Thirty years of Biology & Philosophy: philosophy of which biology?

Which domains of biology do philosophers of biology primarily study? The fact that philosophy of biology has been dominated by an interest for evolutionary biology is widely admitted, but it has not been strictly demonstrated. Here I analyse the topics of all the papers published in Biology & Ph...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Biology & philosophy 2017-03, Vol.32 (2), p.149-167
Main Author: Pradeu, Thomas
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Analysis
Education
Evolutionary Biology
History, Philosophy and Sociology of Sciences
Humanities and Social Sciences
Philosophy
Philosophy of Biology
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Summary:Which domains of biology do philosophers of biology primarily study? The fact that philosophy of biology has been dominated by an interest for evolutionary biology is widely admitted, but it has not been strictly demonstrated. Here I analyse the topics of all the papers published in Biology & Philosophy , just as the journal celebrates its thirtieth anniversary. I then compare the distribution of biological topics in Biology & Philosophy with that of the scientific journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Science of the USA , focusing on the recent period 2003–2015. This comparison reveals a significant mismatch between the distributions of these topics. I examine plausible explanations for that mismatch. Finally, I argue that many biological topics underrepresented in philosophy of biology raise important philosophical issues and should therefore play a more central role in future philosophy of biology.
ISSN:0169-3867
1572-8404
DOI:10.1007/s10539-016-9558-7