Article ID: CBB001221610

Darwin's Laws (2012)

unapi

There is widespread agreement among contemporary philosophers of biology and philosophically-minded biologists that Darwin's insights about the intrusion of chance processes into biological regularities undermines the possibility of there being biological laws. Darwin made references to designed laws. He also freely described some laws as having exceptions. This paper provides a philosophical analysis of the notion of scientific laws that was dominant in Darwin's time, and in all probability the one which he inherited. The analysis of laws is then used to show how it could have been natural for Darwin to believe in designed laws that had exceptions, and to highlight the continuity between the metaphysics of pre-Darwinian, Darwinian, and contemporary biological science. One important result is the removal of one motivation for the anti-laws sentiment in philosophy and biology.

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Authors & Contributors
Bowler, Peter J.
Travis, Anthony S.
Tabb, Kathryn
Sloan, Phillip R.
Richards, Robert John
Nash, Richard
Concepts
Evolution
Natural selection
Darwinism
Species concept (biology)
Biology
Natural history
Time Periods
19th century
20th century
20th century, early
18th century
Places
Great Britain
Germany
Ukraine
Americas
Southeast Asia
Institutions
Johns Hopkins University (Baltimore, Md.)
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