Title: Biology and epistemology /
Authors: Creath, Richard; Maienschein, Jane.
Publisher: Cambridge University Press,
Year: 2000
Subjects: Philosophy; Knowledge; Biology; Biology Philosophy
Abstract: This set of original essays explores a range of diverse issues in the intersection of biology and epistemology. It asks whether the study of life requires a special biological approach to knowledge - and concludes that it does not.
Contents: Introduction / Richard Creath, Jane Maienschein -- Darwin and the philosophers: epistemological factors in the development and reception of the theory of the Origin of Species / Michael Ruse -- Knowing about evolution: Darwin and his theory of natural selection / Jon Hodge -- Why did Darwin fail? The role of John Stuart Mill / David L. Hull -- The epistemology of historical interpretation: progressivity and recapitulation in Darwin's theory / Robert J. Richards -- Down the primrose path: competing epistemologies in early twentieth-century biology / David Magnus -- Competing epistemologies and developmental biology / Jane Maienschein -- From imaging to believing: epistemic issues in generating biological data / William Bechtel -- The logic of discovery in the experimental life sciences / Frederic L. Holmes -- What do population geneticists know and how do they know it? / R.C. Lewontin -- Experimentation in early genetics: the implications of the historical character of science for scientific realism / Marga Vicedo -- Making sense of life: explanation in developmental biology / Evelyn Fox Keller -- Toward an epistemology for biological pluralism / Helen E. Longino -- Afterword / Kenneth F. Schaffner.