Woodger, Positivism, and the Evolutionary SynthesisSpringer Science and Business Media LLC - Tập 15 - Trang 535-551 - 2000
Joe Cain
In Unifying Biology, Smocovitis offers a series of claimsregarding the relationship between key actors in the synthesisperiod of evolutionary studies and “positivism,” especially claimsentailing Joseph Henry Woodger and the Unity of Science Movement.This commentary examines Woodger's possible relevance to key synthesis actors and challenges Smocovitis' arguments for theexplanatory relevance of log...... hiện toàn bộ
A relic of design: against proper functions in biologySpringer Science and Business Media LLC - Tập 37 - Trang 1-28 - 2022
Emanuele Ratti, Pierre-Luc Germain
The notion of biological function is fraught with difficulties—intrinsically and irremediably so, we argue. The physiological practice of functional ascription originates from a time when organisms were thought to be designed and remained largely unchanged since. In a secularized worldview, this creates a paradox which accounts of functions as selected effect attempt to resolve. This attempt, we a...... hiện toàn bộ
Neutral and niche theory in community ecology: a framework for comparing model realismSpringer Science and Business Media LLC - Tập 39 - Trang 1-19 - 2024
Katie H. Morrow
Ecological neutral theory has been controversial as an alternative to niche theory for explaining community structure. Neutral theory, which explains community structure in terms of ecological drift, is frequently charged with being unrealistic, but commentators have usually not provided an account of theory or model realism. In this paper, I propose a framework for comparing the “realism” or accu...... hiện toàn bộ
Some Nonhuman Animals Can Have Pains in a Morally Relevant SenseSpringer Science and Business Media LLC - Tập 12 - Trang 51-71 - 1996
William S. Robinson
In a series of works, Peter Carruthers has argued for the denial of the title proposition. Here, I defend that proposition by offering direct support drawn from relevant sciences and by undercutting Carruthers‘ argument. In doing the latter, I distinguish an intrinsic theory of consciousness from Carruthers‘ relational theory of consciousness. This relational theory has two readings, one of which ...... hiện toàn bộ