William Bechtel is Professor in the Department of Philosophy, and a faculty member in the interdisciplinary programs in Science Studies and Cognitive Science at the University of California, San Diego. He obtained his PhD at the University of Chicago, and prior to the move to UCSD in 2002, taught at Washington University in St. Louis, Georgia State University, University of Illinois and Northern Kentucky University. A philosopher of science, his research explores issues in the philosophy of the life sciences, including cell biology, biochemistry, neuroscience, and cognitive science. His particular focus is the project of constructing a mechanistic philosophy of science, which takes the view that phenomena are often explained by specifying mechanisms. His books include Mental Mechanisms: Philosophical Perspectives on the Sciences of Cognition and the Brain (Routledge 2007), Discovering Cell Mechanisms: The Creation of Modern Cell Biology (CUP 2006), Connectionism and the Mind: Parallel Processing, Dynamics, and Evolution in Networks (Blackwell 2002, with A. Abrahamsen), and Discovering Complexity: Decomposition and Localization as Strategies in Scientific Research (Princeton University Press 1993, with R. Richardson). For more information see his homepage.

Craig Callender is Professor of Philosophy at the University of California at San Diego. He obtained his PhD in Philosophy from Rutgers University in 1997. From 1996-2000, before moving to UCSD, he was Lecturer and then Senior Lecturer in the Department of Philosophy, Logic and Scientific Method at the London School of Economics. His main areas of research are the philosophy of science, philosophy of physics, and metaphysics. He has published extensively in academic journals, including those in philosophy, physics and law. He is particularly interested in the intersection of time and modern science, the interpretation of quantum mechanics (especially Bohm's theory), the foundations of statistical mechanics, Humean metaphysics, and various issues about spacetime. For more information see his homepage.

Paul Griffiths is a Professorial Research Fellow at the University of Sydney. He was educated at Cambridge and the Australian National University. He taught at Otago University in New Zealand and was later Director of the Unit for History and Philosophy of Science at the University of Sydney, before taking up a Professorship in the Department of History and Philosophy of Science at the University of Pittsburgh. He returned to Australia in 2004, first as an Australian Research Council Federation Fellow and then to the University of Sydney. He is a Fellow of the Australian Academy of the Humanities, annual Visiting Professor in the ESRC Centre for Genomics in Society at the University of Exeter, an adjunct member of the Pittsburgh HPS faculty, and a member of the Australian Health Ethics Committee of NHMRC. He works in philosophy of science, with a focus on biology and psychology. His books include What Emotions Really Are: The Problem of Psychological Categories (University of Chicago Press 1997) and Sex and Death: An Introduction to the Philosophy of Biology (University of Chicago Press 1999) with Kim Sterelny. For more information see his homepage.

Kevin Hoover is Professor of Economics and Philosophy at Duke University. He was educated at William and Mary College, St. Andrews and Oxford, where he received a D.Phil in Economics in 1985. Before moving to Duke in 2006, he was Professor of Economics at the University of California at Davis. His research interests include causality in macroeconomics, econometrics, the methodology of economics, and history of 20th century macroeconomics. He has published extensively in both economics and philosophy journals. His books include The New Classical Macroeconomics (Blackwell 1988), The Methodology of Empirical Economics (CUP 2001), and Causality in Macroeconomics (CUP 2001). For more information see his homepage.

Philip Pettit is the Laurance S. Rockefeller University Professor of Politics and Human Values at Princeton University, where he has taught political theory and philosophy since 2002. Irish by background and training, he was a lecturer in University College, Dublin, a Research Fellow at Trinity Hall, Cambridge, and Professor of Philosophy at the University of Bradford, before moving in 1983 to the Research School of Social Sciences, Australian National University; there he was Professor of Social and Political Theory and Professor of Philosophy. He works in moral and political theory and on background issues in philosophical psychology and social ontology. His recent single-authored books include The Common Mind (OUP 1996), Republicanism (OUP 1997), A Theory of Freedom (OUP 2001), and Rules, Reasons and Norms (OUP 2002). He is the co-author of Economy of Esteem (OUP 2004, with Geoffrey Brennan) and Mind, Morality and Explanation (OUP 2004, with Frank Jackson and Michael Smith). A new book, Made with Words: Hobbes on Mind, Society and Politics is forthcoming with Princeton University Press and he is currently working on a book on Group Agents with Christian List. For more information see his homepage.