• Darwin's cyclopean architect
    In R. Paul Thompson & Denis Walsh (eds.), Evolutionary biology: conceptual, ethical, and religious issues, Cambridge University Press. 2014.
  •  350
    Chance and natural selection
    Philosophy of Science 51 (2): 183-211. 1984.
    Among the liveliest disputes in evolutionary biology today are disputes concerning the role of chance in evolution--more specifically, disputes concerning the relative evolutionary importance of natural selection vs. so-called "random drift". The following discussion is an attempt to sort out some of the broad issues involved in those disputes. In the first half of this paper, I try to explain the differences between evolution by natural selection and evolution by random drift. On some common co…Read more
  •  26
    Book review: The Wright stuff (review)
    Biology and Philosophy 3 (2): 275-283. 1988.
  •  21
    Preface
    with Jane Maienschein and James P. Collins
    Journal of the History of Biology 19 (2): 167-168. 1986.
  •  211
    The propensity interpretation of fitness
    with Susan K. Mills
    Philosophy of Science 46 (2): 263-286. 1979.
    The concept of "fitness" is a notion of central importance to evolutionary theory. Yet the interpretation of this concept and its role in explanations of evolutionary phenomena have remained obscure. We provide a propensity interpretation of fitness, which we argue captures the intended reference of this term as it is used by evolutionary theorists. Using the propensity interpretation of fitness, we provide a Hempelian reconstruction of explanations of evolutionary phenomena, and we show why cha…Read more
  •  138
    Chance Variation: Darwin on Orchids
    Philosophy of Science 73 (5): 629-641. 2006.
    How, according to Darwin, does chance variation affect evolutionary outcomes? In his 1866 book, On the Various Contrivances by which British and Foreign Orchids are Fertilised by Insects, Darwin developed an argument that played an important role in his overall case for evolution by natural selection, as articulated in later editions of the Origin. This argument also figured significantly in Darwin's reflections on the theological dimensions of evolution by natural selection.
  •  38
    Introduction: Between ecology and evolutionary biology
    with James P. Collins and Jane Maienschein
    Journal of the History of Biology 19 (2): 169-180. 1986.
  •  25
    Weighing the risks: Stalemate in the classical/balance controversy
    Journal of the History of Biology 20 (3): 289-319. 1987.
    The classical/balance controversy continued along these lines throughout the first half of the sixties. Then, at about the same time that the classical position lost its leading advocate, the balance position received striking new support from Harry Harris, and independently from Dobzhansky's former student Lewontin, and Lewontin's research partner, Jack Hubby.80 These developments served more to reorient the controversy than to end it — and the resulting “neoclassical”/balance controversy is di…Read more
  •  78
    Why do biologists argue like they do?
    Philosophy of Science 64 (4): 443. 1997.
    "Theoretical pluralism" obtains when there are good evidential reasons for accommodating multiple theories of the same domain. Issues of "relative significance" often arise in connection with the investigation of such domains. In this paper, I describe and give examples of theoretical pluralism and relative significance issues. Then I explain why theoretical pluralism so often obtains in biology--and why issues of relative significance arise--in terms of evolutionary contingencies and the paucit…Read more
  •  105
    The proximate/ultimate distinction in the multiple careers of Ernst Mayr
    Biology and Philosophy 9 (3): 333-356. 1994.
    Ernst Mayr''s distinction between ultimate and proximate causes is justly considered a major contribution to philosophy of biology. But how did Mayr come to this philosophical distinction, and what role did it play in his earlier scientific work? I address these issues by dividing Mayr''s work into three careers or phases: 1) Mayr the naturalist/researcher, 2) Mayr the representative of and spokesman for evolutionary biology and systematics, and more recently 3) Mayr the historian and philosophe…Read more
  •  79
    The prevalence of optimality models in the literature of evolutionary biology is testimony to their popularity and importance. Evolutionary biologist R. C. Lewontin, whose criticisms of optimality models are considered here, reflects that "optimality arguments have become extremely popular in the last fifteen years, and at present represent the dominant mode of thought." Although optimality models have received little attention in the philosophical literature, these models are very interesting f…Read more
  •  267
    Natural selection and history
    Biology and Philosophy 24 (2): 231-246. 2009.
    In “Spandrels,” Gould and Lewontin criticized what they took to be an all-too-common conviction, namely, that adaptation to current environments determines organic form. They stressed instead the importance of history. In this paper, we elaborate upon their concerns by appealing to other writings in which those issues are treated in greater detail. Gould and Lewontin’s combined emphasis on history was three-fold. First, evolution by natural selection does not start from scratch, but always refas…Read more
  •  41
    Ecology and evolutionary biology in the war and postwar years: Questions and comments
    Journal of the History of Biology 21 (2): 245-263. 1988.
