1st Edition
Essence in the Age of Evolution A New Theory of Natural Kinds
Introduction
1. Biological Natural Kind Essentialism: Definitions & Desiderata
2. Essence and Explanation: Natural Kinds in the Taxonomic Tree
3. Powerfully Directed Development: A Dispositional Analysis of Ontogenesis
4. Ontogenetic Causal Primacy: The Fount and Flow of Information
5. The Essence of Natural Kinds: Unity in Diversity
6. An Evolutionary Ontology: Priority, Modality, and The Natural State
Conclusion
Biography
Christopher J. Austin is Head of Philosophy at Sutton Grammar School, London, and specialises in the metaphysics of science, with a particular focus on biology. Recent publications include ‘Dispositions in Evolutionary Developmental Biology’ in Evolutionary Developmental Biology: A Reference Guide, and ‘A Biologically Informed Hylomorphism’ in Neo-Aristotelian Perspectives on Contemporary Science.
"This exciting book defends a controversial position: biological natural kind essentialism with a neo-Aristotelian twist. It makes an interesting, novel contribution to the metaphysics of natural kinds and is a great example of what work in scientifically-informed metaphysics, or the metaphysics of science, should look like." – Tuomas E. Tahko, University of Helsinki
"Christopher Austin’s Essence in the Age of Evolution has the ambitious and provocative aim of recovering the debate about essence by proposing a novel, neo-Aristotelian theory of ‘biological natural kind essentialism’, grounded in current research in evolutionary developmental biology. Christopher Austin embodies a trend of contemporary essentialism that shares with philosophers such as Denis Walsh (see his ‘Evolutionary essentialism’ (2006) in The British Journal for the Philosophy of Science 57: 425–448) a reaffirmation of Aristotle’s heritage and the idea that evolutionary biology has already proved anti-essentialism wrong. This book ...shows how philosophers are undertaking new and empirically-informed approaches to ancient philosophical problems...Austin’s book is conceived primarily as a contribution towards overcoming the dichotomy between evolution and essentialism. His intention to demystify essence is perhaps the aspect that makes this work unique."
- Silvia Basanta Martínez, History and Philosophy of the Life Sciences
