Topics in the Philosophy of Biology (Boston Studies in the Philosophy and History of Science, 27)

The philosophy of biology should move to the center of the philosophy of science - a place it has not been accorded since the time of Mach. Physics was the paradigm of science, and its shadow falls across con­ temporary philosophy of biology as well, in a variety of contexts: reduction, organization and system, biochemical mechanism, and the models of law and explanation which derive from the Duhem-Popper­ Hempel tradition. This volume, we think, offers ample evidence of how good contempo­ rary work in the philosophical understanding of biology has become. Marjorie Grene and Everett Mendelsohn aptly combine a deep philo­ sophical appreciation of conceptual issues in biology with an historical understanding of the radical changes in the science of biology since the 19th century. In this book, they present essays which probe such historical and methodological questions as reducibility, levels of organization, function and teleology, and the range of issues emerging from evolution­ ary theory and the species problem. In conjunction with Professor Grene's collection of essays on the philosophy of biology, The Under­ standing of Nature (Boston Studies in the Philosophy of Science, Vol. XXIII) and the occasional essays on these topics which we have published in other volumes (listed below), this volume contributes to bringing biology to the center of philosophical attention. Everett Mendelsohn, 'Explanation in Nineteenth Century Biology' (Boston Studies, Vol. II, 1965). David Hawkins, 'Taxonomy and Information', (Boston Studies, Vol. III, 1967). Front Matter....Pages I-XIII Front Matter....Pages 1-1 Aristotle and Modern Biology....Pages 3-36 Philosophical Biology vs Experimental Biology: Spontaneous Generation in the Seventeenth Century....Pages 37-65 D’Arcy Thompson and the Science of Form....Pages 66-97 Front Matter....Pages 99-99 The Watson-Crick Model and Reductionism....Pages 101-127 Life’s Irreducible Structure....Pages 128-142 Front Matter....Pages 143-143 Organizational Levels and Explanation....Pages 145-152 Physical Theories of Biological Co-Ordination....Pages 153-173 Complexity and Organization....Pages 174-193 Function and Teleology....Pages 197-212 Functions....Pages 213-242 Articulation of Parts Explanation in Biology and the Rational Search for Them....Pages 245-263 Front Matter....Pages 265-265 The Strategy of Evolution....Pages 267-285 Evolution and the Theory of Games....Pages 286-311 Biology as an Autonomous Science....Pages 312-329 Biological Adaptation....Pages 330-350 Front Matter....Pages 351-351 Species Concepts and Definitions....Pages 353-371 Biological Classification....Pages 372-395 Contemporary Systematic Philosophies....Pages 396-440 Back Matter....Pages 441-454

The philosophy of biology, some claim, should move to the centre of philosophy of science - a place it has not been accorded since the time of Mach. Physics was the paradigm of science, and its shadow falls across contemporary philosophy of biology in a variety of contexts: reduction, organization and system, biochemical mechanism, and the models of law and explanation which are derived from the Duhem-Popper-Hempel tradition.
In this volume, the editors present essays which probe such historical and methodological questions as reducibility, levels of organization, function and teleology, issues emerging from evolutionary theory, and the species problem. The volume offers ample evidence of how good contemporary work in the philosophical understanding of biology has become. The editors aptly combine a deep philosophical appreciation of conceptual issues in biology with an historical understanding of the radical changes in the science of biology since the 19th century.