George C. Williams dies 11 Sep 2010 Few evolutionary biologists have had the impact within and without their field as has George Williams, who died this week. His groundbreaking Adaptation and Natural Selection in 1966 set off the debate over levels of selection, the ubiquity of natural selection and some decent philosophising. It’s no exaggeration to say that the field of the philosophy of biology got going with the publication of that book. Here’s a 1998 interview with Williams. Some obituaries: New York Times David Sloan Wilson The Chronicle of Higher Education, by Michael Ruse Reminiscences at The Edge; More from The Edge, from Robert Trivers. The Loom by Carl Zimmer NCSE Wikipedia I’ll add more as I find them Biology Evolution Philosophy Science EvolutionPhilosophy
Education Creative Commons and textbooks 18 May 2009 Anyone who has had to order textbooks for students knows how expensive they are. Here’s something that I hope may end up a trend amongst academics: Creative Commons licensed texts. P.D. Magnus wrote a logic textbook, forall x, which he made available under the CC license; and now David Morris… Read More
Evolution Evolution quotes 1 May 2010 To understand evolution we must first understand the historical development of ideas on evolution. But to understand its history, we must first understand evolution. – Donald Forsdyke [H/T Piers Hale] Read More
Book A philosopher reviews a biologist on evolution 24 Mar 2009 Anthony Grayling, who does a really interesting review column in the Barnes and Noble Review, entitled “A Thinking Read”, has a piece on Jerry Coyne’s book Why Evolution is True. This saves me having to read it and review it for you myself. The column title is a pun on… Read More
Thanks for posting this, John. I’m assuming that you are on the effect, rather than the cause, side of the causal network that gives you fairly quick access to info on recent star deaths in the field. (I will continue to encourage caution from other legends when around you, nonetheless.) I guess I think it’s slight hyperbole to say that Williams’ 1966 book kicked of the field–Hull was already chipping around earlier in the 1960s–though it was the first port of call for those like Hull and Sober during the 1970s as they came to be major players themselves. (Derivatively, it was “the” book that I was advised to read and work through by both of them, early on, as I’m sure others were.) Williams was on the faculty in some capacity, or recently had been, when I started at Queen’s in 1992, but I never met him.
I’ll have some news about you soon, Rob, don’t worry… I think Williams’ book started a lot of philosophy of biology that might not otherwise have been done, not least because of his influence on Dawkins and the subsequent framing of issues over gene selectionism and group selection. Of course he’s not the only source; if you want to identify a single originator, I think that Beckner, M. 1959. The biological way of thought. New York: Columbia University Press. is a good candidate, or perhaps Smart, J. J. C. 1959. Can biology be an exact science? Synthese 11 (4):359-368. Other suggestions? Before the news about you becomes public, I mean?