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86Evolution and Ethics: The Sociobiological ApproachIn Philosophy After Darwin: Classic and Contemporary Readings, Princeton University Press. pp. 489-511. 2009.
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52But is It Science?: The Philosophical Question in the Creation/Evolution Controversy (edited book)Prometheus Books. 1988.Preface 9 PART I: RELIGIOUS, SCIENTIFIC, AND PHILOSOPHICAL BACKGROUND Introduction to Part I 19 1. The Bible 27 2. Natural Theology 33 William Paley 3. On the Origin of Species 38 Charles Darwin 4. Objections to Mr. Darwin’s Theory of the Origin of Species 65 Adam Sedgwick 5. The Origin of Species 73 Thomas H. Huxley 6. What Is Darwinism? 82 Charles Hodge 7. Darwinism as a Metaphysical Research Program 105 Karl Popper 8. Karl Popper’s Philosophy of Biology 116 Michael Ruse 9. Human Nature: One E…Read more
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420Biological 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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12Nature, Human Nature, and Society (review)International Studies in Philosophy 18 (3): 63-65. 1986.
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4The Possibility of Naturalism: A Philosophical Critique of the Contemporary Human Sciences. Roy Bhaskar (review)Isis 72 (3): 493-495. 1981.
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28Book Review:Evolution and Creation Ernan McMullin (review)Philosophy of Science 53 (4): 608-. 1986.
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10Belief in God in a Darwinian ageIn Jonathan Hodge & Gregory Radick (eds.), The Cambridge Companion to Darwin, Cambridge University Press. pp. 333. 2003.
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199
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45The philosophical naturalists: Themes in early nineteenth-century british biology (review)Journal of the History of Philosophy 24 (3): 423-425. 1986.
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32Frederick Burkhardt;, James A. Secord;, Janet Browne;, Samantha Evans;, Shelley Innes;, Alison M. Pearn;, Paul White . The Correspondence of Charles Darwin. Volume 19: 1871. xli + 1,062 pp., illus., table, bibl., index. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2012. £90 (review)Isis 104 (3): 622-624. 2013.
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10Morality as a Biological Phenomenon: The Presuppositions of Sociobiological Research by Gunther S. Stent (review)Isis 73 (4): 579-579. 1982.
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111Darwinism and determinismZygon 22 (4): 419-442. 1987.Does Darwinism generally, and human sociobiology in particular, lead to an unwarranted (and possibly socially offensive) determinism? I argue that one must separate out different senses of determinism, and that once one has done this, a Darwinian approach to human nature can be seen to shed important light on our intuitions about free will, constraint, and control.
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63Robert Boyle and the Machine MetaphorZygon 37 (3): 581-596. 2002.The seventeenth–century chemist and philosopher Robert Boyle argued that the world is like a clockwork machine. This led to the problems of the place of a Creator and of how one can explain the directed, “final–cause” nature of organisms. Boyle thought that he could wrap everything up in one neat package, with a clear place for a designing God, but of course the coming of Darwinism casts doubt on this. Nevertheless, Boyle's thinking does have some very interesting implications for the way in whi…Read more
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22Review of The Non-Darwinian Revolution: Reinterpreting a Historical Myth by Peter Bowler; and of The Mendelian Revolution: The Emergence of Hereditarian Concepts in Modern Science and Society by Peter J. Bowler (review)Philosophy of Science 60 (1): 171-172. 1993.
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104The Compatibility of Science and Religion: Why the Warfare Thesis Is FalseIn Yujin Nagasawa (ed.), Scientific Approaches to the Philosophy of Religion, Palgrave-macmillan. pp. 255. 2012.
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27Charles Lyell and the Philosophers of ScienceBritish Journal for the History of Science 9 (2): 121-131. 1976.Two of the most influential evaluations of Charles Lyell's geological ideas were those of the philosophers of science, John F. W. Herschel and William Whewell. In this paper I shall argue that the great difference between these evaluations—whereas Herschel was fundamentally sympathetic to Lyell's geologizing, Whewell was fundamentally opposed—is a function of the fact that Herschel was an empiricist and Whewell a rationalist. For convenience, I shall structure the discussion around the three key…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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1Atheism, Naturalism and Science: Three in One?In Peter Harrison (ed.), The Cambridge Companion to Science and Religion, Cambridge University Press. 2010.
Tallahassee, Florida, United States of America
Areas of Specialization
Philosophy of Religion |
Philosophy of Biology |
Areas of Interest
Philosophy of Religion |
Philosophy of Biology |