Where Biology Meets Psychology: Philosophical Essays

A great deal of interest and excitement surround the interface between the philosophyof biology and the philosophy of psychology, yet the area is neither well defined nor wellrepresented in mainstream philosophical publications. This book is perhaps the first to open adialogue between the two disciplines. Its aim is to broaden the traditional subject matter of thephilosophy of biology while informing the philosophy of psychology of relevant biologicalconstraints and insights.The book is organized around six themes: functions and teleology,evolutionary psychology, innateness, philosophy of mind, philosophy of science, and parallelsbetween philosophy of biology and philosophy of mind. Throughout, one finds overlapping areas ofstudy, larger philosophical implications, and even larger conceptual ties. Woven through theseconnections are shared concerns about the status of semantics, scientific law, evolution andadaptation, and cognition in general.

Contributors: André Ariew, Mark A. Bedau,David J. Buller, Paul Sheldon Davies, Stephen M. Downes, Charbel Niño El-Hani, Owen Flanagan, PeterGodfrey-Smith, Todd Grantham, Valerie Gray Hardcastle, Gary Hatfield, Daniel W. McShea, KarenNeander, Shaun Nichols, Antonio Marcos Pereira, Tom Polger, Lawrence A. Shapiro, Kim Sterelny,Robert A. Wilson, William C. Wimsatt.