Review by Choice Review
This volume's coeditors have published jointly in the past (as coeditors of The Philosophy of Biology, 1998), as well as individually. Among Ruse's works are The Darwinian Revolution: Science Red in Tooth and Claw (CH, Feb'80), Evolutionary Naturalism: Selected Essays (1995), and Darwinism and Its Discontents (2006). Among Hull's writings are The Philosophy of Biological Science (CH, Jul'74), Science as a Process (CH, Mar'89), and Science and Selection (CH, Sep'01, 39-0297). This present volume includes 23 essays, each reviewing and summarizing an important topic within the philosophy of biology. Each essay is approximately 20 pages long. The individual authors span two generations of philosophers of biology, from the "first wave," whose works shaped the field beginning in the 1970s (such as Alex Rosenberg, Lindley Darden, and Francisco J. Ayala) to the current "new wave," whose writings represent a shift in focus from evolutionary theory to other areas in biology such as ecology, biodiversity, and neurobiology. These authors include Gregory Mikkelson, Jason Scott Robert, and Sahotra Sarkar. The essays span topics within biology (e.g., adaptation, teleology, and units of selection) and topics about biology (e.g., reduction, biology and religion, and the relation of biology to ethics, society, and history). Summing Up: Recommended. Upper-level undergraduates through faculty/researchers. D. B. Boersema Pacific University
Copyright American Library Association, used with permission.
Review by Choice Review