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Topics in the Philosophy of Biology

  • Book
  • © 1976

Overview

Authors:
  1. Marjorie Grene

    1. University of California, Davis, USA
      Harvard University, USA

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    You can also search for this author in PubMed   Google Scholar

  2. Everett Mendelsohn

    1. University of California, Davis, USA
      Harvard University, USA

    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed   Google Scholar

Part of the book series: Boston Studies in the Philosophy and History of Science (BSPS, volume 27)

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Table of contents (18 chapters)

  1. Front Matter

    Pages I-XIII
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  3. Reducibility

    1. Front Matter

      Pages 99-99
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    2. The Watson-Crick Model and Reductionism

      • Kenneth F. Schaffner
      Pages 101-127

    3. Life’s Irreducible Structure

      • Michael Polanyi
      Pages 128-142

  4. Problems of Explanation in Biology

    1. Front Matter

      Pages 143-143
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    2. Levels of Organization

      1. Organizational Levels and Explanation
        • Clifford Grobstein
        Pages 145-152
      2. Physical Theories of Biological Co-Ordination
        • H. H. Pattee
        Pages 153-173
      3. Complexity and Organization
        • William C. Wimsatt
        Pages 174-193

    3. Function and Teleology

      1. Function and Teleology
        • Morton Beckner
        Pages 197-212
      2. Functions
        • Larry Wright
        Pages 213-242

    4. Pluralistic Explanation

      1. Articulation of Parts Explanation in Biology and the Rational Search for Them
        • Stuart A. Kauffman
        Pages 245-263

  5. Evolution

    1. Front Matter

      Pages 265-265
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    2. The Strategy of Evolution

      • Lawrence B. Slobodkin
      Pages 267-285

    3. Evolution and the Theory of Games

      • R. C. Lewontin
      Pages 286-311

    4. Biology as an Autonomous Science

      • Francisco J. Ayala
      Pages 312-329

    5. Biological Adaptation

      • Ronald Munson
      Pages 330-350
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Keywords

About this book

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).

Authors and Affiliations

  • University of California, Davis, USA

    Marjorie Grene, Everett Mendelsohn

  • Harvard University, USA

    Marjorie Grene, Everett Mendelsohn

Bibliographic Information

  • Book Title: Topics in the Philosophy of Biology

  • Authors: Marjorie Grene, Everett Mendelsohn

  • Series Title: Boston Studies in the Philosophy and History of Science

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-010-1829-6

  • Publisher: Springer Dordrecht

  • eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive

  • Copyright Information: D. Reidel Publishing Company, Dordrecht, Holland 1976

  • Hardcover ISBN: 978-90-277-0595-2Due: 31 December 1975

  • Softcover ISBN: 978-90-277-0596-9Published: 31 December 1975

  • eBook ISBN: 978-94-010-1829-6Published: 06 December 2012

  • Series ISSN: 0068-0346

  • Series E-ISSN: 2214-7942

  • Edition Number: 1

  • Number of Pages: XIII, 454

  • Number of Illustrations: 2 b/w illustrations

  • Additional Information: also: SYLI 84

  • Topics: Philosophy of Science, Philosophy of Biology

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