
Yafeng Shan 單亞峰
I am a philosopher, specialising in philosophy of science, epistemology, metaphysics, and metaphilosophy, based at The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology.
Publications
Monographs
(under contract) The Social Nature of Scientific Knowledge, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
(2023) Evidential Pluralism in the Social Sciences, London and New York: Routledge. (Co-authored with Jon Williamson.)
(2020) Doing Integrated History and Philosophy of Science: A Case Study of the Origin of Genetics, Cham: Springer.Edited Volumes
(commissioned) The Blackwell Companion to Metaphilosophy. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley. (Co-edited with Armen T. Marsoobian.)
(under contract) Integrating Philosophy of Science and Epistemology. Cham: Springer.
(under contract) Karl Popper and the Open Future of the Philosophy of Science. New York: Routledge.
(under contract) The Blackwell Companion to the Integrated History and Philosophy of Science. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley.
(under contract) History and Philosophy of the Social Sciences, Cham: Springer.
(2024) Rethinking Thomas Kuhn's Legacy, Cham: Springer.
(2024) Alternative Approaches to Causation: Beyond Difference-making and Mechanism, Oxford: Oxford University Press.
(2023) Philosophical Foundations of Mixed Methods Research: Dialogues between Researchers and Philosophers, London and New York: Routledge.
(2023) Examining Philosophy Itself. Chichester: Wiley.
(2022) New Philosophical Perspectives on Scientific Progress, New York and London: Routledge.Special Issues
(2023) The Philosophy of Thomas Kuhn: New Frontiers, a special issue of International Studies in the Philosophy of Science, co-edited with Vincenzo Politi.
(2023) New Directions in the Historiography of Genetics, a special issue of Studies in the History and Philosophy of Science, co-edited with Ehud Lamm and Oren Harman.
(2022) New Directions in Metaphilosophy, a special issue of Metaphilosophy.
(2022) Evidential Diversity in the Social Sciences, a topical collection of Synthese, co-edited with Jon Williamson.Journal Articles
(2025) "The Debate over Proximate and Ultimate Causation in Biology." Synthese 205 (1), 37.
(2024) "The Extended Evolutionary Synthesis: An Integrated Historical and Philosophical Examination." Philosophy Compass 19(6), e13002.
(2023) "Beyond Structure: New Frontiers of the Philosophy of Thomas Kuhn." International Studies in the Philosophy of Science 36(2): 81-86. (Co-authored with Vincenzo Politi.)
(2023) "‘History Will Be Kind To Me’: An Introduction to New Directions in the Historiography of Genetics." Studies in History and Philosophy of Science 99: A1-A3. (Co-authored with Ehud Lamm and Oren Harman.)
(2023) "Science is More Than Knowing." Asian Journal of Philosophy 2(1), 13.
(2022) "Evidential Monism, Evidential Pluralism, or Evidential Contextualism? An Introduction to Evidential Diversity in the Social Sciences." Synthese 200(4), 321. (Co-authored with Jon Williamson.)
(2022) “The Unexamined Philosophy Is Not Worth Doing: An Introduction to New Directions in Metaphilosophy.” Metaphilosophy 53(2-3): 153-158.
(2022) "Philosophical Foundations of Mixed Methods Research." Philosophy Compass 17(1), e12804.
(2022) "Philosophy Doesn't Need a Concept of Progress." Metaphilosophy 53(2-3): 176-184.
(2021) "Applying Evidential Pluralism to the Social Sciences." European Journal for Philosophy of Science 11(4), 96. (Co-authored with Jon Williamson.)
(2021) "Beyond Mendelism and Biometry." Studies in History and Philosophy of Science 89: 155-163.
(2020) “Kuhn’s ‘Wrong Turning’ and Legacy Today.” Synthese 197(1): 381-406.(2019) "Contrastivism and Non-Comtrastivism in Scientific Explanation." Philosophy Compass 14(8), e12613.
(2019) "A New Functional Approach to Scientific Progress." Philosophy of Science 86(4): 739-758.
Book Chapters
(2024). "Kuhn Still Matters." In Rethinking Thomas Kuhn’s Legacy, edited by Yafeng Shan, 1-7. Springer, Cham.
(2024) “Epistemic Causality and Its Application to the Social and Cognitive Sciences.” In Alternative Approaches to Causation, edited by Yafeng Shan, 241-277. Oxford: Oxford University Press. (Co-authored with Samuel D. Taylor and Jon Williamson.)
(2024) “Some Reflections on Causation.” In Alternative Approaches to Causation, edited by Yafeng Shan, 1-12. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
(2023) "Assessing Philosophical Foundations of Mixed Methods Research." In Philosophical Foundations of Mixed Methods Research: Dialogues between Researchers and Philosophers, edited by Yafeng Shan, 1-10. London and New York: Routledge.
(2023) “The Historiography of Scientific Revolutions.” In Handbook of the Historiography of Science, edited by Mauro L. Condé and Marlon Salomon, 257-273. Cham: Springer.
