Download or read book Toward a New Philosophy of Biology written by Ernst Mayr and published by Harvard University Press. This book was released on 1988 with total page 582 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A collection of twenty-eight essays, five previously unpublished, grouped into nine categories: Philosophy, Natural Selection, Adaptation, Darwin, Diversity, Species, Speciation, Macroevolution, and Historical Perspective.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."
Download or read book Towards a new philosophy of biology observations of an evolutionist written by Ernst Mayr and published by . This book was released on 1988 with total page 564 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book The Handy Philosophy Answer Book written by Naomi Zack and published by Visible Ink Press. This book was released on 2009-09-01 with total page 505 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Plato, Aristotle, Nietzsche, Sartre, and many more. Who were they? What did they say? Why should we care? How did changing philosophical thought affect the history of civilization? How does philosophy affect pop culture, politics and government, and our everyday lives? Combining a basic history of philosophical thought with the often quirky personal stories of famous philosophers, The Handy Philosophy Answer Book introduces the reader to the world of philosophy. This comprehensive survey analyzes the collective effort of philosophers throughout history in the pursuit of truth and wisdom. It explores the tangible significance of philosophical thought to modern society and civilization as a whole, and answers more than 1,000 questions, including … What was the Enlightenment? Why did the Pythagorians avoid fava beans? How was Skepticism related to the scientific revolution? Was Søren Kierkegaard’s life “cursed”? How did philosopher A. J. Ayer defeat professional heavyweight boxer Mike Tyson? What are the current trends in philosophy and how are they related to feminism, environmentalism, and African American studies? How is Confucianism relevant to contemporary Western philosophy? The Handy Philosophy Answer Book explains philosophical fundamentals. It looks at the various schools of thought. It explores the deep--and sometimes odd--questions posed by philosophers. This comprehensive survey brings us the lives and the impacts of philosophy's greatest thinkers. With more than 130 photos and illustrations, this tome is richly illustrated, and its helpful bibliography and extensive index add to its usefulness.
Download or read book Evolution Explanation Ethics and Aesthetics written by Francisco J. Ayala and published by Academic Press. This book was released on 2016-07-21 with total page 424 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Evolution, Explanation, Ethics and Aesthetics: Towards a Philosophy of Biology focuses on the dominant biological topic of evolution. It deals with the prevailing philosophical themes of how to explain the adaptation of organisms, the interplay of chance and necessity, and the recurrent topics of emergence, reductionism, and progress. In addition, the extensively treated topic of how to explain human nature as a result of natural processes and the encompassed issues of the foundations of morality and the brain-to-mind transformation is discussed. The philosophy of biology is a rapidly expanding field, not more than half a century old at most, and to a large extent is replacing the interest in the philosophy of physics that prevailed in the first two-thirds of the twentieth century. Few texts available have the benefit of being written by an eminent biologist who happens to be also a philosopher, as in this work. This book is a useful resource for seminar courses and college courses on the philosophy of biology. Researchers, academics, and students in evolutionary biology, behavior, genetics, and biodiversity will also be interested in this work, as will those in human biology and issues such as ethics, religion, and the human mind, along with professional philosophers of science and those concerned with such issues as whether evolution is compatible with religion and/or where morality comes from. Presents the unique perspective of a distinguished biologist with extensive experience in the field who has published much about the subject in a wide variety of journals and edited volumes Covers the philosophical issues related to evolution and biology in an approachable and readable style Includes the most up-to-date treatment of this burgeoning, exciting field within biology Provides the ideal guide for researchers, academics, and students in evolutionary biology, behavior, genetics, and biodiversity
Download or read book The Oxford Handbook of Philosophy of Biology written by Michael Ruse and published by Oxford Handbooks Online. This book was released on 2008-07-10 with total page 658 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This handbook covers the history of philosophy of biology then moves on to evolutionary theory. It continues with discussions of molecular biology and ecology, and covers biology and ethics as well as biology and religion.
Download or read book Brill s Companion to the Philosophy of Biology written by Andrea Borghini and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2019-12-16 with total page 277 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This translated volume by Andrea Borghini and Elena Casetta (original title: Filosofia della biologia) introduces a wide spectrum of key philosophical problems related to life sciences in a clear framework and an accessible style, with a special emphasis on metaphysical questions.
