This book takes a new approach to the debate on causal pluralism in the philosophy of biology by asking how useful pluralism is instead of debating its truth.  The core thesis in this work is that many problems do not hinge on the question of whether or not we subscribe to causal pluralism.  As one step in this central argument, the author develops an account that reasonably distinguishes pluralism from monism; in another step he studies cases that allegedly motivate causal pluralism in biology.  Examining these cases shows how pluralism is often irrelevant and why pursuing...

This book aims to encourage the reading of "On the Origin of Species" and to include it in the teaching of evolution. With a comprehensive overview of the development of Darwin's theory, the volume provides relevant aspects of Darwin's life and work in connection with the broader context of his time. The historical and philosophical analysis, mirrored in the socio-cultural scope, enables the diachronic reading of the text. It is built on various sources of historians and philosophers of science and sheds fresh light on them. Its uniqueness is the broad structure that covers four...

This open access book assesses the prospects of (re)adopting organization as a pivotal concept in biology. It shows how organization can nourish biological thinking and practice, by reconnecting with the idea of biology as the science of organized systems. The book provides a comprehensive state-of-the-art picture of the characterizations and uses of the concept of organization in both biological science and philosophy of biology. It also deals with a variety of themes – including evolution, organogenesis, heredity, cognition and ecology – with respect to which the...

This open access book assesses the prospects of (re)adopting organization as a pivotal concept in biology. It shows how organization can nourish biological thinking and practice, by reconnecting with the idea of biology as the science of organized systems. The book provides a comprehensive state-of-the-art picture of the characterizations and uses of the concept of organization in both biological science and philosophy of biology. It also deals with a variety of themes – including evolution, organogenesis, heredity, cognition and ecology – with respect to which the...

This book builds on recent scholarship highlighted in the edited collections, Philosophie, histoire, biologie: mélanges offerts à Jean Gayon (Merlin & Huneman, 2018) and Knowledge of Life Today (Gayon & Petit 2018/2019). While honoring the career and the thought of Jean Gayon (1949-2018), this book showcases the continued relevance of Gayon’s interdisciplinary work and illustrates his central place in the community of historians and philosophers of the life sciences.

Chapters in this book address Jean Gayon’s intellectual trajectory...

This book, originally published in French, examines the philosophical debates on functions over the last forty years and proposes new ways of analysis. Pervasive throughout the life sciences, the concept of function has the air of an epistemological scandal: ascribing a function to a biological structure or process amounts to suggesting that it is explained by its effects. This book confronts the debates on function with the use of the notion in a wide range of disciplines, such as biology, psychology, and medicine. It also raises the question of whether this notion, which is as old in the...