Philosophers of biology

Rosenberg (1997, p. 445) puts what he terms the consensus view among philosophers of biology today even more strongly than I have ... 

It is instructive to see what philosophers of biology consider as the major topics of their field nowadays, in a state of maturity as we can assume. For instance, take the table of contents of the recent anthology The Philosophy of Biology, ed. by David L. Hull and Michael Ruse, published by Oxford University Press in 1998 (see Table 1). It is a collection of 36 previous articles divided into 10 thematic sections. The first four sections are about metaphysical, methodological, and conceptual issues of evolutionary theory Section V is devoted to ontological issues in taxonomy. The... 

Philosophy of chemistry, hke the philosophical study of other particular sciences, devotes a great deal of attention to analysis of central concepts. While philosophers of biology consider how to define fitness within evolutionary theory, or how to demarcate the living from the nonliving, and philosophers of physics argue about how best to make sense of inertial mass or whether space should be considered substantival or relational, philosophers of chemistry face significant conceptual challenges of their own, a fact readily revealed by our brief discussion of chemical substances. 

Medawar PB, Medawar JS (1983) Viruses. In Medawar PB, Medawar JS (eds) Aristotle to zoos a philosophical dictionary of biology. Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA p, 275... 

Claude Debru I m very much interested in the distinction you introduced in this discussion between how possible and necessarily. These ideas of possibility and necessity have obviously deep philosophical roots and the idea of possibility is extremely difficult anyway. My question would be the following one - Would you agree that when you ask the question of how possible, how possibly, you have to get an idea of all the possibilities which are involved before giving the answer Then, do you think biologists have really the idea of all possibilities which are run at a certain level of biological evolution ... 

J. Connan, R.P. Evershed, L. Biek, G. Eglinton, Use and trade of bitumen in antiquity and prehistory molecular archaeology reveals secrets of past civilizations, Philosophical Transactions Biological Sciences, 354, 33 50 (1999). 

The establishment of the reduction of one scientific discipline to another one by philosophers of science requires more than an appeal to the importance of DNA in biology or success of quantum chemistry. It requires that formal relations be established between the two fields in question. At least this has been... 

A modern philosopher, Elliott Sober of the University of Wisconsin, in his book Philosophy of Biology, explains Hume s reasoning for us in more detail ... 

The argument has been echoed by prominent scientists and philosophers, but it is particularly well presented by Kennet Miller, a professor of biology at Brown University ... 

The search for and use of biologically active chemicals by man dates at least to the dawn of Homo sapiens, and doubtless to his ancestors. One can speculate about why such early human societies used such agents. Likely, anything that could provide relief from the undoubted harshness and danger of life - described by the 17th century English philosopher Thomas Hobbes as, poor, nasty, brutish, and short - would be considered desirable. This search for biologically active chemicals continues today, albeit at a more sophisticated and rational level. 

Chemistry is a substantial science by the measures of industry, economics, and politics. As an academic discipUne, it underlies the vibrant growth of molecular biology, materials science, and medical technology. Although not the youngest of sciences, its frontiers continue to expand in remarkable ways. And although it shares boundaries with every other field of science, it has an autonomy, both methodologically and conceptually this autonomy, however, continues to be unappreciated by most philosophers of science. Why is there no philosophy of chemistry ... 

Henderson, L. J. (1926). A philosophical interpretation of nature, review of A. N. Whitehead, Science and the Modern World (1925). Quarterly Review of Biology,... 

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