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62Evolvability, plausibility, and possibility (review)BioScience 56. 2006.Judgments of plausibility involve appearance of the truth or reasonableness, which is always a function of background knowledge. What anyone will countenance is conditioned by what they already know (or think they know). Marc Kirschner (professor of systems biology at Harvard) and John Gerhart (professor of molecular and cell biology at the University of California—Berkeley) aim to show that molecular, cellular, and developmental processes relevant to the generation of phenotypic variation in an…Read more
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12Lenny Moss: What Genes Can’t Do (review)Philosophy of Science 73 (2): 247-250. 2006.Philosophy of Science, 73 (April 2006) pp. 247–257. 0031-8248/2006/7302-0007$10.00 Copyright 2006 by the Philosophy of Science Association. All rights reserved. 247 BOOK REVIEWS Lenny Moss, What Genes Can’t Do . Cambridge, MA: MIT Press (2004), 256 pp., $21.00 (paper). Many philosophers of science will have encountered the core distinction between two different gene concepts found in What Genes Can’t Do . Moss argues that contemporary uses of the term ‘gene’ that denote an infor- ma…Read more
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10Interdisciplinary lessons for the teaching of biology from the practice of Evo-devoScience & Education 22 (2). 2013.Evolutionary developmental biology (Evo-devo) is a vibrant area of contemporary life science that should be (and is) increasingly incorporated into teaching curricula. Although the inclusion of this content is important for biological pedagogy at multiple levels of instruction, there are also philosophical lessons that can be drawn from the scientific practices found in Evo-devo. One feature of particular significance is the interdisciplinary nature of Evo-devo investigations and their resulting…Read more
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9Dimensions of integration in interdisciplinary explanations of the origin of evolutionary noveltyStudies in History and Philosophy of Science Part C: Studies in History and Philosophy of Biological and Biomedical Sciences 44 (4): 537-550. 2013.Many philosophers of biology have embraced a version of pluralism in response to the failure of theory reduction but overlook how concepts, methods, and explanatory resources are in fact coordinated, such as in interdisciplinary research where the aim is to integrate different strands into an articulated whole. This is observable for the origin of evolutionary novelty—a complex problem that requires a synthesis of intellectual resources from different fields to arrive at robust answers to multip…Read more
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11Explaining the origins of multicellularity: between evolutionary dynamics and developmental mechanismsIn K. J. Niklas & S. A. Newman (eds.), Multicellularity: Origins and Evolution, Mit Press. 2016.Overview The evolution of multicellularity raises questions regarding genomic and developmental commonalities and discordances, selective advantages and disadvantages, physical determinants of development, and the origins of morphological novelties. It also represents a change in the definition of individuality, because a new organism emerges from interactions among single cells. This volume considers these and other questions, with contributions that explore the origins and consequences of the…Read more
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9Proceedings of the Pittsburgh Workshop in History and Philosophy of Biology, Center for Philosophy of Science, University of Pittsburgh, March 23-24 2001 Session 4: Evolutionary Indeterminism.
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6Developing a rhetorical account of explanation (review)Choice 52 (8): 4168. 2015.Book review of "The Nature of Scientific Thinking: on Interpretation, Explanation and Understanding" by J. Faye. The nature of scientific explanation is a central topic of interest to philosophers but the literature has metamorphosed from a coherent body of key papers and examples into narrow and specialized discussions in different scientific disciplines.
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9Alan C. LoveDarwinian calisthenicsAn athlete engages in calisthenics as part of basic training and as a preliminary to more advanced or intense activity. Whether it is stretching, lunges, crunches, or push-ups, routine calisthenics provide a baseline of strength and flexibility that prevent a variety of injuries that might otherwise be incurred. Peter Bowler has spent 40 years doing Darwinian calisthenics, researching and writing on the development of evolutionary ideas with special attention to…Read more
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5Fostering inquiry in nonlaboratory settingsJournal of College Science Teaching 34 39-43. 2004.Inquiry is an important learning strategy, even for students who cannot or do not perform actual experiments. The authors describe two activities, other than experimentation, that they used in introductory biology learning groups to emphasize inquiry abilities. They also provide recommendations for creating additional inquiry activities.
