Joseph Henry Woodger, Curriculum Vitae

Abstract

Joseph Henry Woodger is a dedicated scholar, a teacher, a research worker in biology, the philosophy of biology, its theory and metatheory and a very delightful companion. His research covers four inter-dependent categories. His scientific work, as a descriptive embryologist at the laboratory bench, led hirn to an examination of the philosophical presuppositions not only of embryology but also of the greater part of the range of biological theory. Having achieved this he embarked upon a search for, found and successfully applied rigorous methods of deriving non-numerical statements such as those relating cells to their parts. He has developed, and continues to develop and apply these methods in the construction of minutely analysed and rigorously deduced biological theory. In order to search out the axioms implicit in biological theory, and by extension, in scientific theory, he developed the technique of methodological analysis that led him to his characterisation of the structure of scientific theory.