Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Recent Philosophy of Biology: A Review

  • Published:
Acta Biotheoretica Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Academia is subdivided into separate disciplines, most of which are quite discrete. In this review I trace the interactions between two of these disciplines: biology and philosophy of biology. I concentrate on those topics that have the most extensive biological content: function, species, systematics, selection, reduction and development. In the final section of this paper I touch briefly on those issues that biologists and philosophers have addressed that do not have much in the way of biological content.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

REFERENCES

  • Amundson, R. and G.V. Lauder (1994). Function without Purpose: The Uses of Causal Role Function in Evolutionary Biology. Biology and Philosophy 9: 443-469.

    Google Scholar 

  • Antonovics, J., N.C. Ellstrand and R.N. Brandon (1988). Genetic Variation and Environmental Variation: Expectations and Experiments. In: I.D. Gottlieb and S.K. Jain (eds.), Plant Evolutionary Biology, pp. 275-303. Chapman and Hall, London.

    Google Scholar 

  • Arthur, W. (2002). The emerging Conceptual Framework of Evolutionary Developmental Biology. Nature 415: 757-764.

    Google Scholar 

  • Beurton, P., R. Falk and H-J. Rheinberger (eds.) (2000). The Concept of the Gene in Development and Evolution: Historical and Epistemological Perspectives. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bergstrom, C.T. and P. Godfrey-Smith (1998). On the Evolution of Behavioral Heterogeneity in Individuals and Populations. Biology and Philosophy 13: 205-231.

    Google Scholar 

  • Brandon, R.N. (1996). Concepts and Methods in Evolutionary Biology. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Brandon, R. and S. Carson (1996). The Indeterministic Character of Evolutionary Theory: No 'No Hidden Variables' Proof But No Room for Determinism Either. Philosophy of Science 63: 315-337.

    Google Scholar 

  • Buller, D.J. (1999). Function, Selection and Design. State University of New York Press, Albany, NY.

    Google Scholar 

  • Claridge, M.F., H.A. Dawah and M.R. Wilson (eds.) (1997). Species: The Units of Biodiversity. Chapman & Hall, London.

    Google Scholar 

  • Coleman, K.A. and E.O. Wiley (2001). On Species Individualism: A New Defense of the Species-as-Individuals Hypothesis. Philosophy of Science 68: 498-517.

    Google Scholar 

  • Creath, R. and J. Maienschein (eds.) (2000). Biology and Epistemology. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Cummins, R. (1975). Functional analysis. The Journal of Philosophy 72: 741-765.

    Google Scholar 

  • Dawkins, R. (1982). The Extended Phenotype. W.H. Freeman, San Francisco.

    Google Scholar 

  • Depew, D.J. and B. H. Weber (1995). Darwinism Evolving: Systems Dynamics and the Genealogy of Natural Science. MIT Press, Cambridge, MA.

    Google Scholar 

  • Dobzhansky, T. (1937). Genetics and the Origin of Species. Columbia University Press, New York.

    Google Scholar 

  • Eldredge, N. (1985). Unfinished Synthesis: Biological Hierarchies and Modern Evolutionary Thought. Oxford University Press, Oxford.

    Google Scholar 

  • Eldredge, N., and M. Grene (1992). Interactions: The Biological Context of Hierarchical Systems. Columbia University Press, New York.

    Google Scholar 

  • Endler, J.A. (1986). Natural Selection in the Wild. Princeton University Press, Princeton.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ereshefsky, M. (2001). The Poverty of the Linnaean Hierarchy. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Felsenstein, J. and E. Sober (1986). Likelihood and Parsimony-An Exchange. Systematic Zoology 35: 617-626.

    Google Scholar 

  • Fisher, R.A. (1930). The Genetical Theory of Natural Selection. Clarendon Press, Oxford.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ghiselin, M.T. (1974). A Radical Solution to the Species Problem. Systematic Zoology 23: 536-544.

    Google Scholar 

  • Godfrey-Smith, P. (2000). Information, Arbitrariness, and Selection: Comments on Maynard Smith. Philosophy of Science 67: 202-207.

    Google Scholar 

  • Godfrey-Smith, P. (2003). Theory and Reality: An Introduction to the Philosophy of Science. The University of Chicago Press, Chicago.

    Google Scholar 

  • Godfrey-Smith, P. and R.C. Lewontin (1993). The Dimensions of Selection. Philosophy of Science 60: 373-394.

    Google Scholar 

  • Grant, V. (1985). The Evolutionary Process. A Critical Review of Evolutionary Theory. Columbia University Press, New York.

    Google Scholar 

  • Griesemer, J.R. and M.J. Wade (1988). Laboratory Models, Causal Explanation and Group Selection. Biology and Philosophy 3: 67-96.

    Google Scholar 

  • Griesemer, J.R. and M.J. Wade (2000). Population Heritability: Extended Punnet Square Concepts in Evolution at the Metapopulation Level. Biology and Philosophy 15: 1-17.

    Google Scholar 

  • Griffiths, P.E. and R.D. Gray. (1997). Replicator II: Judgment Day. Biology and Philosophy 12: 471-492.

    Google Scholar 

  • Griffiths, P.E, and R.D. Knight (1998). What Is the Developmentalist Challenge? Philosophy of Science 65: 253-258.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hamilton, W.D. (1996). Narrow Roads of Gene Land. W.H. Freeman, Oxford.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hennig, W. (1966). Phylogenetic Systematics. University of Illinois Press, Chicago.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hull, D.L. (1976). Are Species Really Individuals? Systematic Zoology 25: 174-191.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hull, D.L. (1980). Individuality and Selection. Annual Review of Ecology and Systematics 11: 311-332.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hull, D.L. (1998). The Role of Biology in Philosophy of Biology, In Ist International Conference on Philosophy of Science, J.T. Suarez (ed.). Universidade de Vigo, Vigo, Spain.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hull, D.L. (2001). Science and Selection: Essays on Biological Evolution and the Philosophy of Science. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hull, D.L. and M. Ruse (1998). The Philosophy of Biology. Oxford University Press, Oxford.

