Dr John Matthewson staff profile picture

Contact details +6492136372

Dr John Matthewson BA(Hons), MBChB, PhD

Senior Lecturer

School of Humanities Media and Creative Comm

Professional

Contact details

  • Location: AT2.41, Atrium
    Campus: Albany

Qualifications

  • Bachelor of Arts (Honours) - Victoria University (2005)
  • Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery - University of Otago (1999)
  • Doctor of Philosophy - The Australian National University (2012)

Prizes and Awards

  • 2016 Philosophy of Science Association Early Career Scholar Essay Award - The Philosophy of Science Association (2016)
  • Massey University Research Fund Early Career Researcher Award - Massey University (2017)

Research Expertise

Research Interests

Philosophy of Science

Philosophy of Biology

Applied ethics

Research Projects

Summary of Research Projects

Position Current Completed
Project Leader 0 3

Completed Projects

Project Title: What is population? A philosophical account of population-oriented research in the sciences

Date Range: 2019 - 2023

Funding Body: Royal Society of New Zealand

Project Team:

Research Outputs

Journal

Matthewson, J. (2023). The Pleistocene Social Contract: Culture and Cooperation in Human Evolution. Australasian Journal of Philosophy. 101(4), 1027
[Journal article]Authored by: Matthewson, O.
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Mulgan, T., Enright, S., Grix, M., Jayasuriya, U., Ka‘ili, TO., Lear, AM., . . . Watene, K. (2021). Charting just futures for Aotearoa New Zealand: philosophy for and beyond the Covid-19 pandemic. Journal of the Royal Society of New Zealand. 51(S1), S167-S178
[Journal article]Authored by: Matthewson, O., Schouten, V.
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Griffiths, PE., & Matthewson, J. (2020). Diseases are Not Adaptations and Neither are Their Causes: A Response to Ardern’s "Dysfunction, Disease, and the Limits of Selection" (Biological Theory 13:4–9, 2018). Biological Theory. 15(3), 136-142
[Journal article]Authored by: Matthewson, O.
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Matthewson, J. (2020). Does proper function come in degrees?. Biology and Philosophy. 35(4)
[Journal article]Authored by: Matthewson, O.
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Matthewson, J. (2020). Detail and generality in mechanistic explanation. Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part A. 80, 28-36
[Journal article]Authored by: Matthewson, O.
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Matthewson, J., & Griffiths, PE. (2017). Biological criteria of disease: Four ways of going wrong. Journal of Medicine and Philosophy (United Kingdom). 42(4), 447-466
[Journal article]Authored by: Matthewson, O.
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Griffiths, PE., & Matthewson, J. (2018). Evolution, Dysfunction, and Disease: A Reappraisal. British Journal for the Philosophy of Science. 69(2), 301-327
[Journal article]Authored by: Matthewson, O.
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Matthewson, J. (2015). Defining paradigm Darwinian populations. Philosophy of Science. 82(2), 178-197
[Journal article]Authored by: Matthewson, O.
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Matthewson, J. (2011). Trade-offs in model-building: A more target-oriented approach. Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part A. 42(2), 324-333
[Journal article]Authored by: Matthewson, O.
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Matthewson, J., & Calcott, B. (2011). Mechanistic models of population-level phenomena. Biology and Philosophy. 26(5), 737-756
[Journal article]Authored by: Matthewson, O.
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Matthewson, J., & Weisberg, M. (2009). The structure of tradeoffs in model building. Synthese. 170(1), 169-190
[Journal article]Authored by: Matthewson, O.
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Matthewson, J. (2008). Book review: Ecological orbits: How planets move and populations grow by Ginzburg, L., and Colyvan, M. (2004). Australasian Journal of Philosophy. 85(3), 697-700Retreived from http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/00048400701574234
[Book Review]Authored by: Matthewson, O.
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Book

Matthewson, J. (2017). Models of mechanisms. In The Routledge Handbook of Mechanisms and Mechanical Philosophy. (pp. 225 - 237).
[Chapter]Authored by: Matthewson, O.
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Matthewson, J., & Wall, D. (2009). What's Venom's Poison. In B. Dyer (Ed.) Supervillains and Philosophy. : Open Court
[Chapter]Authored by: Matthewson, O.

