John Wilkins is one of my favorite living philosophers, which is saying a lot because I think philosophers are weirdos and sometimes kooky (I’m looking at you Plantinga!). It doesn’t hurt that he’s a philosopher of science with a blog entitled Evolving Thoughts. You know I read it. He has a new book out called Species: History of the idea. It belongs to a series called Species and Systematics. Now it is a well-known fact that philosophy books are read by virtually none, and yet they’re priced like textbooks. One would think, to sell more readers publishing houses would price books more reasonably. Poetry books have this same problem…something about niche markets and limited vendors. In any event, life isn’t fair when a 320 page book on philosophy is twice the price of a 1000 page book about a boy magician.
From the University of California website:
The complex idea of “species” has evolved over time, yet its meaning is far from resolved. This comprehensive work takes a fresh look at an idea central to the field of biology by tracing its history from antiquity to today. John S. Wilkins explores the essentialist view, a staple of logic from Plato and Aristotle through the Middle Ages to fairly recent times, and considers the idea of species in natural history—a concept often connected to reproduction. Tracing “generative conceptions” of species back through Darwin to Epicurus, Wilkins provides a new perspective on the relationship between philosophical and biological approaches to this concept. He also reviews the array of current definitions. Species is a benchmark exploration and clarification of a concept fundamental to the past, present, and future of the natural sciences.