Essence in the Age of Evolution: A New Theory of Natural Kinds

London, UK: Routledge (2018)
  Copy   BIBTEX

Abstract

This book offers a novel defence of a highly contested philosophical position: biological natural kind essentialism. This theory is routinely and explicitly rejected for its purported inability to be explicated in the context of contemporary biological science, and its supposed incompatibility with the process and progress of evolution by natural selection. Christopher J. Austin challenges these objections, and in conjunction with contemporary scientific advancements within the field of evolutionary-developmental biology, the book utilises a contemporary neo-Aristotelian metaphysics of "dispositional properties", or causal powers, to provide a theory of essentialism centred on the developmental architecture of organisms and its role in the evolutionary process. By defending a novel theory of Aristotelian biological natural kind essentialism, Essence in the Age of Evolution represents the fresh and exciting union of cutting-edge philosophical insight and scientific knowledge.

Links

PhilArchive



    Upload a copy of this work     Papers currently archived: 80,057

External links

Setup an account with your affiliations in order to access resources via your University's proxy server

Through your library

Similar books and articles

New Essentialism in Biology.Olivier Rieppel - 2010 - Philosophy of Science 77 (5):662-673.
Devitt’s ‘Intrinsic Biological Essentialism’.Urška Martinc - 2018 - Croatian Journal of Philosophy 18 (2):307-318.
Locke, Natural Kinds, and Essentialism.Judith Kathryn Crane - 1999 - Dissertation, Tulane University
Coadaptation and the Inadequacy of Natural Selection.Mark Ridley - 1982 - British Journal for the History of Science 15 (1):45-68.
Evolutionary essentialism.Denis Walsh - 2006 - British Journal for the Philosophy of Science 57 (2):425-448.
Reasonable Essentialism and Natural Kinds.Tim William E. Maudlin - 1986 - Dissertation, University of Pittsburgh
Locke's theory of classification.Judith Crane - 2003 - British Journal for the History of Philosophy 11 (2):249 – 259.
Scientific Essentialism from Kripke to Ellis.Maryam Moayerzadeh Musa Akrami - 2014 - Journal of Philosophical Investigations at University of Tabriz 8 (15):1-23.
Science and selection.Kim Sterelny - 1994 - Biology and Philosophy 9 (1):45-62.

Analytics

Added to PP
2020-02-12

Downloads
52 (#238,045)

6 months
3 (#241,676)

Historical graph of downloads
How can I increase my downloads?

Author's Profile

Christopher J. Austin
Durham University

References found in this work

No references found.

Add more references