Download or read book The Certainty of Doubt written by Miles Fairburn and published by Victoria University Press. This book was released on 1996 with total page 372 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Essays ... written by Peter Munz's friends and colleagues to celebrate his 75th birthday ... themes ... [include] history, the philosophy of history, the philosophy of science and the problems of knowledge ... reflect[ing] ... Munz's intellectual interests and achievements"--Back cover.
Download or read book Life as Its Own Designer written by Anton Markoš and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2009-07-09 with total page 216 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: It has been nearly 150 years since Darwin published On the Origin of Species, and his theory of natural selection still ignites a forest of heated debate between scientific fundamentalists on the one hand and religious fundamentalists on the other. But both sides actually agree more than they disagree, and what has long been needed is a third way to view evolution, one that focuses more on the aspect of life and “being alive”, one that can guide us through, and perhaps out of, the fiery thicket. This book, a seminal work in the burgeoning field of Biosemiotics, provides that third way, by viewing living beings as genuine agents designing their communication pathways with, and in, the world. Already hailed as the best account of biological hermeneutics, Life As Its Own Designer: Darwin’s Origin and Western Thought is a wholly unique book divided into two parts. The first part is philosophical and explores the roots of rationality and the hermeneutics of the natural world with the overriding goal of discovering how narrative can help us to explain life. It analyzes why novelty is so hard to comprehend in the framework of Western thinking and confronts head-on the chasm between evolutionism and traditional rationalistic worldviews. The second part is scientific. It focuses on the life of living beings, treating them as co-creators of their world in the process of evolution. It draws on insights gleaned from the global activity of the Gaian biosphere, considers likeness as demonstrated on homology studies, and probes the problem of evo-devo science from the angle of life itself. This book is both timely and vital. Past attempts at a third way to view evolution have failed because they were written either by scientists who lacked a philosophical grounding or New Age thinkers who lacked biological credibility. Markoš and his coworkers form an original group of thinkers supremely capable in both fields, and they have fashioned a book that is ideal for researchers and scholars from both the humanities and sciences who are interested in the history and philosophy of biology, biosemiotics, and the evolution of life.
Download or read book Evolution written by and published by PediaPress. This book was released on with total page 697 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Infinite Nature written by R. Bruce Hull and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 2013-07-01 with total page 273 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: You would be hard-pressed to find someone who categorically opposes protecting the environment, yet most people would agree that the environmentalist movement has been ineffectual and even misguided. Some argue that its agenda is misplaced, oppressive, and misanthropic—a precursor to intrusive government, regulatory bungles, and economic stagnation. Others point out that its alarmist rhetoric and preservationist solutions are outdated and insufficient to the task of galvanizing support for true reform. In this impassioned and judicious work, R. Bruce Hull argues that environmentalism will never achieve its goals unless it sheds its fundamentalist logic. The movement is too bound up in polarizing ideologies that pit humans against nature, conservation against development, and government regulation against economic growth. Only when we acknowledge the infinite perspectives on how people should relate to nature will we forge solutions that are respectful to both humanity and the environment. Infinite Nature explores some of these myriad perspectives, from the scientific understandings proffered by anthropology, evolution, and ecology, to the promise of environmental responsibility offered by technology and economics, to the designs of nature envisioned in philosophy, law, and religion. Along the way, Hull maintains that the idea of nature is social: in order to reach the common ground where sustainable and thriving communities are possible, we must accept that many natures can and do exist. Incisive, heartfelt, and brimming with practical solutions, Infinite Nature brings a much-needed and refreshing voice to the table of environmental reform.
Download or read book Southern Limestones under Western Eyes written by Brian McGowran and published by ANU Press. This book was released on 2023-09-05 with total page 430 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Science, the growth of reliable knowledge, became a major triumph of the European Enlightenment in the seventeenth century, under the guise of ‘natural philosophy’: investigating what the earth and universe are made of and how things work. It took another century for the parallel subject ‘natural history’ to glimpse how the earth, its geography and its richly diverse life came to be. Later, geology and biology became intertwined as biogeohistory—an ever-changing environmental theatre hosting an ever-changing evolutionary play. This environmental theatre has shifted with the making and breaking of supercontinents, the birth and death of global oceans, and the rise and fall of global hothouses and ice ages. The evolutionary play begins with biostratigraphy, wherein fossils revealed deep time and ancient environments and built the first meaningful geological timescale, and ends with the still young science of palaeoceanography—central to which are microfossils, rich in information about the oceans and climates of the past. In Southern Limestones under Western Eyes, Brian McGowran recounts the history of biogeohistory itself: the ever-changing perceptions of rocks, fossils and landscapes, from the late 1600s to the present. McGowran’s focus is southern Australia, the north shore of the dying Australo-Antarctic Gulf, in an era bracketed by two catastrophes: the extinction of dinosaurs and the emergence of humans.
