Concepts and Methods in Evolutionary Biology

About this book

Collection of recent essays which cover all the traditional topics in the philosophy of evolutionary biology: the nature of fitness, teleology, the structure of the theory of natural selection, and the levels of selection. As such they serve as a useful introduction to the field.

Contents

Introduction; Part I: 1. Adaptation and evolutionary theory; 2. Biological teleology: questions and explanations; 3. A structural description of evolutionary theory; 4. The levels of selection; Part II: 5. Phenotypic plasticity, cultural transmission and human sociobiology; 6. From icons to symbols: some speculations on the origins of language; 7. Individuality, pluralism, and the phylogenetic species concept; 8. The levels of selection: a hierarchy of interactors; Part III: 9. Theory and experiment in evolutionary biology; 10. The co-evolution of organism and environment; 11. Reductionism versus holism versus mechanism; References; Index.

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