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Skip to Search Results- 42Brigandt, Ingo
- 2Love, Alan C.
- 1Assis, Leandro C.S.
- 1Crawford, John W.
- 1Gilbert, Jack A.
- 1Knight, Rob
- 8Book Reviews
- 6Philosophy of Science
- 5Biology
- 5Evolutionary Developmental Biology
- 5Homology
- 5Philosophy
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2005
Peculiar to Konrad Lorenz’s view of instinctive behavior is his strong innate-learned dichotomy. He claimed that there are neither ontogenetic nor phylogenetic transitions between instinctive and experience-based behavior components, thus contradicting all former accounts of instinct. The present...
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2011
Introduction: Philosophical questions about biology have been addressed by philosophers and scientists for centuries. Yet as a genuine discipline within philosophy, philosophy of biology started to emerge in the 1970s (Byron, 2007). One motivation for this was the fact that much of traditional...
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Beyond reduction and pluralism: toward an epistemology of explanatory integration in biology
Download2010
The paper works towards an account of explanatory integration in biology, using as a case study explanations of the evolutionary origin of novelties—a problem requiring the integration of several biological fields and approaches. In contrast to the idea that fields studying lower level phenomena...
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Natural kinds in evolution and systematics: metaphysical and epistemological considerations
Download2009
Despite the traditional focus on metaphysical issues in discussions of natural kinds in biology, epistemological considerations are at least as important. By revisiting the debate as to whether taxa are kinds or individuals, I argue that both accounts are metaphysically compatible, but that one...
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The epistemic goal of a concept: accounting for the rationality of semantic change and variation
Download2010
The discussion presents a framework of concepts that is intended to account for the rationality of semantic change and variation, suggesting that each scientific concept consists of three components of content: (1) reference, (2) inferential role, and (3) the epistemic goal pursued with the...
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Systems biology and the integration of mechanistic explanation and mathematical explanation
Download2013
The paper discusses how systems biology is working toward complex accounts that integrate explanation in terms of mechanisms and explanation by mathematical models—which some philosophers have viewed as rival models of explanation. Systems biology is an integrative approach, and it strongly...
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2009
Assis, Leandro C.S., Brigandt, Ingo
Taxa and homologues can in our view be construed both as kinds and as individuals. However, the conceptualization of taxa as natural kinds in the sense of homeostatic property cluster kinds has been criticized by some systematists, as it seems that even such kinds cannot evolve due to their being...
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The homeopathy of kin selection: An evaluation of van den Berghe’s sociobiological approach to ethnicity
Download2001
The present discussion of sociobiological approaches to ethnic nepotism takes van den Berghe’s theory as a starting point. Two points, which have not been addressed in former analyses, are considered to be of particular importance. It is argued that the behavioral mechanism of ethnic nepotism—as...
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2011
Introduction: As Elliott Sober acknowledges in the preface, the title of his latest book Evidence and Evolution is potentially confusing. For his discussion does not present various known empirical facts that support the theory of common ancestry, such as fossil data and genetic and anatomical...
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2014
Gilbert, Jack A., Rohwer, Forest, Crawford, John W., Brigandt, Ingo, Love, Alan C., O'Malley, Maureen A., Knight, Rob, Mitchell, Sandra D.
Multilevel research strategies characterize contemporary molecular inquiry into biological systems. We outline conceptual, methodological, and explanatory dimensions of these multilevel strategies in microbial ecology, systems biology, protein research, and developmental biology. This review of...