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27INTRODUCTION I first read Charles Darwin's masterpiece, On the Origin of Species , some twenty years ago. At once I fell under its spell - an emotion which ...
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27Grünbaum on psychoanalysis: Where do we go from here?Behavioral and Brain Sciences 9 (2): 256-257. 1986.
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27Origins of Genius: Darwinian Perspectives on Creativity. Dean Keith Simonton (review)Isis 92 (3): 587-589. 2001.
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26Popular Science to Professional ScienceIn Massimo Pigliucci & Maarten Boudry (eds.), Philosophy of Pseudoscience: Reconsidering the Demarcation Problem, University of Chicago Press. pp. 225. 2013.
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26Narrative Explanation RevisitedCanadian Journal of Philosophy 4 (3). 1975.T. A. Gouge has argued that certain explanations in evolutionary biology should be understood as conforming to the so-called ‘narrative’ model of explanation, where the chief distinguishing feature between this model and the well-known ‘covering-law’ model is that this narrative model, unlike the covering-law model, makes no appeal at all to laws. In support of his case Goudge offered an example of an evolutionary explanation which, he claimed, comes closer to the narrative model than the coveri…Read more
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26Biological Species: Natural Kinds, Individuals, or What?British Journal for the Philosophy of Science 38 (2): 225-242. 1987.What are biological species? Aristotelians and Lockeans agree that they are natural kinds; but, evolutionary theory shows that neither traditional philosophical approach is truly adequate. Recently, Michael Ghiselin and David Hull have argued that species are individuals. This claim is shown to be against the spirit of much modern biology. It is concluded that species are natural kinds of a sort, and that any 'objectivity' they possess comes from their being at the focus of a consilience of indu…Read more
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25What the Philosophy of Biology Is: Essays Dedicated to David Hull (edited book)Kluwer Academic Publishers. 1989.Philosophers of science frequently bemoan (or cheer) the fact that today, with the supposed collapse of logical empiricism, there are now ;;10 grand systems. However, although this mayor may not be true, and if true mayor may not be a cause for delight, no one should conclude that the philosophy of science has ground to a halt, its problems exhausted and its practioners dispirited. In fact, in this post Kuhnian age the subject has never been more alive, as we work with enthusiasm on special top…Read more
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25The Christian's dilemma: Organicism or mechanism?Zygon 52 (2): 442-467. 2017.Is organicism inherently Christian-friendly, and for that matter, is mechanism inherently religion nonfriendly? They have tended to be, but the story is much more complicated. The long history of the intertwined metaphors of nature taken as an organism, versus that of nature as a machine, reveals that both metaphors have flourished in the endeavors of philosophers, scientists, and persons of faith alike. Different kinds of Christians have been receptive to both organicist and mechanistic models,…Read more
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25On PurposePrinceton University Press. 2017.A brief, accessible history of the idea of purpose in Western thought, from ancient Greece to the present Can we live without the idea of purpose? Should we even try to? Kant thought we were stuck with purpose, and even Darwin’s theory of natural selection, which profoundly shook the idea, was unable to kill it. Indeed, teleological explanation—what Aristotle called understanding in terms of “final causes”—seems to be making a comeback today, as both religious proponents of intelligent design an…Read more
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25Evolution and ethics viewed from within two metaphors: machine and organismHistory and Philosophy of the Life Sciences 44 (1): 1-17. 2022.How is moral thinking, ethics, related to evolutionary theorizing? There are two approaches, epitomized by Charles Darwin who works under the metaphor of the world as a machine, and by Herbert Spencer who works under the metaphor of the world as an organism. Although the author prefers the first approach, the aim of this paper is to give a disinterested account of both approaches.
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24Darwin versus the Liberals: The third assault of the intelligent designersStudies in History and Philosophy of Science Part C: Studies in History and Philosophy of Biological and Biomedical Sciences 46 (1): 89-92. 2014.
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24The Philosophy of Evolution Uffe J. Jensen and Rom Harre, editors Brighton: Harvester, 1981. Pp. vii, 299. £22.50 (review)Dialogue 23 (1): 171-172. 1984.
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24The Cambridge Encyclopedia of Darwin and Evolutionary Thought (edited book)Cambridge University Press. 2013.This volume is a comprehensive reference work on the life, labors and influence of the great evolutionist Charles Darwin. With more than sixty essays written by an international group representing the leading scholars in the field, this is the definitive work on Darwin. It covers the background to Darwin's discovery of the theory of evolution through natural selection, the work he produced and his contemporaries' reactions to it, and evaluates his influence on science in the 150 years since the …Read more
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23Evolutionary Biology and Cultural Values: Is It Irremediably Corrupt?Canadian Journal of Philosophy, Supplementary Volume 20 (sup1): 43-68. 1994.In recent years, philosophers have come to realize that the relationship between science and values raises questions which are both important and not readily answered. It is true that the major figures in that tradition known as ‘logical empiricism’ appreciated that science always exceeds its empirical grasp and that it is necessary for scientists to be guided and constrained by so-called ‘epistemic values,’ these being values (in the words of one supporter) ‘presumed to promote the truth-like c…Read more
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22Literature after Darwin: Human Beasts in Western Fiction, 1859–1939The European Legacy 19 (6): 812-813. 2014.
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22Alfred Russel Wallace, the Discovery of Natural Selection, and the Origins of HumankindIn Oren Harman & Michael Dietrich (eds.), Rebels, Mavericks, and Heretics in Biology, Yale University Press. pp. 20. 2008.
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22Social darwinism updated? - The temptations of evolutionary ethicspaul Lawrence farber; university of california press, Berkeley, CA, Los Angeles, CA, & London, 1994, pp. XI + 210, price US$40.00 hardback, ISBN 0-520-08773-9, price US$16.95 paperback, ISBN 0-520-21369-6darwinian natural right: The biological ethics of human naturelarry arnhart; SUNY press, new York, 1998, pp. XII + 322, price US$26.50 hardback, ISBN 0-7914-3693- (review)Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part C: Studies in History and Philosophy of Biological and Biomedical Sciences 33 (4): 753-760. 2002.
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21The Place of Artificial Selection in Charles Darwin's Theory of Evolution through Natural SelectionIn Gregory J. Morgan (ed.), Philosophy of Science Matters: The Philosophy of Peter Achinstein, Oxford University Press. pp. 203. 2011.
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21Not in Our Genes: Biology, Ideology, and Human NatureHastings Center Report 14 (6): 42. 1984.Book reviewed in this article: Not In Our Genes: Biology, Ideology, and Human Nature. By R. C. Lewontin, Steven Rose, and Leon J. Kamin.
Tallahassee, Florida, United States of America
Areas of Specialization
Philosophy of Religion |
Philosophy of Biology |
Areas of Interest
Philosophy of Religion |
Philosophy of Biology |