    Google Scholar 

  • Keller, L. (1999). Levels of Selection. Princeton University Press, Princeton.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kimura, M. (1983). The Neutral Theory of Molecular Evolution. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kitcher, P. (1985). Vaulting Ambition: Sociobiology and the Quest for Human Nature. The MIT Press, Cambridge, MA.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kitcher, P. (1996). The Lives to Come: The Genetic Revolution and Human Possibilities. The Penguin Press, London.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lloyd, E.A. and S.J. Gould (1993). Species Selection on Variability. Proceedings of the National Academy of sciences, USA 90: 595-599.

    Google Scholar 

  • Maynard Smith, J. (2000a). The Concept of Information in Biology. Philosophy of Science 67: 177-194.

    Google Scholar 

  • Maynard Smith, J. (2000b). Reply to Comments. Philosophy of Science 67: 214-218.

    Google Scholar 

  • Maynard Smith, J. and E. Szathmary (1995). The Major Transitions in Evolution. W.H. Freeman, Oxford.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mayr, E. (1963). Animal Species and Evolution. Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mishler, B.D. and R.N. Brandon (1987). Individualism, Pluralism, and the Phylogenetic Species concept. Biology and Philosophy 2: 397-414.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mulder, M.B. and S.D. Mitchell (1994). Rough Waters between Genes and Culture: An Anthropological and Philosophical View on Coevolution. Biology and Philosophy 9: 471-495.

    Google Scholar 

  • Orzak, S.H. and E. Sober (eds.) (2001). Adaptationism and Optimality. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Oyama, S., P.E. Griffiths and R.D. Gray (2001). Cycles of Contingency: Developmental Systems and Evolution. MIT Press, Cambridge, MA.

    Google Scholar 

  • Pennisi, E. (2001). Linnaeus's Last Stand. Science 291: 2304-2307.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ruse, M. (1988). But Is It Science? The Philosophical Questions in the Creation/Evolution Controversy. Prometheus Books, Buffalo, NY.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ruse, M. (1998). Philosophy of Biology. Prometheus Books, Amherst, NY.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ruse, M. (2001). Can a Darwinian Be a Christian? Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ruse, M. and E.O. Wilson (1986). Moral Philosophy as Applied Science: A Darwinian Approach to the Foundations of Ethics. Philosophy 61: 173-192.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sarkar, S. (1998). Genetics and Reductionism. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sarkar, S. (2000). Information in Genetics and Developmental Biology: Comments on Maynard Smith. Philosophy of Science 67: 208-213.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sneath, P.H.A. and R.R. Sokal (1973). Numerical Taxonomy. W.H. Freeman, San Francisco.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sober, E. (ed.) (1994). Conceptual Issues in Evolutionary Biology. MIT Press, Cambridge, MA.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sober, E. (2000). Philosophy of Biology. Westview Press, Boulder, CO.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sober, E. and R.C. Lewontin (1982). Artifact, Cause, and Genic Selection. Philosophy of Science 48: 147-176.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sober, E. and D.S. Wilson (1994). A Critical Review of Philosophical Work on the Units of Selection Problem. Philosophy of Science 61: 497-555.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sober, E. and D.S. Wilson (1998). Unto Others: The Evolution and Psychology of Unselfish Behavior. Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sterelny, K. (2000). The “Genetic Program” Program: A Commentary on Maynard Smith on Information in Biology. Philosophy of Science 67: 195-201.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sterelny, K. (2001). The Evolution of Agency and Other Essays. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sterelny, K. and P.E. Griffiths (1999). Sex and Death: An Introduction to Philosophy of Biology. The University of Chicago Press, Chicago.

    Google Scholar 

  • Van Regenmortel, M. and D.L. Hull (eds.) (2002). Promises and Limits of Reductionism in the Biomedical Sciences. John Wiley, Chichester, UK.

    Google Scholar 

  • Weber, B.H. and D.J. Depew (1996). Natural Selection sand Self-Organization. Biology and Philosophy 11: 67-88.

    Google Scholar 

  • Webster, G. and B. Goodwin (1996). Form and Transformation: Generative and Relational Principles in Biology. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wiley, E.O. (1981). Phylogenetics, the Theory and Practice of Phlogenetic Systematics. John Wiley & Sons, New York.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wilkins, J.S. and W.R. Elsberry (2001). The advantages of Theft over Toil: The Design Inference and Arguing from Ignorance. Biology and Philosophy 16: 711-724.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wilson, E.O. (1975). Sociobiology: The New Synthesis. Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wilson, E.O. (1998). Consilience: The Unity of Knowledge. Knopf, New York.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wilson, D.S. and E. Sober (1989). Reviving the Superorganism, Journal of Theoretical Biology 136: 336-356.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wilson, J. (1998). Biological Individuality. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wilson, R.A. (1999). Species: New Interdisciplinary Essays. The MIT Press, Cambridge, MA.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wright, L. (1973). Functions. Philosophical Review 82: 139-168.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Philosophy, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL 60208-1315, USA

    David L. Hull

Authors
  1. David L. Hull
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Hull, D.L. Recent Philosophy of Biology: A Review. Acta Biotheor 50, 117–128 (2002). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1016337212804

Download citation

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1016337212804

Keywords

Search

Navigation