Description
Book SynopsisBy combining excerpts from key historical writings with editors' introductions and further reading material,
Philosophy of Biology: An Anthology offers a comprehensive, accessible, and up-to-date collection of the field's most significant works.
- Addresses central questions such as What is life?' and How did it begin?', and the most current research and arguments on evolution and developmental biology
- Editorial notes throughout the text define, clarify, and qualify ideas, concepts and arguments
- Includes material on evolutionary psychology and evolutionary developmental biology not found in other standard philosophy of biology anthologies
- Further reading material assists novices in delving deeper into research in philosophy of biology
Trade Review"Nevertheless, this new anthology is a useful addition to the existing collection of building blocks from which introductory courses in philosophy of biology are constructed." (Acta Biotheor, 1 June 2013)
"Philosophy of Biology: An Anthology has selections that make it easy to teach evolutionary theory, clear up common misconceptions, and introduce students to genuinely important philosophical problems." (Science & Education, 2010)
Table of ContentsPersonal Acknowledgments
Source Acknowledgments
General Introduction: A Short History of Philosophy of Biology: Alex Rosenberg and Robert Arp
Part I: Basic Principles and Proofs of Darwinism
Introduction
1. Struggle for Existence and Natural Selection: Charles Darwin
2. Evolution: Eugenie G. Scott
Part II: Evolution and Chance
Introduction
3. Beyond the Reach of Chance: Michael Denton
4. Accumulating Small Change: Richard Dawkins
5. Chance and Natural Selection: John Beatty
6. The Principle of Drift: Biology’s First Law: Robert N. Brandon
Part III: The Tautology Problem
Introduction
7. Darwin’s Untimely Burial: Stephen Jay Gould
8. Adaptation and Evolutionary Theory: Robert N. Brandon
Part IV: Adaptationism
Introduction
9. The Spandrels of San Marco and the Panglossian Paradigm: A Critique of the Adaptationist Programme: Stephen Jay Gould and Richard C. Lewontin
10. How to Carry Out the Adaptationist Program?: Ernst Mayr
Part V: Biological Function and Teleology
Introduction
11. The Modern Philosophical Resurrection of Teleology: Mark Perlman
12. Neo-Teleology: Robert Cummins
13. A Modern History Theory of Functions: Peter Godfrey-Smith
Part VI: Evolutionary Developmental Biology
Introduction
14. Endless Forms: The Evolution of Gene Regulation and Morphological Diversity: Sean B. Carroll
15. Functional Evo-devo: Casper J. Breuker, Vincent Debat, and Christian Peter Klingenberg
Part VII: Reductionism and the Biological Sciences
Introduction
16. 1953 and All That: A Tale of Two Sciences: Philip Kitcher
17. The Multiple Realizability Argument against Reductionism: Elliott Sober
Part VIII: Species and Classification Problems
Introduction
18. Species, Taxonomy, and Systematics: Marc Ereshefsky
19. Spec;iation: A Catalogue and Critique of Species Concepts: Jerry A. Coyne and H. Allen Orr
Part IX: The Units of Selection Debate
Introduction
20. Artifact, Cause, and Genic Selection: Elliott Sober and Richard C. Lewontin
21. The Return of the Gene: Kim Sterelny and Philip Kitcher
22. The Levels of Selection Debate: Philosophical Issues: Samir Okasha
Part X: Sociobiology and Ethics
Introduction
23. Sociobiology: The New Synthesis: Edward O. Wilson
24. The Evolution of Cooperation: Robert Axelrod and William D. Hamilton
25. Darwinism in Moral Philosophy and Social Theory: Alex Rosenberg
Part XI: Evolutionary Psychology Introduction
26. Conceptual Foundations of Evolutionary Psychology: John Tooby and Leda Cosmides
27. The Environments of Our Hominin Ancestors, Tool-usage, and Scenario Visualization: Robert Arp
Part XII: Design and Creationism
Introduction
28. Science and Creationism: Donald Prothero
29. Irreducible Complexity: Obstacle to Darwinian Evolution: Michael J. Behe
30. The Flagellum Unspun: The Collapse of "Irreducible Complexity": Kenneth R. Miller
