Research interests

I am interested in several issues in the philosophy of biology and the philosophy of race. Some of these issues are:

• Is There a Tree of Life?   
• Are Races Real?
• What does Biology tell us about Race?
• Can Natural Selection explain Design and Functions in Nature?
• Are Classificatory Concepts in Biology (e.g., Organism, Species) merely Useful Fictions?
• Does Science benefit from Confusing Concepts and Models?
• Should We accept Political Values in Science?

 Detailed information about my research can be found at www.celsoneto.net    

Research supervision

I am happy to supervise PhD and MA students working in the philosophy of science, biology, and race. In particular, I welcome students working on some of the following areas:

• Racial Classifications
• Metaphysics of Race and Gender
• Concepts of Racism
• Social and Psychological Dimensions of Racism
• Classificatory Concepts in Biology: Species, Individuals, Genes, Cells, and Lineages
• Animal Cognition 
• The Social Organization of Science
• The Range and Limits of Natural Selection 
• The Role of Values in Science
• Process Ontology  

Do you want to discuss a potential topic of supervision with me?

Please contact me via C.Alves-Neto@exeter.ac.uk 

Modules taught

• PHL2011A - The Philosophy of Nature 1
• PHL2119 - Animal Minds and Animal Ethics
• PHL2120 - Philosophy and Sociology of Race

Biography

I was born in Belo Horizonte, Brazil. There I did my B.A and M.A in philosophy at the Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais (UFMG). After spending 2 years studying at the Leibniz Universitaet Hannover (Germany), I moved to Canada and obtained my PhD at the University of Calgary in 2020. Then, I became a postdoctoral fellow at Dalhousie University (Canada), working both at the philosophy and the biochemistry and molecular biology departments. I joined SPA and EGENIS in January 2022 and could not be more happy about this decision.