Download or read book Establishing Medical Reality written by Harold Kincaid and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2007-06-01 with total page 236 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Medicine raises numerous philosophical issues. This volume approaches the philosophy of medicine from the broad naturalist perspective. This holds that philosophy must be continuous with, constrained by, and relevant to empirical results of the natural and social sciences. The upshot is a unique volume that ties medicine to contemporary issues in philosophy of science and metaphysics.
Download or read book Darwinian Heresies written by Abigail Lustig and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2004-08-30 with total page 216 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In Darwinian Heresies, which was originally published in 2004, prominent historians and philosophers of science trace the history of evolutionary thought, and challenge many of the assumptions that have built up over the years. Covering a wide range of issues starting in the eighteenth century, Darwinian Heresies brings us through the time of Charles Darwin and the Origin, and then through the twentieth century to the present. It is suggested that Darwin's true roots lie in Germany, not his native England, that Russian evolutionism is more significant than many are prepared to allow, and that the true influence on twentieth-century evolution biology was not Charles Darwin at all, but his often-despised contemporary, Herbert Spencer. The collection was intended to interest, to excite, to infuriate, and to stimulate further work.
Download or read book Concepts and Methods in Evolutionary Biology written by Robert N. Brandon and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 1996 with total page 252 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This collection of Professor Brandon's recent essays covers all the traditional topics in the philosophy of evolutionary biology.
Download or read book Thinking about Biology written by Stephen Webster and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2003-04-03 with total page 242 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Thinking about Biology is intended for biology students who are interested in reflecting on the wider contexts of their studies. This 2003 book encourages students to see that biology does not deliver certainties; it discusses how biological ideas become established facts; it uses history to examine how ideas change, and to show that the biological facts that form the basis of a biology course are likely to change too. Each chapter is based on biological topics, and examines them for their philosophical, social and political implications. Topics covered include the role of natural selection in evolution, the history of ideas about fertilisation and inheritance, vivisection, and reductionism. Genetically modified foods, xenotransplantation, eugenics, and genetic testing are some of the controversial subjects discussed. Thinking About Biology should be essential reading for all college students already taking a biology course, and for those contemplating such a course in the future.
Download or read book Purposiveness of nature in Kant s third critique written by Menting, Thijs and published by Universitätsverlag Potsdam. This book was released on 2020 with total page 338 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Diese Studie verfolgt das Ziel, eine transzendentale Interpretation der Kritik der Urteilskraft von Immanuel Kant vorzulegen, welche sowohl den Zusammenhang mit den anderen kritischen Werken, als auch die interne Kohärenz des Buches berücksichtigt. Ich bezeichne die Interpretation als transzendental, weil das neu eingeführte Erkenntnisvermögen, nämlich die reflektierende Urteilskraft, zusammen mit seinem a priori Prinzip der Zweckmäßigkeit in den Fokus gerückt wird. Dies sollte es erlauben, die scheinbare Vielfalt der Themen (von ästhetischen Urteilen über Kultur bis hin zu teleologischen Urteilen über Naturzwecke), welche viele Interpreten in die Irre geführt hat, ausschließlich in Abhängigkeit dieses Erkenntnisvermögens und des entsprechenden transzendentalen Prinzips zu untersuchen. Auf diesem Weg wird nicht nur beabsichtigt, die Zugehörigkeit der Kritik der Urteilskraft zum transzendentalen Projekt Kants nachzuweisen, sondern außerdem auch das Prinzip der Zweckmäßigkeit in unserem reflexiven Verhältnis zur Natur zu etablieren. Der wichtigste Beitrag dieser Studie besteht darin, die Kritik der Urteilskraft in das größere kritische Projekt einzuordnen. Ich habe argumentiert, wie das Bedürfnis für die Voraussetzung der reflektierenden Urteilskraft aus dem eigentümlichen Charater unseres sinnlichen und diskursiven Gemüts folgt. Da wir ein sinnliches und diskursives Gemüt haben, verfügen wir nicht über