Philosophy of Biology

Perhaps because of it implications for our understanding of human nature, recent philosophy of biology has seen what might be the most dramatic work in the philosophies of the ”special” sciences. This drama has centered on evolutionary theory, and in the second edition of this textbook, Elliott Sober introduces the reader to the most important issues of these developments. With a rare combination of technical sophistication and clarity of expression, Sober engages both the higher level of theory and the direct implications for such controversial issues as creationism, teleology, nature versus nurture, and sociobiology. Above all, the reader will gain from this book a firm grasp of the structure of evolutionary theory, the evidence for it, and the scope of its explanatory significance.

Includes bibliographical references (p. 221-229) and index.

Elliott Sober is Hans Reichenbach Professor of Philosophy at the University of Wisconsin at Madison. He is editor of Conceptual Issues in Evolutionary Biology: An Anthology and author of The Nature of Selection: Evolutionary Theory in Philosophical Focus, as well as many papers on the philosophy of science and of biology. In 1991 he was awarded the Lakatos Award for an outstanding contribution to the philosophy of science for his book Reconstructing the Past: Parsimony, Evolution, and Interference.