Integrative and Comparative Biology Advance Access originally published online on January 29, 2008
Integrative and Comparative Biology 2008 48(1):156-157; doi:10.1093/icb/icm106
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This article appears in the following Integrative and Comparitive Biology issue: Aeroecology: Probing and Modeling the Aerosphere–The Next Frontier [View the issue table of contents]
Book Review |
Conceptual Issues in Evolutionary Biology. Third Edition. Elliott Sober, editor.
Department of Ecology and Evolution
Stony Brook University
Stony Brook, NY 11794-5245
Correspondence: E-mail: padilla{at}life.bio.sunysb.edu
Conceptual Issues in Evolutionary Biology. Third Edition. Elliott Sober, editor.
Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press, 2007. 612 pp. 26 illustrations. ISBN 10:0-262-69338-0, $42.00.
This third edition of essays is likely to provide an excellent entre into evolutionary biology and philosophy of science for advanced undergraduates and beginning graduate students, just as the previous two editions did in 1984 and 1994. This recent collection of 23 essays, edited by Elliott Sober, who also wrote many of the essays in this volume, is divided into 13 conceptual chapters, each with two to three essays. Each chapter is designed to present different points of view for each issue, and in some cases, counter points, especially for recent areas of study and areas that have traditionally been considered more under the purview of philosophy than of evolutionary biology. Sober also provides a detailed preface, rather than individual chapter summaries, that will help readers understand the justification for the selected essays in each chapter and serve as a guide for discussion and debate.
This updated edition still has many of the important classical writings that laid the foundation for evolutionary thought over the past several decades (Chapters II and III on Units of Selection and Adaptationism), and new essays added to complement the works from previous editions (e.g., an essay by Sober on Fitness in Chapter I). Some chapters and essays in previous versions are missing from this volume, including the chapter on Function and Teleology, and Systematic Philosophies. In other cases, essays in the former editions have been replaced with newer essays. Four new chapters have been added, with all new essays including material focused on the human perspective and interest, including Evolutionary Psychology and Race-Social Construction or Biological Reality, providing those familiar with the earlier editions with new material for discussion.
Although women scientists have contributed a great deal to evolutionary biology as a whole, it is not evident from the selection of essays and one chapter with the unfortunate title "Women in the Evolutionary Process." The essays are by Sarah Hrdy and Elisabeth Lloyd, and present alternative hypotheses about the evolution of the female primate orgasm. In the preface (which is frequently not studied by readers, especially students), Sober suggests that women scientists were able to bring a different perspective to this topic, and thus changed thought. The paucity of women authors in the collection as a whole, however, could imply that the primary contributions of women scientists to studies of the process of evolution are considerations of the evolution of female-specific traits.
On the whole, this interesting collection of essays will provide material for discussion and debate by those interested in the development of evolutionary theory and thought, and especially those interested in the philosophy of science and how evolutionary theory relates to humans and society.
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