This collection of essays by a leading philosopher of science defends integrative pluralism as the best description for today's complexity of scientific inquiry. The tendency of some scientists to reduce all theories to a few fundamental laws of the most basic particles that populate our universe is not appropriate for the biological sciences, which study multi-component, multi-level, evolved complex systems. This book will be of interest to students and professionals in the philosophy of science.
Biological Complexity and Integrative Pluralism
and over one million other books are available for Amazon Kindle.
Learn more
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||
Book Description
Frequently Bought Together
Editorial Reviews
Book Description
This fine collection of essays by a leading philosopher of science presents a defense of integrative pluralism as the best description for the complexity of scientific inquiry today. The tendency of some scientists to unify science by reducing all theories to a few fundamental laws of the most basic particles that populate our universe is ill-suited to the biological sciences, which study multi-component, multi-level, evolved complex systems. This book will be of interest to students and professionals in the philosophy of science
Product Details
Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
|
More About the Author
Sandra D. Mitchell is Professor in the Department of History and Philosophy of Science at the University of Pittsbrugh. She has degrees from Pitzer College, Claremont, California; The London School of Economics; and the University of Pittsburgh. More information can be found at her web page: http://www.pitt.edu/~smitchel/
Customer Reviews
|
Share your thoughts with other customers:
|
||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
a very clear, intelligent, up to date defense of pluralism in science,
By
Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)
This review is from: Biological Complexity and Integrative Pluralism (Cambridge Studies in Philosophy and Biology) (Hardcover)
I am a philosoher but not at all a philosopher of science, and I found this to be a very helpful book to read. It is primarily a book, not about biology as such, but about scientific explanation and models. It defends a pluralism of theories and models, illustrating its argument by examples from biology, particularly the biology of social insects. The pluralism is "integrative" since the models are brought together when one is explaining specific instances of the phenomena under study.So much philosophy of science uses physics for its examples that I found it refreshing and illuminating to draw on biology (which is, for many of us, much easier to understand). As a philosopher interested in intellectual pluralism, I found this study one of the very most useful. This is a book written primarily for philosophers and theorists of biology, but it could be read with profit by anyone with a serious interest in these issues.
Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review
|
|
Inside This Book
(learn more)
First Sentence:
In a variety of scientific disciplines, political discussions, and social policy forums, there is increasing interest in diversity as an inherent good. Read the first page Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
superorganism metaphor, superorganism theory, black wing color, compatible pluralism, dark wing color, female clitoral orgasm, superorganism model, biological generalizations, idiosyncratic paradigms, integrative pluralism, causal completeness, pollen foragers, weak contingency, salivary mass, single causal process, genetic replicators, social insect societies, actual reproductive success, age polyethism, steady state attractors, logical contingency, evolutionary contingency, human rape, conspicuous coloration, etiological account Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Big Bang, National Science Foundation, Introduction Biological, Philip Kitcher, Sample Figure, Van Fraassen New!
Books on Related Topics | Concordance | Text Stats Browse Sample Pages:
Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Index | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
In a variety of scientific disciplines, political discussions, and social policy forums, there is increasing interest in diversity as an inherent good. Read the first page Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
superorganism metaphor, superorganism theory, black wing color, compatible pluralism, dark wing color, female clitoral orgasm, superorganism model, biological generalizations, idiosyncratic paradigms, integrative pluralism, causal completeness, pollen foragers, weak contingency, salivary mass, single causal process, genetic replicators, social insect societies, actual reproductive success, age polyethism, steady state attractors, logical contingency, evolutionary contingency, human rape, conspicuous coloration, etiological account Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Big Bang, National Science Foundation, Introduction Biological, Philip Kitcher, Sample Figure, Van Fraassen New!
Books on Related Topics | Concordance | Text Stats Browse Sample Pages:
Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Index | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
Citations (learn more)
This book cites 100
books:
See all 100 books this book cites
16
books
cite this book:
See all 16 books citing this book
- The Philosophy of Science by Richard Boyd on 4 pages
- Metaphor and Thought by Andrew Ortony in Back Matter (1), Back Matter (2), and Back Matter (3)
- The Genetics Of Social Evolution (Westview Special Studies in Insect Biology) by Michael D Breed in Back Matter (1), Back Matter (2), and Back Matter (3)
- The Origin of Species by Charles Darwin on page 191, and Back Matter
- Biology as Society, Society as Biology: Metaphors (Sociology of the Sciences Yearbook) by Sabine Maasen on page 13, and Back Matter
See all 100 books this book cites
- Frontiers of Diversity: Explorations in Contemporary Pluralism (At the Interface/Probing the Boundaries 18) (v. 18) by Avery Plaw on page 9, and page 11
- Discovering Cell Mechanisms: The Creation of Modern Cell Biology (Cambridge Studies in Philosophy and Biology) by William Bechtel in Front Matter
- The Epistemology of Development, Evolution, and Genetics (Cambridge Studies in Philosophy and Biology) by Richard Burian in Front Matter
- Natural Kinds and Conceptual Change (Cambridge Studies in Philosophy and Biology) by Joseph LaPorte in Front Matter
- Evolutionary Ethics and Contemporary Biology (Cambridge Studies in Philosophy and Biology) by Giovanni Boniolo in Back Matter
See all 16 books citing this book
Books on Related Topics
(learn more)
|
What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?
Tags Customers Associate with This Product(What's this?)Click on a tag to find related items, discussions, and people.
|
Customer Discussions
|
This product's forum
Active discussions in related forums
Search Customer Discussions
|
Related forums
|
Listmania!
|
|
