Evolution and the Levels of Selection - Hardcover

Okasha, Samir

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0199267979 ISBN 13: 9780199267972

Publisher: Clarendon Press, 2007

Synopsis

Does natural selection act primarily on individual organisms, on groups, on genes, or on whole species? The question of levels of selection - on which biologists and philosophers have long disagreed - is central to evolutionary theory and to the philosophy of biology. Samir Okasha's comprehensive analysis gives a clear account of the philosophical issues at stake in the current debate.

About this title

About the Author:

Samir Okasha is Professor of Philosphy of Science at the University of Bristol.

Review:

"Samir Okasha's wonderful new book...is a philosophical examination of the conceptual framework that multi-level selection theory deploys...It is gratifying that his book engages the details of mathematical models and at the same time connects those details with broader philosophical questions."--Elliott Sober, Bioscience

"The current volume provides an exceptionally lucid and analyitically rigorous review of the main conceptual challenges facing biologists and philosophers who have engaged in this work."--Mark E. Borrello, The Quarterly Review of Biology

"Major contribution toward putting this controversial area on a coherent conceptual and philosophical footing. ... I can't imagine anyone working on multilevel selection-or attempting to dismiss it-without reading this book."--Science

"Every philosopher of biology interested in aspects of the levels of selection debates ought to confront this material, and should think seriously about how the positions he or she ahs staked out fits into the frameworks Okasha outlines. Okasha has written an extremely important book."--Jonathan Michael Kaplan, Notre Dame Philosophical Reivews

About this edition

• Publisher: Clarendon Press
• Publication date: 2007
• ISBN 10: 0199267979
• ISBN 13: 9780199267972
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 276