einen unmittelbaren Einblick in alle Merkmale der Gegenstände der empirischen Natur. Die eigentümliche Beschaffenheit unseres Gemüts erfordert begriffliche Vorstellungen, die sich mittelbar auf Objekte beziehen. Das Prinzip der Zweckmäßigkeit, nämlich die Voraussetzung, dass die Natur unserem Gemüt angemessen organisiert ist, ist eine notwendige Bedingung für die Möglichkeit der Reflexion auf die empirischen Merkmale der Natur. Reflexion verweist in meinem Ansatz auf den Prozess der Auswahl von Merkmal für eine Klassifizierung, einschließlich die Reflexion auf die Methode, Mittel und Kriterien. Anstatt einen Beitrag zur Erkenntnis drücken Reflexionsurteile also Unwissenheit bezüglich der Intention hinter dem Entwurf der Natur, wie Geschmacksurteile und teleologische Urteile über organisierte Materie, am deutlichsten aus. So betrachtet hängt Reflexion, egal ob sie sich in Begriffsbildung, wissenschaftlicher Systematisierung, Geschmacksurteilen oder teleogischen Urteilen über organisierte Materie ausdrückt, von einem eigenen Prinzip der reflektierenden Urteilskraft ab, das in einer transzendentalen Untersuchung in der Kritik der Urteilskraft dargestellt und begründet wird. This dissertation aims to deliver a transcendental interpretation of Immanuel Kant's Kritik der Urteilskraft, considering both its coherence with other critical works as well as the internal coherence of the work itself. This interpretation is called transcendental insofar as special emphasis is placed on the newly introduced cognitive power, namely the reflective power of judgement, guided by the a priori principle of purposiveness. In this way the seeming manifold of themes, varying from judgements of taste through culture to teleological judgements about natural purposes, are discussed exclusively in regard of their dependence on this faculty and its transcendental principle. In contrast, in contemporary scholarship the book is often treated as a fragmented work, consisting of different independent parts, while my focus lies on the continuity comprised primarily of the activity of the power of judgement. Going back to certain central yet silently presupposed concepts, adopted from previous critical works, the main contribution of this study is to integrate the KU within the overarching critical project. More specifically, I have argue how the need for the presupposition by the reflective power of judgement follows from the peculiar character of our sense-dependent discursive mind. Because we are sense-dependent discursive minds, we do not and cannot have immediate insight into all of nature's features. The particular constitution of our mind rather demands conceptually informed representations which mediately refer to objects. Having said that, the principle of purposiveness, namely the presupposition that nature is organized in concert with the particular constitution of our mind, is a necessary condition for the possibility of reflection on nature's empirical features. Reflection refers on my account to a process of selecting features in order to allow a classification, including reflection on the method, means and selection criteria. Rather than directly contributing to cognition, like the categories, reflective judgements thus express our ignorance when it comes to the motivation behind nature's design, and this is most forcefully expressed by judgements of taste and teleological judgements about organized matter. In this way, reflection, regardless whether it is manifested in concept acquisition, scientific systematization, judgements of taste or judgements about organized matter, relies on a principle of the power of judgement which is revealed and justified in this transcendental inquiry.
Download or read book Rethinking Human Nature written by Malcolm Jeeves and published by Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing. This book was released on 2011-02-23 with total page 353 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: How do the many exciting recent scientific discoveries in neuroscience, psychology, evolutionary biology, genetics and paleoanthropology challenge and complicate but also enrich and illuminate the traditional Christian portrait of human nature? In Rethinking Human Nature an international team of scientists, historians, philosophers, and theologians presents both the wisdom of the past and the cutting edge of present and developing scientific research to explore answers to this vital question. Their discussions examining our brains, our genes, our ancestors, our societies, and more will help us develop a more nuanced and complete understanding of what it really means to be human. Contributors: Evandro Agazzi, R. J. Berry, Alison S. Brooks, Franco Chiereghin, Felipe Fernandez, Graeme Finlay, Joel Green, Malcolm Jeeves, Jrgen Mittelstrass, David G. Myers, Janet Martin Soskice, Fernando Vidal
