Please join us in congratulating Professor Justin Garson on his newly published book, A Critical Overview of Biological Functions, and on his forthcoming co-edited volume, The Routledge Handbook of Philosophy of Biodiversity, which will become available this September.
A Critical Overview of Biological Functions is a critical survey of and guidebook to the literature on biological functions. It ties in with current debates and developments, and at the same time, it looks back on the state of discourse in naturalized teleology prior to the 1970s. It also presents three significant new proposals. First, it describes the generalized selected effects theory, which is one version of the selected effects theory, maintaining that the function of a trait consists in the activity that led to its differential persistence or reproduction in a population, and not merely its differential reproduction. Secondly, it advances "within-discipline pluralism" (as opposed to between-discipline pluralism) a new form of function pluralism, which emphasizes the coexistence of function concepts within diverse biological sub-disciplines. Lastly, it provides a critical assessment of recent alternatives to the selected effects theory of function, namely, the weak etiological theory and the systems-theoretic theory. The book argues that, to the extent that functions purport to offer causal explanations for the existence of a trait, there are no viable alternatives to the selected effects view.
The Routledge Handbook of Philosophy of Biodiversity is an outstanding reference source to the key topics and debates in this exciting subject. Comprising twenty-three chapters by a team of international contributors the Handbook is divided into six parts:
- Historical and sociological contexts, focusing on the emergence of the term and early attempts to measure biodiversity
- What is biodiversity? How should biodiversity be defined? How can biodiversity include entities at the edge of its boundaries, including microbial diversity and genetically engineered organisms?
- Why protect biodiversity? What can traditional environmental ethicscontribute to biodiversity?Topics covered include anthropocentrism, intrinsic value, and ethical controversies surrounding the economics of biodiversity
- Measurement and methodology: including decision-theory and conservation, the use of indicators for biodiversity, and the changing use of genetics in biodiversity conservation
- Social contexts and global justice: including conservation and community conflicts and biodiversity and cultural values
- Biodiversity and other environmental values: How does biodiversity relate to other values like ecological restoration or ecological sustainability?
