M.A. Rami Koskinen
I am interested in the general philosophy of science as well as the philosophies of the various special sciences, especially (synthetic) biology. I obtained my MA in philosophy at the University of Helsinki where I also studied mathematics and cognitive science. As part of my PhD research, I have been interested in scientific modalities and the idea of “possible biology”. Individual research themes include: 1) How-possibly models: What kinds of representational tools scientists use when studying the modal dimensions of the world? Can we learn something new by focusing on explorative how-possibly models instead of searching for how-actually representations? 2) Multiple realizability: If synthetic biologists succeed in replacing the natural DNA molecule with synthetic XNA, it would give empirical support for the multiple realizability thesis. At the same time, these kinds of systems can be seen as explorations into life as we do not know (yet) it. 3) Epistemology and metaphysics of modalities: The long-term goal is to utilize the local lessons learned from biological engineering to gain deeper understanding of the epistemology and metaphysics of modalities.
