Rapid biological advances and new standards of philosophical rigor are casting age-old questions about the nature and methodology of the biological sciences in a dramatic new light. By 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.
The text is organized to provide readers at all levels with a thorough grounding in the general history, philosophy, and science behind debates that remain at the heart of the philosophy of biology.
Personal 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. Speciation: 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
Alex Rosenberg is the R. Taylor Cole Professor of Philosophy and Professor of Biology at Duke University. He has published eleven books on the Philosophy of Science including "The Philosophy of Biology: A Contemporary Introduction" (2007) with Daniel McShea. In 1993, he won the Lakatos Prize in the Philosophy of Science and in 2007 was the National Phi Beta Kappa Rommell lecturer in philosophy.
Robert Arp is Research Associate with the National Center for Biomedical Ontology at the University of Buffalo and works with the Ontology Research Group at the New York State Center of Excellence in Bioinformatics & Life Sciences in Buffalo, New York. A Ph.D. in Philosophy from Saint Louis University, he has published in the areas of Philosophy of Biology, Philosophy of Mind, and Biomedical Ontology.
'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
"This excellent anthology covers a wide range of biological disciplines and controversies. It demonstrates the great value of reflective philosophical analysis in interpreting biology and its claims about human nature. It is ideal for use in introductory courses in philosophy of biology."
- Richard Burian, Virginia Tech
"'Philosophy of Biology: An Anthology' is a splendid collection of papers dedicated to the current issues in the philosophy of biology. The book is organized around twelve major topics, with at least two papers for each topic, expressing contrasting views as appropriate, and all written by leading experts. This book will serve well as a text for courses in the philosophy of biology, and as supplementary reading in philosophy of science and other classes."
- Francisco J. Ayala, University of California, Irvine