Stuart Glennan

Stuart Glennan is the Harry T. Ice Professor of Philosophy at Butler University.

Professor Glennan’s area of specialization is in the philosophy of science, with particular attention to biology and psychology and the metaphysics of science.  He has written about causation, explanation and model building. He is chiefly known for his work on the nature of mechanisms and the role of mechanistic models and explanations across the sciences.  He is author of The New Mechanical Philosophy (Oxford University Press, 2017) and editor, with Phyllis Illari, of the Routledge Handbook of Mechanisms and Mechanical Philosophy (2018).  He has also written on the topic of religion and science, and science education, and has dabbled in the philosophy of history. 

Professor Glennan received his BA in mathematics and philosophy from Yale University,and his MA and PhD in philosophy from the University of Chicago before coming to Butler in 1992.  He has served in multiple administrative roles -- including as Chair of the Department of Philosophy and Religious Studies, as founding director of the Science, Technology and Society Program, and as Associate Dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences. He helped develop and teaches in Butler's Neuroscience Minor.  Currently he serves as director of Butler's Science, Technology and Environmental Studies Program