World's Best Scientists 2026 revealed!

D-Index & Metrics

Social Sciences and Humanities

D-Index
65
Citations
29481
World Ranking
1007
National Ranking
471

Research.com Recognitions

  • 2003 - Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS)
  • 1999 - Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences
  • 1980 - Fellow of John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation

Overview

Elliott Sober is a scholar affiliated with the University of Wisconsin-Madison in the United States. Their academic work spans several interconnected disciplines centered primarily in the arts and humanities.

Their main fields of study include Arts and Humanities with a particular emphasis on the History and Philosophy of Science. Subfields where they have been notably active include History and Philosophy of Science, Philosophy, Genetics, Artificial Intelligence, and General Decision Sciences.

The scientist's research engages with a variety of topics, notably:

  • Philosophy and History of Science
  • Epistemology, Ethics, and Metaphysics
  • Bayesian Modeling and Causal Inference
  • Decision-Making and Behavioral Economics
  • Evolution and Genetic Dynamics
  • Evolution and Science Education
  • Quantum Mechanics and Applications

Elliott Sober has published multiple papers over recent years. Selected works include:

  • "Fitness and the Twins," 2020, Philosophy Theory and Practice in Biology
  • "Remembering Richard Lewontin (1929-2021)," 2021, Biological Theory
  • "Teoria inteligentnego projektu a nadnaturalizm. O tezie, że projektantem może być Bóg lub istoty pozaziemskie," 2021, Filozoficzne Aspekty Genezy
  • "Purely Probabilistic Measures of Explanatory Power: A Critique," 2022, Philosophy of Science

Their publications frequently appear in these venues:

  • Filozoficzne Aspekty Genezy
  • Philosophy of Science
  • European Journal for Philosophy of Science
  • Philosophy Theory and Practice in Biology
  • Biological Theory

In addition to articles, Elliott Sober has contributed to scholarly books, including a 2024 publication titled "The Philosophy of Evolutionary Theory," published by Cambridge University Press.

Collaborative work with other researchers is also part of their profile. Frequent co-authors include:

  • William Roche
  • Stuart A. Newman
  • Peter Godfrey-Smith
  • Daniel L. Hartl
  • Philip Kitcher

Recognition of Elliott Sober's academic contributions includes multiple fellowships: they have been named a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) in 2003, a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1999, and a Fellow of the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation in 1980.

Best Publications

  • Unto Others: The Evolution and Psychology of Unselfish Behavior

    Elliott Sober;David Sloan Wilson

  • The Nature of Selection

    Elliott Sober

  • Philosophy Of Biology

    Elliott Sober

  • Reintroducing group selection to the human behavioral sciences

    David Sloan Wilson;Elliott Sober

  • The Nature of Selection: Evolutionary Theory in Philosophical Focus

    Elliott Sober

  • Reconstructing the Past: Parsimony, Evolution, and Inference

    P. Holgate;E. Sober

  • Evolution population thinking and essentialism.

    Elliott Sober

  • Reviving the superorganism.

    David Sloan Wilson;Elliott Sober;Elliott Sober

  • How to Tell When Simpler, More Unified, or Less Ad Hoc Theories will Provide More Accurate Predictions

    Malcolm R. Forster;Elliott Sober

  • Evidence and Evolution: The Logic Behind the Science

    Elliott Sober

  • Conceptual issues in evolutionary biology

    Elliott Sober

  • The Multiple Realizability Argument against Reductionism

    Elliott Sober

  • OPTIMALITY MODELS AND THE TEST OF ADAPTATIONISM

    Steven Hecht Orzack;Elliott Sober

  • Reconstructing Marxism: Essays on Explanation and the Theory of History

    Daniel Little;Erik Olin Wright;Andrew Levine;Elliott Sober

  • Artifact, cause and genic selection

    Elliott Sober;Richard C. Lewontin

  • Prediction Versus Accommodation and the Risk of Overfitting

    Christopher Hitchcock;Elliott Sober

  • A CRITICAL ASSESSMENT OF LEVINS'S THE STRATEGY OF MODEL BUILDING IN POPULATION BIOLOGY (1966)

    Steven Hecht Orzack;Elliott Sober

  • From a Biological Point of View: Essays in Evolutionary Philosophy

    Elliott Sober

  • A critical review of philosophical work on the units of selection problem

    Elliott Sober;David Sloan Wilson

  • Adaptationism and Optimality

    Steven Hecht Orzack;Elliott Sober

  • Summary of: ‘Unto Others. The evolution and psychology of unselfish behavior'

    Elliott Sober;David Sloan Wilson

Frequent Co-Authors

David Wilson
David Wilson Binghamton University
Richard C Lewontin
Richard C Lewontin Harvard University
Peter Godfrey-Smith
Peter Godfrey-Smith University of Sydney
Margaret J. McFall-Ngai
Margaret J. McFall-Ngai University of Hawaii at Manoa
Daniel C. Dennett
Daniel C. Dennett Tufts University
Carlo Rovelli
Carlo Rovelli Aix-Marseille University
Ralph Adolphs
Ralph Adolphs California Institute of Technology
Brian Skyrms
Brian Skyrms University of California, Irvine
Robyn M. Dawes
Robyn M. Dawes Carnegie Mellon University
David Faust
David Faust University of Rhode Island

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