Ben Jeffares

Ben - D-block

Ben is currently a Post-doctoral fellow in the Philosophy Program at Victoria University of Wellington in New Zealand. He is working on a project with Kim Sterelny looking at the evolution of Human Cognition. In particular, he is interested in the relationship between physical environments and behaviours, and how we might test or refine propositions about cognitive evolution.

His other research interests are in the historical sciences broadly conceived, including paleo-biology, archaeology and geology.

 

 

Publications:

  • Sterelny, K and B. Jeffares (Forthcoming) “Evolutionary Psychology” in Eric Margolis, Richard Samuels and Steve Stich (Eds) The Oxford Handbook to Cognitive Science

  • Jeffares, B. (2008) “Philosophy of Archaeology” in Aviezer Tucker (Ed.) Blackwell Companion to the Philosophies of History and Historiography, pp 330-341 (Pre-publication Draft)

  • Jeffares, B. (2005). “Regaining Archaeology’s Nerve: Culture and Biology in Archaeological Theory.” Biology and Philosophy. 20:545-556 (pdf)

  • Jeffares, B. (2004). “Dead Men Telling Tales: Homo Fossils and What to Do With Them.” Biology and Philosophy. 19 (1): 159-165 (PDF)
  • Jeffares, B. (2002). “The explanatory limits of cognitive archaeology.” Behavioural and Brain Sciences 25(3): 410-412. (PDF of full Wynn article, with commentary by Ben Jeffares)

Conference Papers

  • Jeffares, B. (2007). The Archaeology of Cultural Inheritance in Early Homo. Meeting for the International Society for the Philosophy, and Social Studies of Biology, Exeter, England
  • Jeffares, B. (2006) Cognitive Archaeology. Australasian Association for Philosophy, Canberra, ACT, Australia
  • Jeffares, B. (2005) Signals and Noise in Sedimentary Records. Australasian Archaeometry Conference 2005, Canberra, Australia
  • Jeffares, B. (2005). Cultural Variation and Epistemic Access. Meeting for the International Society for the History, Philosophy, and Social Studies of Biology, University of Guelph, Ontario, Canada
  • Jeffares, B. (2004). The Uniformitarian Assumption in Historical Sciences. Australasian Association for Philosophy, South Molle Island, Queensland, Australia
  • Jeffares, B. (2003). The Limits on Biological Explanations in Archaeology. Australian Archaeological Association, Jindabyne, Australia.
  • Jeffares, B. (2001). Dawkins versus Dawkins: Darwinian and Evolutionary theories in Archaeology. Australasian Association for Philosophy (New Zealand Division), Auckland, New Zealand

Selected Departmental Presentations and Seminars

  • Jeffares, B. (2006). Working Hypotheses and the Megafaunal Extinction Debate. Centre for Archaeological Research (CAR) Seminar Series, A.N.U., Canberra, Australia (27th October 2006)
  • Jeffares, B. (2005). Testing Times. RSSS Philosophy Thursday Seminar Series, A.N.U., Canberra, Australia (8th December 2005)
  • Jeffares, B. (2005). Big Stories and Little Stories. Waikato University Philosophy Department Seminar Series, Hamilton, New Zealand (20th May 2005)
  • Jeffares, B. (2004). The Uniformitarian Assumption in the Historical Sciences. Auckland University Philosophy Department Seminar Series, Auckland, New Zealand (20th August 2004)

Ben’s Victoria University Page can be found here