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16Rethinking the structure of evolutionary theory for an extended synthesisIn Massimo Pigliucci & Gerd B. Muller (eds.), Evolution – the Extended Synthesis, Mit Press. 2010.This chapter describes the theoretical implications of Extended Synthesis and addresses the methodological options available for determining aspects of theoretical structure. It uses a “bottom-up” approach focused on evolutionary theory in particular, as opposed to a “top-down” strategy that attempts to characterize the structure of all scientific theories. The chapter shows that there are multiple stable components contained within a broad representation of evolutionary theory. It suggests that…Read more
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6Philosophical Lessons from Scientific Biography (review)Philosophy of Science 78 (4): 696-701. 2011.Essay Review of The Tragic Sense of Life: Ernst Haeckel and the Struggle over Evolutionary Thought by Robert J. Richards [2009].
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6Marine invertebrates, model organisms, and the modern synthesis: epistemic values, evo-devo, and exclusionTheory in Biosciences 128. 2009.A central reason that undergirds the significance of evo-devo is the claim that development was left out of the Modern synthesis. This claim turns out to be quite complicated, both in terms of whether development was genuinely excluded and how to understand the different kinds of embryological research that might have contributed. The present paper reevaluates this central claim by focusing on the practice of model organism choice. Through a survey of examples utilized in the literature of the M…Read more
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18Theory is as Theory Does: Scientific Practice and Theory Structure in BiologyBiological Theory 7 (4). 2013.Using the context of controversies surrounding evolutionary developmental biology (EvoDevo) and the possibility of an Extended Evolutionary Synthesis, I provide an account of theory structure as idealized theory presentations that are always incomplete (partial) and shaped by their conceptual content (material rather than formal organization). These two characteristics are salient because the goals that organize and regulate scientific practice, including the activity of using a theory, are hete…Read more
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23Hierarchy, causation and explanation: ubiquity, locality, and pluralismInterface Focus 2 (1). 2012.The ubiquity of top-down causal explanations within and across the sciences is prima facie evidence for the existence of top-down causation. Much debate has been focused on whether top-down causation is coherent or in conflict with reductionism. Less attention has been given to the question of whether these representations of hierarchical relations pick out a single, common hierarchy. A negative answer to this question undermines a commonplace view that the world is divided into stratified ‘leve…Read more
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12Conceptual Change in Biology: Scientific and Philosophical Perspectives on Evolution and Development (edited book)Springer Verlag, Boston Studies in the Philosophy of Science. 2015.This volume explores questions about conceptual change from both scientific and philosophical viewpoints by analyzing the recent history of evolutionary developmental biology. It features revised papers that originated from the workshop "Conceptual Change in Biological Science: Evolutionary Developmental Biology, 1981-2011" held at the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science in Berlin in July 2010. The Preface has been written by Ron Amundson. In these papers, philosophers and biologist…Read more
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6Darwin’s ‘imaginary illustrations’: creatively teaching evolutionary concepts and the nature of scienceThe American Biology Teacher 72. 2010.An overlooked feature of Darwin’s work is his use of “imaginary illustrations” to show that natural selection is competent to produce adaptive, evolutionary change. When set in the context of Darwin’s methodology, these thought
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6The erotetic organization of developmental biologyIn Alessandro Minelli & Thomas Pradeu (eds.), Towards a Theory of Development, Oxford University Press Uk. 2014.Developmental biology is the science of explaining how a variety of interacting processes generate the heterogeneous shapes, size, and structural features of an organism as it develops rom embryo to adult, or more generally throughout its life cycle (Love, 2008b; Minelli, 2011a). Although it is commonplace in philosophy to associate sciences with theories such that the individuation of a science is dependent on a constitutive theory or group of models, it is uncommon to find presentations of dev…Read more
