The species concept is one of the oldest and most fundamental in biology. And yet it is almost universally conceded that no satisfactory definition of what constitutes a species has ever been proposed. The present article is devoted to an attempt to review the status of the problem from a methodological point of view. Since the species is one of the many taxonomic categories, the question of the nature of these categories in general needs to be entered into.

Th. Dobzhansky played a special role in the reception and development of the “synthetic theory of evolution,” as well as in the establishment of scientific connections between Soviet and U.S. evolutionists, and first and foremost, geneticists. These connections greatly influenced the development of Soviet genetics, of evolutionary theory and evolutionary biology as a whole, and in particular the restoration of Soviet genetics in the late 1960s. A discussion of Dobzhansky’s correspondence and collaboration with colleagues in his native country, (...) moreover, allows for an improved understanding of the complex and dramatic history of Soviet genetics and evolutionary theory. It also provides novel insights into the interactions between scientists and authorities in the Soviet Union. (shrink)

This is the correspondence (1959–1969), on the nature of the evolutionary process, between the biologist Theodosius Dobzhansky and the historian John C. Greene.

Should the philosophy of biology deal with organismic, or with molecular aspects , or with both ? We are, of course, not the first to appreciate the ...

. Introductory Remarks THEODOSIUS DOBZHANSKY The problems of reduction in biology are currently of considerable theoretical interest and practical ...

"C'est un palimpseste : une succession de textes tirés des oeuvres complètes des auteurs à peu près complets. Le choix effectué par la lecture se trouve incarné dans l'ordre de l'écriture. Et cet ordre est porteur d'un message, il véhicule une thèse, il articule une idée dont le sens ne devient transparent que par le tout. Désormais les fragments extraits des texte ne représentent que le maillons d'une unique chaîne connexe de paroles, segmentss d'un entier : le texte du Palimpseste. (...) Derrière ce choix un axiome est caché, une assertion qui stimule et justifie la composition et, en dernière instance, garantit l'existence et légitime la subsistance autonome du texte. C'est ce que, par un terme emprunté à la théorie des ensembles de Georg Cantor, on pourra appeler "axiome du choix" ou encore, en une formulation quelque peu différente mais peut-être plus adéquate pour le traitement des textes, "axiome de sélection". L'axiome du choix permet donc l'assemblage d'un texte uniquement constitué de citations. Il permet aussi de citer des textes inexistants : ce sont alors des textes écrits exprès et pour l'unique raison d'être cités.... Le parler, comme l'a fait remarquer à plusieurs reprises Platon, est une praxis et l'axiome du choix confère au sujet le privilège d'exercer la fonction de choix : de sélectionner, de découper et d'assembler en un polymère verbal des fragments hétérogènes appartenant initialement à des textes préexistants. Le choix qui a présidé et guidé la navigation dans la métagalaxie des textes préexistants relève de cette liberté : sélectionner des "Propos" concernant le "Triangle", euclidien ou non, et de les assembler en un unique lieu et dans le présent indivisible d'une unique écriture étalée sur la surface du papier.". (shrink)

This collection features five essays from noted theologians, philosophers, geneticists, and biologists who discuss the sweeping impact of Charles Darwin's _On the Origin of Species_ on their respective fields. This volume, edited by Ralph Buchsbaum, professor of biology at the University of Pittsburgh, was published to celebrate the centenary of Darwin's announcement in 1858, along with Alfred Russel Wallace, of their independent discovery of the process of natural selection. Darwin's book was published one year later.

Alasdair MacIntyre criticises the ethics of modernity as fallacious, and wants it replaced by Aristotelian virtue ethics. He is particularly critical concerning modernity’s non-contextual understanding of reason, and wants to renew the ethical significance of concepts like tradition and context.

Carolvs Praechter, uir clarissimus, optime exposuit quo modo rumores et fabulae de Platoni s itineribus gradatim orerentur, augerentur, firmarentur.1 Inter scriptores, qui nobis tales narrationes tradiderunt, est Valerius Maximus, qui her Aegyptiacum et Italicum his uerbis narra.

The present thesis considers, in the light of Heisenberg's interpretation of the uncertainty formulas, the conditions necessary for the derivation of the quantitative statement or law of momentum conservation. The result of such considerations is a contradiction between the formalism of quantum physics and the asserted consequences of Heisenberg's interpretation. This contradiction decides against Heisenberg's interpretation of the uncertainty formulas on upholding that the formalism of quantum physics is both consistent and complete, at least insofar as the statement of momentum (...) conservation can be proved within this formalism. A few comments are also included on Bohr's “complementarity interpretation” of the formalism of quantum physics. A suggestion, based on a statistical mode of empirical testing of the “uncertainty” formulas, does not give rise to any such contradiction. (shrink)

Présentation d'un manuscrit du IXe siècle, le Codex Athous, Panteleemon 288, qui contient une collection de 34 homélies ainsi que l'oraison funèbre de l'empereur Léon VI . Au début du manuscrit, on trouve un court poème faisant l'éloge de Léon VI en tant qu'homiliste.