Genes and the Agents of Life

Erscheinungsjahr 2004
ISBN: 978-0-521-83646-3
Verlag: Cambridge University Press

Buch, Englisch, 312 Seiten, Format (B × H): 157 mm x 235 mm, Gewicht: 662 g

Genes and the Agents of Life undertakes to rethink the place of the individual in the biological sciences, drawing parallels with the cognitive and social sciences. Genes, organisms, and species are all agents of life but how are each of these conceptualized within genetics, developmental biology, evolutionary biology, and systematics? The book includes highly accessible discussions of genetic encoding, species and natural kinds, and pluralism above the levels of selection, drawing on work from across the biological sciences. The book is a companion to the author's Boundaries of the Mind, also available from Cambridge, where the focus is the cognitive sciences. The book will appeal to a broad range of professionals and students in philosophy, biology, and the history of science.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Wilson, Robert A.

Fachgebiete

• Naturwissenschaften Biowissenschaften Biowissenschaften Evolutionsbiologie
• Interdisziplinäres Wissenschaften Wissenschaften: Allgemeines Wissenschaften: Theorie, Epistemologie, Methodik
• Naturwissenschaften Biowissenschaften Biowissenschaften Genetik und Genomik (nichtmedizinisch)
• Geisteswissenschaften Philosophie Wissenschaftstheorie, Wissenschaftsphilosophie
• Naturwissenschaften Biowissenschaften Botanik Pflanzenreproduktion, Verbreitung, Genetik
• Naturwissenschaften Biowissenschaften Tierkunde / Zoologie Tiergenetik, Reproduktion
• Naturwissenschaften Physik Physik Allgemein Geschichte der Physik

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Part I. Individuals, Agency, and Biology: 1. Individuals and biology; 2. Thinking about biological agents; Part II. Species, Organisms, and Biological Natural Kinds: 3. What is an organism?; 4. Exploring the tripartite view; 5. Specious individuals; Part III. Genes and Organismic Development: 6. Genetic agency; 7. Conceptualizing development; Part IV. Groups and Natural Selection: 8. Groups as agents of selection; 9. Arguing about group selection: the myxoma case; 10. Pluralism, entwinement, and the levels of selection.

Über Autor(innen)

Wilson, Robert A.
Robert A. Wilson was born in Broken Hill, Australia, and lives in Edmonton, Canada. He is the author or editor of five other books, including the award-winning The MIT Encyclopaedia of the Cognitive Sciences (1999) and Boundaries of the Mind (Cambridge, 2004).