Evolutionary Epistemology

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-xii

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2. Background

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 1-1

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   2. Evolutionary Epistemology Today: Converging Views from Philosophy, the Natural and the Social Sciences

      • Werner Callebaut, Rik Pinxten

      Pages 3-55

   3. The Meaning of Entropy

      • Ilya Prigogine

      Pages 57-73

   4. Evolutionary Epistemology and the Synthesis of Biological and Social Science

      • Henry C. Plotkin

      Pages 75-96

   5. Epistemology of Evolutionary Theories

      • René Thom

      Pages 97-104

   6. Cognisance of Consciousness in the Study of Animal Knowledge

      • Cecilia M. Heyes

      Pages 105-136

3. Evolutionary approaches to science and technology

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 137-137

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   2. Selection Theory and the Sociology of Scientific Validity

      • Donald T. Campbell

      Pages 139-158

   3. Variation and Selection: Scientific Progress without Rationality

      • Louis Boon

      Pages 159-177

   4. Evolutionary Epistemology and Sociology of Science

      • Karin Knorr Cetina

      Pages 179-201

   5. What Evolutionary Epistemology is Not

      • Gerhard Vollmer

      Pages 203-221

   6. The Philosophical Significance of an Evolutionary Epistemology

      • Andrew J. Clark

      Pages 223-231

   7. Homo Sapiens, Homo Faber, Homo Socians: Technology and the Social Animal

      • Linnda R. Caporael

      Pages 233-244

4. The Piagetian approach

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 245-245

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   2. Is Piaget’s “Genetic Epistemology” Evolutionary?

      • Christiane Gillièron

      Pages 247-266

   3. The Genesis of Atomic Physics and the Biography of Ideas

      • Arthur I. Miller

      Pages 267-281

   4. Sensorimotor Emergence: Proposing a Computational “Syntax”

      • Claude Lamontagne

      Pages 283-310

   5. Evolutionary Epistemology, Genetic Epistemology, History and Neurology

      • Leo Apostel

      Pages 311-323

5. Extensions and applications

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 325-325

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This volume has its already distant or1g1n in an inter­ national conference on Evolutionary Epistemology the editors organized at the University of Ghent in November 1984. This conference aimed to follow up the endeavor started at the ERISS (Epistemologically Relevant Internalist Sociology of Science) conference organized by Don Campbell and Alex Rosen­ berg at Cazenovia Lake, New York, in June 1981, whilst in­ jecting the gist of certain current continental intellectual developments into a debate whose focus, we thought, was in danger of being narrowed too much, considering the still underdeveloped state of affairs in the field. Broadly speaking, evolutionary epistemology today con­ sists of two interrelated, yet qualitatively distinct inves­ tigative efforts. Both are drawing on Darwinian concepts, which may explain why many people have failed to discriminate them. One is the study of the evolution of the cognitive apparatus of living organisms, which is first and foremost the province of biologists and psychologists (H. C. Plotkin, Ed. , Learning, Development, and Culture: Essays in Evolu­ tionary Epistemology, New York, Wiley, 1984), although quite a few philosophers - professional or vocational - have also felt the need to express themselves on this vast subject (F. M. Wuketits, Ed. , Conce ts and Approaches in Evolutionary Epistemology, Dordrecht Boston, Reidel, 1984). The other approach deals with the evolution of science, and has been dominated hitherto by (allegedly) 'naturalized' philosophers; no book-length survey of this literature is available at present.

• epistemology
• genetic epistemology
• knowledge
• science
• subject

• Limburgs Universitair Centrum, Belgium

  Werner Callebaut

• Rijksuniversiteit Limburg, The Netherlands

  Werner Callebaut

• Rijksuniversiteit Gent, Belgium

  Rik Pinxten

Policies and ethics