Thinking about Evolution Historical, Philosophical and Political Perspectives

About this book

Originally published in 2001, this is the second of two volumes published by Cambridge University Press in honour of Richard Lewontin. This second volume of essays honours the philosophical, historical and political dimensions of his work. It is fitting that the volume covers such a wide range of perspectives on modern biology, given the range of Lewontin's own contributions. He is not just a very successful practitioner of evolutionary genetics, but a rigorous critic of the practices of genetics and evolutionary biology and an articulate analyst of the social, political and economic contexts and consequences of genetic and evolutionary research. The volume begins with an essay by Lewontin on Natural History and Formalism in Evolutionary Genetics, and includes contributions by former students, post-docs, colleagues and collaborators, which cover issues ranging from the history and conceptual foundations of evolutionary biology and genetics, to the implications of human genetic diversity.

Contents

Preface; Introduction; 1. Does culture evolve? Richard Lewontin; Part A. History of and in Evolutionary Biology: 2. The nature of evolutionary biology: an interchange among Richard Lewontin, Diane Paul, John Beatty and Costas Krimbas; 3. Hannah Arendt and Karl Popper: Darwinism, Fatalism and Totalitarianism John Beatty; 4. The genetics of experimental populations: L'Heritier and Teisser's population cages Jean Gayon and Michel Veuille; 5. Did eugenics rest on an elementary mistake? Diane Paul and Hamish Spencer; 6. Can the norm of reaction save the gene concept? Rafi Falk; 7. The apportionment of human diversity twenty-five years later Maryellen Ruvolo and Mark Seielstad; 8. The Indian caste system: origin, evolution and impact on human diversity Rama Singh; Part B. Philosophy of Evolutionary Biology: 9. Selfish genes or developmental systems? Russel Gray; 10. The evolutionary definition of selective agency, the validation of the theory of hierarchical selection, and the fallacy of the selfish gene Stephen J. Gould; 11. Reductionism in genetics and the human genome project Sahotra Sarkar; 12. Organism and environment Peter Godfrey-Smith; 13. Levels and units of selection Lisa Lloyd; 14. In defense of neo-Darwinism: Popper's 'Darwinism as a metaphysical programme' revisited Costas Krimbas; 15. The two faces of fitness Elliot Sober; 16. Evolvability: adaptation and modularity Jeffrey C. Schank and Bill Wimsatt; 17. Organism and environment revisited Robert Brandon; 18. An 'irreducible' component of cognition Massimo Piattelli-Palmarini; Part C. The Politics of Evolutionary Biology: 19. What causes cancer? A political history of recent debates Robert Proctor; 20. Battling the undead: how (and how not) to resist genetic determinism Philip Kitcher; 21. The rise of neurogenetic determinism Steven Rose; 22. Behavior genetics: Galen's prophecy or Malpighi's legacy? Evan Balaban; 23. Identity politics and biology Ruth Hubbard; 24. The agroecosystem: the modern vision in crisis, the alternative evolving John Vandermeer; 25. Political economy of agricultural genetics Jean-Pierre Berlan; 26. The butterfly ex machina Richard Levins; 27. Evoking transmutational dread: military and civilian uses of nuclear and genetic alchemies Robert Haynes; 28. From natural selection to natural construction to disciplining unruly complexity: the challenge of integrating ecological dynamics into evolutionary theory Peter Taylor.

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