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Staff Profile

Dr Bill Herfel

Conjoint Lecturer in Philosophy

Faculty: Education and Arts

School: Humanities and Social Sciences

Room: McMullin Building, Room MC121

Phone: + 61 2 4921 5191

Facsimile: + 61 2 4921 6933

Email: William.Herfel@newcastle.edu.au

Brief Biography

Bill Herfel is a philosopher of technology and science with a wide range of interdisciplinary interests ranging from complex dynamic systems to Chinese philosophy. With over twenty years teaching experience, he has lectured philosophy, primarily in an interdisciplinary context, in Australia, Singapore and the USA. Currently, he is focussing on research.

Qualifications

1990 PhD Temple University, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19122 USA
1985 BSc Natural Science: Mathematics and Physics, St Mary's College of Maryland, St Mary's City, Maryland 20686 USA

Research Interests

Scientific, methodological and philosophical foundations for theory, practice and empirical study of Chinese Medicine using complex dynamic systems theory
Application of the nonlinear dynamics and complex systems theory to the understanding of science, technology, society and the market
Complex dynamic systems approaches to environmental management and sustainable development
Social dimensions of sustainable communities
Philosophy of alternative approaches to physical, mental, emotional and spiritual health
Socioeconomic and philosophical dimensions of academic integrity

Recent Publications

Herfel, W. E., D. Rodrigues and Y.Gao. 2007. Chinese Medicine and the Dynamic Conceptions of Health and Disease. Journal of Chinese Philosophy 34 (s1): 57-79.
Herfel, W. E. 2007. Positive Feedback and Praxiology: Path Dependence in Action. In W. W. Gasparski and T. Airaksinen, eds. Praxiology and the Philosophy of Technology, 55-77. Vol. 15 of Praxiology: The International Annual of Practical Philosophy and Methodology. New Brunswick: Transaction Publications.
Atkins, J. and W. Herfel. 2006. Counting Beans in the Degree Factory (Some Practical Meta-Ethical Reflections on Academic Integrity in Australian Universities). International Journal for Educational Integ rity 2 (1): 3-12.

Forthcoming Publications

Rodrigues, D., Y. Gao, and W.E. Herfel, 2008. Analysing a Chinese Medical Case Study in terms of Self-Organisation (in Chinese)). Journal of Medicine & Philosophy (医学与哲学), accepted on 06/12/2007.
Gao, Y. W.E. Herfel and Rodrigues, D. 2008. Toward a New Research Paradigm: Traditional Chinese Medicine from a Nonlinear Dynamical Perspective (in Chinese), Journal of Medicine & Philosophy (医学与哲学), accepted on 28/01/2008.
Gao, Y. and W.E. Herfel. Constructing Post-Classical Ecosystems Ecology: The emerging dynamic perspective from self-organising complex adaptive systems. To appear in Hooker and Collier (eds.) Philosophy of Complex Systems Volume 10 of Gabbay, Thagard and Woods (eds.) Handbook of the Philosophy of Science, Elsevier.
Herfel, W. E., D. Rodrigues and Y. Gao. Complex Dynamical Systems and Chinese Medicine. To appear in Hooker and Collier (eds.) Philosophy of Complex Systems Volume 10 of Gabbay, Thagard and Woods (eds.) Handbook of the Philosophy of Science, Elsevier.
D. Ihde and Herfel, W. E. Philosophic Implications of Modeling the Complex Dynamics of Technoscience. To appear in Hooker and Collier (eds.) Philosophy of Complex Systems Volume 10 of Gabbay, Thagard and Woods (eds.) Handbook of the Philosophy of Science, Elsevier.

More Information

Click here to view Dr Herfel's Curriculum Vitae