Ebook: Darwin (The Routledge Philosophers)

This Routledge series has a number of excellent titles, up to date, by leading philosophers expert on the figure treated, but accessible to the non-specialist and very readable. Lewens' work fills a genuine need, as most of the more accessible and readable book-length, overall surveys of Darwinism by philosophers (such as those of Michael Ruse, Dan Dennett, Janet Richards and Helena Cronin) tend to be by pan-selectionists and gene selectionist is the Dawkins mode. Works critical of pan-selectionism and/or gene selectionism tend to be either by biologists such as Steve Gould, Dick Lewontin, and Dick Levins, or by philosophers such Bill Wimsatt, Eliot Sober and Robert Brandon, writing at a more technical philosophy of science level. Lewens includes a discussion of population thinking as an important intellectual consequence of Darwin's work that it not covered in Ruse's many popular books. Lewens also includes fair-minded surveys of the implications of Darwinism for religion and politics. Overall, it is the best work in this field, but some areas of philosophical implications of Darwinism are left out or not discussed at any length. This tends to be the case with the more metaphysical implications that have been drawn (rightly or wrongly) from Darwinism, such as early twentieth century process metaphysics. This may be because Lewens is primarily an analytical philosopher, and this area may be alien to his training and sympathies (perhaps seeming fuzzy and mystical, though it does allow more rigorous exposition and analysis). Another area that Lewens tends to neglect is that of the developments of the last few decades in evo-devo, or the synthesis of evolution and molecular embryology. Also, he touches on Steve Gould's work mainly in terms of the issue of contingency in "Wonderful Life," but could have done more with rate genes and species selection. Thus, Lewens' survey is incomplete, but is the best thing of this sort currently available. Lewens thoroughness and balance is shown by the fact that his previous book on design concepts in biology was praised by both Ruse and Lewontin, who disagree on most issues in the philosophy of evolution.