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13Conceptual change and evolutionary developmental biologyIn Alan C. Love (ed.), Conceptual Change in Biology: Scientific and Philosophical Perspectives on Evolution and Development, Springer Verlag, Boston Studies in the Philosophy of Science. pp. 1-54. 2015.The 1981 Dahlem conference was a catalyst for contemporary evolutionary developmental biology (Evo-devo). This introductory chapter rehearses some of the details of the history surrounding the original conference and its associated edited volume, explicates the philosophical problem of conceptual change that provided the rationale for a workshop devoted to evaluating the epistemic revisions and transformations that occurred in the interim, explores conceptual change with respect to the concept o…Read more
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29The Idealization of Causation in Mechanistic ExplanationPhilosophy of Science 82 (5): 761-774. 2015.Causal relations among components and activities are intentionally misrepresented in mechanistic explanations found routinely across the life sciences. Since several mechanists explicitly advocate accurately representing factors that make a difference to the outcome, these idealizations conflict with the stated rationale for mechanistic explanation. We argue that these idealizations signal an overlooked feature of reasoning in molecular and cell biology—mechanistic explanations do not occur in i…Read more
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23Microbes modeling ontogenyBiology and Philosophy 28 (2): 161-188. 2013.Model organisms are central to contemporary biology and studies of embryogenesis in particular. Biologists utilize only a small number of species to experimentally elucidate the phenomena and mechanisms of development. Critics have questioned whether these experimental models are good representatives of their targets because of the inherent biases involved in their selection (e.g., rapid development and short generation time). A standard response is that the manipulative molecular techniques ava…Read more
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61Looking beyond gene concepts (review)Philosophy of Science 73 (2). 2006.Book Review: What Genes Can’t Do By Lenny Moss
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11Explaining evolutionary innovations and novelties: Criteria of explanatory adequacy and epistemological prerequisitesPhilosophy of Science 75 (5): 874-886. 2008.It is a common complaint that antireductionist arguments are primarily negative. Here I describe an alternative nonreductionist epistemology based on considerations taken from multidisciplinary research in biology. The core of this framework consists in seeing investigation as coordinated around sets of problems (problem agendas) that have associated criteria of explanatory adequacy. These ideas are developed in a case study, the explanation of evolutionary innovations and novelties, which demon…Read more
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13From Arabidopsis and Antirrhinum to Arabia and Antioch (review)Evolution & Development 15 158-159. 2013.From Arabidopsis and Antirrhinum to Arabia and Antioch: a review of cells to civilizations: the principles of change that shape life Cells to Civilizations: The Principles of Change That Shape Life, Coen, E. 2012. Princeton University Press, Princeton, NJ. 312 pp. ISBN 978-0-691-14967-7
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13Conceptualizing Evolutionary Novelty: Moving Beyond Definitional DebatesJournal of Experimental Zoology Part B: Molecular and Developmental Evolution 318 417-427. 2012.According to many biologists, explaining the evolution of morphological novelty and behavioral innovation are central endeavors in contemporary evolutionary biology. These endeavors are inherently multidisciplinary but also have involved a high degree of controversy. One key source of controversy is the definitional diversity associated with the concept of evolutionary novelty, which can lead to contradictory claims (a novel trait according to one definition is not a novel trait according to ano…Read more
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5Developmental biologyThe Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. 2015.Developmental biology is the science of explaining how a variety of interacting processes generate an organism’s heterogeneous shapes, size, and structural features that arise on the trajectory from embryo to adult, or more generally throughout a life cycle. It represents an exemplary area of contemporary experimental biology that focuses on phenomena that have puzzled natural philosophers and scientists for more than two millennia.
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6Exceeding Our Grasp: Science, History, and the Problem of Unconceived Alternatives by P. Kyle Stanford (review)Review of Metaphysics 62 (1): 155-157. 2008.
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1A Review of Darwin in Galápagos: Footsteps to a New World by K. Thalia Grant and Gregory B. Estes, [2009]
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2Review of Ron Amundson, The Changing Role of the Embryo in Evolutionary Thought: Roots of Evo-Devo (review)Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews 2005 (10). 2005.
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Philosophy of Biology |
General Philosophy of Science |
Areas of Interest
Philosophy of Biology |
General Philosophy of Science |