Making Sense of Evolution
The Conceptual Foundations of Evolutionary Biology
1st Edition
Published on 15. February 2010
309 pages
978-0-226-66835-2 (ISBN)
Description
Making Sense of Evolution explores contemporary evolutionary biology, focusing on the elements of theories-selection, adaptation, and species-that are complex and open to multiple possible interpretations, many of which are incompatible with one another and with other accepted practices in the discipline. Particular experimental methods, for example, may demand one understanding of ",selection,", while the application of the same concept to another area of evolutionary biology could necessitate a very different definition.Spotlighting these conceptual difficulties and presenting alternate theoretical interpretations that alleviate this incompatibility, Massimo Pigliucci and Jonathan Kaplan intertwine scientific and philosophical analysis to produce a coherent picture of evolutionary biology. Innovative and controversial, Making Sense of Evolution encourages further development of the Modern Synthesis and outlines what might be necessary for the continued refinement of this evolving field.
More details
Other editions
Additional editions
Massimo Pigliucci | Jonathan Kaplan
Making Sense of Evolution
The Conceptual Foundations of Evolutionary Biology
Book
11/2006
University of Chicago Press
€39.62
Shipment within 10-20 days
Massimo Pigliucci | Jonathan Kaplan
Making Sense of Evolution
The Conceptual Foundations of Evolutionary Biology
Book
11/2006
University of Chicago Press
€100.28
Article exhausted; check different version
Content
- Intro
- Contents
- Acknowledgments
- Prelude Evolutionary Biology and Conceptual Analysis
- One Natural Selection and Fitness
- Two How (Not) to Measure Natural Selection
- Three The Targets and Units of Selection
- Four Studying Constraints through G-Matrices
- Five A Quarter Century of Spandrels
- Six Functions and For-ness in Biology
- Seven Testing Adaptive Hypotheses
- Eight Slippery Landscapes
- Nine Species as Family Resemblance Concepts
- Ten Testing Biological Hypotheses
- Coda A Philosophical Dialogue
- References
- Index
