'Anybody who feels that philosophy is of little importance to biology should read this excellent collection of papers by Robert Brandon. Each chapter offers the spectacle of a razor sharp mind neatly dissecting important problems in evolutionary biology with clinical precision ... I have no hesitation in recommending it.' Richard J. Ladle, Biologist

• Introduction; Part I: 1. Adaptation and evolutionary theory; 2. Biological teleology: questions and explanations; 3. A structural description of evolutionary theory; 4. The levels of selection; Part II: 5. Phenotypic plasticity, cultural transmission and human sociobiology; 6. From icons to symbols: some speculations on the origins of language; 7. Individuality, pluralism, and the phylogenetic species concept; 8. The levels of selection: a hierarchy of interactors; Part III: 9. Theory and experiment in evolutionary biology; 10. The co-evolution of organism and environment; 11. Reductionism versus holism versus mechanism; References; Index.

'Anybody who feels that philosophy is of little importance to biology should read this excellent collection of papers by Robert Brandon. Each chapter offers the spectacle of a razor sharp mind neatly dissecting important problems in evolutionary biology with clinical precision ... I have no hesitation in recommending it.' Richard J. Ladle, Biologist

• Introduction; Part I: 1. Adaptation and evolutionary theory; 2. Biological teleology: questions and explanations; 3. A structural description of evolutionary theory; 4. The levels of selection; Part II: 5. Phenotypic plasticity, cultural transmission and human sociobiology; 6. From icons to symbols: some speculations on the origins of language; 7. Individuality, pluralism, and the phylogenetic species concept; 8. The levels of selection: a hierarchy of interactors; Part III: 9. Theory and experiment in evolutionary biology; 10. The co-evolution of organism and environment; 11. Reductionism versus holism versus mechanism; References; Index.

'Anybody who feels that philosophy is of little importance to biology should read this excellent collection of papers by Robert Brandon. Each chapter offers the spectacle of a razor sharp mind neatly dissecting important problems in evolutionary biology with clinical precision ... I have no hesitation in recommending it.' Richard J. Ladle, Biologist

• Introduction; Part I: 1. Adaptation and evolutionary theory; 2. Biological teleology: questions and explanations; 3. A structural description of evolutionary theory; 4. The levels of selection; Part II: 5. Phenotypic plasticity, cultural transmission and human sociobiology; 6. From icons to symbols: some speculations on the origins of language; 7. Individuality, pluralism, and the phylogenetic species concept; 8. The levels of selection: a hierarchy of interactors; Part III: 9. Theory and experiment in evolutionary biology; 10. The co-evolution of organism and environment; 11. Reductionism versus holism versus mechanism; References; Index.