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What's Wrong with the Received View of Evolutionary Theory?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 March 2022

John Beatty
John Beatty*
Affiliation:
Harvard University
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Extract

This idea meant that heredity evolved—an evolution of the hereditary mechanism—an evolution of mitosis and meiosis. I had opened up an immense field of inquiry. I had to find out how the genes could control the chromosomes, how the chromosomes could control themselves at the same time that they were controlling the organism. I first discussed this problem in 1932. Formally anybody can repeat the idea and learn and write it down, but few have grasped its implications, as I think, for biology. (C. D. Darlington 1980, p. 74).

In the world of academic specialties and subspecialties, philosophy of biology certainly counts as a self-respecting, if not otherwise respected, field of study. It has its own exemplary works, its own lines of communication, etc. In this regard, philosophy of biology might be compared with philosophy of physics.

Type
Part VII. The Structure of Evolutionary Theory
Information
PSA: Proceedings of the Biennial Meeting of the Philosophy of Science Association , Volume 1980 , Issue 2: Volume Two: Symposia and Invited Papers 1980 , 1980 , pp. 397 - 426
Copyright
Copyright © 1981 by the Philosophy of Science Association

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Footnotes

1

Thanks to my friends who keep me philosophically well behaved, in this case especially Robert Brandon, Roger Buck, David Hull, Ron Giere, Ernst Mayr, Mark Pastin, Michael Ruse, and Mary Williams.

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