This paper pursues the 'formal darwinism' project of Grafen, whose aim is to construct formal links between dynamics of gene frequencies and optimization programmes, in very abstract settings with general implications for biologically relevant situations. A major outcome is the definition, within wide assumptions, of the ubiquitous but problematic concept of 'fitness'. This paper is the first t...

Insects provide a severe challenge for Darwinian evolution. In contrast with the vertebrate fossil record, for example, where only bones are available, evolutionary speculation can run wild, but the exquisite detail of fossil insects has produced virtual silence on this front. A review of the insect fossil record literature reveals a complete lack of evidence for the evolution of insects and ot...

Anton Dohrn was introduced to Darwinism by Ernst Haeckel during his student years at Jena, and became an eager disciple of Charles Darwin's work. He founded the Stazione Zoologica in 1872. Darwin became a patron of Dohrn's Stazione, and the two naturalists corresponded regularly. This article discusses their relationship and the contributions of Christiane Groeben to its elucidation.

Complex evolving systems, consisting of populations of varied and replicating entities are found in both nature and human society. There exists no alternative to the core Darwinian principles of variation, selection and inheritance to explain the evolution of such systems. Neither the actual existence of human intentionality nor the hypothetical possibility of Lamarckian acquired character inhe...

This is the best, most thought-provoking book in the philosophy of biology that I have read in a long time. It is rigorously argued, deeply informed, full of wonderful examples, and it has more novel ideas within its pages than any two other recent books in the field that I can think of. It has opened my mind on several key issues and changed my mind as well; it is also provoked me to come up w...

agency biological determinism biomedicine/biomedical model Cartesian dualism class (or social class) epidemiology/social epidemiology eugenics lifestyle choices/factors new public health public health/public health infrastructure reductionism social construction/ constructionism social Darwinism social institutions social model of health social structure sociological imagination state structure...

Richard Dawkins coined the term universal Darwinism (1983). It suggests that the core Darwinian principles of variation, replication, and selection may apply not only to biological phenomena but also to other open and evolving systems, including human cultural or social evolution. Dawkins argued that if life existed elsewhere in the universe, it would follow the Darwinian rules of variation, in...

an agency formally charged by society with the task of socializing the young in particular skills and values. We usually think of the school as being mainly concerned with teaching skills and knowledge.... But the schools in every society also engage in outright indoctrination in values. We may find this fact more readily apparent in societies other than our own ... the school socializes ... th...