Verne Grant died 24 Aug 200718 Sep 2017 I’m very late to this, but one of the significant figures in the synthesis, Verne Grant, died in May. Grant’s book The Origin of Adaptations (1963) was one that influenced a lot of theorising about evolution. His essay on species concepts in 1957 pointed out that botanical notions of species had to be very different to the reigning Mayrian biospecies concept. Grant, Verne. 1957. The Plant Species in Theory and Practice. In The Species Problem, edited by E. Mayr. Washington DC: American Association for the Advancement of Science. ———. 1963. The origin of adaptations. New York: Columbia University Press. Evolution History Species and systematics
Evolution A letter to a high school student 14 Dec 2007 It’s a dangerous thing to let philosophers talk to high school students, in the main, for we tend to drown our audience in terminology and deep concepts (many of which turn out to be not so deep), but I do try to communicate clearly when it is needed. My kids… Read More
Creationism and Intelligent Design Evolution and its rivals – special issue of Synthese 16 Dec 2010 A special issue of the philosophical journal Synthese covers the topic “Evolution and its rivals”. It is open access until the end of this month, so you can get the papers now. The major discussions centre around intelligent design, which is the nearest to intellectual adequacy that creationism gets. There… Read More
Ethics and Moral Philosophy Morality and Evolution 1: The Milvian Bridge 29 Apr 201422 May 2014 [Morality and Evolution 1 2 3 4 5 6 7] A while back I gave a talk to a group of theologians on the question of Darwinian accidents. It had no ethics content. The first question I was asked was “If you are an atheist, how can you have moral rules?” Like many others who talk… Read More
I haven’t read the Origins of Adaptations for years, but Grant’s point about the difference between the way plants and animals evolve has shaped my thinking about evolution and, more generally, about science ever since I first encountered his book.