Sex and Death: An Introduction to Philosophy of Biology

by Kim Sterelny, Paul E. Griffiths

Is the history of life a series of accidents or a drama scripted by selfish genes? Is there an "essential" human nature, determined at birth or in a distant evolutionary past? What should we conserve—species, ecosystems, or something else?

Informed answers to questions like these, critical to our understanding of ourselves and the world around us, require both a knowledge of biology and a philosophical framework within which to make sense of its findings. In this accessible introduction to philosophy of biology, Kim Sterelny and Paul E. Griffiths present both the science and the philosophical context necessary for a critical understanding of the most exciting debates shaping biology today. The authors, both of whom have published extensively in this field, describe the range of competing views—including their own—on these fascinating topics.

With its clear explanations of both biological and philosophical concepts, Sex and Death will appeal not only to undergraduates, but also to the many general readers eager to think critically about the science of life.

Genres: Philosophy, Science, Biology, Nonfiction, Evolution, Death, Psychology

456 pages, Paperback

First published June 15, 1999

About the author

After studying philosophy at Sydney University, Kim Sterelny taught philosophy in Australia at Sydney, ANU (where he was Research Fellow, and then Senior Research Fellow, in Philosophy at RSSS from 1983 until 1987), and La Trobe Universities, before taking up a position at Victoria University in Wellington, where he held a Personal Chair in Philosophy. For a few years he spent half of each year at Victoria University and the other half of each year with the Philosophy Program at RSSS, but from 2008 he has been full-time at ANU.

Sterelny has been a Visiting Professor at Simon Fraser University in Canada, and at Cal Tech and the University of Maryland, College Park, in the USA. His main research interests are Philosophy of Biology, Philosophy of Psychology and Philosophy of Mind. He is the author of The Representational Theory of Mind and the co-author of Language and Reality (with Michael Devitt) and Sex and Death: An Introduction to Philosophy of Biology (with Paul Griffiths). He is Fellow of the Australian Academy of the Humanities. In addition to philosophy, Kim spends his time eating curries, drinking red wine, bushwalking and bird watching.

http://philrsss.anu.edu.au/profile/ki...

Reviews

[Kathleen O'Neal · Rating 3 out of 5]

With the exception of the sixth chapter titled "Mendel and Molecules," this book is a pretty accessible introduction to the philosophy of evolutionary biology. I do think that it should have been noted in the title that this book was focused squarely on evolutionary issues as opposed to other issues in philosophy of biology. These issues are important but they do not speak to other issues in the philosophy of biology as a whole that are also worth exploring. The book is one that I would recommend. It is not an easy, light read but it is definitely interesting and a book that one without much background in biology can get through and learn a great deal from.

[T · Rating 5 out of 5]

This work touches on just about all the major issues in the philosophy of biology. I found it to be the perfect blend of readability and deep, philosophical probing. Since it is a survey of many complex and difficult issues, a certain amount of brevity is to be expected from each chapter, but the two authors still do a fine job at exposing the heart of the disagreements in all the issues. And each section provides suggestions for further reading at the end of each chapter, highlighting some of the best and exemplary texts from each area. This book manages to be an all-around excellent overview of a fascinating field while coming off as fair and well-argued all the way through.

[Tiago F · Rating 3 out of 5]

I wanted to dig deeper into evolutionary biology, but I had two problems. One is that I already knew the basics and most popular books that cover evolution covers the same thing that I'm already familiar with. The other is that I mostly wanted to deal with it in abstract terms, similar to what I read many years ago in Dawkin's selfish gene. But a lot of evolutionary biology seemed to be about specific examples and adaptations. What I was more interested is: What exactly is an adaptation? How can we tell? What affects adaptations? How are they transmitted?

Someone recommended this book to me. Unbeknown, what was I searching for is philosophy of biology, and this book provides an overview of it. I was super excited to get into it. It starts with an overview of the field, then moves on to explore genes, organisms, groups, species, natural selection, and finishes with sociobiology.

What I find fascinating is how complex this topic is. Topics that you may think are relatively straight forward are not only incredibly complicated but not even settled. It's a bit odd how there still so much we don't know about evolution, despite almost 200 years since the publishing of Darwin's On the Origin of Species.

But while fascinating, this is also what put me off from the book. This stuff is complicated, and it took me a bit by surprise. And it's an odd kind of complicated. It doesn't have a lot of jargon, but it is quite abstract and hard to make sense and keep the concepts in your memory as you read it.

And because this is a textbook to the field and provides many different theories about each topic, I found it a bit confusing. I wanted to learn more about evolutionary biology, but in some sense, I ended up feeling like I know less than when I started, because there are so many problems with so many concepts and hypothesis. I can't blame the book, because this is how it is supposed to be done so that it is a fair assessment and the field can progress forward without error, but it kills the enjoyment for someone outside the field.

