The Metaphysics of Evolution

by Professor of Philosophy David L Hull (Editor)

This critical collection of essays represents the best of the best when it comes to philosophy of biology. Many chapters treat evolution as a biological phenomenon, but the author is more generally concerned with science itself. Present-day science, particularly current views on systematics and biological evolution are investigated. The aspects of these sciences that are relevant to the general analysis of selection processes are presented, and they also serve to exemplify the general characteristics exhibited by science since its inception.

Genres: Philosophy

Hardcover

First published January 1, 1989

Reviews

[Alexander Smith · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a series of papers written by David Hull (and a handful of coauthors). This is a core collection of papers that played a major part in founding the "Philosophy of Biology." The book is modest in the sense that it does not go into delicate details of cultural evolution so much as frames them in relation to Darwinian thinking. That said, there are many chapters/papers here which are entirely dated beyond use for most who might find this text helpful.

For myself, I was more interested in continuing to understand the thought of Hull on evolution specifically because of his relationship to memetics, however there was minimal of value here in that regard. While there is some interests here with cultural evolution, it is almost exclusively framed towards philosophy of science. While interesting insights, it runs counter to the methodologies of science of science and science and technology studies today. Since this publication, much of what Hull is pointing out is much better understood to the point of triviality at times. But still this book holds up as showing the simple beginnings of a kind of philosophy of science that would later lead to _Science as Process_.

[Roger Neyman · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you're intrigued by the theory of evolution and its impact on our understanding of nature and of ourselves, and willing to wrestle (at times) to make it through the next paragraph, this book is a worthwhile read. Several articles focus on the concept of species, and that was my main focus, so I found that to be quite rewarding. My starting point was the question of 'human nature' in light of what we're learning about the evolution of Homo Sapiens Sapiens, mainly suspicious that too much was being claimed too glibly, and I found this intuition to be amply confirmed by Dr. Hull's perspicacious observations.