Download or read book The Shaping of Man written by Roger Trigg and published by Schocken. This book was released on 1983 with total page 216 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Philosophy Of Biology written by Elliott Sober and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2018-03-05 with total page 255 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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.
Download or read book Evolution and Ethics written by Franklin Roy Bennett and published by Springer. This book was released on 2015-08-05 with total page 417 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Does evolution inform the ancient debate regarding the roles that reason and instinct play in how we decide what to do? Evolution and Ethics offers an insightful analysis of four epistemological types of sociobiology which appear in the extant literature, and includes a preliminary analysis of Darwinism itself.
Download or read book Darwinism in Philosophy Social Science and Policy written by Alexander Rosenberg and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2000-03-28 with total page 272 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A collection of essays by Alexander Rosenberg, the distinguished philosopher of science. The essays cover three broad areas related to Darwinian thought and naturalism: the first deals with the solution of philosophical problems such as reductionism, the second with the development of social theories, and the third with the intersection of evolutionary biology with economics, political philosophy, and public policy. Specific papers deal with naturalistic epistemology, the limits of reductionism, the biological justification of ethics, the so-called 'trolley problem' in moral philosophy, the political philosophy of biological endowments, and the Human Genome Project and its implications for policy. Rosenberg's important writings on a variety of issues are here organized into a coherent philosophical framework which promises to be a significant and controversial contribution to scholarship in many areas.
Download or read book Reductionism and Cultural Being written by J.W. Smith and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2012-12-06 with total page 385 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Sociobiology and Epistemology written by J.H. Fetzer and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2012-12-06 with total page 302 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The papers presented in this special collection focus upon conceptual, the oretical and epistemological aspects of sociobiology, an emerging discipline that deals with the extent to which genetic factors influence or control patterns of behavior as well as the extent to which patterns of behavior, in turn, influence or control genetic evolution. The Prologue advances a compre hensive acco/unt of the field of gene-culture co-evolution, where Lumsden and Gushurst differentiate between "classical" sociobiology (represented especially by Wilson's early work) and current research on human socio biology (represented by Lumsden and Wilson's later work), which emphasizes interplay between genes, minds, and culture. The specter of genetic deter minism, no doubt, has created considerable controversy, some of which may be laid to rest by Hanna's analysis of the (ambiguous) notion of a "genetic program", which indicates the necessity for distinguishing between descriptive and prescriptive dimensions of this complex concept. Brandon offers a framework for assessing the respective contributions of nature and of nurture by advancing a means for measuring genetic and cultural influences upon "inheritance", which supports the conclusion that evolving patterns of behavior do not always maximize inclusive fitness, contrary to what socio biologists have claimed. The influence of culture upon genetic evolution, of course, can be adequately appraised only when a suitable account of culture itself has been found, a desideratum Smillie attempts to satisfy by utilizing the notion of "cinfo" as culturally transmitted ecological informa tion, a resource other species tend not to exploit.
Download or read book Philosophy of Behavioral Biology written by Kathryn S. Plaisance and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2011-10-05 with total page 372 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This volume provides a broad overview of issues in the philosophy of behavioral biology, covering four main themes: genetic, developmental, evolutionary, and neurobiological explanations of behavior. It is both interdisciplinary and empirically informed in its approach, addressing philosophical issues that arise from recent scientific findings in biological research on human and non-human animal behavior. Accordingly, it includes papers by professional philosophers and philosophers of science, as well as practicing scientists. Much of the work in this volume builds on presentations given at the international conference, “Biological Explanations of Behavior: Philosophical Perspectives”, held in 2008 at the Leibniz Universität Hannover in Germany. The volume is intended to be of interest to a broad range of audiences, which includes philosophers (e.g., philosophers of mind, philosophers of biology, and metaethicists), as well as practicing scientists, such as biologists or psychologists whose interests relate to biological explanations of behavior.
Download or read book The Sociobiological Imagination written by Mary Maxwell and published by SUNY Press. This book was released on 1991-01-01 with total page 396 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book presents reports on the uses of sociobiology and general evolutionary theory by members of diverse disciplines: psychiatry, law, management theory, anthropology, economics, primatology, history, political science, ethical philosophy, cognitive psychology, epistemology, socioecology of religion, studies of conflict, Marxist thought, aesthetics, sociology, linguistics, and psychology. The purpose of the book is threefold -- to acknowledge the remarkably wide influence of a central idea; to demonstrate that the research of human sociobiology takes place in disparate fields; and to introduce the major principles of sociobiology. There are many surprises to be found in these pages, not least the psychiatrist's new look at anxiety, the management theorist's explanation for the success of Japanese firms, the Soviet philosopher's report on sociobiology in the U. S. S. R., the explanation given for the keeping of harems in ancient kingdoms, and the economist's view as to why people care if a bargain price is really a fair price -- all cast in sociobiological terms.
Download or read book The Philosophy of Social Evolution written by Jonathan Birch and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2017-10-13 with total page 281 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From mitochondria to meerkats, the natural world is full of spectacular examples of social behaviour. In the early 1960s Bill Hamilton changed the way we think about how such behaviour evolves. He introduced three key innovations - now known as Hamilton's rule, kin selection, and inclusive fitness - which have been enormously influential, but which remain the subject of fierce controversy. Hamilton's pioneering work kick-started a research program now known as social evolution theory. This is a book about the philosophical foundations and future prospects of that program. Part I, "Foundations", is a careful exposition and defence of Hamilton's ideas, with a few modifications along the way. In Part II, "Extensions", Jonathan Birch shows how these ideas can be applied to phenomena including cooperation in micro-organisms, cooperation among the cells of a multicellular organism, and culturally evolved cooperation in the earliest human societies. Birch argues that real progress can be made in understanding microbial evolution, evolutionary transitions, and human evolution by viewing them through the lens of social evolution theory, provided the theory is interpreted with care and adapted where necessary. The Philosophy of Social Evolution places social evolution theory on a firm philosophical footing and sets out exciting new directions for further work.