The second part in particular, which goes incredibly in-depth into genes, was the most difficult for me. I find the topic itself fascinating, especially its conceptual problem of what actually a gene is, in both biological and evolutionary terms. But I kept getting lost. It made me want to quit reading the book entirely. Although I decided to just skip some chapters instead and trying to read what seemed the most interesting. It was a wise choice, as I found interesting points that I would have otherwise missed. For example, I really enjoyed the discussion about variation. How much variation do natural populations have? Why not less or more? What causes this variation? Is it random or is it adaptative? How do they interact? And although I was already familiar with it, I also enjoyed the fitness landscape, a visualization of the relationship between genotype and reproductive success, which explains some "flawed" traits. Nevertheless, the overall problem of the book remains: very complex, endless nuance, little answers.

My favorite part of the book was the end, that dealt with sociology, now more commonly known as evolutionary psychology. I'm a bit fan of the field, and the authors aren't particularly fond of it. While they don't reject it outright, they provide many arguments against it. And it was the best arguments I have ever seen. Perhaps for the first time in my life (and I've read a fair bit about it), the critique was purely scientific and conceptual in nature. There was zero ideology. And that was delightful to see.

The whole field is fascinating, but the way it is presented here it's likely not to be of great interest for most people unless they are complete nerds about evolution. Difficult topic and too many competing hypotheses. There are few things I got from it. I don't blame the authors as I think in part it is unavoidable, however, they could have easily provided summaries at the end of each chapter. That would have made the book much easier and much more digestible. Another problem is the book is not that new, being over 20 years old at this point. I can't be sure that some of the information presented isn't outdated at this point, and if it is, I don't have sufficient expertise to notice.

Overall I wouldn't say it is a bad book, and certainly gives tons of information about philosophy of biology, but I think I tried to bite off more than I can chew. There are couple of other works about philosophy of biology, one by Samir Okasha and others by Peter Godfrey-Smith, and I might try one of them at some point in the future.

[K · Rating 4 out of 5]

A thorough, well-organized, and well-balanced survey of the current state of the issues in mainly evolutionary biology but also delving into developmental biology and ecology, complete with extensive bibliography and suggested reading list. Not a light read: intellectually challenging and stimulating. The authors present all sides of the various debates fairly, while indicating their preferences. Discussion is aided by a reasonable number of illustrative examples. (Not sure where the title "Sex and Death" came from.)
Co-authors: Kim Sterelny & Paul E. Griffiths

[Andrew Jones · Rating 5 out of 5]

Amazing overview of the ideas driving biology

History of science or summaries of discoveries in science often present the field as a smooth empirical institution that only occasionally runs into roadblocks and obstinacy. Sex and Death instead presents the field of biology as a set of models, none of which are completely interopable and all are in various states of discompletion. In other words biology is not a smooth, but rather a very rough place where ideas are traded, debated, and at the end of the day we still don't know. Wonderful book.

[David · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you're into the accessibility of a Stephen Jay Gould or Richard Dawkins, this book will be a challenge to read. In fact, it reminds me much more of Elliot Sober, one of the more famous Philosophers of Biology cited in this book. As 'an Introduction to Philosophy of Biology', 'Sex and Death' is more accessible than the work of Sober, and it is a well-organized and presented survey of the philosophy of biology, assuming that the reader has already had a fairly ample exposure to the subject.

[☾⋆｡ A °✩.⟡]

The book is fine, but I can confirm that Kim Sterelny is a MASSIVE prick ! I have never felt so uncomfortable in a lecture <3 the way he talks about disabled people (especially autistic people) nearly made me cry several times!
Kim, abelism actually does make you a bad person! As well as a bad philosopher of biology <3 <3 <3

[Sven · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting and honest, the authors present many views and their strengths and weaknesses. They disclose which ones they are partial to and try not to convince the reader too much of anything.

[Zach · Rating 2 out of 5]

whatever

[Kramer Thompson]

This is an interesting and broad introduction to and discussion of a number of areas of dispute in biology and philosophy of biology. I think I learned quite a bit.

[William · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read in a "Philosophy of Biology" course in undergrad, this was an instrumental text, providing me with heaps of new conceptual machinery with which to think about Biology, Genetics, "Optimization" and Causation.

In particular, i enjoyed the idea of the Fitness Landscape (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fitness_...). If that seems like your bag, and you like the probabilistic element of genetics, this book is going to rock for you.

[Ian Pitchford · Rating 5 out of 5]

An admirably erudite and deep introduction to philosophy of biology with a concentration on the interesting issues in evolutionary that have merged into contemporary social issues. The periodic resurgence of debates on IQ, eugenics etc will ensure this book remains relevant.

[Lucas · Rating 4 out of 5]

The authors make no secret of their own favored perspectives, but they are also remarkably fair to views they do not hold. Considering the scientific politics involved, that says a lot for their integrity.

[Melanie]

looks like guns, germs and steel.

[Richard · Rating 4 out of 5]

One of the most revolutionary books I've read, although it probably wasn't intended that way.

[Masha · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very clear, well-rounded, and excellent explanation of the various concepts and problems in phil of bio. It manages to go really in depth with many things, yet remains rather accessible to laypeople

[Abdull · Rating 5 out of 5]

You can learn huge amount of biology and philosophy all in one book.

[Michael Lundie · Rating 5 out of 5]

An excellent primer to current debates in philosophy of biology. Where this classic text starts to show its age the newer Introduction by Peter Godfrey-Smith will do as a useful companion text.

[B R · Rating 2 out of 5]

Very dense.