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Elisabeth A. Lloyd. The Structure and Confirmation of Evolutionary Theory

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 April 2022

Richard M. Burian*
Affiliation:
Department of Philosophy, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University
*
Send reprint requests to the author, Department of Philosophy, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Blacksburg, VA 24061–0126, USA.

Extract

The main goal of this book, The Structure and Confirmation of Evolutionary Theory (Lloyd 1988), “is to introduce, develop, and demonstrate the usefulness of a precise analysis of the structure of evolutionary theory” (p. 23), an analysis that treats evolutionary theory as built up out of complexly interrelated mathematical models. The book has a second goal as well, namely, “to offer … evidence of the appropriateness and utility of the semantic view of scientific theories” (ibid.). The appropriate audience for the book is not obvious. It is well suited for graduate courses in philosophy of biology, though it demands substantial knowledge of both disciplines. Lloyd has attempted to make it accessible to wider biological and philosophical audiences by minimizing the technical treatment of mathematical models, but I doubt that she has succeeded in making the book accessible to those unfamiliar with the models of population genetics or to biologists previously unversed in the philosophy of science.

Type
Critical Notice
Copyright
Copyright © Philosophy of Science Association 1992

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Footnotes

This critical notice has been improved by discussions with Norman Gilinsky, Marjorie Grene, and William Wimsatt. I am grateful to all three.

References

Lloyd, E. A. (1987), “Confirmation of Ecological and Evolutionary Models”, Biology and Philosophy 2: 277293.10.1007/BF00128834CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lloyd, E. A. (1988), The Structure and Confirmation of Evolutionary Theory. New York: Green wood Press.Google Scholar
Trivers, R. L. and Hare, H. (1976), Haplodiploidy and the Evolution of the Social Insects, Science 191: 249-263.10.1126/science.1108197CrossRefGoogle Scholar