Lee Brown, Assistant Professor of Philosophy

Research Interests: ELSI of Human Genome Research, Meta-ethics, Models of Understanding, and Theoretical Reduction

Professor Brown received the Ph.D. in Philosophy from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, in 1986. His formal training produced two primary areas of specialization: the philosophy of natural science and meta-ethics. His dissertation topic was The Sufficiency of Nomological Subsumption for the Explanation of Events. He has subsequently developed specializations in bioethics, critical thinking/critical writing, and traditional African philosophical thought. He has given many presentations and research papers on efforts to model scientific explanation and understanding in extensional formal languages. In keeping with that research, he is writing a book manuscript that presents a model of scientific understanding that advances theoretical reduction within the natural sciences. The manuscript encompasses the concerns about efforts within human genome research to reduce human kind and humanity into the basic building blocks of human biology. He is also writing a book manuscript for Oxford University Press on epistemological and metaphysical perspectives in traditional African philosophical thought. Other ongoing projects include the development of the ethics component of the National Human Genome Center and the development of critical thinking workshops for the Howard University Professional Development and Leadership Academy. Before teaching at Howard, Professor Brown taught at Davidson College, Williams College, and the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. His awards and grants include Andrew F. Mellon Fellowship; NEH Summer Institute; Howard University Fund for Academic Excellence; Howard University Faculty Research Award; University of Illinois Postdoctoral Fellowship.

His research has been presented at Salzburg Seminar 368, Salzburg, Austria; International Society for African and African Diaspora Philosophy and Studies Annual Conference, University of the North, Sovenga, South Africa; College of Medicine, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa; Department of Philosophy, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa; Daihonzan Chozen-ji/International Zen Dojo & Institute of Zen Studies, Honolulu, Hawaii; Center for Critical Thinking and Moral Critique; Secretary's Advisory Committee on Genetic Testing; American Medical Students Association Annual Conference; Howard University College of Medicine; The Annual Meeting of the Southern Society for Philosophy and Psychology; Central States Philosophical Association; The Annual Meeting of the Eastern Division of the American Philosophical Association; The Annual Meeting of the Western Division of the American Philosophical Association; Philosophy Department, American University, Washington, D. C.; Philosophy Department, University of Illinois; Bennington College, Bennington, VT.; Williams College, Williamstown, MA.

Representative Publications

2002	"Conceptions and Misconceptions of Race" in My Bucket's Got A Hole in It: Readings in African-American Philosophy, edited by T. L. Lott, (New York: Routledge, 2002).
1997	"IQ, Nurture, and Academic Excellence," in A Howard Reader: An Intellectual and Cultural Quilt of the African American Experience, edited by Paul Logan, Boston: Houghton Mifflin, pp. 337-338.
1996	"Compassion and Societal Well-Being," in Pacific Philosophical Quarterly (Fall 1996): 216-224.
	"Arrogance, Intellectual Elitism, and Social Harm: Avoiding a Second Rate Education in a First-Rate Institution," in Proceedings of the National Conference on Ethics, Higher Education, and Social Responsibility, edited by J. Ladner and S. Gbadegesin, Washington, D.C.: Howard University Press. (2/96), pp. 59-69.
	Book Review: D. A. Masolo, African Philosophy in Search of Identity, in Ethics, Chicago: University of Chicago. Vol. 106, No. 4 (7/96): 908-909.
1992	Book Review: J. Morisawa, The Secret of the Target, in Journal of Asian Martial Arts, Erie: Via Media, (4/92):103-104.

Representative Conference Papers and Lectures

"Ethical Theory for Healthcare Professionals," Opening Lectures for Howard University Healthcare Ethics Program, September 2001, January 2002.

"On Not Tying One's Shoe Laces in a Watermelon Patch: the ethics of research methodology," South Orange: Seton Hall University, May 2001, http://www.setonhallworldwide.net.

"Enhancing Environmental Awareness & Teaching Effectiveness," Atlanta: Clark Atlanta University, July 1996, http://galaxy.cau.edu.esproject/:Howard U Workshop.

"Understanding, Nomothetic Order, and Explanation," South Africa, Rhodes University, May 2000.

"Commentary on Genetic Testing and the Need for Democratizing Scientific Research: January 27, 2000 Secretary's Advisory Committee on Genetics Testing National Institutes of Health Conference on Genetic Testing," Baltimore, MD, January 2000.

"Normative Grounding for Scientific Inquiry and its Implementation," Sixteenth Annual Co-op Days Conference: Ethics & Higher Education, Howard University, Washington, D.C., February 1996.

"Explanations as Derivations in Science," Pacific Division Meeting of the American Philosophical Socity, San Francisco, CA, March 25, 1993.

"Pragmatic Concerns and the Inferential Foundation of Explanation," Philosophy Department, Williams College, Williamstown, MA, January 26, 1989.