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27Woodger on genetics a critical evaluationActa Biotheoretica 24 (1-2): 1-13. 1975.A critical analysis of Woodger's work on formal logic in biology, especially genetics, reveals that the claim for the value of such methods in genetics is misplaced
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32Biological adaptationPhilosophy of Science 39 (4): 525-528. 1972.In successive issues of this journal Ronald Munson [2] and I [4] have made, quite independently, conflicting claims about the relationship between biological adaptation and biological function. I state, admittedly without proof, that “a functional statement in biology draws attention to the fact that what is under consideration is an adaptation or something which confers an ‘adaptive advantage’ on its possessor”. This was an identity claim. Munson claims, with proof, that “adaptation and functio…Read more
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11Science: Men, Methods, Goals. Edited by Boruch Brody and Nicholas Capaldi. New York, W. A. Benjamin. 1968. Pp. 343. Hard cover $8.00; Paperback $2.85 (review)Dialogue 8 (1): 164-165. 1969.
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188Evolutionary ethics: A phoenix arisenZygon 21 (1): 95-112. 1986.Evolutionary ethics has a bad reputation. But we must not remain prisoners of our past. Recent advances in Darwinian evolutionary biology pave the way for a linking of science and morality, at once more modest yet more profound than earlier excursions in this direction. There is no need to repudiate the insights of the great philosophers of the past, particularly David Hume. So humans’ simian origins really matter. The question is not whether evolution is to be linked to ethics, but how.
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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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Kant and evolutionIn Justin E. H. Smith (ed.), The Problem of Animal Generation in Early Modern Philosophy, Cambridge University Press. 2006.
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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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126Charles Darwin's Theory of Evolution: An AnalysisJournal of the History of Biology 8 (2). 1975.
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34Philosophy of biology today: No grounds for complacency (review)Philosophia 8 (4): 785-796. 1979.
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13The Possibility of Naturalism: A Philosophical Critique of the Contemporary Human Sciences by Roy Bhaskar (review)Isis 72 493-495. 1981.
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51Evo-devo: A New Evolutionary Paradigm?Royal Institute of Philosophy Supplement 56 8-9. 2005.The homologies of process within morphogenetic fields provide some of the best evidence for evolution—just as skeletal and organ homologies did earlier. Thus, the evidence for evolution is better than ever. The role of natural selection in evolution, how–ever, is seen to play less an important role. It is merely a filter for unsuccessful morphologies generated by development. Population genetics is destined to change if it is not to become as irrelevant to evolution as Newtonian mechanics is to …Read more
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A Darwinian Understanding of EpistemologyIn A. J. Sanford & P. N. Johnson-Laird (eds.), The Nature and Limits of Human Understanding, T & T Clark. pp. 111. 2003.
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3Nature, Human Nature, and Society (review)International Studies in Philosophy 18 (3): 63-65. 1986.
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77The nature of scientific models : Formal V material analogyPhilosophy of the Social Sciences 3 (1): 63-80. 1973.
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18Book Review:The Young Darwin and His Cultural Circle Edward Manier (review)Philosophy of Science 46 (1): 165-. 1979.
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39Response to Williams: Selfishness is not enoughZygon 23 (4): 413-416. 1988.I agree with George Williams's most significant point: both questions and answers about our moral natures lie in our biological origins. He fails, however, to show that nature is morally evil and that therefore we should vigilantly resist it. The products of evolution are morally neutral, but the human moral sense is arguably a positive good. Morality is functional. It does not require ultimate justification in the sense of correspondence with or attack upon reality “out there.” It is an adaptat…Read more
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204Methodological Naturalism Under AttackSouth African Journal of Philosophy 24 (1): 44-60. 2005.Methodological naturalism is the assumption or working hypothesis that understanding nature (the physical world including humans and their thoughts and actions) can be understood in terms of unguided laws. There is no need to Suppose interventions (miracles) from outside. It does not commit one to metaphysical naturalism, the belief that there is nothing other than nature as we can see and observe it (in other words, that atheism is the right theology for the sound thinker). Recently the Intelli…Read more
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30Taking Darwin Seriously: A Naturalistic Approach to PhilosophyPrometheus Books. 1986.Brings together traditional philosophy and modern sociobiology to examine evolutionary biology and its relation to the evolution of knowledge and ethics
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46From belief to unbelief-and halfway backZygon 29 (1): 25-35. 1994.Through autobiography, I explain why I cannot accept conventional Christianity or any other form of religious belief. I sketch how, through modern evolutionary theory, I try to find an alternative world‐picture, one which is, however, essentially agnostic about ultimate meanings. I characterize my position as being that of “David Hume brought up‐to‐date by Charles Darwin.” I express sad skepticism about ever realizing the hopes on which Zygon was founded.
Tallahassee, Florida, United States of America
Areas of Specialization
Philosophy of Religion |
Philosophy of Biology |
Areas of Interest
Philosophy of Religion |
Philosophy of Biology |