    Of all the scientists discussed by Mitman, Keller, and Taylor, Odum stands out most as the technocrat, the social engineer. But less obvious candidates, like Allee, also fancied themselves in this capacity: “Our task as biologists and as citizens of a civilized country, is a practical engineering job.” Allee had in mind the establishment of an international cooperative order based on his biological principles. He apparently did not recognize the extent to which his principles were themselves an …Read more
  •  81
    Evolutionary anti-reductionism: Historical reflections (review)
    Biology and Philosophy 5 (2): 199-210. 1990.
  •  32
    Remembering Richard Lewontin
    with Stuart A. Newman, Peter Godfrey-Smith, Daniel L. Hartl, Philip Kitcher, Diane B. Paul, Sahotra Sarkar, Elliott Sober, and William C. Wimsatt
    Biological Theory 16 (4): 257-267. 2021.
  •  34
    The Empire of Chance: How Probability Changed Science and Everyday Life
    with Gerd Gigerenzer, Zeno Swijtink, Theodore Porter, Lorraine Daston, and Lorenz Kruger
    Cambridge University Press. 1990.
    The Empire of Chance tells how quantitative ideas of chance transformed the natural and social sciences, as well as daily life over the last three centuries. A continuous narrative connects the earliest application of probability and statistics in gambling and insurance to the most recent forays into law, medicine, polling and baseball. Separate chapters explore the theoretical and methodological impact in biology, physics and psychology. Themes recur - determinism, inference, causality, free wi…Read more
  •  45
    Narrative possibility and narrative explanation
    Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part A 62 31-41. 2017.
  •  57
    Review of particle physics (review)
    with C. Patrignani, K. Agashe, G. Aielli, C. Amsler, M. Antonelli, D. M. Asner, H. Baer, S. Banerjee, R. M. Barnett, T. Basaglia, C. W. Bauer, V. I. Belousov, J. Beringer, S. Bethke, H. Bichsel, O. Biebel, E. Blucher, G. Brooijmans, O. Buchmueller, V. Burkert, M. A. Bychkov, R. N. Cahn, M. Carena, A. Ceccucci, A. Cerri, D. Chakraborty, M. C. Chen, R. S. Chivukula, K. Copic, G. Cowan, O. Dahl, G. D'Ambrosio, T. Damour, D. De Florian, A. De Gouvêa, T. DeGrand, Jong P. De, G. Dissertori, B. A. Dobrescu, M. D'Onofrio, M. Doser, M. Drees, H. K. Dreiner, P. da DwyerEerola, S. Eidelman, J. Ellis, J. Erler, V. V. Ezhela, W. Fetscher, B. D. Fields, B. Foster, A. Freitas, H. Gallagher, L. Garren, H. J. Gerber, G. Gerbier, T. Gershon, T. Gherghetta, A. A. Godizov, M. Goodman, C. Grab, A. V. Gritsan, C. Grojean, M. de GroomGrünewald, A. Gurtu, T. Gutsche, H. E. Haber, K. Hagiwara, C. Hanhart, S. Hashimoto, Y. Hayato, K. G. Hayes, A. Hebecker, B. Heltsley, J. J. Hernández-Rey, K. Hikasa, J. Hisano, A. Höcker, J. Holder, A. Holtkamp, J. Huston, T. Hyodo, K. Irwin, and Jackson
    © 2016 Regents of the University of California.The Review summarizes much of particle physics and cosmology. Using data from previous editions, plus 3,062 new measurements from 721 papers, we list, evaluate, and average measured properties of gauge bosons and the recently discovered Higgs boson, leptons, quarks, mesons, and baryons. We summarize searches for hypothetical particles such as supersymmetric particles, heavy bosons, axions, dark photons, etc. All the particle properties and search li…Read more
  •  51
    The Creativity of Natural Selection? Part I: Darwin, Darwinism, and the Mutationists
    Journal of the History of Biology 49 (4): 659-684. 2016.
    This is the first of a two-part essay on the history of debates concerning the creativity of natural selection, from Darwin through the evolutionary synthesis and up to the present. Here I focus on the mid-late nineteenth century to the early twentieth, with special emphasis on early Darwinism and its critics, the self-styled “mutationists.” The second part focuses on the evolutionary synthesis and some of its critics, especially the “neutralists” and “neo-mutationists.” Like Stephen Gould, I co…Read more
  •  59
    What are narratives good for?
    Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part C: Studies in History and Philosophy of Biological and Biomedical Sciences 58 33-40. 2016.