Joseph Rouse received his A.B. from Oberlin College, and his M.A. and Ph.D. from Northwestern University. At Wesleyan University, he has been a member of the Department of Philosophy since 1981, and is now also the Chair of the Science in Society Program, an interdisciplinary major in history, philosophy and social studies of science and medicine. He was the Chair of the Wesleyan University Faculty in 2008-2009 for the second time, and since 1985 has been an Assistant Coach for the Women’s Varsity Volleyball team. In 2003, he received Wesleyan’s Binswanger Prize for Excellence in Teaching. He previously taught at the University of Maine at Orono from 1977-1981.

RESEARCH INTERESTS

Professor Rouse’s primary research interests are in the philosophy of science, the history of 20th C. philosophy, and interdisciplinary science studies. Within these areas his primary foci include the philosophy of scientific practice; naturalism and anti-naturalism in 20th Century philosophy; connections between “analytic” and “continental” philosophy; the relation of philosophy of science to philosophy of mind and language, and to metaphysics; cultural studies of science and feminist science studies. He is currently working on a book about conceptual understanding in science and in discursive practice generally.

PUBLISHED BOOKS:

How Scientific Practices Matter: Reclaiming Philosophical Naturalism. University of Chicago Press, 2002.

Engaging Science: How to Understand its Practices Philosophically. Cornell University Press, 1996.

Knowledge and Power: Towards a Political Philosophy of Science. Cornell University Press, 1987.

CONTACT INFORMATION:

Email: jrouse@wesleyan.edu
Office telephone and voicemail: 860-685-3655
Fax: 860-685-3861
Pony Express: Department of Philosophy, Wesleyan University, 350 High Street, Middletown, CT 06459