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This book examines central topics in philosophy of biology and challenges much of the current thinking.
List of contents
1. The nature of Darwin's support for the theory of natural selection; 2. A semantic approach to the structure of population genetics; 3. Confirmation of evolutionary and ecological models; 4. Species selections on variability; 5. An open letter to Elliott Sober and David Sloan Wilson, regarding their book, Unto Others: The Evolution and Psychology of Unselfish Behavior; 6. Problems with pluralism; 7. Normality and variation: the human genome project and the ideal human type; 8. Evolutionary psychology: the burdens of proof; 9. Objectivity and the double standard for feminist epistemologies; 10. Science and anti-science: objectivity and its real enemies; 11. Pre-theoretical assumptions in evolutionary explanations of female sexuality.
About the author
Elisabeth A. Lloyd is Arnold and Maxine Tanis Chair of History and Philosophy of Science and Professor of Biology at Indiana University and an Affiliated Faculty Scholar at the Kinsey Institute for Research in Sex, Gender, and Reproduction. She is the author of The Structure and Confirmation of Evolutionary Theory, Keywords in Evolutionary Biology, and most recently, The Case of the Female Orgasm: Bias in the Science of Evolution.
Summary
This book examines central topics in philosophy of biology, challenging the current evolutionary accounts of the female orgasm and analysing them for bias. It examines the concept of objectivity and the structure of evolutionary theory and unlocks the puzzle of the units of selection debates into four distinct aspects.