Thesis

Matthewson, J. (2012). Generality and the limits of model-based science. (Doctoral Thesis)
[Doctoral Thesis]Authored by: Matthewson, O.
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Conference

Matthewson, J. (2018, July). Partial Proper Functions. Presented at Australasian Association of Philosophy. Wellington, NZ.
[Conference Oral Presentation]Authored by: Matthewson, O.
Matthewson, J.Populations: A general framework. . Seattle, WA, USA
[Conference Paper]Authored by: Matthewson, O.
Matthewson, J. (2017, May). Populations in medical research. Presented at Empirical Philosophy Workshop. Victoria University Wellington.
[Conference Oral Presentation]Authored by: Matthewson, O.
Matthewson, J. (2016, November). What is a population?. Presented at Meeting of the New Zealand Association of Philosophy. University of Waikato.
[Conference Oral Presentation]Authored by: Matthewson, O.
Matthewson, J. (2016, March). In mechanistic explanation, more is always more. Presented at Problems of Scale (Invited speaker). University of Wollongong.
[Conference Oral Presentation]Authored by: Matthewson, O.

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Matthewson, J. (2015, July). Idealised organisation. Presented at Biennial meeting of the International Society for the History, Philosophy and Social Studies of Biology. Montreal, Canada.
[Conference Oral Presentation]Authored by: Matthewson, O.
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Matthewson, J. (2015, December). Biological normativity and disease. Presented at Meeting of the New Zealand Association of Philosophy. Massey University.
[Conference Oral Presentation]Authored by: Matthewson, O.
Matthewson, J., & Griffiths, PE. (2015, October). Boundaries from biology. Presented at Defining the boundaries of disease. Macquarie University.
[Conference Oral Presentation]Authored by: Matthewson, O.
Matthewson, J. (2015, August). Maternal signalling with divergent interests. Presented at Developmental origins of health and disease (preeclampsia )workshop
[Conference Oral Presentation]Authored by: Matthewson, O.
Matthewson, J. (2015, August). Explanatory generality revisited. Presented at Philosophy and Practice of Modelling (Invited speaker). University of Sydney.
[Conference Oral Presentation]Authored by: Matthewson, O.
Matthewson, J., & Griffiths, PE. (2015). DOHaD and evolutionary research heuristics. Poster session presented at the meeting of Meeting of the Developmental Origins of Health and Disease (DOHaD) Association of Australia and New Zealand
[Conference Poster]Authored by: Matthewson, O.
Matthewson, J. (2015, March). Mechanistic explanations are more idealised than you think. Does it matter?. Presented at Empirical philosophy workshop, Victoria University of Wellington
[Conference Oral Presentation]Authored by: Matthewson, O.
Matthewson, J. (2014, December). When less mechanistic information produces better mechanistic explanations. Presented at New Zealand Association of Philosophy conference
[Conference Oral Presentation]Authored by: Matthewson, O.
Matthewson, J., & Griffiths, PE. (2014, August). Four ways of going wrong. Presented at Philosophy of Biology at Dolphin Beach 8
[Conference Oral Presentation]Authored by: Matthewson, O.
Matthewson, J., & Griffiths, PE. (2014, May). An evolutionary heuristic in medical research: requirements and pay-offs. Presented at Sydney-Australian National University Philosophy of Biology (SANU) workshop
[Conference Oral Presentation]Authored by: Matthewson, O.
Matthewson, J., & Griffiths, PE. (2014, March). An evolutionary approach to disease. Presented at 7th Munich-Sydney-Tilburg Conference in the Philosophy of Science: Evolutionary Thinking. University of Sydney.
[Conference Oral Presentation]Authored by: Matthewson, O.
Matthewson, J. (2014, January). Representing cognition at the group level: Gains and losses. Presented at The Emergence of Social Cognition (Invited speaker). University of Wollongong.
[Conference Oral Presentation]Authored by: Matthewson, O.
Matthewson, J. (2013, July). Response to Principles of Evolutionary Medicine. Presented at Biennial meeting of the International Society for the History, Philosophy and Social Studies of Biology. Montpellier, France.
[Conference Oral Presentation]Authored by: Matthewson, O.
Matthewson, OJ.Group agency in the real world. Presented at Australasian Association of Philosophy (NZ meeting)
[Conference Oral Presentation]Authored by: Matthewson, O.
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Matthewson, J. (2012, December). Group Agency in the Real World. Presented at New Zealand Meeting of the Australasian Philosophy Association. Wellington.
[Conference Oral Presentation]Authored by: Matthewson, O.
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Firestone, RT., Gander, PH., & Matthewson, J. (2005). Factors affecting access to services for the assessment of sleep apnoea symptoms in taxi drivers. Poster session presented at the meeting of 19th Annual Meeting of the Associated-Professional-Sleep-Societies. Denver, CO
[Conference Poster]Authored by: Matthewson, O.
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Other

