Richards, Richard A. (University of Alabama)

The Species Problem: A Philosophical Analysis - Cambridge Studies in Philosophy and Biology Richards, Richard A. (University of Alabama)

Marc Notes: Originally published: 2010.; Richard A. Richards surveys the history of thinking about species to understand the origin of the problem, and provides an innovative solution. Brief Description: Richards surveys the history of thinking about species to understand the origin of the problem, and provides an innovative solution. Review Quotes: " useful to those theoretically oriented biologists Recommended " F. S. Szalay, University of New Mexico"Review Quotes: "Richards examines the species problem and the philosophical questions it raises, aiming at understanding the different ways of thinking about species from Aristotle to modern biological systematics, and how we might better think about species This book makes a substantial contribution to scholarship on species. Thus, I recommend it highly." Review of Contemporary Philosophy"Review Quotes: " an entertaining read and well organized a launching off point for a new direction in studying the species problem." Metascience"Table of Contents: 1. The species problem; 2. The transformation of Aristotle; 3. Linnaeus and the naturalists; 4. Darwin and the proliferation of species concepts; 5. The division of conceptual labor solution; 6. Species and the metaphysics of evolution; 7. Meaning, reference and conceptual change; 8. Conclusion; Bibliography; Index.

Contributor Bio:  Richards, Richard A Richard A. Richards is Associate Professor, Department of Philosophy, University of Alabama. He has published in major journals on a variety of topics in the philosophy of science and biology, including phylogenetic inference, theory of choice, taxonomy, and species concepts. He has also written extensively on Darwin's views about artificial selection and domestic breeding, and contributed to The Cambridge Companion to the Origins of Species (Cambridge University Press, 2009).