by courtesy
  • Director, Philosophy and Physical Computing Summer Workshop
  • Philosophy of Science Association
  • International Society for the History, Philosophy and Social Studies of Biology
  • Sigma Xi, The Scientific Research Society

Books

An Introduction to Design Arguments, New York: Cambridge University Press, 2014.

Journal Articles

Jantzen, B. “Dynamical kinds and their discovery,” Proceedings of the Causation: Foundation to Application Workshop, UAI 2016 (forthcoming).

Jantzen, B. “Cyberwarfare” in Joseph Pitt (ed.), Routledge Companion to Philosophy of Technology, Routledge. (forthcoming).

Jantzen, B. “Symmetry and Causation: A General Theory of Biological Individuality,” Minnesota Studies in Philosophy of Science (forthcoming).

Jantzen, B. (2015) “Projection, symmetry, and natural kinds,” Synthese 192 (11): 3617-3646. doi:10.1007/s11229-014-0637-5

Book Chapters

Jantzen, B. (2015) “Discovery without a ‘logic’ would be a miracle,” Synthese doi:10.1007/s11229-015-0926-7

Jantzen, B. (2014). “Piecewise Versus Total Support: How to Deal with Background Information in Likelihood Arguments,” Philosophy of Science 81 (3): 313-331.

Jantzen, B. (2012). “Peirce on miracles: the failure of Bayesian analysis” in Jake Chandler and Victoria Harrison (eds.), Probability in the Philosophy of Religion, Oxford University Press.

Jantzen, B. (2010). “An awkward symmetry: The tension between particle ontologies and permutation invariance,” Philosophy of Science 78(1): 39-59.

  • CAREER: Automated scientific discovery and the philosophical problem of natural kinds (NSF), $443,427

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