Metaphysics from a Biological Point of View

Metaphysics from a Biological Point of View
Author: S. Boulter
Publisher: Springer
Total Pages: 182
Release: 2013-10-16
Genre: Science
ISBN: 1137322829

Many philosophers in the analytic tradition are now convinced that metaphysical questions are worth pursuing, but we still lack a convincing meta-metaphysics and methodology. This essay offers an account of how we should conduct our business qua metaphysicians.

The Metaphysics of Biology

The Metaphysics of Biology
Author: John Dupré
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 150
Release: 2021-06-03
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 100902180X

This Element is an introduction to the metaphysics of biology, a very general account of the nature of the living world. The first part of the Element addresses more traditionally philosophical questions - whether biological systems are reducible to the properties of their physical parts, causation and laws of nature, substantialist and processualist accounts of life, and the nature of biological kinds. The second half will offer an understanding of important biological entities, drawing on the earlier discussions. This division should not be taken too seriously, however: the topics in both parts are deeply interconnected. Although this does not claim to be a scientific work, it does aim to be firmly grounded in our best scientific knowledge; it is an exercise in naturalistic metaphysics. Its most distinctive feature is that argues throughout for a view of living systems as processes rather than things or, in the technical philosophical sense, substances.

Metaphysics from a Biological Point of View

Metaphysics from a Biological Point of View
Author: S. Boulter
Publisher: Springer
Total Pages: 262
Release: 2013-10-16
Genre: Science
ISBN: 1137322829

Many philosophers in the analytic tradition are now convinced that metaphysical questions are worth pursuing, but we still lack a convincing meta-metaphysics and methodology. This essay offers an account of how we should conduct our business qua metaphysicians.

Biological Identity

Biological Identity
Author: Anne Sophie Meincke
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 299
Release: 2020-08-25
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 1351066366

Analytic metaphysics has recently discovered biology as a means of grounding metaphysical theories. This has resulted in long-standing metaphysical puzzles, such as the problems of personal identity and material constitution, being increasingly addressed by appeal to a biological understanding of identity. This development within metaphysics is in significant tension with the growing tendency amongst philosophers of biology to regard biological identity as a deep puzzle in its own right, especially following recent advances in our understanding of symbiosis, the evolution of multi-cellular organisms and the inherently dynamical character of living systems. Moreover, and building on these biological insights, the broadly substance ontological framework of metaphysical theories of biological identity appears problematic to a growing number of philosophers of biology who invoke process ontology instead. This volume addresses this tension, exploring to what extent it can be dissolved. For this purpose, the volume presents the first selection of essays exclusively focused on biological identity and written by experts in metaphysics, the philosophy of biology and biology. The resulting cross-disciplinary dialogue paves the way for a convincing account of biological identity that is both metaphysically constructive and scientifically informed, and will be of interest to metaphysicians, philosophers of biology and theoretical biologists.

From a Biological Point of View

From a Biological Point of View
Author: Elliott Sober
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 272
Release: 1994-09-30
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 9780521477536

Elliott Sober is one of the leading philosophers of science and is a former winner of the Lakatos Prize, the major award in the field. This new collection of essays will appeal to a readership that extends well beyond the frontiers of the philosophy of science. Sober shows how ideas in evolutionary biology bear in significant ways on traditional problems in philosophy of mind and language, epistemology, and metaphysics. Amongst the topics addressed are psychological egoism, solipsism, and the interpretation of belief and utterance, empiricism, Ockham's razor, causality, essentialism, and scientific laws. The collection will prove invaluable to a wide range of philosophers, primarily those working in the philosophy of science, the philosophy of mind, and epistemology.

Everything Flows

Everything Flows
Author: Daniel J. Nicholson
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Total Pages: 403
Release: 2018
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 0198779631

"The majority of the papers herein originated at the workshop 'Process Philosophy of Biology' ... held in Exeter in November 2014."--Page vii.

The Species Problem

The Species Problem
Author: David N. Stamos
Publisher: Lexington Books
Total Pages: 389
Release: 2003-03-17
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 0739161180

Stamos squarely confronts the problem of determining what a biological species is, whether species are real, and the nature of their reality. He critically considers the evolution of the major contemporary views of species and also offers his own solution to the species problem.

Process-Philosophical Perspectives on Biology

Process-Philosophical Perspectives on Biology
Author: Spyridon A. Koutroufinis
Publisher: Cambridge Scholars Publishing
Total Pages: 363
Release: 2023-06-28
Genre: Science
ISBN: 1527504514

Many life scientists implicitly assume a materialistic metaphysics that is based on the worldview of the 19th century. This sort of reductionistic metaphysics does not do justice to the complexity of biological phenomena, leaving many features of living processes unexplained. The authors of this book explore the viability of process metaphysics to advance our understanding of fundamental biological concepts such as organism, ontogeny, agency, teleology, environment, and normativity. Based on the metaphysics of Alfred North Whitehead and other process thinkers, the authors ascribe subjective interiority to all living beings, from unicellular organisms to the most complex animals. This book highlights the uniqueness and intrinsic value of living beings. It presents a new approach to essential dimensions of the phenomenon of life with the aim of opening up new horizons in the thinking of philosophers, philosophers of biology, life scientists, and environmentalists.

Aristotle's Revenge

Aristotle's Revenge
Author: Edward Feser
Publisher:
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2019
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 9783868382006

Actuality and potentiality, substantial form and prime matter, efficient causality and teleology are among the fundamental concepts of Aristotelian philosophy of nature. Aristotle's Revenge argues that these concepts are not only compatible with modern science, but are implicitly presupposed by modern science. Among the many topics covered are: The metaphysical presuppositions of scientific method. The status of scientific realism The metaphysics of space and time. The metaphysics of quantum mechanics. Reductionism in chemistry and biology. The metaphysics of evolution. Neuroscientific reductionism. The book interacts heavily with the literature on these issues in contemporary analytic metaphysics and philosophy of science, so as to bring contemporary philosophy and science into dialogue with the Aristotelian tradition.

Metaphysics and the Origin of Species

Metaphysics and the Origin of Species
Author: Michael T. Ghiselin
Publisher: SUNY Press
Total Pages: 394
Release: 1997-01-01
Genre: Science
ISBN: 9780791434673

In explaining his individuality thesis, Michael T. Ghiselin provides extended discussions of such philosophical topics as definition, the reality of various kinds of groups, and how we classify traits and processes. He develops and applies the implications for general biology and other sciences and makes the case that a better understanding of species and of classification in general puts biologists and paleontologists in a much better position to understand nature in general, and such processes as extinction in particular.