Catherine Driscoll Retires

After serving for over 20 years at NC State, Catherine Driscoll, professor of philosophy, retired on January 1, 2025. A native of England, Driscoll earned a B.A. in philosophy and theology at Oriel College, Oxford. She then moved to Rutgers to pursue her Ph.D., where she wrote a dissertation under the supervision of Stephen Stich, titled Darwinizing Human Nature: Methodological issues in sociobiology and evolutionary psychology. After completing the Ph.D., Catherine taught for a year at Dartmouth College before joining NC State as an Assistant Professor in the fall of 2003. She was promoted to Associate Professor with tenure in 2010 and to Professor in 2019.

Driscoll’s scholarship focuses on the philosophy of biology and cognitive science, with a special interest in issues that arise for the sciences that study the evolution of human cognition. She is the author of a number of publications in very highly regarded peer reviewed journals, including most recently, “Grandmothers, hunters and human life history”, in Biology and Philosophy, and “Fatal Attraction: Do Sperber’s attractors prevent cumulative cultural evolution?” in the British Journal for the Philosophy of Science.

Apart from her scholarship and teaching, Driscoll made major contributions to the Department of Philosophy and Religious Studies in the area of service, especially in her role as Director of Undergraduate Advising, in which she served for more than sixteen years. She was a model academic citizen and the department owes her a great debt of gratitude for her valuable service.