Jonathan Birch

Department of Philosophy, Logic and Scientific Method
London School of Economics and Political Science
Houghton Street, London, WC2A 2AE
j.birch2@lse.ac.uk | @birchlse

 

“Jonathan

I'm a Professor of Philosophy and Principal Investigator (PI) on the Foundations of Animal Sentience project. I mainly work on (i) animal sentience, cognition and welfare and (ii) the evolution of altruism and social behaviour.

3rd-Person Bio / CV

Dr Jonathan Birch is a Professor of Philosophy at the LSE and Principal Investigator (PI) on the Foundations of Animal Sentience project. He mainly works on animal sentience, cognition and welfare and the evolution of altruism and social behaviour.

He joined the LSE in 2014. Before moving to London, he was a Junior Research Fellow at Christ’s College, Cambridge. He completed his PhD at the University of Cambridge in 2013, with a dissertation entitled Kin Selection: A Philosophical Analysis.

In 2014, he was one of four UK philosophers honoured with a Philip Leverhulme Prize, which recognize “the achievement of outstanding researchers whose work has already attracted international recognition and whose future career is exceptionally promising”.

He has published widely on various topics in major philosophical and scientific journals, including Nature Medicine, Current Biology, Trends in Cognitive Sciences, The American Naturalist, Biological Reviews, Nous, Philosophical Studies, Philosophical Quarterly, Philosophy of Science, and The British Journal for the Philosophy of Science. His first book, The Philosophy of Social Evolution, was published by Oxford University Press in 2017.

In 2021, he led a "Review of the Evidence of Sentience in Cephalopod Molluscs and Decapod Crustaceans" that led to invertebrate animals including octopuses, crabs and lobsters being included in the UK government's Animal Welfare (Sentience) Act 2022. His second book, The Edge of Sentience, Risk and Precaution in Humans, Other Animals, and AI will come out with Oxford University Press in summer 2024

 

Books

The Edge of Sentience: Risk and Precaution in Humans, Other Animals, and AI, Oxford: Oxford University Press, coming summer 2024.

The Philosophy of Social Evolution, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2017.

“The

From mitochondria to meerkats, the natural world is full of spectacular examples of social behaviour. In the early 1960s W. D. Hamilton changed the way we think about how such behaviour evolves. He introduced three key innovations - now known as Hamilton's rule, kin selection, and inclusive fitness - and his pioneering work kick-started a research program now known as social evolution theory. This is a book about the philosophical foundations and future prospects of that program.

"This is philosophy at its best: a clear, informed, and ambitious synthesis of the conceptual, the formal, and the empirical. ... It is lucid, well written, sensible, and intellectually valuable, and the most critical parts are accessible enough for anyone willing to do a bit of homework now and then. ... It is an essential text for philosophy of biology and, more generally, anyone working on the evolution of cooperation." - Carl Brusse and Kim Sterelny, The British Journal for the Philosophy of Science

"Jonathan Birch's recent book The Philosophy of Social Evolution is a superb exploration of philosophical implications of Hamilton's work. ... Birch shows why philosophy will continue to be an integral part of the future of the study of social evolution." - J. Arvid Agren, Studies in History and Philosophy of Biological and Biomedical Sciences

"Birch is extremely clear and careful in the development of his ideas and this makes the breadth and depth of this work even more impressive. The Philosophy of Social Evolution will, I suspect, become required reading in several different fields and, as I have suggested, there are insights here that extend beyond the philosophy of biology and evolutionary theory." - John Thrasher, Metascience

 

How to find my articles

You can find my articles on PhilPapers and Google Scholar. Are you struggling to get access to any of my publications? If so, send me an email! Please follow me on X, formerly Twitter (@birchlse) for updates.

If you're looking for an entry point to my work on animal sentience, I recommend "Animal sentience", Philosophy Compass. If you're looking for an entry point to my work on social evolution, I recommend "The inclusive fitness controversy: finding a way forward", Royal Society Open Science.