Elay Shech

I am a Professor at Auburn University’s Department of Philosophy. My research interests include general philosophy of science, philosophy of physics, philosophy of mathematics and statistics, philosophy of biology, and philosophy of artificial intelligence and machine learning. I also have a budding interest in aesthetics and the philosophy of art, and especially (primarily Buddhist) Indian and Chinese philosophy.

I received my PhD from the department of History and Philosophy of Science at University of Pittsburgh in the Spring of 2015 under the direction of John Earman and John D. Norton. My book, Idealizations in Physics (Cambridge University Press), reviewed by Metascience, discusses the nature and role of idealization in science. See also my co-edited book, Scientific Understanding and Representation: Modeling in the Physical Sciences (Routledge).

I have held visiting fellowships at Durham University, National University of Singapore, University of Sydney, University of Bristol, and Utrecht University, and I was a visiting scholar/professor at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and Tel Aviv University.

In my free time I enjoy cooking authentic and traditional cuisines from around the world, reading fiction (with current favorites Philip Roth, Elizabeth Strout, Haruki Murakami, Neil Gaiman, Brandon Sanderson, and Ursula K. LeGuin), playing music (mostly my Gretsch White Falcon and Martin HD-28), and meditating. I enjoy hiking and long walks in nature.