Samir Okasha offers a philosophical perspective on evolutionary biology in Agents and Goals in Evolution. His focus is on "agential thinking", which is a mode of thought commonly employed in evolutionary biology. The paradigm case of agential thinking involves treating an evolved organism as if it were an agent pursuing a goal, such as survival or reproduction, and treating its phenotypic traits as strategies for achieving that goal, or furthering its biological interests. Agential thinking involves deliberately transposing a set of concepts - goals, interests, strategies - from rational human agents to the biological world more generally. Okasha's enquiry begins by asking whether this is justified. Is agential thinking mere anthropomorphism, or does it play a genuine intellectual role in the science? This central question leads Okasha to a series of further questions. How do we identify the "goal" that evolved organisms will behave as if they are trying to achieve? Can agential thinking ever be applied to groups or genes, rather than to individual organisms? And how does agential thinking relate to the controversies over fitness-maximization in evolutionary biology? In the final third of the book, Okasha examines the relation between the adaptive and the rational. If organisms can validly be treated as agent-like, for the purposes of evolutionary analysis, should we expect that their evolved behaviour will correspond to the behaviour of rational agents as codified in the theory of rational choice? If so, does this mean that the fitness-maximizing paradigm of the evolutionary biologist can be mapped directly to the utility-maximizing paradigm of the rational choice theorist? Okasha explores these questions using an inter-disciplinary methodology that draws on philosophy of science, evolutionary biology and economics.
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Samir Okasha offers a critical study of agential thinking in biology, where evolved organisms are seen as agents pursuing a goal. He examines the justification for transposing concepts from rational humans to the biological world, and considers whether agential thinking is mere anthropomorphism or plays a more intellectual role in the science.
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Part I: Agency in Evolutionary Biology 1: Agential Thinking and its Rationale 2: Genes and Groups as Agents Part II: The Goal of Fitness Maximization 3: Wright s Adaptive Landscape, Fisher s Fundamental Theorem 4: Grafen s Formal Darwinism, Adaptive Dynamics 5: Social Evolution, Hamilton s Rule, Inclusive Fitness Part III: Rationality meets Evolution 6: The Evolution-Rationality Connection 7: Can Adaptiveness and Rationality Part Ways? 8: Risk, Rational Choice and Evolution Final Thoughts
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Okasha provides a convincing and valuable analysis of a particular, some might say peculiar, way of doing science. Both biologists and philosophers will have much to gain from reading this book.
Written by a leading author in the field of philosophy of science Approaches evolutionary biology from a philosophical perspective Engagingly analyses the paradigm case of agential thinking Addresses the justification for agential thinking and the relation between the adaptive and the rational
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Samir Okasha is Professor of Philosophy of Science and Head of the Philosophy Department at the University of Bristol, where he has worked since 2003. He previously held positions at the University of York, LSE, and the National University of Mexico. Okasha is the author of numerous articles on topics in philosophy of science, philosophy of biology, evolutionary theory, and epistemology. His book Evolution and the Levels of Selection (OUP 2006) was awarded the Lakatos Prize for an outstanding contribution to the philosophy of science. He is currently President of the European Philosophy of Science Association.
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Written by a leading author in the field of philosophy of science Approaches evolutionary biology from a philosophical perspective Engagingly analyses the paradigm case of agential thinking Addresses the justification for agential thinking and the relation between the adaptive and the rational
Les mer

Produktdetaljer

ISBN
9780198815082
Publisert
2018
Utgiver
Vendor
Oxford University Press
Vekt
526 gr
Høyde
242 mm
Bredde
162 mm
Dybde
18 mm
Aldersnivå
UP, 05
Språk
Product language
Engelsk
Format
Product format
Innbundet
Antall sider
270

Forfatter

Biographical note

Samir Okasha is Professor of Philosophy of Science and Head of the Philosophy Department at the University of Bristol, where he has worked since 2003. He previously held positions at the University of York, LSE, and the National University of Mexico. Okasha is the author of numerous articles on topics in philosophy of science, philosophy of biology, evolutionary theory, and epistemology. His book Evolution and the Levels of Selection (OUP 2006) was awarded the Lakatos Prize for an outstanding contribution to the philosophy of science. He is currently President of the European Philosophy of Science Association.