Download or read book Sociobiology Sense or Nonsense written by Michael Ruse and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2013-03-09 with total page 243 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In June 1975, the distinguished Harvard entomologist Edward O. Wilson published a truly huge book entitled, Sociobiology: The New Synthesis. In this book, drawing on both fact and theory, Wilson tried to present a com prehensive overview of the rapidly growing subject of 'sociobiology', the study of the biological nature and foundations of animal behaviour, more precisely animal social behaviour. Although, as the title rather implies, Wilson was more surveying and synthesising than developing new material, he com pensated by giving the most thorough and inclusive treatment possible, beginning in the animal world with the most simple of forms, and progressing via insects, lower invertebrates, mammals and primates, right up to and in cluding our own species, Homo sapiens. Initial reaction to the book was very favourable, but before the year was out it came under withering attack from a group of radical scientists in the Boston area, who styled themselves 'The Science for the People Sociobiology Study Group'. Criticism, of course, is what every academic gets (and needs!); but, for two reasons, this attack was particularly unpleasant. First, not only were Wilson's ideas attacked, but he himself was smeared by being linked with the most reactionary of political thinkers, including the Nazis.
Download or read book Sociobiology and the Preemption of Social Science written by Alexander Rosenberg and published by . This book was released on 1980 with total page 227 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Why have the social sciences in general failed to produce results with the ever-increasing explanatory power and predictive strength of the natural sciences? In seeking an answer to this question, Alexander Rosenberg, a philosopher of science, plunges into the controversial discipline of sociobiology. Sociobiology, Rosenberg asserts, deals in those forces governing human behavior that traditional social science has unsuccessfully attempted to slip between: neurophysiology, on the one hand, and selective forces, on the other. Unlike previous works in the two fields it straddles, Rosenberg's book brings thinking about the nature of scientific theorizing to bear on the most traditional issues in the philosophy of social science. The author finds that the subjects of conventional social science do not reflect the operation of laws that social scientists are equipped to discover. The author argues that much of the debate surrounding sociobiology is irrelevant to the issue of its ultimate success. Although largely conceptual, the book is an unequivocal defense of this new theory in the explanation of human behavior.
Download or read book Sociobiology Sex and Science written by Harmon R. Holcomb III and published by State University of New York Press. This book was released on 1993-01-07 with total page 478 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book examines sociobiology's validity and significance, using the sociobiological theory of the evolution of mating and parenting as an example. It identifies and discusses the array of factors that determine sociobiology's effort to become a science, providing a rare, balanced account—more critical than that of its advocates and more constructive than that of its critics. It sees a role for sociobiology in changing the way we understand the goals of evolutionary biology, the proper way to evaluate emerging sciences, and the deep structure of scientific theories. The book's premise is that evolutionary biology would not be complete if it did not explain evolutionarily significant social facts about nonhumans and humans. It proposes that explanations should be evaluated in terms of their basis in underlying theories, research programs, and conceptual frameworks.
Download or read book Vaulting Ambition written by Philip Kitcher and published by Mit Press. This book was released on 1987-01 with total page 456 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Provides a critical analysis of the evidence for the sociobiologists' theories that the basis of human behavior is biological and genetic
Download or read book In Mendel s Mirror written by Philip Kitcher and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2003-03-27 with total page 404 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Philip Kitcher is one of the leading figures in the philosophy of science today. Here he collects, for the first time, many of his published articles on the philosophy of biology, spanning from the mid-1980's to the present. The book's title refers to Gregor Mendel, an Augustinian monk who was one of the first scientists to develop a theory of heredity. Mendel's work has been deeply influential to our understanding of our selves and our world, just as the study of genetics today will have a profound and long-term impact on future scientific research. Kitcher's articles cover a broad range of topics with similar philosophical and social significance: sociobiology, evolutionary psychology, species, race, altruism, genetic determinism, and the rebirth of creationism in Intelligent Design. Kitcher's work on the intersection of biology and the philosophy of science is both unprecedented and wide-ranging, and will appeal not only to philosophers of science, but to scholars and students across disciplines.
Download or read book Sociobiology and Philosophy written by Arthur L. Caplan and published by . This book was released on 1984 with total page 141 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book The Philosophy of Human Evolution written by Michael Ruse and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2012-01-12 with total page 283 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Provides a unique discussion of human evolution from a philosophical viewpoint, covering such issues as religion, race and gender.
Download or read book Ethics of Capitalism and Critique of Sociobiology written by Peter Koslowski and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2013-03-14 with total page 149 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The book has two subjects, first the ethical theory of the economic order, and secondly the critique of sociobiology and its theory of evolution. The first part, the ethics of capitalism, analyzes the rise of capitalism and the business ethics and moral theory of a capitalist economic order in a perspective from philosophy and economics. The second part, a critique of sociobiology, gives a philosophical assessment of sociobiology's contribution to the theory of the economy and society and of its impact for metaphysics and a general world view. James M. Buchanan, Nobel prize winner in economics, discusses the first part of the book in his comment "The Morality of Capitalism".
