Blackwell Reference Online

Extract

Philosophical reflection on biological phenomena and knowledge has a long history. Indeed, some topics of contemporary interest have a history dating back at least to Aristotle (e.g., teleology, the nature of laws, classification (taxonomy), and the nature and logic of explanation and causality). The modern period of philosophy of biology, however, was ushered in by Morton Beckner with the publication of his landmark book The Biological Way of Thought. In it, Beckner employs the analytic tools and methods of contemporary logic, epistemology, and metaphysics to examine many of the issues outlined above. Two major events in the recent history of biology - that is, within the last 150 years - have given rise to new issues and new perspectives on perennial issues. The first of these was the introduction by Darwin of a conceptually rich theory of evolution. The key elements of Darwin's theory were variability (differences among organisms in a population), heredity, natural selection, and mutability of species (over time, organisms originally classified as belonging to one species could give rise to distant offspring that would be classified as belonging to another species). Darwin, in The Origin of Species (1859) , provided extensive conceptual accounts of, and empirical evidence for, the latter two elements. Detailed accounts and evidence for the first two had to wait until the ... log in or subscribe to read full text