(2022) “The Functional Approach: Scientific Progress as Increased Usefulness.” In New Philosophical Perspectives on Scientific Progress, edited by Yafeng Shan, 46-61. New York: Routledge.
(2022) “Introduction: Philosophical Analyses of Scientific Progress.” In New Philosophical Perspectives on Scientific Progress, edited by Yafeng Shan, 1-9. New York: Routledge.
(2021) “Mendel on Developmental Information.” In Information and the History of Philosophy, edited by Chris Meyns, 262–80. London: Routledge.Miscellaneous Writings
(2021) "Evidential Pluralism in the Social Sciences." The Reasoner 15(6): 50-51.
Selected Talks
- "Explanation and Understanding in Social Science." Department of Philosophy, University of Manchester, UK, 21 May 2025.
- “Social Scientific Understanding.” The 28th Annual Meeting of the Philosophy and Religion Society of Thailand, Chulalongkorn University, Thailand, 13/12/2024
- "Scientific Knowledge." Department of Philosophy, Xiamen University, China, 05/12/2024
- “Scientific Understanding.” Department of Philosophy, Lingnan University, Hong Kong, 25/11/2024
- “Understanding in the Social Sciences.” Veritas Philosophy Workshop: Logic & Epistemology, Yonsei University, South Korea, 17/07/2024
- 'Proximate and Ultimate Causation.' Department of History and Philosophy of Science, University of Tokyo, Japan, 24/05/2024.
- "Proximate and Ultimate Causation in Evolutionary Biology.” Department of Philosophy of Science and Logic, Fudan University, China, 13/05/2024
- “Scientific Knowledge as Social Knowing: Summative, Commitment, Interactive?.” Department of Philosophy and Religious Studies, Peking University, China, 10/05/2024
- “Proximate and Ultimate Causation in Evolutionary Biology.” Institute of Philosophy, Chinese Academy of Sciences, China, 08/05/2024
- "A Functional Approach to Scientific Knowledge as Social Knowing." The Annual New Zealand Association of Philosophers Conference, University of Waikato, Tauranga, New Zealand, 06/12/2023
- "The Web of Scientific Development: The Origins of Genetics." International Society for the History, Philosophy, and Social Studies of Biology Biennial Conference, Toronto, Canada, 10/07/2023
- “The Social Nature of Scientific Knowledge.” The 9th Congress of the Society for the Philosophy of Science, University of Paris Nanterre, France, 01/06/2023
- “Scientific Knowledge as Social Knowing Reconsidered.” The CONCEPT FEST, University of Cologne, Germany, 31/03/2023
- "The Demarcation Problem Reconsidered." The "120 Years Since the Birth of Karl Popper" Conference, Sofia University, Bulgaria, 03/12/2022
- "Proximate and Ultimate Causation in Biology Reconsidered." The 7th Panhellenic Conference on Philosophy of Science, University of Athens, Greece, 02/12/2022
- “Rethinking Kuhn’s Legacy.” III Coloquio de filosofía e historia de la ciencia del Río de la Plata, Buenos Aires, Argentina, 08/11/2022
- “In What Sense is Scientific Knowledge Social?” The Workshop on Knowing Science, University of Kent, UK, 25/10/2022
- “Causation in Biology.” Interdisciplinary Centre for Ethics Seminar, Jagiellonian University, Poland, 20/10/2022
- "The Myths of Mendel." Centre for Science Studies Colloquium, Aarhus University, Denmark, 28/09/2022
- “History and Philosophy of Mixed Methods Research.” The “Mixed Methods: Development of Innovative Methods” Conference, Stockholm, Sweden, 06/09/2022
- “Evidential Pluralism and Political Science.” The 4th Conference of the East European Network for Philosophy of Science, Tartu, Estonia, 18/08/2022
- “Is Evidence of Mechanisms Sufficient for Making Within-case Causal Claims?” The 4th International Conference of the German Society for Philosophy of Science, Berlin, Germany, 15/08/2022
- “The 1900 'Rediscovery'.” “Mendel at 200”, Bristol, UK, 20/07/2022 [watch]
- “Rethinking Progress.” “Understanding Progress and Progress in Understanding” Conference, University of Iceland, Iceland, 30/06/2022
- “Mayr's Proximate-Ultimate Distinction Reconsidered." The 14th International History of Philosophy of Science Conference, Irvine, USA, 21/06/2022
- “Evidential Pluralism and Legal Mechanism.” The “Diversity of Evidence” Symposium, University of Kent, UK, 30/05/2022
- “How to Establish a Causal Claim in the Social Sciences." The 4th 'Formal Methods and Science in Philosophy' Conference, Dubrovnik, Croatia, 21/04/2022
- “Two Criteria of Concept Identification in Biology.” “Structure and Development of Concepts across the Life Sciences” Conference, Bielefeld University, Germany, 07/02/2022
- “Disambiguating Proximate and Ultimate 'Causes'." International Society for the History, Philosophy, and Social Studies of Biology Biennial Conference, Huntington, USA, 13/07/2021
- “Applying Evidential Pluralism to the Social Sciences.” British Society for the Philosophy of Science Annual Conference, 08/07/2021
