Philosophical Perspectives on Evolutionary Theory: A Sketch of the History

Discussion of Darwinian evolutionary theory by philosophers has gone through a number of historical phases, from indifference (in the first hundred years), to criticism (in the 1960s and 70s), to enthusiasm and expansionism (since about 1980). This paper documents these phases and speculates about w...

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Main Author: tapper, Alan
Format: Journal Article
Published: Royal Society of Western Australia 2010
Subjects:
Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/39097
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author tapper, Alan
author_facet tapper, Alan
author_sort tapper, Alan
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description Discussion of Darwinian evolutionary theory by philosophers has gone through a number of historical phases, from indifference (in the first hundred years), to criticism (in the 1960s and 70s), to enthusiasm and expansionism (since about 1980). This paper documents these phases and speculates about what, philosophically speaking, underlies them. It concludes with some comments on the present state of the evolutionary debate, where rapid and important changes within evolutionary theory may be passing by unnoticed by philosophers.
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spelling curtin-20.500.11937-390972017-01-30T14:30:18Z Philosophical Perspectives on Evolutionary Theory: A Sketch of the History tapper, Alan Evolutionary theory philosophy of biology Darwinism Discussion of Darwinian evolutionary theory by philosophers has gone through a number of historical phases, from indifference (in the first hundred years), to criticism (in the 1960s and 70s), to enthusiasm and expansionism (since about 1980). This paper documents these phases and speculates about what, philosophically speaking, underlies them. It concludes with some comments on the present state of the evolutionary debate, where rapid and important changes within evolutionary theory may be passing by unnoticed by philosophers. 2010 Journal Article http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/39097 Royal Society of Western Australia fulltext
spellingShingle Evolutionary theory
philosophy of biology
Darwinism
tapper, Alan
Philosophical Perspectives on Evolutionary Theory: A Sketch of the History
title Philosophical Perspectives on Evolutionary Theory: A Sketch of the History
title_full Philosophical Perspectives on Evolutionary Theory: A Sketch of the History
title_fullStr Philosophical Perspectives on Evolutionary Theory: A Sketch of the History
title_full_unstemmed Philosophical Perspectives on Evolutionary Theory: A Sketch of the History
title_short Philosophical Perspectives on Evolutionary Theory: A Sketch of the History
title_sort philosophical perspectives on evolutionary theory: a sketch of the history
topic Evolutionary theory
philosophy of biology
Darwinism
url http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/39097