In this article, we consider the tension between unification and pluralism in biological theory. We begin with a consideration of historical efforts to establish a unified understanding of evolution in the neo-Darwinian synthesis. The fragmentation of the evolutionary synthesis by molecular evolution suggests the limitations of the general unificationist ideal for biology but not necessarily fo...

As scholars become more aware of the importance of religion in world affairs, several have begun to ask whether specific religious traditions are compatible with the institutions and values of liberal democracy. With approximately 350 million Orthodox Christians in the world, and given the great political and economic importance of the many countries they call home, an understanding of Orthodox...

This paper is a defense of “explanatory pluralism” (i.e., the view that some events can be correctly explained in two distinct ways). To defend pluralism, I argue that a certain class of macroevolutionary trends (what I call “asymmetrical passive trends”) can be explained in two distinct but compatible ways. The first approach (“actual sequence explanation”) is to trace out the particular force...

Biographical notes: Jack Reardon teaches economics in the School of Business at the Hamline University. His research interests include economics education, energy and the environment, and labour economics. He has published in a wide variety of journals including the Journal of Economic Issues, Monthly Labor Review and International Journal of Green Economics. He has published A Handbook for Plu...

1. Consider the basic outlines of the mind-body debate as it is found in contemporary Anglo-American analytic philosophy. The central question is “whether mental phenomena are physical phenomena, and if not, how they relate to physical phenomena.” Over the centuries, a wide range of possible solutions to this problem have emerged. These are the various “isms” familiar to any student of the deba...

A number of people have proposed that we should be pluralists about logic, but there are several things this can mean. Are there versions of logical pluralism that are both high on the interest scale and also true? After discussing some forms of pluralism that seem either insufficiently interesting or quite unlikely to be true, the paper suggests a new form which might be both interesting and t...

Robert LaFollette, the great progressive Senator and presidential candidate, famously argued that, ‘‘The cure for what ails democracy is more democracy.’’ One might aptly characterize Bruce Cain’s book, Democracy More or Less, as an extended rebuttal to LaFollette’s populist prescription for healing the body politic. Cain mounts a sustained assault on what he sees as the naı̈vely Whiggish optimi...

There is evidence of an increasing coherence, and openness to communication, among the different strands of economics. The purpose of this paper is to address the questions this raises as to whether or not there is still a useful role for the concept of schools of thought. We explore first the categories of orthodox economics and heterodox economics and how we can expect them to develop in the ...

In preparing the chapter, minor (textual) changes have been made to the original text.