APA Member Interview: Jonah Branding
Jonah Branding is a dual PhD Candidate in Philosophy and Ecology, Evolution, and Behavior (EEB) at Michigan State University, specializing in the history and philosophy of biology. He lives in East Lansing, Michigan.
What is your favorite thing that you’ve written?
Probably my first publication, which came out last year in JHB! Here’s the elevator pitch: it seems like Sigmund Freud, as an early 20th-century Viennese Lamarckian, should, like other early 20th-century Viennese Lamarckians, take human nature to be like, highly malleable. However, he of course rejects this idea in Civilization and its Discontents, in favor of a more rigid view of human nature. What gives? I argued yet another weird piece of Freudian biology—namely, his super-recapitulationism—provides the key to solving this paradox. You’ll have to read the paper to find out why!
What are you working on right now?
You’re catching me at the tail end of a 7-week stay at the University of Bordeaux, where I’m working with Fridolin Gross’s team on cell type concepts. In particular, we’re developing a review paper that will seek to clarify questions/identify points of disagreement in recent debates over the meaning of a new technology (single-cell RNA sequencing) for cellular taxonomy. The lab here is full of amazing people, and I’ve had a bunch of fun working with them on this project!
What are you reading right now? Would you recommend it?
I’m reading two books: Occam’s Razors by Elliot Sober (would definitely recommend) and Les Aventures d’Arsène Lupin (B1): Lire en Français Facile by Maurice Leblanc (would recommend if you, like me, have been in France for a month and a half but can still barely order at a restaurant).
What books are currently on your ‘to read’ list?
Thinking about Statistics: The Philosophical Foundations, by Jun Otsuka; The Edge of Sentience, by Jonathan Birch; From Deep Learning to Rational Machines, by Cameron Buckner; and La Tête d’Un Homme (B2): Lire en Français Facile, by George Simenon.
What would your childhood self say if someone told you that you would grow up to be a philosopher?
“What’s that?”
What three things are on your bucket list that you’ve not yet accomplished?
- Travel to Antarctica (pictured: I worked on a field team a few years ago in the Subantarctic—also totally awesome, but doesn’t really count).
- Last year I fell into an internet rabbit hole reading about human-powered circumnavigations of the Earth, and, well, I don’t know if I’m that hardcore, but some kind of long international journey on foot would be really fun!
- Learn to sail!
What would you like your last meal to be?
Hm, let’s see, how can I parlay this into an unexpected hanging paradox-type escape? Maybe: I would like it to be a cake at a surprise party thrown on a date I do not expect, before Christmas Day of the year 2200.
What do you like to do outside work?
I like to swim! Come race me in Traverse City this August!
Where is your favorite place you have ever traveled, and why?
Gbarpolu County, Liberia. I taught math and science there in the Peace Corps!
Where would you go in a time machine?
Of course, David Lewis’s classic paper convinced me that I wouldn’t be able to change the past, so going back in time and preventing this guy from becoming president is, sadly, out. Probably I’d see the dinosaurs.
If you were a brick in the wall, which brick would you be?
Just another.
Wild card: Is there a question that you’d like to answer—or read other people’s answers to a question that isn’t here? Suggest your own question!
Q: In your opinion, what is the most cringe philosophical-sounding quote from popular media? Feel free to list multiple from Matthew McConaughey, if you want.
Read the full APA Blog.
