Rieppel reviews my book 24 Sep 2010 … at Metascience here. The book, of course, is my Species: A history of the idea. The concluding paragraph is this: Does Wilkins deliver on his promise? Does the ‘essentialism story’ capture the essence of the centuries old debate about ‘what is a species’? Wilkins delivers a resounding NO, and he does so in a highly accessible language. This will be important especially for the biologists and paleontologists among his readers, who get a clear exposition of sometimes difficult to understand philosophical issues underlying logical versus biological classification. I can live with that. Book History Species concept History
History Bones of the founder of Christianity confirmed 29 Jun 2009 The bones are likely to be Paul’s, says the Pope. Who did you think I was talking about? Read More
Book Wimsatt on… everything 5 Nov 200718 Sep 2017 Bill Wimsatt is one of the philosophy of biology’s underappreciated performers. Many of his takes on biology have influenced a great many people, including me. Here is an interview with him on his latest book Re-Engineering Philosophy for Limited Beings: Piecewise Approximations to Reality (Harvard Press, 2007). According to the… Read More
Evolution Tautology 1b: Butler 22 Aug 2009 So, upon further investigation I find that Samuel Butler, in his Evolution Old and New (1879) states the tautology argument clearly. Read More
If Springer thinks that I’m going to pay $34 to download a review of your book then I can only say that someone to Springer needs their head examined!
Sorry that’s €34 and not $34 which makes it even more ridiculous (but a friendly ape sent me a copy!).
“Needing head examined” is, I think, a good description of Springer when it comes to pricing practices. The review is about 3/4 the price of the book and almost as much as the current price for the Kindle version. (Amazon.com currently has the Kindle edition at $39.) I think UT-Austin has a Metascience subscription, so it will probably show up there by the time I’m next downtown. (It does show up as $34 for me; Springer is stiffing Europeans even more than Americans.)
My university library also has a Metascience subscription but I was at home today at not in the library.
This is a nice review – it makes me want to read your book, at any rate. Now I’ve got to go order a copy.