Intro -- Foreword -- Acknowledgments -- Contents -- Contributors -- Getting to Know the Contributors -- Chapter 1: Introduction to Life and Evolution -- 1.1 The History and Philosophy of Biology in Latin America -- 1.2 Content of the Book -- References -- Chapter 2: Weldon's Unpublished Manuscript: An Attempt at Reconciliation Between Mendelism and Biometry? -- 2.1 Introduction -- 2.2 Weldon's Objections to Mendel's Proposal -- 2.3 Weldon's View on Inheritance -- 2.4 Weldon's Unpublished Views of Mendel's Proposal and Mendelian Contributions -- 2.5 Final Remarks -- References
Chapter 3: Blood, Transfusions, and Longevity -- 3.1 Introduction -- 3.2 Metaphysics, Practice, and Forgetfulness -- 3.3 "Comradely Exchange of Life" -- 3.4 Blood and Transhumanism -- 3.5 Concluding Remarks -- References -- Chapter 4: Performative Epistemology and the Philosophy of Experimental Biology: A Synoptic Overview -- 4.1 Introduction -- 4.2 Constrained Action -- 4.3 Standardization -- 4.4 Epistemic "Tightening" -- 4.5 Extrapolation -- 4.6 Conclusion -- References
Chapter 5: Life on Earth Is Not a Passenger, but a Driver: Explaining the Transition from a Physicochemical to a Life-Constrained World from an Organizational Perspective -- 5.1 Introduction -- 5.2 The Organizational Approach to Biological and Ecological Systems -- 5.3 How Marine Life Makes Clouds -- 5.4 The Organizational Approach Applied to the Life-Clouds System -- 5.5 Concluding Remarks -- References -- Chapter 6: Cooperation and the Gradual Emergence of Life and Teleonomy -- 6.1 The Fundamental Problem: The Gradual Emergence of Life and Purpose
6.2 The Ahistorical Approach to the Origins of Life -- 6.3 Biology in a Continuum with Chemistry -- 6.4 The Peculiar Stability of Autocatalytic Reactions -- 6.5 Complexification and Cooperation -- 6.6 Cooperation and Teleonomy -- References -- Chapter 7: Evolutionary Debunking Arguments and Moral Realism -- 7.1 Debunking Arguments -- 7.1.1 The Modal Argument -- 7.1.2 The Parsimony Argument -- 7.2 Street's Debunking Argument -- 7.3 A Version of Moral Realism Based on Realism Itself: A Critical Examination of Street's Argument
7.4 Reassessing the Superiority of the Adaptive Link Account Over the Tracking Account -- 7.5 Conclusions -- References -- Chapter 8: The Darwinian Naturalization of Teleology -- 8.1 Introduction -- 8.2 Adaptation and Design -- 8.3 The Mistake to Avoid -- 8.4 Functions as Causal Roles -- 8.5 Effectiveness and Fitness -- 8.6 Biological Design: Natural Selection -- References -- Chapter 9: Drift as a Force of Evolution: A Manipulationist Account -- 9.1 Introduction -- 9.2 Drift as a Force and Its Enemies -- 9.3 Causes and Forces -- 9.4 The Manipulationist Account of Explanatory Depth
Summary:
This book offers to the international reader a collection of original articles of some of the most skillful historians and philosophers of biology currently working in Latin American universities. During the last decades, increasing attention has been paid in Latin America to the history and philosophy of biology, but since many local authors prefer to write in Spanish or in Portuguese, their ideas have barely crossed the boundaries of the continent. This volume aims to remedy this state of things, providing a good sample of this production to the English speaking readers, bringing together contributions from researchers working in Brazilian, Argentinean, Chilean, Colombian and Mexican universities. The stress on the regional provenance of the authors is not intended to suggest the existence of something like a Latin American history and philosophy of biology, supposedly endowed with distinctive features. On the contrary, the editors firmly believe that advances in this field can be achieved only by stimulating the integration in the international debate. Based on this assumption, the book focuses on two topics, life and evolution, and presents a selection of contributions addressing issues such as the history of the concept of life, the philosophical reflection on life manipulation and life extension, the structure and development of evolutionary theory as well as human evolution. Life and Evolution - Latin American Essays on the History and Philosophy of Biology will provide the international reader with a rather complete picture of the ongoing research in the history and philosophy of biology in Latin America, offering a snapshot of this dynamic community. It will also contribute to contextualize and develop the debate concerning life and evolution, and the relation between the two phenomena
