Table of Contents Preface VII Acknowledgments X Introduction: Nature of Philosophy and Philosophy of Nature 1 The Nature of Philosophy and Its Relation to Science 3 a) Metaphysics as an Essential Task of Philosophy 3 b) Metaphysics Entrenched in Science 4 c) Science as Philosophy and Art 5 d) The Dialogue Between Philosophy and Science 6 The Philosophy of Nature — Universal Darwinism and Its Transcendence 7 a) The Glory and Poverty of Gene-Darwinism — The Need for a Third Way 8 b) A Strict Definition of Darwinism and Process-Darwinism 10 c) From Darwinism to an Evolutionary Theory of Evolution 12 d) The Philosophy of Nature after Times of Ecological and Economic Crisis 16 e) Darwinism, Religion and Philosophy 18 One Long Argument — Outline of the Book 22 Part I: Sociobiology and Its Ethical Implications — The Cause of this Investigation 29 Chapter 1: Sociobiology as Discipline and Paradigm 31 1.1 Two Basic Postulates 33 a) The Postulate of'Selfish' Genes as the Only Units of Evolution 33 b) The Postulate of Genie or Biological Determinism 35 1.2 The Main Theories of the Evolution of Apparent Altruism — Sociobiological Theorems? 36 a) The Theory of Kin Selection 37 b) The Theory of Reciprocal 'Altruism' 38 Chapter 2: Ethical Implications — The Morality of the Gene? 41 2.1 Biology and Ethics: Different but Not Unrelated 42 2.2 Philosophical Reactions and Some Accounts of a 'Sociobiological Ethics' 45 Bibliografische Informationen digitalisiert durch http://d-nb.info/1019447397 Table of Contents XIII 2.3 The Moral of the Gene? — 'The Currency Used in the Casino of Evolution Is Survival' 51 2.4 Même 'Altruisms'? - A Further Extension of the Sociobiological Paradigm 57 a) Mêmes — A Limited Comeback of the Idea of Logos 57 b) Problems of the Extended Genetic-Memetic Approach as a Basis for Ethics 59 2.5 The Need for a New Paradigm in Biology 62 Part II: The Unfolding of Logos in Regard to the Conceptions of'Physis' and Darwinism 65 Chapter 3: The Unfolding of the Pre-Darwinian Philosphical Conceptions of Nature 69 3.1 The Ancient Views of tpùaiç — Nature as Organism 69 a) From Myth to the Pre-Socratics — The Development of Basic Notions 70 b) Platonism — Physis as Techne' 71 c) Aristotelianism — Physis as 'Autopoiesis' 72 3.2 Medieval Philosophy — The Divine De-enchantment of Nature 73 a) The World as 'Machina Mundi' 74 b) The Human as 'Alter Deus' 75 c) Universalia — From Realism to Nominalism 75 3.3 Modem Philosophy — Nature as Clockwork; Creator as Watchmaker 76 a) The Rise of Science — The Alter Deus Explores the Clockwork of God: Copernicus, Bacon, Newton 76 b) Humanism — The Alter Deus Replaces the Christian Deus 78 c) Descartes and Kant — Dualism of Human Freedom and the Clockwork of Nature 79 d) Idealism and Romanticism — The Dynamic Trial of a Unification 82 (i) ^Naturphilosophie' and Idealism 82 (ii) Unity, Dynamism and Organicism 84 (iii) The Breakdown of Romantic Science 86 3.4 The Rise of Biology as Science — Torn between Eternal Form and Evolution 87 a) Hierarchical Taxonomy instead of 'Scala Naturae' — Linnaeus 89 b) Romanticising Materialistic Biology — Buffon, Lamarck 90 c) Transcendental and Essentialist Biology — Cuvier, (early) Owen, Agassiz 92 XIV Table of Contents d) Romantic Biology - Oken, Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire, (late) Owen 95 e) Conclusion: Overview of the Preceding Three Schools 98 Chapter 4: The Internal Logic of Evolutionary Theories - From Darwin to Dawkins 102 4.1 From Darwin to Weismann — The Birth of Darwinism 106 a) Darwin — Not a Darwinist in the Strict Sense 106 b) Darwin's Biological Theory - Focus on the Individual Organism 110 c) Darwin's Descent of Man — Social Darwinism? 112 (i) Ambivalence about the Universality of Natural Selection 112 (ii) Explaining Man, Culture and Ethics? 115 d) Neo-Darwinism: Weismann Turns Darwin's Theory into 'Darwinism' 118 4.2 Darwinism on Its Deathbed 121 4.3 Evolutionary Synthesis 123 a) First Phase — Synthesis of Genetics and Population Statistics 125 b) Second Phase — Population Structure and Macroscopic Mechanisms 127 c) Evolutionary Factors and the Importance of Populations 130 d) Disengagement from Ideological Programmes? 134 4.4 'Sociobiology' as Gene-Darwinism —A New Synthesis? 138 a) Germ-Line Reductionism 139 b) Gene-Atomism 140 c) Darwinian Process Monism 142 4.5 Criticism-A Better Synthesis in Sight? 144 a) New Views in Micro- and Macrobiology 146 b) A Multilevel Synthesis — Darwinism versus Developmentalism? 152 (i) Multi-Level-Darwinism 153 (ii) Multi-Level-Evolutionism: Developmental Approaches and Selforganisational Approaches 156 Chapter 5: The External History of Darwinism - From Whig Biology to Neo-Liberal Biology? 