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Summary
This comprehensive and balanced introduction to the philosophy of biology takes a fresh look at the subject in an accessible way. Alex Rosenberg clarifies the philosophical problems relevant to biologists, discussing how eminent biologists from Darwin to Lewontin have addressed these issues, and showing how philosophy of biology is indispensable for biologists. This user-friendly book will appeal to students of biology and philosophy.
Author Biography
Alex Rosenberg is R. Taylor Cole Professor of Philosophy at Duke University.
Table of Contents
| Acknowledgements | p. xi |
| Introduction: what is the philosophy of biology? | p. 1 |
| Philosophy asks two kinds of questions | p. 1 |
| Philosophy and language | p. 3 |
| The agenda of the philosophy of biology | p. 7 |
| Darwin makes a science | p. 12 |
| Overview | p. 12 |
| Teleology and theology | p. 12 |
| Making teleology safe for science | p. 16 |
| Misunderstandings about natural selection | p. 20 |
| Is Darwinism the only game in town? | p. 23 |
| Philosophical problems of Darwinism | p. 27 |
| Summary | p. 30 |
| Suggestions for further reading | p. 30 |
| Biological laws and theories | p. 32 |
| Overview | p. 32 |
| Causation, laws, and biological generalizations | p. 33 |
| Could there be laws about species? | p. 37 |
| Models in biology: Mendel's laws, Fisher's sex ratios, the Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium | p. 46 |
| Fitness and the principle of natural selection | p. 51 |
| Darwinism as a historical research program | p. 58 |
| Summary | p. 62 |
| Suggestions for further reading | p. 63 |
| Further problems of Darwinism: constraint, drift, function | p. 65 |
| Overview | p. 65 |
| Adaptationism-for and against | p. 66 |
| Constraint and adaptation | p. 70 |
| What is genetic drift? | p. 76 |
| Central tendencies, subjective probabilities, and theism | p. 82 |
| Function, homology, and homoplasy | p. 87 |
| Summary | p. 94 |
| Suggestions for further reading | p. 94 |
| Reductionism about biology | p. 96 |
| Overview | p. 96 |
| Reduction, eliminativism, and physicalism | p. 97 |
| Arguments for reductionism | p. 100 |
| Antireductionist arguments from molecular biology | p. 105 |
| Reductionist rejoinders | p. 111 |
| Multiple realizability, supervenience, and antireductionism | p. 114 |
| Self-organization and reductionism | p. 119 |
| Natural selection and reduction | p. 124 |
| Summary | p. 125 |
| Suggestions for further reading | p. 126 |
| Complexity, directionality, and progress in evolution | p. 127 |
| Overview | p. 127 |
| What is progress, and is it (or could it be) a scientific concept? | p. 128 |
| What does theory predict? | p. 132 |
| Some more specific proposals and their problems | p. 138 |
| Trends versus tendencies | p. 147 |
| Complexity and intelligent design | p. 152 |
| Summary | p. 154 |
| Suggestions for further reading | p. 155 |
| Genes, groups, teleosemantics, and the major transitions | p. 157 |
| Overview | p. 157 |
| Levels and units of selection | p. 158 |
| Kin selection and selection within and between groups | p. 164 |
| Macroevolution and the major trends: is group selection rare or frequent? | p. 169 |
| Genocentrism and genetic information | p. 173 |
| Teleosemantics: philosophy of biology meets the philosophy of psychology | p. 179 |
| Summary | p. 184 |
| Suggestions for further reading | p. 185 |
| Biology, human behavior, social science, and moral philosophy | p. 187 |
| Overview | p. 187 |
| Functionalism in social science | p. 188 |
| Evolutionary game theory and Darwinian dynamics | p. 191 |
| Evolutionary psychology and the argument for innateness | p. 198 |
| What is wrong with genetic determinism? | p. 207 |
| Darwinism without genes | p. 212 |
| Darwinism and ethics | p. 218 |
| Summary | p. 224 |
| Suggestions for further reading | p. 224 |
| Bibliography | p. 226 |
| Index | p. 232 |
| Table of Contents provided by Ingram. All Rights Reserved. |
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