[3] He specializes in the philosophy of biology, where his areas of interest include reductionism, heuristics, emergence, scientific modeling, heredity, and cultural evolution.

After working for a year as a designer in industry, he turned to philosophy receiving a BA degree magna cum laude in 1965.

Wimsatt's philosophical position starts with two themes: we are limited beings and the world we try to understand is complex.

They are rules of thumb, which can be wrong or biased but tend to work when applied to what is robust in the world.

[1] Some of the most important commentators on Wimsatt's writings are his students, many of whom are now working as philosophers of science and scientists, e.g. Marshall Abrams, Douglas Allchin, Irene Appelbaum, William Bechtel, Stuart Glennan, James R. Griesemer, Jeffry Ramsey, Sahotra Sarkar, Jeffrey Schank, and Marty Sereno.