Table of Contents

1. Aristotle and after; 2. Descartes, Harvey and the emergence of modern mechanism; 3. The eighteenth century: Buffon; 4. The eighteenth century II: Kant the development of German biology; 5. Before Darwin I: A continental controversy; 6. Before Darwin II: British controversies about geology and natural theology; 7. Darwin; 8. Evolution and heredity from Darwin to the rise of genetics; 9. The modern evolutionary synthesis and its discontents; 10. Some themes in recent philosophy of biology: The species problem, reducibility, function and teleology; 11. Biology and human nature; 12. The philosophy of biology and the philosophy of science.

Promotional Information

Examines how the philosophy of biology has evolved to our current understanding.

Reviews

'… this is a book we all need and for which we should all be grateful … this is an important book and, even if you only dip into it here and there, it is a work that should be on the shelf of every philosopher of biology … Marjorie Grene and David Depew have written a really good book - too good just to praise. Let the arguments begin!' Biology and Philosophy