Branches of Philosophy
Philosophy of Biology
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Philosophy of biology examines the biological sciences along three lines: general questions in philosophy of science as they bear on biology, conceptual problems internal to biology itself such as the nature of species, fitness and biological explanation, and what biology contributes to broader philosophical questions.
Facts
Disputed
Key DebateUnits of selection: whether natural selection acts primarily on genes, as Richard Dawkins's selfish gene view holds, on individual organisms, or on groups, a dispute over which level biological explanation of adaptation is properly pitched at. 3 Richard Dawkins's The Selfish Gene popularized gene selectionism against a longer tradition of organism level and, more recently, revived group level explanations of natural selection. Central QuestionDo biological explanations reduce without residue to the laws of physics and chemistry, or does biology retain a genuine explanatory autonomy? 1 Key DebateWhether biology is reducible to physics and chemistry or constitutes an autonomous science with its own explanatory principles that cannot be unified with physical law. 2 Cross-Tradition Connections
Associated With
Descartes' mechanistic view that an organism is nothing but a machine is a historical touchstone philosophy of biology still argues with.
Includes
Sources
1. Philosophy of Biology (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy)
Three Types of InquiryQuote, Three Types of Inquiry
fitness is a supervenient property of organisms: the fitness of each particular organism is necessarily dependent on some specific set of physical characteristics
1. Philosophy of Biology (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy)
Pre-historyQuote, Pre-history
the biology is not an autonomous science, but a technological application of more basic sciences, like 'radio-engineering'
1. Philosophy of Biology (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy)
In Category: Branches of Philosophy
1. Philosophy of Biology (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy)
Includes: Ernst Mayr, entry: Philosophy of Biology, Section 1Quote, Includes: Ernst Mayr, entry: Philosophy of Biology, Section 1
Even in 1969 the zoologist Ernst Mayr could complain that books with 'philosophy of science' in the title were all misleading and should be re-titled 'philosophy of physics'
2. The Autonomy of Biology (Mayr, Ludus Vitalis 2004)
p. 15, opening paragraphQuote, p. 15, opening paragraph
the demonstration that certain basic principles of physics cannot be applied to biology
2. The Autonomy of Biology (Mayr, Ludus Vitalis 2004)
Associated With: Rene Descartes, p. 16, VitalismQuote, Associated With: Rene Descartes, p. 16, Vitalism
An organism is really nothing but a machine, he said
3. Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
Stanford University, Center for the Study of Language and Informations.v. Levels of SelectionQuote, s.v. Levels of Selection
The theory of evolution by natural selection is, perhaps, the crowning intellectual achievement of the biological sciences. There is considerable debate, though, about which entities are selected in an evolutionary process.
3. Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
Stanford University, Center for the Study of Language and InformationAssociated With: Aristotle, entry: Philosophy of Biology, Section 3Quote, Associated With: Aristotle, entry: Philosophy of Biology, Section 3
Aristotle thought that living things exhibit self-motion along with other essential features (De Anima 412a-416b).
Philosophy of Biology (Wikipedia)
OverviewQuote, Overview
deals with epistemological, metaphysical, and ethical issues in the biological and biomedical sciences
Dissenting Readings (1 dissenting reading)
Key Debate
Mayr rejects reductionism outright. He argues biology is an autonomous science because certain basic principles of physics cannot be applied to it, and because living systems require explanatory principles, including historical and teleonomic ones, that the inanimate world does not need.
A dissenting reading, from Ernst MayrThe Autonomy of Biology (Mayr, Ludus Vitalis 2004)
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