Synopses & Reviews
Review
"It is a pleasure to be in the company of a mind so vibrant and still exploring the boundary between the circle of what is known and the vast expanse of what isn't."
--Lee Dembart, Los Angeles Times"Mayr's power to discern biological connections and also to identify the telling example should excite unqualified admiration...Toward a New Philosophy of Biology is a book to be developed, to be argued with, a book whose margins should be filled with exciting scribblings."
--Philip Kitcher, Nature"Mayr is the greatest living commentator on biology; and if biology is what you do, as a researcher, teacher, writer, or as amateur, then this is a book you should own."
--Colin Tudge, New Scientist"Ernst Mayr is one of a handful of the greatest scientific minds humankind has yet produced...This beautifully presented collection of twenty-eight articles and essays, elegantly introduced and filled with important neologisms all contributing to clarity, is so close to competing with Darwin's Origin of Species that I would not be surprised if history were to judge that Evolutionism in our century also has a Prophet...In short, this is one great classic."
--Dick Duman, Bloomsbury Review"Never too far below the surface of Mayr the philosopher or historian lies Mayr the combative scientific streetfighter. It is in this capacity that he has been most creative, informative, and downright entertaining throughout his career; and this book is no exception...If you are at all interested in evolution--as a historian, a philosopher, or, above all, as a practicing biologist--you really should read this book."
--Niles Eldredge, BioScienceReview
It is a pleasure to be in the company of a mind so vibrant and still exploring the boundary between the circle of what is known and the vast expanse of what isn't. Lee Dembart
Review
Mayr's power to discern biological connections and also to identify the telling example should excite unqualified admiration...Toward a New Philosophy of Biology is a book to be developed, to be argued with, a book whose margins should be filled with exciting scribblings. Los Angeles Times
Review
Mayr is the greatest living commentator on biology; and if biology is what you do, as a researcher, teacher, writer, or as amateur, then this is a book you should own. Philip Kitcher - Nature
Review
Ernst Mayr is one of a handful of the greatest scientific minds humankind has yet produced...This beautifully presented collection of twenty-eight articles and essays, elegantly introduced and filled with important neologisms all contributing to clarity, is so close to competing with Darwin's Origin of Species that I would not be surprised if history were to judge that Evolutionism in our century also has a Prophet...In short, this is one great classic. Colin Tudge - New Scientist
Review
Never too far below the surface of Mayr the philosopher or historian lies Mayr the combative scientific streetfighter. It is in this capacity that he has been most creative, informative, and downright entertaining throughout his career; and this book is no exception...If you are at all interested in evolution--as a historian, a philosopher, or, above all, as a practicing biologist--you really should read this book. Dick Duman - Bloomsbury Review
Synopsis
A collection of twenty-eight essays, five previously unpublished, grouped into nine categories: Philosophy, Natural Selection, Adaptation, Darwin, Diversity, Species, Speciation, Macroevolution, and Historical Perspective. The book, Ernst Mayr notes in the Foreword, is an attempt "to strengthen the bridge between biology and philosophy, and point to the new direction in which a new philosophy of biology will move."
About the Author
Ernst Mayr is Alexander Agassiz Professor of Zoology, Emeritus, at Harvard University. He is also the recipient of numerous honorary degrees and awards, including the Crafoord Prize for Biology, the National Medal of Science, the Balzan Prize, and the Japan Prize.
Table of Contents
I. Philosophy Introduction
1. Is Biology an Autonomous Science?
2. Cause and Effect in Biology
3. The Multiple Meanings of Teleological
4. The Probability of Extraterrestrial Intelligent Life
5. The Origins of Human Ethics
II. Natural Selection
Introduction
6. An Analysis of the Concept of Natural Selection
7. Philosophical Aspects of Natural Selection
III. Adaptation
Introduction
8. Adaptation and Selection
9. How To Carry Out the Adaptationist Program?
IV. Darwin
Introduction
10. Darwin, Intellectual Revolutionary
11. The Challenge of Darwinism
12. What Is Darwinism
13. Darwin and Natural Selection
14. The Concept of Finality in Darwin and alter Darwin
15. The Death of Darwin
V. Diversity
Introduction
16. Toward a Synthesis in Biological Classification
17. Museums and Biological Laboratories
18. Problems in the Classification of Birds
VI. Species
Introduction
19. The Species Category
20. The Ontology of the Species Taxon
VII. Speciation
Introduction
21. Processes of Speciation in Animals
22. Evolution of Fish Species Flocks
VIII. Macro Evolution
Introduction
23. Does Microevolution Explain Macroevolution?
24. The Unity of the Genotype
25. Speciation and Macroevolution
26. Speciational Evolution through Punctuated Equilibria
IX. Historical Perspective
Introduction
27. On Weismann's Growth as an Evolutionist
28. On the Evolutionary Synthesis and After
Index