Essence in the Age of Evolution A New Theory of Natural Kinds Routledge Studies in the Philosophy of Science Series

This book offers a novel defence of a highly contested philosophical position: biological natural kind essentialism. This theory is routinely and explicitly rejected for its purported inability to be explicated in the context of contemporary biological science, and its supposed incompatibility with the process and progress of evolution by natural selection. Christopher J. Austin challenges these objections, and in conjunction with contemporary scientific advancements within the field of evolutionary-developmental biology, the book utilises a contemporary neo-Aristotelian metaphysics of "dispositional properties", or causal powers, to provide a theory of essentialism centred on the developmental architecture of organisms and its role in the evolutionary process. By defending a novel theory of Aristotelian biological natural kind essentialism, Essence in the Age of Evolution represents the fresh and exciting union of cutting-edge philosophical insight and scientific knowledge.

Introduction

1. Biological Natural Kind Essentialism: Definitions & Desiderata

2. Essence and Explanation: Natural Kinds in the Taxonomic Tree

3. Powerfully Directed Development: A Dispositional Analysis of Ontogenesis

4. Ontogenetic Causal Primacy: The Fount and Flow of Information

5. The Essence of Natural Kinds: Unity in Diversity

6. An Evolutionary Ontology: Priority, Modality, and The Natural State

Conclusion

Christopher J. Austin is Head of Philosophy at Sutton Grammar School, London, and specialises in the metaphysics of science, with a particular focus on biology. Recent publications include ‘Dispositions in Evolutionary Developmental Biology’ in Evolutionary Developmental Biology: A Reference Guide, and ‘A Biologically Informed Hylomorphism’ in Neo-Aristotelian Perspectives on Contemporary Science.