- “What is the New Functional Approach to Scientific Progress?” “Understanding & Progress, in Science and Beyond” Zoom Workshop, University of Iceland, Iceland, 04/08/2020
- “Making Causal Claims in Sociology.” Philosophy of the Social Sciences Roundtable, Atlanta, USA, 14/03/2020
- “What Philosophical Progress is not.” “Philosophical Method(s)?” International Conference, Institute of Philosophy, Zagreb, Croatia, 06/12/2019
- “Scientific Development: Beyond Evolution, Revolution, and Specialisation.” The “Revolution and Evolution: Development Models in Science, Culture and Society” Conference, Nizhny Novgorod, Russia, 29/11/2019
- “Weldon, No Biometricians?" International Society for the History, Philosophy, and Social Studies of Biology Biennial Conference, Oslo, Norway, 10/07/2019
- "Scientific Explanation: Beyond Contrastivism and Non-Contrastivism." The 19th Annual Conference of the Israeli Society for the History and Philosophy of Science, Jerusalem, Israel, 16/06/2019
- "Analogical Reasoning: Lessons from Davy's work on Electrochemical Decomposition." The 26th Biennial Meeting of the Philosophy of Science Association, Seattle, USA, 02/11/2018
- "The Formation of the Concept of Dominance." "Concept Formation in Natural and Social Sciences" Workshop, University of Zurich, Switzerland, 19/10/2018
- “Davy on Analogical Reasoning.” The 22th International Society for the Philosophy of Chemistry Annual Conference 2018, University of Bristol, UK, 17/07/2018
- “Theory Choice in the Mendelian Revolution.” “The Structure of Scientific Revolutions” Workshop, Durham University, UK, 30/10/2017
- “Choice in the Mendelian-Biometrician Controversy: Why Weldon was not a Mendelian.” International Society for the History, Philosophy, and Social Studies of Biology Biennial Conference, Sao Paulo, Brazil, 19/07/2017
- “Two Ways of Naturalising Metaphysics.” “Epistemology of Metaphysics” Ernst Mach Workshop 6, Prague, Czech Republic, 29/05/2017
- “What is Recollection in the Meno?” British Society for the History of Philosophy Annual Conference, University of Sheffield, UK, 06/04/2017
- “Conceptual Change and the Nature of Scientific Concepts.” “Conceptual Change in History” Conference, University of Helsinki, Finland, 23/09/2016
- “Exemplarising Mendel.” The 3rd Philosophy of Biology in the UK Conference, University of Bristol, UK, 08/06/2016
- “Progressive Success: A Successful Defence of Selective Realism?” The History of Science and Contemporary Scientific Realism Conference, Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis, USA, 21/02/2016
- “What did de Vries rediscover in 1900?” The 15th Congress of Logic, Methodology and Philosophy of Science, Helsinki, Finland, 07/08/2015
- “Gärtner and Mendel on Entwicklung.” International Society for the History, Philosophy, and Social Studies of Biology Biennial Conference, Montreal, Canada, 06/07/2015
- “Did Mendel Have Good Evidence? The Gap Problem in Hypothetico-Deductivism.” The 10th Annual UK Integrated History and Philosophy of Science Workshop, Durham University, UK, 16/04/2015
- “Kuhn’s ‘Wrong Turning’ Revisited.” The 10th International History of Philosophy of Science Conference, Ghent, Belgium, 03/07/2014
- “The Re-examination of Mendel’s Objective.” “Mutual Interactions.” The 2nd Singapore Workshop on Integrated History and Philosophy of Science in Practice, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore, 20/08/2014
- “What Entities Exist? A Lesson from the ‘Gene’.” The “New Thinking about Scientific Realism” Conference, Cape Town, South Africa, 07/08/2014
- “Reconsidering Mendel’s Pisum.” The 9th Annual UK Integrated History and Philosophy of Science Workshop, University of Leeds, UK, 11/04/2014
- “Against Theory-Centric Classical Genetics.” International Society for the History, Philosophy, and Social Studies of Biology Biennial Conference, Montpellier, France, 08/07/2013
Events
25 - 27 June 2025, HKUST
27 - 29 June 2024, HKUST
12 - 14 June 2024, HKUST
13 - 15 July 2022, University of Kent
27 - 28 June 2022, University of Kent
5 - 6 May 2022, University of Kent
28 - 29 June 2021, University of Kent
28 May 2021, University of Kent
13 - 14 May 2021, University of Kent
16 - 17 July 2020, University of Kent
18 - 19 November 2019, Tel Aviv University
Teaching (2024/25)
Philosophy of Biology (HUMA5902)
Philosophy of Science (HUMA1921)
Understanding and Progress in the Social Sciences (UROP1100/2100)
Independent Study: Epistemology (HUMA6200A)Supervision
Qinyi Wang (MPhil in Philosophy)
Chun Yu Kwok (MPhil in Philosophy and Economics)Contact me
If you are interested in working with me on an MPhil, PhD, or postdoc project with me or other academic collaborations, just drop me a line.