Matthewson, J. (2018, March). Populations: A general account. In Tempo and Mode Seminar, Research School of Biological Sciences, Australian National University.
[Oral Presentation]Authored by: Matthewson, O.
Matthewson, J. (2018, March). Partial Proper Functions. In Australian National University Philosophy Departmental Seminar.
[Oral Presentation]Authored by: Matthewson, O.
Matthewson, J. (2015, May). Mechanistic Explanations are more idealised than you think. Does it matter?.
[Oral Presentation]Authored by: Matthewson, O.
Matthewson, OJW. (2014, November). Negotiating the boundary between philosophy and science. In Massey University Schools of Humanities and English and Media Studies seminar.
[Oral Presentation]Authored by: Matthewson, O.
Matthewson, J., & Griffiths, PE. (2014, May). An evolutionary heuristic in medical research: requirements and pay-offs.
[Oral Presentation]Authored by: Matthewson, O.
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Matthewson, J., & Griffiths, PE. (2014, June). Application of evolutionary theory in cell biology – is there a rationale?.
[Oral Presentation]Authored by: Matthewson, O.
Matthewson, J. (2013, December). When less mechanistic information produces better mechanistic explanations..
[Oral Presentation]Authored by: Matthewson, O.
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Matthewson, J. (2013, December). When less mechanistic information produces better mechanistic explanations..
[Oral Presentation]Authored by: Matthewson, O.
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Matthewson, J. (2013, December). Adaptationism and the evolutionary medicine revolution.
[Oral Presentation]Authored by: Matthewson, O.
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Matthewson, J. (2013, September). Adaptationism and the evolutionary medicine revolution.
[Oral Presentation]Authored by: Matthewson, O.
Matthewson, OJW.Group agents and the use of idealised models in philosophy.
[Oral Presentation]Authored by: Matthewson, O.
Matthewson, OJW.What it will take for evolutionary thinking to truly transform medicine.
[Oral Presentation]Authored by: Matthewson, O.
Matthewson, OJW.Adaptationism and the evolutionary medicine revolution.
[Oral Presentation]Authored by: Matthewson, O.
Matthewson, OJ.What it will take for evolutionary thinking to truly transform medicine.
[Oral Presentation]Authored by: Matthewson, O.
Matthewson, OJ.Group agency in the real world.
[Oral Presentation]Authored by: Matthewson, O.
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Matthewson, OJ.Group agency in the real world.
[Oral Presentation]Authored by: Matthewson, O.
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Matthewson, J.Philosophy and Public Health. In Auckland region public health analyst peer group meeting.
[Oral Presentation]Authored by: Matthewson, O.
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Teaching and Supervision

Contact Supervisor

Summary of Doctoral Supervision

Position Current Completed
Co-supervisor 1 1

Current Doctoral Supervision

Co-supervisor of:

  • Alyson Baker - Doctor of Philosophy
    Sublime Recognition: chimpanzees in an expanding moral realm

Completed Doctoral Supervision

Co-supervisor of:

  • 2023 - Pansye Elkashef - Doctor of Philosophy
    An Experimental Analysis of Information Aggregation in Decision Markets