Northwestern professor David L. Hull
helped found philosophy of biology
Northwestern professor known as leading philosopher of biology
August 23, 2010|By Margaret Ramirez, Tribune reporter
In academic circles, David L. Hull was known as a leading intellectual
and a founder of the philosophy of biology.
Dr. Hull, a professor emeritus at Northwestern University, spent much of
his life introducing philosophical principles of ethics and metaphysics
into scientific debates on biology and evolution.
Friends said Dr. Hull was equally influential as a role model and mentor
for gay students and scholars. Longtime friend Andrew Ward said that when
he met Dr. Hull in the early 1980s, it was his first encounter with an
openly gay man who was also respected as a scholar.
"He was an intellectual, and he expressed his views freely," Ward said.
"He didn't feel the need to live by other people's standards,
professionally or personally. So meeting someone like him was an epiphany
for me."
Dr. Hull, 75, died of pancreatic cancer Wednesday, Aug. 11, in his Chicago
home.
David Lee Hull was born in Burnside, Ill., and received his bachelor's
degree from Illinois Wesleyan University in 1960. He went on to Indiana
University and received the first doctorate in the school's history and
philosophy of science program.
In 1964, he began his career at the University of Wisconsin at Milwaukee,
where he taught biology and philosophy. In 1985, Dr. Hull joined the
Northwestern faculty and four years later was named the Dressler Professor
in the Humanities.
Colleagues credited Dr. Hull as being the founding father of the field
that became known as the philosophy of biology.
"For all intents and purposes, David invented the field of philosophy of
biology as we now have it," said Kenneth Seeskin, Northwestern professor
of philosophy and the Klutznick Professor of Jewish Civilization.
Seeskin said Dr. Hull began as a sociologist of science, specializing in
the life sciences. Dr. Hull eventually mastered the fields so well that
the professional societies he was investigating made him a member and
asked him to present papers on substantive issues in science.
In 1988, Dr. Hull wrote "Science as a Process: An Evolutionary Account of
the Social and Conceptual Development of Science," perhaps his most
well-known and controversial work.
He argued that scientific change occurs in much the same way that
evolutionary change occurs in the natural world — via repeated cycles of
variation, replication and environmental interaction.
One of his earliest ideas that has stood the test of time is the "species
as individuals thesis," which stated that species are individuals, not
classes or collections grouped in terms of reproductively connected
organisms.
He retired from Northwestern in 2000. In 2009, Dr. Hull donated books and
reprints from his personal library to the Arizona State University Center
for Biology and Society. The David L. Hull Collection includes a number of
out-of-print books as well as published works on evolutionary biology,
psychology, Darwin and the philosophy of science.
Dr. Hull is survived by his brother, Richard, one niece and two nephews.
A memorial is planned for October.
maramirez@tribune.com