Epilogue

Summary

I have structured this investigation into the foundations of ecology around the search for an adequate definition of ecology. That strategy made a lot more sense when the project was to look at both the internal questions pertaining to the nature of ecological practice and the external questions involving the relationship between ecology and allied fields of scientific inquiry. Even though executing that larger project within the confines of a single volume has turned out to be impossible, the larger project has remained the guiding vision behind the work that is represented in these pages.

In homage to that larger project, I want to end with a brief look forward. What are some of the significant external questions for the philosophy of ecology? What are some of the implications for these questions that flow from defining ecology as the science that studies the Darwinian struggle for existence? More generally, what are some of the implications for these questions that flow from the account of the pursuit of general ecological knowledge that is developed in the present work? In short, what are some of the things that remain to be done? I will end with some brief speculations on this topic and with some suggestions about directions for future research that are likely to be the most promising. Ultimately, however, these issues must be subjected to the same kinds of detailed analyses as those given for the internal questions addressed above.