What Makes Biology Unique?: Considerations on the Autonomy of a Scientific Discipline (Law in Context S.) |  | Author: Ernst Mayr
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Category: Book
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Rating:  10 reviews
Sales Rank: 516927
Media: Paperback
Edition: 1
Pages: 246
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.7
Dimensions (in): 8.8 x 5.9 x 0.5
ISBN: 0521700345
Dewey Decimal Number: 570.1
EAN: 9780521700344
ASIN: 0521700345
Publication Date: April 16, 2007
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Product Description
This collection of revised and new essays argues that biology is an autonomous science rather than a branch of the physical sciences. Ernst Mayr, widely considered the most eminent evolutionary biologist of the 20th century, offers insights on the history of evolutionary thought, critiques the conditions of philosophy to the science of biology, and comments on several of the major developments in evolutionary theory. Notably, Mayr explains that Darwin's theory of evolution is actually five separate theories, each with its own history, trajectory and impact. Ernst Mayr, commonly referred to as the "Darwin of the 20th century" and listed as one of the top 100 scientists of all-time, is Professor Emeritus at Harvard University. What Makes Biology Unique is the 25th book he has written during his long and prolific career. His recent books include This is Biology: The Science of the Living World (Belknap Press, 1997) and What Evolution Is (Basic Books, 2002).
Book Description
This new book, a collection of revised, collected, and some new essays written in time for his 100th birthday by the most eminent evolutionary biologist of the past century, explores biology as an autonomous science, offers insights on the history of evolutionary thought, critiques the contributions of philosophy to the science of biology, and comments on several of the major ongoing issues in evolutionary theory. Notably, Mayr explains that Darwin's theory of evolution is actually five separate theories, each with its own history, trajectory and impact.
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Showing reviews 1-5 of 10
A great overview September 11, 2004
Ben (Orlando, FL USA)
26 out of 26 found this review helpful
This is a great overview of evolutionary thought and history. The chapters are some of his past works improved upon. He explains why there has been such trouble between evolutionists, and shows many mistaken ideas presented by Dawkins and Gould.
I would recommend this book so the reader might correct any incorrect information he might have picked up from someone not as knowledgeable about philosophy/Biology as Mayr. He clearly presents his ideas with better force than many authors of books on Biology. Perhaps you may also gain more respect for Biology apart from Chemistry and Physics.
I would also recommend his book, What Evolution Is, because he covers a lot of things in much more detail than in this newer book -- due to a broader overview in the current title.
What Has Made Dr. Mayr Unique? February 4, 2005
Martin C. Michener (Hollis, nh USA)
15 out of 17 found this review helpful
I was glad to receive this book for Christmas from my brother, and I read it in two days. The book does exactly what it sets out to do: explain the difficulties of applying the theory of evolution to daily tasks of the biologist: discerning between different species and different populations of the SAME species.
The fact that makes biology a unique discipline is this: there is not one, but TWO causalities one need consider: the normal statistical-chemical causality all empirical scientists deal with, and the running of a genetic program, established by millenia of evolutionary happenstances, which provides the "why" which many authors have wrongly considered to be anthropomorphism. To quote Dr. Mayr (p. 90): "However, organisms are subject also to a second set of causal factors, the information provided by their genetic program. There is no activity, movement, or behavior of an organism that is not influenced by the genetic program."
He goes on to clearly explain that understanding this genetic program has only recently been possible through the collaboration of genetics, cytology and molecular biology.
Dr. Mayr goes on to review and critique many recent writers on biology, and to point to exactly which parts of the unique study of bology they have misread, confused, or misunderstood. It is all excellent entertaining reading -- and quite astonishing for a man 100 years old. It is not too much to say that the world owes this amazing man an inclaculable debt for the wisdom and clarity of his studies spanning eight decades. We will miss him.
Splendid, If Difficult to Read, Overview on the Scientific Uniqueness of Biology December 13, 2006
John Kwok (New York, NY USA)
6 out of 6 found this review helpful
Ernst Mayr will definitely be missed, having been one of the leading architects of the Modern Synthetic Theory of Evolution, the leading theoretical evolutionary biologist interested in understanding the processes behind speciation, and then, late in life, both a distinguished historian and philosopher of the science of biology. His final book, "What Makes Biology Unique? Considerations on the Autonomy of a Scientific Discipline", demonstrates convincingly why biology should be considered independent from the empirical experimental sciences of chemistry and physics; one of the several well-argued, quite innovative, and technical essays which were published elsewhere before being edited together in this essay collection. For Mayr, the main distinction between Biology and these other sciences is the fact that there is inherited genetic information which is passed from one generation to another within species, observing that such information can not be tested rigorously via an empircal experimental approach to science. He also compares and contrasts reductionist and analytic approaches to scientific research, observing that a reductionist approach often leads to inaccurate predictions. He also argues persuasively that "Darwinism" is actually composed of six different - though intricately related - evolutionary theories, observing how Darwin's ideas have had an immense impact on current scientific thought. Another of his essays is a comprehensive overview on the nature of the species problem and speciation; a task well suited to Mayr since he is still regarded by most evolutionary biologists as the foremost authority on the process of speciation. And he makes a very persuasive argument demonstrating why Biology does not adhere at all to Thomas Kuhn's theory on scientific revolutions. In this terse volume's concluding essays, Mayr does a fine job assessing the evolutionary history of human beings and offers a thoughtful, if unsympathetic critique on SETI (the Search for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence.). Although Mayr's arguments may seem a bit obtuse, and thus, difficult to read for someone unfamiliar with evolutionary biology, these splendid essays should be viewed as brilliant, though final, examples of both the keen intellect and elegant writer that Ernst Mayr was during his dual careers as a distinguished evolutionary biologist and a distinguished historian and philosopher of science.
An excellent overview of a great man's thoughts on his field October 30, 2007
Ash Ryan (Salt Lake City, Utah)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
After more than three-quarters of a century as an evolutionary biologist, Ernst Mayr offers us, in his final book, his thoughts spanning the most important issues he's struggled with over his career. This is as much a book on the philosophy of science as on particular scientific issues within biology.
Of special interest are Mayr's thoughts on how biology differs from other physical sciences (as the title indicates), and on various issues within biology such as the "species problem." Mayr applies an Aristotelian approach to these issues that preempts some of the stranger conclusions arrived at by lesser minds in the philosophy of biology such as Richard Dawkins, for instance the idea that species, including man, differ only by degree and not by kind, and the implications of that view. (For Mayr, differences in degree great enough amount to differences in kind, which applies to the difference between biology and other sciences as well as to the species problem--but this is only a taste of his insightful, multi-layered analysis.)
Whether you are interested in biology specifically, or the philosophy of science in general, this is a work not to be missed.
Masterful encapsulation of biology's unique claims October 19, 2004
John M. Willard (North Andover, MA)
This work is a crowning survey of the claims of biology, defining it as an independent science, not a secondary offspring of physics and chemistry.
The role of a philosophy of biology is rescued and clarified; misconceptions about Darwinism (6 theories, not one), speciation, and variation, above all, natural selection are rectified. A final chapter offers a sobering assessment of the possibilities for finding extraterrestrial life, while exploring the utterly freak nature of intelligence. Another chapter ably dismisses the relevance of Thomas Kuhn's "Structure of Scientific Revolutions" for biological science. A minor quibble is a few references missing from sources' listings, but Mayr's delineation of the principles and principal, as well as lesser players in biology's emergence is magisterially unequalled. Probably the final book that this giant of modern biology will undertake, published in this Mayr's centenarian year.
Showing reviews 1-5 of 10
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