Philosophy Department Faculty

Holly VandeWall

Professor of the Practice of Philosophy

Department

Philosophy

Profile

Holly VandeWall is an Associate Professor of the Practice of Philosophy at Boston College. She received her Ph.D. in the History and Philosophy of Science at the University of Notre Dame and also holds a Masters degree in Science and Ethics from the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley, Ca. Dr. VandeWall’s research includes work on the provision of scientific advice for environmental policy, environmental ethics, and the use of history and philosophy of science in the improvement of scientific literacy. Recent course offerings include Faith, Ethics and the Sciences in the 21st Century and Vegetative Soul: A Philosophy of Plant Life. She is co-author of the textbook History and Philosophy of Science: A Reader and a General Editor of the upcoming three-volume series The History and Philosophy of Western Science: From Antiquity to the Present, both with Bloomsbury Press.

Recent Publications

History and Philosophy of Science: A Reader 2018

Why Water is Not H2O: and other critiques of essentialism from the philosophy of chemistry”, Philosophy of Science, December 2007