Trees of Life Essays in Philosophy of Biology

This volume contains papers presented by New Zealand and American philosophers of biology during a recent visit to New Zealand by Elliott Sober. Some of the papers reveal a unique local perspective on current debates. Robin Craw's highly original contribution to the 'evolutionary' philosophy of science initiated by David Hull, applies to intellectual evolution the strongly biogeographic approach to the evolution of life that is a recognised New Zealand speciality. Other papers reflect past intellectual exchange between the two countries. Susan Oyama and Russell Gray's papers on the 'developmental systems' approach to evolution, for example, are the outcome of several years of fruitful exchange. The remaining papers in the volume cover a wide range of topics. In addition to Sober's own discussion of post-sociobiological treatments of cultural evolution the volume includes Kim Sterelny's evaluation of 'macroevolution', Paul Griffiths' analysis of adaptation and vestigiality, John Morss on the notion of ontogeny and Timothy Shanahan on the concept of drift.Griffiths, Paul is the author of 'Trees of Life Essays in Philosophy of Biology', published 1992 under ISBN 9780792317098 and ISBN 0792317092.