Processes of Life
Essays in the Philosophy of Biology
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Product details:
- Publisher OUP Oxford
- Date of Publication 23 January 2014
- ISBN 9780198701224
- Binding Paperback
- No. of pages362 pages
- Size 236x157x19 mm
- Weight 528 g
- Language English 0
Categories
Short description:
John Dupré explores recent revolutionary developments in biology and considers their relevance for our understanding of human nature and society. He reveals how the advance of genetic science is changing our view of the constituents of life, and shows how an understanding of microbiology will overturn standard assumptions about the living world.
MoreLong description:
John Dupré explores recent revolutionary developments in biology and considers their relevance for our understanding of human nature and human society. Epigenetics and related areas of molecular biology have eroded the exceptional status of the gene and presented the genome as fully interactive with the rest of the cell. Developmental systems theory provides a space for a vision of evolution that takes full account of the fundamental importance of developmental processes. Dupré shows the importance of microbiology for a proper understanding of the living world, and reveals how it subverts such basic biological assumptions as the organisation of biological kinds on a branching tree of life, and the simple traditional conception of the biological organism.
These topics are considered in the context of a view of science as realistically grounded in the natural order, but at the same time as pluralistic and inextricably integrated within a social and normative context. The volume includes a section that recapitulates and expands some of the author's general views on science; a section addressing a range of topics in biology, including the significance of genomics, the nature of the organism and the current status of evolutionary theory; and a section exploring some implications of contemporary biology for humans, for example on the reality or unreality of human races, and the plasticity of human nature.
Dupre is original and persuasive on a number of important topics. ... Also to be applauded is his unwavering refusal to avoid the more technical aspects of current biological science. ... Suffice to say that there are many more highlights and choice tidbits than I can present here. Processes of Life is a rich and rewarding melting pot of fluent scientific exegesis with subtle philosophical analysis, which will keep us thinking and arguing for a long time to come, and I wholeheartedly recommend you read it.
Table of Contents:
Introduction
I. Science
The Miracle of Monism
What's the Fuss about Social Constructivism?
The Inseparability of Science and Values
II. Biology
The Constituents of Life 1: Species, Microbes and Genes
The Constituents of Life 2: Organisms and Systems
Understanding Contemporary Genomics
The Polygenomic Organism
It is not Possible to Reduce Biological Explanations to Explanations in Chemistry and/or Physics
Postgenomic Darwinism
III. Microbes
Size Doesn't Matter: Towards a More Inclusive Philosophy of Biology
Metagenomics and Biological Ontology
Varieties of living things: Life at the intersection of lineage and metabolism
Emerging Sciences and New Conceptions of Disease: Or, Beyond the Monogenomic Differentiated Cell Lineage
IV. Humans
Against Maladaptationism: or What's Wrong with Evolutionary Psychology
What Genes Are, and Why There Are No Genes for Race
Causality and Human Nature in the Social Sciences
