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About this book
Drawing on work of the past decade, this volume brings together articles from the philosophy, history, and sociology of science, as well as many branches of the biological sciences, to consider issues including the nature of evolutionary theory, biology and ethics, the challenge from religion, and the social implications of biology today (in particular the Human Genome Project).
This second edition contains material on design without selection, testing macroevolutionary claims, recent biotechnological issues, key ecological concerns, the Gaia hypothesis, genetically modified foods, and the so-called Intelligent Design movement.
Contents
Introduction; PART I: ADAPTATION; Introduction to Part I; 1. Adaptation: Current Usages; 2. Universal Darwinism; 3. The Leibnizian Paradigm; 4. . Exaptation - A Missing Term in the Science of Form; 5. Six Sayings About Adaptationism; PART II: DEVELOPMENT; Introduction to Part II; 6. Two Concepts of Constraint: Adaptationism and the Challenge from Developmental Biology; 7. Developmental Systems and Evolutionary Explanation; PART III: UNITS OF SELECTION; 8. The Return of the Gene; 9. The Levels of Selection: A Hierarchy of Interactors; 10. A Critical Review of Philosophical Work on the Units of Selection Problem; PART IV: FUNCTION; Introduction to Part IV; 11. Function Without Purpose: The Uses of Causal Role Function in Evolutionary Biology; 12. Function and Design; 13. Functions: Consensus Without Unity; PART V: SPECIES; Introduction to Part V; 14. Individuality, Pluralism, and the Phylogenetic Species Concept; 15. Phylogenetic Systematics and the Species Problem; 16. Eliminative Pluralism; PART VI: HUMAN NATURE; Introduction to Part VI; 17. Science and Myth; 18. On Human Nature; 19. Gender and Science: Origin, History, and Politics; 20. Essentialism, Women, and War: Protesting Too Much, Protesting Too Little; 21. Essentialism and Constructionism about Sexual Orientation; PART VII: ALTRUISM; Introduction to Part VII; 22. Altruism: Theoretical Contexts; 23. What Is Evolutionary Altruism?; 24. On the Relationship Between Evolutionary and Psychological Definitions of Altruism and Selfishness; PART VIII: HUMAN GENOME PROJECT; Introduction to Part VIII; 25. The Human Genome Project: Towards an Analysis of the Empirical, Ethical, and Conceptual Issues Involved; 26. Who's Afraid of the Human Genome Project?; 27. Is Human Genetics Disguised Eugenics?; 28. Normality and Variation: The Human Genome Project and the Ideal Human Type; 29. The Human Genome Project: Research Tactics and Economic Strategies; PART IX: PROGRESS; Introduction to Part IX; 30. The Moral Foundations of the Idea of Evolutionary Progress: Darwin, Spencer, and the Neo-Darwinians; 31. Evolution and Progress; 32. Complexity and Evolution: What Everybody Knows; 33. On Replacing the Idea of Progress with an Operational Notion of Directionality; PART X: CREATIONISM; Introduction to Part X; 34. When Faith and Reason Clash: Evolution and the Bible; 35. Evolution and Special Creation; 36. Reply to McMullin; Notes on the Contributors; Further Reading; Index
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