160 5.1 Darwin — A Malthusian Synthesis of Romantic and Newtonian Thought 162 a) Romanticism and Romanticising Materialism 163 b) The Impact of Newtonism - Darwin's Process-Monism 168 c) Thomas Malthus, Adam Smith — The Influence of Economic Thought and Practice 173 d) God - A Blind and Brute Creator? 183 Table of Contents XV 5.2 Evolutionary Synthesis — Thermodynamics and the Philosophical Zeitgeist 184 a) The Influence of Thermodynamics 184 b) The Impact of the Philosophical Zeitgeist and the Development of Logical Positivism and Logical Atomism? 186 (i.) Philosophy at the Time of the Eclipse of Darwinism 187 (ii) Parallels of Logical Atomism and Logical Positivism toFisherism? 188 (iii) Contextual Turns in Philosophy and Biology 190 5.3 Gene-Darwinism — Reductionism Generalised 191 a) The Different Biological Legacies of the Schools of Evolutionary Biology 193 b) A Misled Neo-Romantic Aspiration for Unification and Interdisciplinarity 193 c) 'Naturalistic Turn' — Reductionism and Materialism in Philosophy.... 197 d) 'Import' of Economical Concepts — Gene-Capitalism? 198 5.4 Summary: Biology as 'Geisteswissenschaft'? 202 Part III: Universal Darwinism 205 Chapter 6: Darwinian Metaphysics - Biologistic and Process-Darwinism 207 6.1 The Problem of Induction— The Necessity of Blind Variation and External Elimination? 209 a) Darwinism Seen as Universal Principle 209 b) The Problem of Induction (Hume and Popper) 210 c) Toward a Critique of a Falsificationist Necessity of Universal Darwinism 212 6.2 Biologistic Darwinism — Gene-Darwinism as Prototype 215 6.3 Universal Process-Darwinism — A New Alkahest 216 Chapter 7: Process-Darwinism in Particular Subject Areas 221 7.1 Darwinian Epistemologies and Darwinian Philosophies of Science 221 a) Darwinian Biological Epistemology and Darwinian Process Epistemology 221 b) Opérant Conditioning — Learning as Darwinian Process? 227 c) Popper's Falsificationism — Science as Darwinian Process? 232 7.2 Other Components of Process-Darwinism 235 a) Antibodies and Neurones 235 b) Darwinian Economics? 236 XVI Table of Contents Conclusion - The Universal War of Entities 240 Part IV: Transcendence of Gene-Darwinism and Universal Process-Darwinism 243 Chapter 8: Transcendence of Substance-Reductionism 245 8.1 Problems of Physicalism and Reductionism in General 245 a) The Difference between Explanation and (Downward) Reduction....245 b) Problems of Modern Physicalism with Traditional Materialism 246 c) Logical Problems of the Modern Understanding of Substance — Is a Tree a Million Matches? 248 d) The Inconsistency between Biologism and Physicalism — Genes or Information versus Quarks? 255 8.2 Genetic Reductionism I: Gene-Atomistic Reductionism and Its Transcendence 264 a) Gene-Atomism — Empty or Wrong Claim? 264 b) Higher Genetic Units - Despite the Meiotic Shuffle 267 (i) The General Possibility of Emergent Higher Genie Units 267 (ii) Higher Genie Units Despite the Meiotic Shuffle 269 c) Top-Down Causation and Higher-Level Genes at Different Loci 272 (i) The Relationship of Higher-Level Genes and Downward Causation 272 (ii) The Stability of Higher-Level Genes on Different Loci 274 d) The Fallacy of Claiming Gene-Atomism Tautologically 277 (i) The Testable Claim of Gene-Atomism 279 (ii) The Tautological Claim of Gene-Atomism 280 e) Higher-Level Properties of Different Organisms — Four Possibilities for Achieving the Good of the Group 284 (i) Wholes in the Individual and the Many - Loci and Alleles 284 (ii) Four Possibilities for Achieving the Good of the Group 289 f) Stable Synergetic Properties and Selection above Groups — Species and Ecosystems 301 (i) Species 302 (ii) Ecosystems 304 8.3 Genetic Reductionism II: Germ-line Reductionism and Its Transcendence 311 a) Germ-line Reductionism — The Strong Interpretation of the Weismann Barrier 311 (i) Different Interpretations of the Central Dogma 312 (ii) Violations of the Weismannian Dogma? 313 Table of Contents XVII (iii) The Central Dogma as Only Partial Description of the Relationships between Genotype and Phenotype 315 b) Information, Exformation and Phenotype as Evolutionary Factors 316 (i) The General Concept of Exformation 316 (ii) Exformation and the Stuffness of the Phenotype 317 (iii) Phenotype Interpreting Genotype 319 (iv) Stuffness and Inner Dynamics of the Phenotype 321 (v) Phenotype as Evolutionary Factor in Its Own Right 322 c) Forms, Fields and the Concept of External Memory 324 (i) Environmental Forms and Fields 324 (ii) External Memory 326 d) A Partial Revival of Morphological Taxonomy? 329 (i) The Evolutionary Factor of Constraints as Object of Taxonomy 330 (ii) Morphological Resonance as Object of Taxonomy 331 e) Summary 331 Chapter 9: Transcendence of Process-Reductionism 333 9.1 Inconsistencies and Tautologies of a Darwinian Mono-Mechanistic Metaphysic 336 a) Inconsistencies of Different Levels of Multilevel Darwinism 336 b) On the