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Darwinian Populations and Natural Selection

  • Book
  • Mar 26, 2009
  • #Philosophy #Evolution
Peter Godfrey-Smith
@pgodfreysmith
(Author)
www.goodreads.com
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4.03/5 53 ratings
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In 1859 Darwin described a deceptively simple mechanism that he called "natural selection," a combination of variation, inheritance, and reproductive success. He argued that this me... Show More

In 1859 Darwin described a deceptively simple mechanism that he called "natural selection," a combination of variation, inheritance, and reproductive success. He argued that this mechanism was the key to explaining the most puzzling features of the natural world, and science and philosophy were changed forever as a result. The exact nature of the Darwinian process has been controversial ever since, however. Godfrey-Smith draws on new developments in biology, philosophy of science, and other fields to give a new analysis and extension of Darwin's idea. The central concept used is that of a "Darwinian population," a collection of things with the capacity to undergo change by natural selection. From this starting point, new analyses of the role of genes in evolution, the application of Darwinian ideas to cultural change, and "evolutionary transitions" that produce complex organisms and societies are developed. Darwinian Populations and Natural Selection will be essential reading for
anyone interested in evolutionary theory.

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Number of Pages: 224

ISBN: 0199552045

ISBN-13: 9780199552047

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Phil Treagus-Evans @philtreagus · Feb 4, 2018
  • Curated in THE BEST MODERN PHILOSOPHY BOOKS
Conventional thinking about evolution takes notions like ‘organism’, ‘heredity’ and ‘reproduction’ for granted. Godfrey-Smith puts these ideas under the microscope. He explores a range of unusual examples, from bacteria to bee colonies, and uses them to show us what really makes natural selection work. This book opens up a fascinating range of new issues in the philosophy of biology.
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