Kaiser, Prof. Dr. Marie I.

General Philosophy of Science: explanation, reductionism, causality, complexity, methodology of philosophy of science, interdisciplinarity, normativity, science & society

Philosophy of Biology: reductive explanation, causal modeling, mechanistic explanation, biological individuality, ecological niche, animal personality

Metaphysics: mechanisms, phenomena, part-whole relations, biological dispositions, individuality/uniqueness

• since 06.2018: Full Professor (W3) for Philosophy of Science, Department of Philosophy, Bielefeld University
• since 10.2023: Director of the Center for Interdisciplinary Research (ZiF), Bielefeld
• 10.2023 - 06.2024: Parental leave, part-time work
• 11.2019 – 09.2023: Vice-Rector for Personnel Development and Gender Equality, Bielefeld University
• 10.2018 - 10.2019: Parental leave, part-time work
• 02.2018: Offer from the University of Mainz as a Full Professor (W2) and Director of the General Studies (Studium generale)
• 10.2016 - 05.2018: Junior Professor (W1) for Philosophy of Science, Department of Philosophy, Bielefeld University
• 08 - 09.2016: Visiting Fellow, Department of Philosophy, University of Calgary, Canada; Co-Investigator in the Templeton Research Group "From Biological Practice to Scientific Metaphysics"
• 09.2013 - 09.2016: Postdoctoral Research Fellow, DFG Research Group "Causation and Explanation", University of Cologne, Germany; Research Project on "Causation and Explanation of Complex Biological Systems"
• 09.2012 - 08.2013: Postdoctoral Research Fellow, University of Geneva, Switzerland
• 07.2012: PhD in philosophy, University of Cologne; PhD thesis on "An Ontic Account of Explanatory Reduction in Biology"; Supervisors: Prof. Dr. Andreas Hüttemann (Cologne), Prof. Dr. Marcel Weber (Geneva)
• 10.2011 - 09.2015: Member of the DFG Network for the "Philosophy of the Life Sciences"
• 11.2009 - 08.2012: Research Fellow, DFG Research Group "Causation and Explanation", University of Cologne (since 04.2010) and University of Muenster; Research Project on "The Concept of Mechanism in the Life Sciences"
• 01 - 05.2010 and 04.2013: Visiting Scholar, Minnesota Center for Philosophy of Science, University of Minnesota, USA
• 05.2007 - 09.2010: Research Assistant, Department of Philosophy and Center for Philosophy of Science (04.2008 - 09.2009), University of Muenster
• 07.2007: State examination in biology and philosophy (certification as secondary teacher)
• 05.2007: Master of Arts in philosophy (major), biology, and educational science

Books

• Kaiser M. I. (2015): Reductive Explanation in the Biological Sciences. Cham: Springer (History, Philosophy and Theory of the Life Sciences; Vol. 16).
• Kaiser M. I., Scholz O., Plenge D., Hüttemann A. (eds.) (2014): Explanation in the Special Sciences. The Case of Biology and History. Dordrecht: Springer (Synthese Library; Vol. 367).
• Kaiser M. I., Seide A. (eds.) (2013): Philip Kitcher - Pragmatic Naturalism. Frankfurt/Main: ontos.

Papers

• Kaiser M. I., Suarez, J. (2025): Metaphysics of Scientific Practice. in: Currie A., Veigl S. (eds.): Methods in the Philosophy of Science: A User’s Guide. MIT Press.
• Kaiser M. I., Krickel B. (2025): Individuation of Cross-Cutting Causal Systems in Cognitive Science and Behavioral Ecology, in: Illari P. K., Russo F. (eds.): Routledge Handbook of Causality and Causal Methods. Routledge.
• Kaiser M. I., Morrow K. H. (2024): On the Epistemic Roles of the Individualized Niche Concept in Ecology, Behavioral Biology, and Evolutionary Biology. Philosophy of Science, https://doi:10.1017/psa.2024.48
• Kaiser M. I., Killin A., Abendroth A.-K., et al. (2024): Individualisation and Individualised Science Across Disciplinary Perspectives. European Journal for Philosophy of Science 14, 41. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13194-024-00602-8
• Kaiser M. I., Gadau J., Kaiser S., et al. (2024): Individualized social niches in animals: Theoretical clarifications and processes of niche change. BioScience 74: 146-158. https://doi.org/10.1093/biosci/biad122
• Malsch A. K. F., Killin A., Kaiser M. I. (2024): Health-Oriented Environmental Categories, Individual Health Environments, and the Concept of Environment in Public Health. Health Care Analysis https://doi.org/10.1007/s10728-023-00477-5
• Kaiser M. I., Trappes R. (2023): Ecological-Evolutionary Mechanisms and Individualized Niches, in: Bausman W., Baxter J., Lean O. (eds.): From Biological Practice to Scientific Metaphysics. University of Minnesota Press, 116-152.
• Kaiser M. I., Müller C. (2021): What Is an Animal Personality? Biology & Philosophy 36(1), https://doi.org/10.1007/s10539-020-09776-w.
• Kaiser M. I., Trappes R. (2021): Broadening the Problem Agenda of Biological Individuality: Individual Differences, Uniqueness, and Temporality. Biology & Philosophy 36, https://doi.org/10.1007/s10539-021-09791-5.
• Kaiser M. I. (2021): Explanation in Evo-Devo, in: de la Rosa L. N., Müller G. B. (eds.): Evolutionary Developmental Biology - A Reference Guide. Cham: Springer.
• Kaiser M. I. (2020): Was ist gute Wissenschaft? Philip Kitcher, in: Müller-Salo J. (ed.): Analytische Philosophie. Eine Einführung in 16 Fragen und Antworten. Paderborn: Wilhelm Fink, 111-123.
• Kaiser M. I. (2019): Normativity in the Philosophy of Science, Metaphilosophy 50 (1-2): 36-62.
• Kaiser M. I. (2018): ENCODE and the Parts of the Human Genome, Studies in History and Philosophy of Biological and Biomedical Sciences 72: 28-37.
• Kaiser M. I. (2018): Individuating Part-whole Relations in the Biological World, in: Bueno O., Chen R.-L., Fagan M. B. (eds.): Individuation, Process and Scientific Practices. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 63-87.
• Hüttemann A., Kaiser M. I. (2018): Potentiality in Biology, in: Engelhard K., Quante M. (eds.): Handbook of Potentiality. Dordrecht: Springer, 401-427.
• Kaiser M. I. (2018): The Components and Boundaries of Mechanisms, in: Glennan S., Illari P. (eds.): The Routledge Handbook of Mechanisms and Mechanical Philosophy. New York: Routledge, 116-130.
• Kaiser M. I., Krickel B. (2017): The Metaphysics of Constitutive Mechanistic Phenomena, The British Journal for the Philosophy of Science 68(3): 745-779.
• Kaiser M. I. (2017): Themen aus den Lebenswissenschaften, in: Schrenk M. (ed.): Handbuch Metaphysik. Stuttgart: Metzler, 325-330.
• Kaiser M. I. (2016): On the Limits of Causal Modeling: Spatially-Structurally Complex Biological Phenomena, Philosophy of Science 83: 921-933.
• Kaiser M. I., Meunier R., Kronfeldner M. (2016): Problems and Prospects of Interdisciplinarity: The Case of Philosophy of Science, Interdisciplinary Science Reviews 41(1): 61-70.
• Kaiser M. I., Meunier R., Kronfeldner M. (2014): Interdisciplinarity in Philosophy of Science, Journal for General Philosophy of Science 45: 59-70.

You can find more publications and pdfs here.